Hi all. sorry there is no episode this week. We got so close to completing the wrap up of the Birdsville expedition in an Expedition pop top, but some great activity in the background meant we couldn’t quite get there. Here is a hint!! So the wrap up and thoughts on the pop top will be next week and we will have a great share about the new Expo hard top and then new adventures after that.
13 - 7
Hi all Sorry for the pause in posting. After a lot of thought about our van, summer break, a few life events (including David getting a bad case of Covid) and an unexpected call, we've had to make a big decision for our van and channel.
We will share why we might have to move on from our loved Zone van that played such a life changing role for us! And as many of you know, we had looked at a few other van options and that has fed into our decision.
Tune in Sunday morning 16 Feb AEST for our major update.
We also have a little fun challenge whether you can recognise some places our BASE van has taken us around Australia. You might enjoy that over a cuppa.
And as always we will get to send some money off to Legacy and Royal Flying Doctor Service as 100% of our YouTube ad revenue continues to go to charity. Thank you all so much for being on our journey and helping these two wonderful charities as we share our travels.
Your feedback and response has helped us so much with this decision.
Stay tuned Sunday morning Brisbane time (about 12 hours from this post). We look forward to updating you all.
#vanlife #lapofaus #lapofoz #zonerv #caravanningaustralia
12 - 0
***A reminder 🎗️and a cautionary note ⚠️ ****
Hi all.
Just a reminder that there is a short break in vids on our channel for a short moment while we work on the Van adventure planning series we flagged in the most recent episode.
But ‼️especially if you are heading to the van shows, please see our cautionary note below especially for new and prospective van buyer.
One of the most common pitfalls is getting the weights of your rig wrong.
🤔It’s a reality that most car manufacturers overstate the real world towing capacity of their cars. Most van manufacturers understate the real world towing weights of the vans they sell. Many new (and indeed some longer standing) owners get surprised that they can have a van that is within the nominal tow capacity of their car, load their car inside their GVM, load their van inside its ATM and still find they are over the GCM and axle rating of their car.🤔
How does that happen? And it’s not always solved by just getting a bigger truck. 💰💰💰
Thanks 🙏for all the suggestions on what people think the priorities are, what they wish they knew and what worries them most about planning a van adventure and buying the right( needed) kit and other essentials to do it.
The suggestions have been great and keep them coming. We will include many of them on the series.
If you know somebody thinking about buying a rig or planning a van adventure like a Lap or half Lap, please let them know about our coming series and perhaps share our most recent vid because we’d love to hear from those new to van life or considering it, about what they find most confusing or what concerns them most.
As we are into the spring round of Caravan shows please, unless you’ve done the research well and actually decided before you go what you need to buy, be cautious. Remember the cautionary note near the beginning of this post. We took a year to finalise our rig decisions - and still got some stuff wrong.
By all means look around, get info, get a feel for options, but if your brand new to it we suggest you keep your wallet closed and your hands in your pockets unless you are absolutely sure the rig works for you and does what you need, not simply what the sales teams have to sell you on the day.
We absolutely all want to get out and about and enjoy the adventure - and that’s the aim - but while the sales teams aren’t an enemy or a friend, just remember their job is to sell what they have to sell - not necessarily what you actually need or what best suits what you are actually likely to do.
So - we have a couple more weeks for more suggestions and comments as we prepare the short series but, if you’ve watched our Big Lap series, don’t be surprised that our first question and suggestion is always going to be - not what rig do you want of should have. But what adventure do you want? How are you likely to actually travel, to where? How long. Because that can be done so many ways and that will influence what you really do or don’t need and can big ramifications for 💲💲💲
Before you buy the rig that you might not actually need for big 💰💵💸, that you can’t afford to waste, or get a rig that’s not properly equipped for how you might need it (Why didn't the sales guy tell us that???). Even if there is a great show special, it might not save you anything if the rig is the wrong rig and you later have to spend more or even change the rig to do what you really want to do, your way. Please take a deep breath and don’t be rushed into a decision you might regret.
If you’ve done all the research, already know exactly what the adventure is the rig is matched for, you know the weights actually will work, the payload actually is enough then enjoy and we hope to see you on the road. And in your case our short series will be out in time to hopefully add some value to your planning and make sure there is nothing critical you’ve forgotten.
See you in a few weeks for the next episode and keep the comments coming. We love them, they’ve been practical, insightful and sensible!
13 - 4
Keep an eye out for our North Pole and Greenland adventure finale and review in a couple of hours later this morning 29 September. We wrap up this epic adventure, give our thoughts on the cruise, the ship and the destination and answer some of the questions we've been asked. Including whether the Arctic is a better trip than the Antarctic or whether we prefer these polar bucket list adventures to doing a Lap of Australia in our Defender and van. We'd be keen to hear your views in comments on the video. Watch and you might be surprised about our thoughts.
This extended finale, review and comparison VLOG has been delayed to a slightly later start time to give our Australian viewers a sleep in due to the footy finals season here in Australia.
3 - 0
Hi all, no vid this week. Thank you all for the ongoing interest and support. Don't forget Paula and I are matching this month's ad revenue so we can send more to Legacy as it was Legacy Week during this month.
We are also looking for any questions you might have and your thoughts and views on your preferred bucket list places and/ or why you think your trails around Australia are better.
