Driving The Longest Continuous Direct Driving Route In The World

28/10/2024

Weer een verjaardag, mijn 50ste. En volgens facebook heb ik de afgelopen tijd niks beleeft. Gelukkig is de werkelijkheid anders. Er zijn juist erg veel activiteiten geweest en ik ben ook erg druk geweest met van alles en nog wat.

Zo heb ik;
In de zomer van 2024 voor het eerst de 40 km route mogen lopen van de Nijmeegse 4Daagse. Dit ging boven verwachting goed. Zelfs met de minimale training (100 km) die mogelijk was. Foto’s volgen.

In mei een fotografie workshop gevolgd in Rome welke georganiseerd was door Serge Ramelli. Veel foto’s gemaakt en deze zullen ook nog wel langs komen.

Op 15 maart een nieuw huis gekocht in Duitsland. Ik ben dus nu geëmigreerd naar Duitsland, maar blijf wel Nederlander. Voor en na de verhuizing van 16 juni ben ik druk bezig geweest met klussen in het nieuwe huis.

Begin dit jaar werden de verhuisplannen steeds duidelijker, dus al druk aan het opruimen en inpakken gegaan. Daarvoor natuurlijk ook meerdere woningen bekeken, maar de huidige keus sloot het beste aan bij mijn behoeften.

Net voor een grote reis in de zomer van 2023 begaf mijn auto het. Uiteindelijk bleek er een scheur te zitten in een van de cilinderkoppen van de motor. Met veel omwegen en tegenslagen uiteindelijk nieuwe cilinderkoppen kunnen laten maken in China. Net voor de kerst werden deze afgeleverd. Dus in het nieuwe jaar tussen alle bedrijven door, samen met Marcel deze geïnstalleerd in de LandCruiser.

In november 2023 een kleine neusoperatie gehad. Dit in de hoop om weer vrijer te kunnen ademhalen. Zag er als een berg tegenop, maar is mij achteraf erg goed bevallen. Ben blij dat ik weer goed kan ademen.

Als er nog tijd over bleef ben ik voor Marathon Photos Live aan het fotograferen geweest bij verschillende marathons in Nederland. Ook ben ik regelmatig de Veluwe opgegaan om daar de nodige foto’s te maken.

In de zomer van 2023 zou ik met mijn LandCruiser een roadtrip/ralley maken, de Balkan Oriënt Express 2023. Helaas liet mijn auto mij in de steek twee weken voor vertrek. Met veel kunst en vliegwerk en hulp van kennissen een vervangende auto gevonden. Met een Volvo V70 heb ik de reis kunnen maken. Deze liep vanaf Dresden via oostelijk Europa naar Turkije en Georgië. De terugweg ging via Griekenland en de Balkan terug naar Slovenië. Hier eindigde de reis na 12.000 km, ongeveer 12.000 foto’s en 15 dagen. Heftig zwaar maar ook erg mooie dingen gezien. En de Volvo heeft zich er prima doorheen geworsteld zonder problemen.
Deze reis was een vervanger van de APOD (Atlantic – Pacific Ocean Drive) die ik al hoop te maken vanaf 2020 maar elke keer niet door gaat als gevolg van de corona of de problemen in Rusland.

In mijn werk is niet veel veranderd. Zit nog steeds bij hetzelfde ingenieurs en detacheringsbureau en heb klussen mogen doen in Veenendaal en Baarn. En op dit moment zit ik bij de gemeente Arnhem waar ik het ook weer prima naar de zin heb.

Uiteraard ook de verschillende Airborne herdenkingen bijgewoond als toeschouwer of als fotograaf. Weer veel mooie herinneringen opgehaald en nieuwe mensen leren kennen.

Tussen de bedrijven door op stap geweest met de Toyota LandCruiser Club. Of meegereden of zelf gereden. In juni was er een gezellig weekend in Bant. Met als extra toegift mooi noorderlicht. Was de eerste keer dat ik het zo goed gezien heb. Ook een mooie toertocht gemaakt door Gaasterland. Dan kom je er achter dat Friesland toch echt niet vlak is en dat daar de enige kliffen (15 meter hoog) van Nederland zijn.

En nu ga ik weer een nieuw levensjaar in. Benieuwd wat er nu nog allemaal gaat komen. Hoop alleen wel dat ik af en toe ook hier even een berichtje kan plaatsen, dan blijven jullie een beetje op de hoogte. Groetjes en bedankt voor al jullie felicitaties.

25/10/2023

25/10/2023

So this year is almost over, I haven’t put a message here for a long time. So here is a small summery.

In January the signs looked good for a trip, not to Vladivostok (still on the list) but the Balkan and the Orient looked possible.

As always I was looking for a co-driver for this Balkan Orient Express adventure. Until the start of the journey no one found to share the car with me. So it would become a solo drive to the Orient.

But it turned out to become a less smooth preparation as expected. The car was prepared and ready (already done the last years), I was ready, the organisation was ready, so noting to stop for going on this adventure. Until two weeks for the start. The car couldn’t get from his place, whatever I trayed, it was broken.

Big panic.

So long been looking towards this adventure, and now stopped just before the starting line.

With big help from family and friends a replacement car was ready and available for me. A Volvo V70 D5 could be used.

He had been to the Nord Cape, now it would go to the heat. Meanwhile the Landcruiser is transported to a garage and will be looked after during the trip and a solution will be found.

The trip was a great adventure and, man, did I drive long days on a row. But what a drive it was. More about this will follow on a later moment.

