Another DISASTER Narrowly Avoided! // Van Life Italy

The Combi Life Adventure Travel Series is 10 years old this year and we've shared many adventures with you from around the world. This adventure comes to you from sunny Sardinia and as you're about to see, disaster strikes all the time whilst you're vanlifing and travelling around the world, but it's still a great way to have an adventure. Thank you so much to the Combi Crew for supporting our channel, getting behind our content and helping us make these unique episodes. There's no way we'd be able to do it without you, so thumbs up Combi Crew. We love you guys. We are driving around the world and you guys are invited too, so subscribe and buckle up. It's one heck of a ride. With Conor now less than mobile after badly twisting his ankle on our last day climbing in the town of Ulusai, it was pretty much perfect timing as he could now put his feet up and chalax in the Combi as we hit the road. We parted ways with Riccardo and crew who headed north along the coast in search of the next adventure. We were headed north-west across the inland dry pastures towards the city of Alghero. In a few hours, Conor is getting on a plane and flying home, so not exactly a great time to be having more Combi troubles. We had to stop a couple of times throughout the night, something was definitely wrong with our rear wheel. It was making a horrible noise. Eventually, after fixing a couple of things but still not resolving the mysterious issue, we decided to get some sleep. This is three in a Combi attempt number three. Conor's the third person to sleep with three of us in the Combi. Insulated mat and sleeping bag and cushion that I'm going to dribble over. Cozy. Night guys, thanks for letting me sleep in here. The next morning we limped into the city of Alghero but Conor still had to get a Covid test before flying. Did you get your results? Got my results, yeah negative. Yes bro, nice, good work. I am sad, yeah I'm sad to be going. I'm going to miss you guys and just had so much fun. Love you bro, thanks for everything, you're welcome. Such a good trip, epic time, amazing time. See you later guys, bye. Happy travels. That was fun. He's walking fine now, he's facing it with a log. Look at him, he's walking fine. What's next? Next we've got to fix this bloody wheel, haven't we? On with the adventure. Too many problems with the Combi, it's been a really loud knocking noise. This is the third time we've had the car, I inspected the problem, the shock was loose under here and we thought that was it but the problem persists. I think it may be something to do with the brake here, a bit unsafe to carry on going because I'm not exactly sure this brake is working. See if we can find out what the problem is. I did eventually manage to find the problem after many hours of beating it with a hammer to get into the brake drum. Oh finally, look at that, brake pads in the brake. You're not supposed to be there. How happy are you right now? I'm happy that this bloody thing came off. Let's see what the problem was. The brake mechanism had broken apart and needed replacing. Fortunately that didn't stop us because I travel with a spare VW brake rebuilding kit. That's normal, right? From the west coast we crossed all of Sardinia heading back to the east coast to meet up with the other Combi crew but not before losing a drone, again, and having our GoPro try to burn down the Combi. Whoa, look at it now, look, look, look at the screen now. What the hell? It's rocket fuel hot, I can't even touch it through this cloth. What the hell? I think it's done, I think it's melted. Luckily I just checked this GoPro which I just put on charge five minutes ago and by chance I looked back in the cupboard to see what was happening and it was roasting hot. I've never felt a device so hot, it was literally, couldn't pick it up hot and obviously it's melted the inside of the GoPro. That was lucky, that could have seriously been a fire. We were just about to let go out as well so it could have been bad. All right, let's get back to the adventure. It really was a shame to lose that GoPro because this location is one that you would definitely bring a camera to. Parking on the small twisty coastal roads there is an absolutely stunning beach. Cala Fuele is no secret to locals nor tourists alike. Whether they're there for the white sands, stunning blue Mediterranean water, to explore the caves or to climb in one of the most beautiful destinations, there is always a steady stream of visitors to this idyllic stretch of coastline. Whilst the girls and dogs headed out on a hike, Riccardo and I planned our adventures in the canyon. Today we are in Cala Fuele. Cala Fuele. Fuele. Fuele and we're going to try a multi-pitch, multi-pitch climb, three pitches. This is my first sports multi-pitch, how about you? Fingers crossed. Such a hot day today. 36 degrees when we left the van, out here maybe a little less than that. So this is the canyon somewhere around here, right? Hopefully in the shade, but not necessarily. Okay, so this is the multi-pitch behind us. 70 meters, relatively short one, but certainly big enough for us. It gets harder and harder as it goes up. We should be able to do it, but whether we can do a 6a after climbing two previous pitches in the direct sun, that's the bit that's going to make it hard. Hopefully we make it to the first anchor. See you there. Hopefully we got a bit of shade. It's a long way down now, right? Yeah. Pitch two. Riccardo's just finished pitch three, 6a. He's going to bring me up. It's looking pretty high. I don't even mind looking down. It's quite fun hanging out up here. That's actually a huge achievement for me, as only eight months earlier, acrophobia, a fear of heights, had been a real problem for me whilst learning to rock climb. To get better at looking down, I'm going to enjoy this view. In fact, our first multi-pitch sport climb was going pretty well, apart from the fact the anchors were held together with sun damaged rope, which is really not ideal. That's going to make the abseil back down very scary. Not sure about that. Now we're 70 meters up. You know where for us to stand. I'm standing like this. Now we just have to figure out how we get back down. We're down. We made it. Three pitches later. Come on mate, we did it. I don't even remember what time we started. It might have been yesterday. Oh mate, I'm so proud of us. Camping around these touristic parts of Sardinia gets expensive quickly, so it would be wild camping on the side of the road for us tonight, and that is fine by us. I need to dry again, on top of the Panamerica. Took you guys long enough. While we were thinking about where to put it, it's an important decision. On top of the Panamerica. Yeah, at least you didn't put it on your toilet. No. So tonight we're cooking for the Italians. Trying to cook Italian food for the Italians. I know I'm very nervous about it to be honest. I'm very sceptical. You're very sceptical? Yeah, don't blame you. So we've got some fresh basil. We've got some fresh gnocchi. We've got some pesto. Let's not show Riccardo the pesto. You don't approve of our pesto? No, no. That's fake. I wouldn't even touch with the steak. I thought you learned the lesson. No, obviously not. Limited supplies here in Sardinia. Riccardo, tell me about this wine. It's from Sardinia? I think it's like a type of grape, a vermentino. All right, it's been chilling in the combi fridge for two days. Let's get it open. All right, making the starter for the Italians. A bruschetta. So we have this crispy bread thing, some mozzarella. Look at this. Beautiful Sardinian tomato, fresh. It's gonna be great. And basil and olive oil. So let's see how this goes. Do you want some? Yeah, I do. Ice cold beer. I can't tell you how good having a fridge in this combi has been on this trip. It's been 40 degrees most days. And coming back to the van, boiling hot van. It's still a bit cooler than outside, but it's still roasting hot. And having a cold beer waiting for you inside, what a treat. Our next stop in Sardinia will unfortunately be our last. But as we're about to discover indigenous ruins and go in search of sunken World War II planes, you know it's gonna be a good one. But that is a story for next time. Thank you so much to the combi crew for helping us create this unique series. We wouldn't be able to create our episodes and put as much effort as we do into these episodes without the support of you guys watching at home. So please consider joining the combi crew. We honestly can't do this without you. Thanks so much for your support. Until next time, happy travels.