Arctic Vanlife Takes A Turn….. South!

Arctic Vanlife Takes A Turn….. South!

If you were impressed by my drifting skills last week you ain’t seen nothing yet we’re at the Porsche ice experience so buckle up for the ride of your Life these amazing machines can do not to 60 in 3 seconds and have a top speed of over 300 km an hour this adrenaline pumping experience is not for the fainthearted we’re not doing it mine though cuz it’s £6,000 each so we’re just watching from the side of the

Road welcome back everyone so yeah we were just driving down the road here and we see this track on the side of the road and all drifting in um brilliant to watch but I managed to get the Drone up and follow them around the whole course

Which was cool to see and there’s some pretty talented people here I have to say so for six grand you get quite a bit but that’s the introductory package they do a nine grand one as well which I don’t know what that includes should I get two either way they’re both out of

Our budget I did think we might be able to save a little bit of money and ask if we could take the old SSB van round but I don’t think they’d be so Keen save us on accommodation too oh yeah cuz that’s included in your nine ground as well but

Uh but yeah I think even if you’re not interested in cars like watching something like this is quite cool anyway it’d be such a cool thing to have a go out wouldn’t it yeah so even though we’re not doing it still good to watch so since we left you last we’ve started

Our journey South and we’ve made it to Levi but to get here we came down the aply named Wilderness Road because for miles and miles and miles there is nothing but trees and frozen lakes and it’s the first place in all of the nordics we’ve actually lost phone signal

Signal has been incredible here but for for today’s activity unfortunately we can’t afford the Porsche experience but I think I found us the next best thing this is a moon bike it does not to 60 in well never because it doesn’t actually do 60 it might not be as fast

As the Porsches but it’s probably just as much fun Yea I’m getting the hang of this I think she’s getting a bit too Confident oh God I’m Up As my homeboy and countrymen Casey Stoner would say I think my ambition outweighed my talent a little bit there at least it doesn’t hurt when you crash watch me rip baby well I tell you what this is a blast and we’d like to thank this week’s sponsor surf shark for making activities

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Virtual location can also help you get cheap travel deals because companies have different pricings for different countries and before he asks no we still can’t afford the porch experience masking your IP address also helps you stay safe online using surf shark means that your City Country and download

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In the description that’ll give you 3 months extra for free if you use the code true blue at the checkout woohoo well this was so much fun and normally I am rubbish at these kind of things but tell you what falling off in the snow makes a big difference too but

It’s called tentura flow and they’re the only place in Finland that had these Moon bikes if you want to give it a go but it’s actually quite reasonable so you can try it for 10 minutes on their track for2 or if you do it for an hour

It’s only 80 so definitely come and have a go if you’re in the area it is brilliant well we didn’t actually plan to do that we were going to go snowmobiling but when we saw them little Beauties we thought we couldn’t uh to give them a go the first time I’ve seen

Them about they’re brilliant but yeah they’re all row registered and everything like that so you could take them out the lakes and everything you don’t just have to stay on that track but out here you can ride snowmobiles and things like that when you’re 15 and there’s so many tracks for them whereas

In the UK like full drive tracks or Enduro tracks or anything like that everybody moans about them don’t they whereas over here it’s almost like pushed cuz everywhere you go there’s like the way they designate them is they’ve got two posts with red crosses either side and that means you can go

Anywhere in them areas in your snowmobiles everything like that Brant yeah you just have to have a license and um away you go so yeah they love a bit of fun out here yeah but we got a big old drive today so let’s see what seems finland’s got in store for us Today with you sun is shin 247 cuz when we’re together it feels like we’re in heaven if it will get dark you’ll be my million stars I know I can lean on you oh you catch me like a li falling from a tree well it’s a sad day because we’re

Leaving the Arctic tell you what though the old Sab van she delivered the Frozen Goods still good but I may or may not have eaten all of the bakery items all joking aside it was a bit of a sad moment really yeah well like these last few weeks have been brilliant and it’s

Almost like it’s just been building and building and get better about trip just gets better and better and then even the extremes even the breakdowns and everything like that it’s been so interesting experience and then when we did the tobogan in last week Jess and

