What's your name, how did you meet Rocío and Eduardo, how long ago?
My name was Nissan Navara, until they put the camper cell on me. Since then they call me Tundra.
I met Rocío and Eduardo in Lugo with only 80,000 kilometers, my previous owner took great care of me and only used me to take bicycles to the mountains. When he saw that they were riding the ball of fur that is Cuzco, his dog, in the back he insisted on giving a sheet to Rocío and Edu to make sure that hair did not fall on my back haha I imagine him now watching the YouTube videos on the ones I go out, and how I’m covered in mud all day.
It’s been two and a half years since that day. And although I am a 2007 vehicle, 1.9 DCI with 171CV, I am showing that I can still give a lot of fight.
Are you the first truck in their lives?
No way! Before me there were two other camper vans… and if they give me the same blame as them, who were not 4×4, I pity them.
Edu and Rocío had their first van, a medium Renault Trafic in 2016, they camped it in a simple way and traveled around Europe for a month. That’s when they decided that the world of caravanning fascinated them and they wanted to travel in a camper for longer periods.
To do this, they bought their second van in 2018, a 2007 Renault Master large volume. Once again they camped it themselves and at the same time created the Sin Código Postal, a website where the plan was to share all their experience about camping and camper trips. They also wanted to turn their project into their source of income, to be able to work on the road, and thus reach the goal of traveling and living in a camper continuously, all year round. For this reason, the web was followed by the creation of a Youtube channel and their Social Media.
And on a trip through the Canary Islands with this latest large volume van, they saw a camper cell and fell in love. And that’s where my story begins, as they arrived from the Canary Islands, they started looking for a vehicle and on a second-hand website I was there, a white Nissan Navara. And in less than 2 weeks they were already measuring me to know the measurements of the camper cell that I would have with me.
The cell that I transport is mobile, they can put it on and take it off without much difficulty by supporting it on extendable legs, and it’s great because they didn’t have to homologate it that way.
What they have had to approve is all my preparation for the off-road trips that Edu and Rocío had organized for me: snorkel, winch, tough dog suspension, leaf springs (8 leaves), complete Almont protection plates and a second air filter. diesel.
Where have they taken you and where do they want to take you?
…what moves them most is leaving their comfort zone…the changes and cultural shocks of other countries.
Edu and Rocío’s type of trip, which usually leaves paved roads, required a suitable vehicle. Their van had already done a lot (like reaching Svaneti in Georgia or Lukomir in Bosnia), but the trip they had in mind required a 4×4. And they bought me to tour Africa for 5 months.
Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone… it was my first trip, my debut. And I fit the bill very well, although the cell that I carry is not the most offroad option that you can find due to its weight, for Edu and Rocío comfort was very important, since they not only travel, but they live and work in the full-time cell. And they do without intense off-roading, for the convenience of taking their home as far as they can.
Before contacting me, Edu and Rocío had already found out that what moves them most is leaving their comfort zone, trips through Europe or areas that are similar to Spain do not create as much curiosity in them as changes and cultural shocks. from other countries. Therefore, right now I am writing all this to you from Uzbekistan, because we are traveling to visit this group of Central Asian countries nicknamed the “stanes” (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan…)
Do they plan or improvise?
My owners enjoy the trip three times, when they imagine it, when they plan it and when they enjoy it. So the answer to this question is: they plan.
They organize the documentation for these trips, which usually requires a Carnet de Passage, visas, travel insurance (you can get a 5% discount at IATI) and vehicle insurance in each country, different permits and registrations of foreigners… You have to do a lot of research (read books, forums, official pages…) to keep everything in order, since you are in a new country practically every month.
Before the trips, Edu and Rocío were 100% focused on learning about camping, which was what they needed at that moment. Once they embarked on their first long trip of 9 months, it was when they improved their English, they learned to fluently use all the applications that make their trip easier (such as iOverlander among others) and, above all, something that can only be learned to handle on the road. , the loss of routine and solving all the unforeseen events that occur while traveling with positivity and patience (crossing borders, vehicle breakdowns, encounters in certain situations with other people…)
What hobbies, passions, neuroses... are your travel companions?