And the Landcruiser? Well he still has problems. First we thought it would be the timing belt, than it turned out that it was a cracked cylinder head. And probably some other problems we still have to find. But it will be repaired and more adventures have to come.

01/01/2023

Allemaal de beste wensen voor 2023. Dat het maar een gezond en liefdevol jaar mag worden.

09/04/2022

Hi travelers around the world.

This year it would have taken place, the journey to Chasan. The signs for the Covid-19 went slowly back to green. So the first attempts for visa were taken and the route was checked again.

But then something happened in eastern Europe. It’s simply not possible to make this journey at this moment. So the hole trip has been postponed.

Really sad, I have been preparing for this journey now for more than 2 years. But it’s all relative if you look to eastern Europe.

So it’s postponed. Hope it will be possible to make the journey next year, or the year after. It will still be on my shortlist.

Meanwhile I will be working on the car, make some small holiday trips and get more knowledge about the technic and maintenance of the car.

Hope we will stay in contact. Stay safe and healthy.

Regards
Arnoud

31/12/2021

Happy New year🥂 and please stay healthy. I hope that covid will let me drive this route this year. So fingers crossed 🤞

11/09/2021

In January 2019 I found a Facebook advertisement of the APOD road trip to Vladivostok. For this trip you need a car that is capable to drive this distance and is older than 15 years (one of the regulations for the APOD).

This leads to a nice challenge, mostly 4x4 cars are equipped with a diesel (gasoil) engine. But here in Arnhem it is not allowed to drive in the city with a diesel engine older than 2005. So diesel wasn’t an option. I had to search for a petrol (and if possible a LPG/GPL) engine.

After searching in The Netherlands, without luck, I found the perfect car in Munich (Germany). According to the photo’s it was the perfect car in a good chape. So off to Munich. When arriving at the place of the car dealer, it turned out that het car was located in a open air storage with flat tires and a dead battery. And a lot of snow around.

The first impressions were good. There were some issues like rust, flat tires, broken windshield the dead battery, it still looked like the perfect car.

Finally in November the car was delivered at the garage of Pascal Auto’s in Huissen, close to Arnhem.

Now we were able to look better to the state of the car and checking all the parts of the car.

There was a lot more rust than expected. On some places the body was totally gone, on other parts you could loke from inside to under the car. But the engine was good and also the electric system didn’t have any problems.it also turned out that the car had belonged to a farmer in Romania. During the clean-up of the car I found corns of maize and wheat, nails and bolts, glass and lots of clay.

After one year of working on the body and the other parts of the car, it was time for the interior of the car.

When you’re working on an old car your best friend is YouTube. Here you can find almost all the answers to the problems of older cars. Also can you find a lot of ideas for your car or interior. So with this help most of the problems were solved. I found the ideas for my interior and started working on the interior in 2021.

In July the interior was ready and I also had a self-made roof rack on the car with a roof top tent.

Ready for adventure.

05/09/2021

First photo of my car on the site of Autoscout.

22/08/2021

16/08/2021

At the start of the journey (or the end), in front of the gate of the fort of Sagres, Fortaleza de Sagres, in Sagres Portugal.
It was not possible to start the journey inside of the fort. So this is the next best thing.

16/08/2021

Entering Sagres. The last view kilometers to the official start of the journey.

16/08/2021

The last few years have been a bit different than normal. Aside the health issues, I have been working on a car to make a long journey to Vladivostok, Russia, The Atlantic Pacific Ocean Drive (APOD).

Of course everything starts with finding the right car, petrol because of the environmental rules around Arnhem. This took some time, but at the end I found one in the area of Munich in Germany. Originally the car comes from Romania and has been owned by a farmer.

How I know this? When I was cleaning the car, I found hay, barley, nails, bolts and nuts.

I also found a lot of rust (iron oxidation) and parts that were broken or needed a lot of LTC. But at the end I had a car that I could start transforming in to an overlander.

For this purpose I made a drawing system in the rear of the car, a roof rack and a second electric system. But to test all this I have to make a nice trip. Due to the Covid-19 epidemic the APOD didn’t start in 2020 and 2021. When talking to friends also interested in journeys and facts, they came up with; The Longest Continuous Direct Driving Route In The World.

Searching for more information about this route I found a small movie on Youtube (https://youtu.be/o1bIKvHDNWI). Looking to this explanation and combining this with the APOD journey, I found the perfect combination.
Holland – Sagres – Holland; the perfect test drive.
Holland – Vladivostok (APOD) – Chasan – Holland; the perfect road trip.

On this moment (summer 2021) Covid-19 is still around and limits the options about traveling. So the APOD is still not starting, but lets see how far I will come with the test drive and if I can reach Sagres.

What about the given route by google maps? While driving around western Europe it’s absolute no fun to follow the given route.

Why not? The route will follow the fastest and shortest connection. Of course that’s the idea of this route. But do you see anything from the countries you’re traveling? Probably not. The only thing you see is a motor highway, 2 or more lanes of tarmac, and often you have to pay to drive on them.

That’s not my way of traveling. So I will use the google maps route as a guideline for my journey. Pick your points along the line and let google maps guide you from A to B without driving on highways and paid highways. This way you will find special places, experience the country, follow the old national routes and see the real country instead of tarmac.

This will be the way I will drive The Longest Continuous Direct Driving Route In The World.

So along the road I will have nice meetings with interesting people, see nice cities, monuments, festivities, all the landscapes, etc. etc.
This page will give a small idea of my journey by photo’s and movies. I hope you will enjoy it.

If you have tips or suggestions for things to visit along the route, please feel free to suggest it here.

If you have other suggestions or tips, please tell me also.

Thanks for following this story.

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