Alex it just built up to that day that day was incredible and then when we left and we saw that Sunset one side and then like a moon set sort of like thing the other side was just incredible and then we sort of felt a bit flat after that

Really yeah cuz obviously we’re sort of heading home now and everything as well and we’ve turned South as well yeah but then like the biggest thing that gives us a kick up the bum sometimes is the comments like we got one comment and this bloke said you’re living the dream

While we live The Daily Grind mhm and that sort of like hit home a little bit then and reminded us that yeah we try to remember to be grateful all the time for this life that we’re living but it’s easy to get flat in any life isn’t it so

Yeah we appreciate those comments and we’ve still got a fair few things we want to check off the list so there’s plenty more Adventure to Come I’m exhausted but it’s not from the drive it’s from just doing my head in for the whole drive me yeah you so I would tell you about the argument but there’s only a little bit of daylight so I’m going to have to save that for later

And I’ll explain then cuz it’s a bit too complex for me to uh let you know complex John was a knob the end par down par down General I’ve had enough of you today the soldier speaking let’s go see Oly well I tell you what the weather’s

On the change and it’s on the change fast it’s 2° today so everything’s thoring so it’s always a bit Grim when it’s like that cuz you get all slush on the side of the roads and the paths and everything like that but I’d love to know the road conditions in Finland

Because you can never tell because where the ice melts and everything it creates almost like big pots but it’s just the ice I don’t know what the actual Tac would be like so yeah I’ll be interested to know anyway that’s a thrilling thought isn’t it absolute riveting what

Is the state of the bitchman in Finland all right it’s official I’m calling a trce are we friends friends we’re friends so some more interesting bitching talk for you so we’re on the side of the road on the path and obviously it’s all ice but you don’t realize how thick it is

Until you see this so where the gut has come down there it’s washed like a channel in the path and here you can see how thick it is and it’s probably about 10 cm thick unreal the next installment of row conditions with John cuz that’s probably the most interesting thing we’re going

To show you today is on the paths of the road what they do is when it gets icy they don’t really put salt down what they do is they put gravel down and it’s really grippy but one thing they reckon you should do is you should carry like a

Bag of gravel so like you know when we got stuck with the chains rather than having to get the chains on you just Chuck some gravel under your tires where the ice is and you can get traction like that and yeah it’s amazing how much traction you actually get well I tell

You what you might as well switch off now cuz we’re not showing you anything decent from here John don’t tell them that I mean to be fair like we can’t give it a fair Shake because the conditions are terrible and even the most beautiful place in the world in

These conditions would look bad it would look great I think even Lake blood would look good in these conditions but it smells as well doesn’t it yeah it doesn’t smell too fresh and I’m GED cuz there are some really gorgeous looking buildings and there’s an Old Market that

We got here just in time for it to Clos so um I think there could be a lovely place but today is not its day we’re doing a lot of winging today we yeah we’ve not been our sparkliest s sorry everybody I think you know what I think

We need should we find some food be food she’s in a black mood we went looking for a buffet couldn’t find one so we’re now at a shop she’s hungry don’t talk to me about it I can’t I’m too hungry I can’t see you now I’m having a cook dinner she’s not

Happy I just asked her what’s for dinner I said I didn’t fancy what she said you can imagine how that went down can’t you if you’ve never seen a general on a war path here it is Jess yeah she we skip dinner I’ll tell you what she’s so lucky

To have me patiently walking around after us are we done yet have you helped rather than just irritating me we would be done a little faster hurry up you’re just too good to be true she’s cheered up here look can’t wait to eat you oh bit cheerful now e the good old

Golden watch and save the day put that down and eat the dinner you know when you go to the zoo and like this is what they look like after they’ve been fed you’re a delight is what you are all happy now ain’t you look at you I am I

Am back I’m back I’ve got tea I’ve got cake I got pajamas I think half the reason you’re grumpy is because she’s had this thing where she’s not eating so much during the day in the morning and I think that’s why we had the r today no

