Exciting Updates and Upcoming Adventures

We have fantastic news to share—we've successfully solved our registration issue!

This achievement has set the stage for an incredibly exciting week ahead. Today, we have our final TÜV appointment for the individual approval of our custom-built truck. This is a unique milestone for us as the truck does not meet standard type approval or certification.

Moreover, we are eagerly anticipating our 'move-in' on Tomorrow and Friday this week. During these two days, Twiga Travel Cars, our builder, will host us and introduce us to all the intricate details of our truck. Since there isn't a comprehensive manual for such a custom vehicle, we will need to learn a lot in the next 48 hours — from how the heating works and maintenance of the toilett to wheel changing and an overall introduction to the truck’s functionalities.

We will experience many firsts: our first night sleeping in the truck, our first shower, our first meal, and even our first refueling—a costly event given the 700-liter fuel tank. Stay tuned for more updates!

Because of the progressed time schedule and our not to be delayed appointment beginning of November in Germany, we have to shorten our first trip. Initially, we planned to drive through the Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), cross the Gulf of Finland with a ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki, drive through Finland to Norway/Nordkap, and drive home via Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The total distance we planned was 11,000 kilometers.

However, as we have to be back in Germany on November 9th for a long-planned family gathering in Fulda, we would have only 6 weeks. Covering 11,000 km in 6 weeks doesn't sound comfortable.

We revised our plans and initially aimed to focus only on the Baltics and Poland, making a smaller loop without approaching Nordkap. However, we decided otherwise.

The reason for the tour to Scandinavia was to test the truck in cold/short day conditions. We wanted to test the heating and solar/battery capacity. That's why we decided to do only the upper half of the part overall trip.

We will travel via ferry from Travemünde to Helsinki, drive to Nordkap in 'travel mode' with an average of 120 km/day through Norway and Sweden. We will visit a friend in Skellefteå, Sweden as the last part of our 'travel mode'. From Skellefteå, we will drive 'fast' with a few hundred kilometers per day up to Stockholm and use a ferry again to Poland. Then we will drive from Poland back to Germany.

Our travel quota in travel mode will be around 250 km every second day, and during the fast mode, we will drive 6-8 hours per day, resulting in 360-400 km a day for the last leg. The total is in the ballpark of 5,000 to 6,000 km. Sounds reasonable from today's perspective.

We will keep you posted continuously while on the road. We will get our truck next week. Second half of the week is packing and end of the week we want to hit the road.

Finally. Lets cross fingers TÜV is positive today.