Everybody has a view, we're all different, so we're keen to hear your thoughts for our wrap up. review and comparison vids coming soon.
See you next week as we farewell the Arctic expedition voyage.
watch video on watch page
0 - 0
What is your choice for the most beautiful scenery in the world? We've done a Lap of Australia with its weathered, ancient vistas, the penguins, whales and seals of Antarctica and the South Atlantic Islands, the glaciers of Alaska, the jagged peaks of the Canadian Rockies and more. We think these two little known fjords, including the world's largest fjord system in Scoresby Sound is among the most beautiful we've seen.
Indeed, with Polar bears and sea ice, the Arctic region was on our bucket list - but its still surprised us.
Check out our vid and let us know if you agree and let us know your most beautiful locations.
watch video on watch page
0 - 0
Thanks all to those helping us work through the Youtube recommendations and impressions.🙏❤️ The response has been great and interesting as we see how the Youtube algorithm works. While it was disappointing that regular viewers and even some subscribers never got our new vids on their feed, getting the word around, more people hitting the notifications button and those who are now getting the vids are giving some terrific feedback.
The next vid is now live and it's getting icier, chillier and we get to see the Queen of the Arctic. More than one - but you have to see it to believe it.
We know many love the Oz Van travel stuff and so do we and we will be back to it soon. We just want to share these other occasional adventures with a difference and hope you enjoy them.
As one person said, it's not their bucket list and aspiration but they are still enjoying having a look at something a bit different. And you all know our style, we aren't professional influencers and all our ad revenue goes to charity. And who knows - if you are somewhere around the Top End of Australia right now, our Arctic vids might help you feel a bit cooler 😉🥶🐻❄️. And help us send a bit more to charity as well.
Of course if you only want to se the Oz content, no problems at all. Subscribe and hit the notifications so you do see our content as it drops and then you won't miss the Oz content when it comes.
All the best. thanks as always and hope we see you on the road sometime.
#polarbears #travelblogger #arctic #ponant #northpole #expeditioncruise
watch video on watch page
2 - 0
Hi viewers, we're really worried many regular viewers didn't get to see our most recent video. There is a risk that the temporary change in content subject we flagged for the new series means many might not get the video recommended to them - even if they'd like to follow along for the spectacular scenery, the adventure and of course the wildlife.
Something went wrong when we posted our vids in the new @nextleveloz series and we might need your feedback and help please to ensure everybody who wants to still gets to see our videos. Check out this brief channel update and we also update how much money we've sent to charity.
We also forgot to tell you the last vid which was the first leg of our polar adventure, including the visit to the Australian war cemeteries on the Somme coincided with Legacy week. While 100% of our YouTube ad revenue always goes to REFDS and Legacy - this month it will go to Legacy.
But unfortunately it appears very few people even got to see it. Significantly fewer than normally tune in.
I might have mucked something up, it might be a "YouTube" algorithm thing or maybe it wasn't interesting, but we're worried that far fewer people than our normal number of viewers actually got to see the last vid and its impacting the channel.
And for the few that did see it, the feedback was great - so that makes us worry even more about what we can do.
So please watch the update, check out the first Polar adventure vid and make sure to please like, subscribe, share but importantly hit the notifications bell to make sure you know when we've posted and then its up to you what you want to watch and not just the YouTube algorithm which might assume you don't even want to see it.
You might also decide to "like" our Facebook page www.facebook.com/nextleveloz as we always post the latest video link there as well.
At least then its your choice and if you do want to watch and join along for this short adventure away and then more Australian travel soon, at least we can continue to send more money of to charity as well.
watch video on watch page
2 - 2
Is the New Defender a top touring -tow car or just a mall crawling city car? Our Big Lap Gap Year Defender Wrap Up is now coming on 23 March.
We answer that question and your other questions - how it went, what mods, what broke and our overall assessment.
In the mean time here is a short video preview of some of the places our Defender tow car took us and some of the key stats.
Sorry for the delay. We’ve had a bit on and we also wanted to see how JLR went with a few of the outstanding warranty matters after the Lap so we could share how that went as part of the bottom line about the car.
Hope you enjoy the preview vid and see you on 23 March for the full wrap up.
cheers
David and Paula
watch video on watch page
1 - 0
You asked for it and now it’s here. Our Big Lap Van Wrap-Up. Our warts and all wrap-up of our Zone RV BASE 18.6 caravan after 32,000 km and a lap around Australia including a fair bit of tuff stuff.
How do we feel about the van? What did well? What broke? If we had our time again would we still choose this van? You asked the questions and we’ve tried to answer them with an honest wrap up.
For more detail and bits and pieces about the gear and how we felt along the way you can go back to the Equpment series on our channel. But here is the wrap up with a few tips included.
Thanks again. While we’ve been pleased by our service from Zone, we don’t have any formal affiliation with Zone except we bought a Zone van. 100% of our ad revenue goes to charity.
watch video on watch page
1 - 0
Like many we've worked hard for 40 years but we're too young to retire. So we took a gap year, bought a new van and car and did a lap right around Australia. And it changed our life. Now we're trying to find the best balance between life, van travel in Oz and ticking off bucket list items overseas. Join us as we travel away from the rat race. 100% of any YouTube ad revenue goes to charity.
21 March 2022