We had the r today because you are a pain to live with on the best of circumstances sh can you shush me let me show you how it went down oh God so darling I’ve got an idea about the YouTube video oh yeah what stupid

Idea you got now then well my love I spent a lot of time on this idea no oh okay sugar plum well what about no okay but what if no well how about no but no okay then I’ll just do whatever you want to do shall

We don’t you speak to me like that I’ll get these guns out on you mate mck dunde taught me everything I know so shut up you scrawny legged pain in my ass baly boy okay darling so was that fact accurate give or take a few words a a few words a few

Less swear words from Jess but everybody knows I’m very innocent very calm and it’s like living with a saint but you know what that was the start of the argument then it got deeper and you know where it got into toilet paper and I’m not even joking this is an ongoing

Arguing in our house and has been for 10 years now so let me explain this one I think you mean 13 let me explain toilet paper [Laughter] so when if you didn’t know this is toilet paper when you put toilet paper on the roll on the holder right so you

Put the old thing through and you put it like that do you that’s how you do it so you sit on the toilet that’s how you pull the toilet Pap just puts it that way not necessarily I just put on any which way any way any way like that what I just don’t

Think it makes a big difference to our quality of life which way the toilet paper so I kept telling her yes do me a favor put it on that way yes dear J put it on that way and honestly 10 years we went through that now she

Puts it on the right way so I don’t know if you’re weird like Jess and just throw it on any other way or if you think there’s more important things in life then which way the toilet paper roll [Laughter] runs morning Jessica John I’ve got no pants

On we’ll be back in just a minute I have PS pants on we’re good by the way I mean the Aussie definition of pants not the English definition I do not mean my Underpants I mean the things that go on your legs nobody wants to see that it’s

Not very well no nobody doesn’t want to see that what the hell was that noise that was your growler you’re such an idiot should we start again let’s start again morning Jessica good morning everybody so what are we doing today Jess well today one of our bucket list things for this trip

Was to drive an ice road but none of the ice roads have been thick enough so we’ve headed all the way out to near the Russian border to a place called kley to drive an ice road but I don’t think we’re going to be able to drive it cuz

There’s a bluming Thor so we’ll go see we need water as well so we just we’ll go see what happens e oh my god well it’s snowing and we’re meant to be get a big snowstorm today as well and I hope we do cuz hopefully that will make everything beautiful again and it’s

Strange that before we came here in England if you would say to me anything in a minus temperature I’d be hating it but out here for me my favorite temperature is probably -5 to – 10 cuz anything warmer than -5 or the snow starts to melt and it looks messy

Whereas anything colder than – 10 it starts to get a bit cold things sort of start to stop working including Jess so yeah I’m just glad we’re getting some good weather again one thing that is a little bit easier in the milder weather though is filling up

With water cuz you filler neck doesn’t freeze and there’s a few more defrosted Taps but I have to say the nordics have been so camper friendly we’ve found water all over the place sometimes Frozen but still they don’t mind you having it um and like Camp UPS we

Haven’t worried once with a park up everyone’s just so Blas and happy about Vans being here so that is really nice to experience the other thing I wanted to talk to you about with water was our water filtration system so you saw we fitted that when we did the van and we

Wouldn’t be without it now it makes such a difference not having to worry at all where you fill up and not having to worry about like getting to shops to buy drinking water cuz we used to run drinking water in separate bottles and it was a total fath also we’re going to

Go to lvia hopefully on this trip and the drinking water there isn’t always pable whereas with this water filtration system we can just fill up anywhere and not worry so a top tip I would give you if you’re building a van look at putting a drinking water filtration system in [Applause]

Maintenance workers on a snowmobile everyday life in Finland well we made it to the ice road but unfortunately we won’t be doing it today cuz it’s rated for 3 ton and I reckon we’re slightly over 3 ton and we probably be all right cuz I reckon if they’re rated for three then you’re

Probably good for four and five but it’s not a risk I want to take anyway cuz if we did fall in the ice well we’d make the headlines but uh we would be inure but the reason obviously this ice Road’s here is because it’s a 7 km trip from

