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6 months on - what happened

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Well, what happened? A lot. As I told you already, this blogging is getting a bit tedious, hence why it took nearly 6 months for this update. I post on Instagram nearly daily and I prefer the platform to blogging because of the direct feedback an ease of use, anyhow, here's the story... In januari, I entered Turkey, had some good times around Marmaris , only to have gearbox problems stop me dead in my tracks. I will be short on this story, as it was a bit frustrating, in 3 weeks I had 2 different gearboxes fail, and 2200 euro's later I was finaly on my way to Iran, arriving just before my visa validity ran out. Iran was a blast, and also a bit of a culture shock, the country is poor, but the Iranians make up for that in spades, some of the most friendly people around. Everybody was just curious about the car, what you were doing in  Iran and always ready to help out. I spend most of my time on the island of Qeshm, where in february, it was nice and warm. So many other over
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second start - making up for lost time

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I'm going to be short on this one. Why? Because to be honest, I'm quite ashamed. This must be my biggest mechanical error to date. so here goes the story: the car was transported back from Croatia, because I thought the head gasket had failed. This took 3 weeks, and as soon I heard the car was delivered, I rushed to the garage, only to find the car running perfect after the mechanics put in a new fuse to the fuel pump. Aargh, I just wasted a whole month on something I could have fixed myself in 5 minutes, if I wasn't so transfixed on the problem. Many lessons learned. The 3rd of November I was back on my way, now seriously chasing the seasons. It soon became apparent that November, camping and mountains don't go together, so I was clinging to the coastline in Albania, to catch the last rays of sunlight of this autumn. But traversing Greece has brought yet more rain and with the weather forecast predicting a drop of 10° c in the next days, I'm hopping over the
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Catastrophic failure

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The last weeks have been spent leisurely driving South through Croatia. Down to Pula, getting on the ferry to the island of Cres  and hopping over to Krk. Sometimes enduring rain and heavy winds that were distant remnants of a hurricane over the Greek Isles. Most of the time it was sunny though but not really warm. I got into a slow rhythm of traveling that suited me fine but at the same time felt that I needed to speed it up a bit. Most travelers that were in the same direction as me, and who I follow on instagram were around Turkey at that time, as world travel is regulated by the seasons and one cannot just disregard the calendar. Unless you don't mind traveling in snow! So it was around the small coastal town of Ploce, driving through vineyards full of juicy grapes, that suddenly there was no power to the engine. It started sounding very rough and my first thought was 'head gasket'. I say that because it wasn't really a surprise, I had a sneaky suspicion for mon
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one week on the road...

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Hi there, on September 15th  2018 I left Belgium on my longest trip so far. Well, I say longest, but we'll see how far I get. In comparison to other trips, there is no set date of return, nor is there a definite destination. I will see 'on the road', where I want to go next, or even, return home, as soon as I stop enjoying it. Many people, mostly the ones who haven't traveled for months on end, have no idea how hard it can be, the loneliness, the hardships, the mental dips. It's not all perfect holiday pictures, endless sunsets and fantastic adventures. That being said, there are a lot of perfect pictures, sunsets and adventures but traveling alone is at times , hard. I really wanted to take a dog along for the ride, but all kinds of practical reasons intervened, and as much as it would have relieved the loneliness, it would have been just very unpractical at moments. Then there was the big questions as what would happen with the dog when I returned. Thinking about
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Leaving soon

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In september I will embark on a 1,5 year long trip, hopefully getting as far as Mongolia. The itinerary will be, Kroatia, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey and Iran. Then spend the winter in Oman and next summer drive via the "Stans" to Mongolia. The car will be the landrover defender I drove to Gambia and Albania last year, which by now is fully kitted out to my taste. Blog updates will be few and far between as the last years I started using instagram more.    https://www.instagram.com/tony_ontheroad/ To me, it's a far better tool for traveling, with a lot more exposure, but I'm not willing to discard blogging just yet. See you on the road Keep posted
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