Projectamber

Escanevada Tour with Liveration

I have something different and a little closer to present day for you!
& I didn't make it. 😉
A couple of months ago I had Ryan & Sofie of Liveration on YouTube come to visit to film a video on the land.
If you aren't familiar with the channel I highly recommend a gander, they make wonderful mini documentaries of people living alternative lifestyles and manage to coax some great stories out of those they visit.
They are a lovely pair, we had a lot of fun that day, it's r...

The Descent - Broken up: Ep.10

Two days Into it we eventually climb to the very top of Stelvio Pass.
From it's 2757m peak (Or 58 on some signs 🤷🏼‍♂️) we enjoy it's incredible surroundings, sheepishly ignoring a fact that is so painfully obvious... There is now the way back down to do. Come the afternoon we brave it, yet it turned out to be the much more enjoyable part of traversing the pass, if not threatening the upstairs pod's structural integrity with ever tighter tunnels. Surprisingly we get down w...

Stelvio Pass Pirates - Broke Up: Ep.9

I have a very different one for you this evening!
So when I last left you we'd postponed climbing Stelvio Pass for wait for better conditions, so now is the time! And MAN was it intense!
The "better conditions" part didn't really go to plan...
From there me and Lance explore the 2757m summit, cross into Switzerland illegally, Grab a takeaway and then, and this is where things get different, I join some friends and we set sail on the open seas as pirates!
as I bring you along for o...

A Slightly Damp Church - Broken Up: Ep.8

The last time I was in Italy I shot past and missed something on my bucket list. Seeing as we are heading back that way in the other direction, now I get to correct that and tick it off the list.

What is it? Well it's a slightly damp church.

From there we move onto the main event of the trip! Stelio Pass. But bad timing means I need to hold off the colossal climb until the next day, only problem there is I landed myself in a "No Camping" zone miles up a mountain.

Is it wo...

Intuition - Broken Up: Ep.7

The storm passes by morning and we are able to amble down from the Waterfall. I was the van and my clothes, refuel, before climbing once again. By change I drive past another park up from the previous trip, so drop in to see, despite being situated on a live hydroelectric dam, if it's still viable. It wasn't. My intuition told me so. I ignored it. I paid the price. After that debacle, I gain the common sense to move on. The second overnighter would do, but it was nothing special, so the rule ...

A Night to Remember - Broken Up: Ep.6

I head to the forest I'd sacked off the night before having found a better park up, to use it more of a day spot to set the hammock up and keep cool on one of the warmest days so far.
 From there I carry on west and serendipitously find myself chasing a waterfall spotted up a mountain off in the distance.
As we lose the light I get there and was not disappointed finding remains of on attraction or facility up there too, plus this place delivered a place to park up for the night. <...

Mountain Hopping - Broken Up: Ep.5

Refreshed for the lunchtime spot of tranquility I was ready to hit the road again and get myself a fair distance over the Alps.
I nearly fall off a mountain on the bike,
We find a riverside spot for some swimming n washing and then hop on the longest downhill road I've ever seen.

Wow that was a weak description lol, sorry, been a long day.

Enjoy!
C.J

Cortina - Broken Up: Ep.4

Now free from the Valley of De-Ja-Vu I was free to mooch on through the Alps where I find myself gravitating towards Cortina D'Impezzo, a beautiful (if not expensive) ski resort town in the most beautiful setting. Once I arrived my vague plan of a campsite didn't really work out, so I improvised. But despite a positive few days and the beautiful location I find the cause of this journey catching up with me but learn some valuable lessons to push on. 4 days in an affluent town was good, but it...

Mountain-top Repairs - Broken Up: Ep.3

Discovering a damaged brake line on the van only after climbing a ridiculously steep mountain road meant we were a little stuck. tackling the climb down was not something I wanted to do and could easily result in cascading down the seemingly bottomless ravine. I had the spare parts but my WD-40 was gone with the wind and I would find even more parts needed replacing once diving into the fix. Thankfully the bike was on the back and allowed me to venture out for supplies (or help if it comes to...

