on the 5th of january 2020
We were joined by our family, friends and the local press, at the World Heritage site of Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire (UK) . Marianne’s dad proudly cut the ribbon to mark the start of an epic adventure and one that would change us forever.
Heading over the channel to France and looking back at the white cliffs of Dover, it was hard to imagine that it would be years before we’d be home again and when we eventually did, (and if all goes according to plan) we would be coming from the Americas. With butterflies in our stomachs, we realised we were really stepping into the unknown.
We had a wonderful 3 months slowly making our way south through France, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria and then entered Turkey at the beginning of March 2020. We originally planned to spend 3 weeks in Turkey, driving along the Black Sea coast before heading into Georgia. After filming in Istanbul for 3 days the news came that Turkey’s borders were closed, due to the pandemic, and shortly after the country went into full lockdown.
We ended up self isolating in a carpark in Istanbul’s old town.
Self isolating in a 6m van was a bit of a challenge but one that we made the best of. We met wonderful people who helped us and made sure we were safe and had everything we needed. After 17 TV interviews and 95 days we finally hit the road. With surrounding borders remaining closed we took full advantage of exploring Turkey.
We are aiming to continue our adventure east as soon as we are able to -
one things for sure it’s going to be one hell of an adventure !