There to there whereas in the summer when this isn’t here it’s a 60 km trip and the way they rate them for the 3 ton as well is what they do is they go along the whole Road and they drill holes in it and they measure how thick the ice is

And they’ve even got radar scanners that can do it now as well now another reason we’re not doing it is because of the speed limit now normally this is a 50 km hour road and they put it down to 30 and the reason they’ve got speed limits is

Because when you drive over the ice it creates waves underneath of the unfrozen water and that’s what can potentially damage the road so the fact that they put it down to 30 tells me that the ice is a lot thinner than it normally is another reason it’s not giving us Good

Vibes let me show you this bit of water in there Bo and last but not least you not actually land to stop on the road because it puts too much pressure in one place and we don’t think we’d actually be able to show you very much because

The drone ain’t going to fly 7 km in this wind with this snowstorm well unfortunately I think the old driving on an ice road is going to have to stay on the bucket list for now I did consider settling up my little donkey and busting out the John mobile

But I think a 14k round trip is probably a bit far even for Him how long long do we got to stay here for people we don’t know when one lies all so we’ve made it to s l just in time for the sun to poke her beautiful little head out now I’ve got two activities planned for today and I’m excited for

Both but can you guess what the first one is today we’re having Lunas which is a finnished tradition and it’s a buffet style lunch so for £150 you get starters soups mes salad bar dessert drinks teas and coffees everything included say what Gary thanks so much for the recommendation mate you

Know it the way to my heart I think I need to have a lie down well it might surprise you to know that my favorite thing about a buffet is not actually the quantity of food that you get cuz I know I’m greedy but it’s

The fact that you get to try so many different things that my friends is why buffets will always be my favorite kind of restaurant and I consider myself to be somewhat of a buffet connoisseur so I’m going to give you my food Fray ratings so that Buffet gets about a

Seven out of 10 for the food good home-cooked meal but 11 out of 10 for the value for money and for the lovely people and she says my to talk Tuesdays are pouring people love the food John and then I have to also give you my top

Tip for the best buffet we’ve been to in the world now the one in Norway was amazing the quality of the food was incredible but the likelihood that you’re going to get to go to that place is quite slim get on with it however however if you ever go to France do

Yourself a favor and get yourself to the grill in it’s a chain of Buffets all over France oh the food is magnificent so get yourself a Euro tunnel ticket booked and get yourself to a grill in and thank me later but our main reason for visiting Savina is this incredible Castle behind

Me it’s called avalina and it’s one of the most famous landmarks in Finland and I think you can see why it is incredibly impressive this Castle was originally built in the medieval period by the swedes to protect their borders from Russia but it’s been occupied by both

The Swedish and the Russians as they Ward constantly over Finland for centuries we did want to take you inside to show you around but unfortunately they’re doing a lot of works on it so there’s not much that we can get to to show you when we went inside though John

Found something that he said we had to show the people so if you’ve been following us for a while you know I love a Got what you doing just admiring the gutters galvanized a nice little imprint on it there I think we’ve got a contender for the old galvanized all wooden gutters look just hollow out a bit of Wood well I think we got a new champion of the gutter leaderboard copper gutters be Beautiful so we’re going to leave you there for this week because this marks our last little stop in Finland which I’m GED about because we have absolutely loved our time here but before we leave you there’s one thing I think you know just has to be Done you all know who deserves it we’ll see you next week and don’t forget about the Surf Shack Link in the Description

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This trip really has been the adventure of a lifetime, but… living in a 6 meter square space in the depths of the arctic winter can put a strain on any relationship, and when one half of that relationship is made up of Jon, lets just say this is somewhat amplified! This week our journey leads us to some more amazing experiences before things head south, both literally and metaphorically! Come with us as we share the highs and lows of life on the road and more of what Finland has to offer.

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00:00 Intro
02:05 The next best thing
06:05 Driving through Finland
07:49 Oulu
10:33 Life with us
15:26 Vanlife in the Nordics
17:09 Ice roads
19:11 Savonlinna

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