De-Ja-Vu - Broken Up: Ep.2

After a looong walk I make it back to the van to repair the bikes tyre, but the extra time taken meant the aircon drained my batteries, so the want for a serviced camper stop over became a need.
We spend a few lovely days in the town of Barcis before heading out in no definitive direction, only to stumble into an are I'd visited last time in Italy.
A place filled with memories adventures and f*** ups alike.
This valley of De-Ja-Vu had some more in store for us this time too.

Broken Up. - Ep.1

Here we go again!

Following some, lets say less than ideal situations, I find myself drawn back to the open road, and to a location I've longed to return to since my 'big trip" in 2018 - Italy.
There we get back to Vanlife basics, figure out a new life dynamic and remind myself why I was drawn to this free and nomadic lifestyle in the first place, which as this series continues proved to be the perfect remedy.
We' return to some familiar places, many new ones, face numerous chall...

Broken Up Trailer

With episode 01 almost ready I feel comfortable giving you the actual trailer to the upcoming series!

As always the beginning is the toughest but there is so much cool stuff that happened on this trip that I'm super excited to getting stuck in.
Today marks my last day in Italy, I'll be heading over the border tomorrow and slowly making my way back home to start a fresh I guess, I dunno. 🤷‍♂️
With one notable detour, collecting the mud flap I lost up a French mountain 6 ...

The wheels are rolling again

Hey all!

So Patreon has been paused for a while now and in that time I've been getting back to myself and finding feet again, in many ways but most of all with videos!
I have a lot sat on the hard drives of this trip & I am now sitting through and beginning to make something from it all.
If this doesn't scream series trailer I don't know what will 😉
Stelvio Pass is the highest road in Italy, the second highest in Europe and voted the 5th best road in the world. I've do...

Italian Photo Dump

Hey all,

I hope everyone is well on this fine Sunday.

I’ve been mooching slowly through the Italian Alps, lots has happened, maybe more importantly lot’s has not happened 😉 I am slowly beginning to feel myself again and adjusting back to the solo life dynamic, well, I’m never solo with Lance but… he don’t talk. 🤷‍♂️

Ive had the camera’s out and already captured some great clips, adventures, a breakdown 🔧 & beautiful landscapes. Some days it’s...

More Bad News (Patreon Paused)

I'm really sorry folks, I'm starting the feel like main stream news at the moment with all the less than pleasant shit going on, which is the reason why I've decided to pause Patreon until things have improved over here.
I must stress no Patreon payments will be taken at the end of this month nor in the period until I have some content to share with you again. You'll still have full access to Patreon and the back catalogue of videos.

Thank you for your understanding during this rou...

Fallout: Gardunha

Hey folks,

In this one I venture off the land to meet up with my friend Ken of OKPortugal and we head up into the Gardunha mountains for an explore around a remote and derelict summer school that gave off multiple Fallout vibes. From there we venture forth up and see what is going on up the Gardunha.

I almost missed the day completely as a "detour" went wrong, all of that is also within the...

Celebratory Potato.

Things carry on forward whilst we're cut off from the online world.
Then all at once things took an upturn. Jobs came together easier than expected, a friend got us back online and me and Lance sit down to a Jacket Spud & a little whiskey to celebrate some good news.

Star UnLink

Patience was tested in this episode as the key to communication was knocked out. Again.
But we crack on regardless and get a few jobs ticked off and wait for Skynet to offer a fix.
Lance gets used to his slower pace of life, and a massive f****ng spider wants to sleep with me.

Enjoy.

Settle, Solar & CT Scan.

Hey folks!

Sorry for the delay with this one.
It required a re-edit. Some of the emotions surrounding Lance's injury and that whole situation had bled through into the footage and the last edit, it's a tough subject to cover and even now it's still quite fresh, so I took a few days to look it back over and re-do it.

Because of this the timeline is a little off, you probably won't notice a thing but I've sat here perplexed at my clothes changing too often n things happening be...

DOAVD ep.2 - North or South

Our crossing of the English Channel was over and we were in Calais!
With no real plan set in place I had the first decision to make; North or South?
the first night brought some hurdles, nerves & noises to overcome... and a slip up in mud.
But each day that went by saw the solo vanlife travelling get easier and the distance to the next border close in.