Someone once told us that “making your hobbies and passions your job was a double-edged sword.” We didn’t give it any more importance than those, but now we understand it 100%. Our passion and hobby is traveling and camping, and now we have turned it into our job. Therefore, it is an arduous task to discern between work and enjoyment right now.
We really love sharing and creating content on all our platforms, but on the other hand it is very difficult for us to enjoy and just enjoy the trips because we have to document everything so we can share it later. We no longer conceive one thing without the other.
Apart from falling into the cliché that my hobby is my job, we really like reading and that’s why we decided to write a book, which ended up being three: Guía de Cómo camperizar una furgoneta (Guide to Converting a Van into a Camper), Guía de la #VanLife: como viajar y vivir en camper (Guide to #VanLife: How to Travel and Live in a Camper) and finally Rutas por España en autocaravana o furgoneta camper (Routes Through Spain in a Motorhome or Camper Van).
And since we come “to get wet” in this interview, here we go with our nerves. Rocío is crazy about cleanliness, something that living in 6 square meters with two people and a dog, and always being in deserts, mountains, beaches… is not very easy to combine. And Edu is a hotshot, and literally cannot sit still for a moment, neither physically nor mentally. He is always traveling, but thinking about new trips and projects and has a hobby that is not very compatible living in a house as small as a camper cell, and that is sports with “gadgets”. You always want to take on your trips (and hope that everything fits in) a bicycle, kayak, skis, snowshoes, ice axes, crampons, slackeline…
Any scare or breakdown?
The truth is that traveling has made Edu and Rocío have a lot of anecdotes to tell. Already with my predecessor, the large van had to be rescued by firefighters in Montenegro, after going down a road that said “4×4 only” and even on another occasion the handbrake broke in a parking lot with a lot of unevenness and the The vehicle fell into a ravine but could be recovered without any scratches by a huge crane.
And now with me, and this breakage is very recent, my chassis broke in the middle of the steppe of Kazakhstan. They managed to get to a yurt camp, driving very, very slowly, to ask for help, unload the cell, take me alone on a crane, and be able to weld my chassis in a workshop.
And scares, which in the end amount to no more than that, have a few listed: getting lost on a route through the Mauritanian Eye desert and having to spend the night and discover the way thanks to the drone, almost tipping over on its side on a road a mountain town in Senegal because by going there they would have saved 5 hours of driving to the border, but the best, without a doubt, was when after 5 months through Africa without mishaps and on the way to their home in León, they stopped to spend the night on a small hill in Madrid next to the highway. After believing themselves to be 100% overlanders, bad luck caused them to get trapped in a huge puddle. An 4×4 tried to winch them out without success and for a few hours they had to shovel mud until they were able to get out in Madrid! Next to the highway! You never know where the danger is.
Tundra says goodbye sharing a lesson learned along the way.
Well, Edu and Rocío always say that while traveling they have learned or realized three things:
The first thing they have realized is that the two words they always learn first in other languages are “hello” and “thank you.” And how far you can go with two such simple words. With them, and together with gestures, they have managed to spend entire days with families who do not speak their language and have opened the doors of their homes to them, or ask for help for all their problems.
They have also learned when they have returned from their trips to Spain, that many of the problems they had before living traveling, many times solving them was only a matter of time or patience. While before there were problems that were a nuisance, after traveling and seeing other realities or difficulties in other countries, it helped them realize that they should be more grateful for everything they have, and they learned to put their problems into perspective by being able to travel through Sierra Leona, one of the poorest countries in the world, visiting a gold mine in Senegal and seeing the living conditions of entire families there… makes you think that perhaps “losing a morning because the queue at the bank was huge” is not really a problem.
And finally, although the media often makes us see only the negative side of the world, there are many good people willing to help you without knowing you at all, or simply make you have a good time in a chat to tell you all the good things they have. you will find in their country as you travel through it.
Respect for nature, the environment and the regulations of each country
See you on the way!
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