Hey all,

Apologies for lack of video this week, I had one kind of lined up but am currently reworking it as ...

Attempt to get home - Ep.4

The last stretch, and man did it have some curve balls ahead!
I can honestly say this video contains the roughest day I had driving to date.
And I got run out of Scotland during a Pandemic 😆.
But through it all, we make it home.

Attempt to get home - Ep.3

Now over the Spanish border and parked up on the corner tip of the Pyrenees mountains, we wake up to see what that view outside looks like. We arrived in rain and fog but today was kind enough to allow us a dry day to get the first real dog walk and explore in before heading off for Pamplona.
That didn't work out, the busyness of it all and the traffic put me off so I skipped through and bout out into the wild, which as it turned out went very "Wild West".

Spain always delivers.
<...

The Attempt to get home - Ep.2

Continuing on from the previous video, we made it over the pond and now are in France.
Only 1200 miles to go!
The tolls prices had gone astronomical so I try to go off route through more rural France, it doesn't bode well.
I get annoyed quite often by French drivers.
& we get ever closer to a very different Spanish border.
 But all in all I'm in great spirits, as is usually the way when I'm on the road with little plan ahead.

The attempt to get home - Ep.1

Hey all!

We're outta here!
In this video we, attempt, to leave the UK and head back south home.
I had some detours on a new route planned but there were plenty of surprises in store for us too.
I honestly thought this was going to be pretty mundane and not much from a video stand point. But it turned out to be a nice little adventure and you'll be right along in the passenger seat.
I would like to blame the lateness of this video on technical issues or something, well there...

NEW: 'Diary of a VanDweller' Podcast.

It's probably no secret at this point that I've been tinkering away trying to setup a podcast.
What is less known is just how much I have recorded, deemed shit, thrown away and started again. 😆

The procrastination has been real with this one as I couldn't for the longest time decide how produce it. If I wanted it to be completely separate to the "Project.Amber" brand. Whether to go for stories from myself or just from other vanlifers & nomadic types or just people & storie...

The Highs & Lows of Winter.

Hello!

As promised I've squeezed some internet out of a potato and got the latest video uploaded!
For those that missed the chat here on Patreon (everyone's welcome to natter in there btw) the Starlink has died for the second time this year shunting me into the Stone Age for the past few days. It's an awkward situation and being Easter I'm still waiting on a response.
I have uploaded this from my phone back in the ol' faithful "4G Tree" but it's far from ideal as I have to compre...

Chop, Dig & Leave.

Rounding up 2023, in this video we tidy up the land. We get a digger in for some long awaited ground work, chop the top terrace olive trees, I talk a lot of shit & we have one last burn & breakdown before having to quickly leaving for the UK. I got some real Deja Vu with this one!
Sorry it's a little gappy, at the time of recording things got hectic so the camera stuff dropped off.

Despite that I had some laughs reliving these days now months on, there were a lot of funny lit...

Solar station project

Here’s a peak at a project I’ve been working on this week.

The rediculously large 545w solar panel I bought whilst on a “food” shop with Joe is finally out of the shed and supplying a whole lot of extra juice.

It’s a stand alone system so can theoretically plug into anything. Ive added a “solar hookup” adaption onto my van and the same will be happening with Emma’s when she gets here.

Today is the first test run having finished in the dark last night and so f...

One of those weeks...

Ever get the feeling the universe is against you?
Well this week was the beginning of our bad luck streak, that ended up lasting basically the rest of winter 😆.

I finished this video today and started looking at the next few week's footage, I'm going to have my work cut out as slowly but surely I just stop picking up the camera amidst all the carnage as we return to the UK unexpectedly early again.
In a way that's good as what went down really won't make for good viewing, I...

Log Haul '23

Now that Joe was free from our boggy field we could get on with our time together.

We collect next year's wood.

Go to a woodland party.

Have an accidental shopping spree

Neeeeerd a lot in the rain

& top it off with the first burn of the year.