Nandi Schools project

13/06/2026

Croatia Part Two 🇭🇷

We rolled into Camp Dido on a blustery day. Although through a rain splattered windscreen it looked suspiciously like Camp D***o. I was tempted to get the marker pen out and add an extra L. I’m getting naughty in my old age.

A 20 km bike ride to Zadar left us starving, so we headed to the village taverna where a giant meat feast arrived. It was nearly as hard work as the bike ride, but we polished off every last scrap.

We then moved on to Sunset Camping near Primošten before heading towards Split to meet Liam and Amber arriving from Canada. A stroll through the ancient alleyways of Trogir rounded things off nicely. Croatia continues to deliver.

12/06/2026

Our European Adventure 2026 by the Numbers

As we crossed back into Germany after nearly three months (82. Days) on the road, I thought it would be interesting to look at the figures behind the adventure. Numbers never tell the whole story, but they do give a glimpse into what life on the road really costs.

Distance travelled

* 6,075 miles (9,781 km)
* 82 days on the road
* 18 countries visited

Total spend

* £9,566.08 spent in total
* £6,641.01 actual travel and living costs once major vehicle upgrades and repairs are removed
* Average daily spend: £80.99
* Average daily living cost excluding fuel, tolls and vehicle expenses: just £43.75 per day for both of us

Fuel

* £1,969.03 spent on diesel
* Average fuel cost: 32p per mile 20p per Km
* Average fuel spend: £24.01 per day

Accommodation

* £869.34 spent on campsites and accommodation
* Average of just £10.60 per day
* Average campsite cost: £13.42 per night

Cash spending

* £1,422.49 withdrawn and spent as cash during the trip

The painful bits
The motorhome decided it wanted a few treats along the way:

* Leaf spring repair: £1,075
* New lithium battery and gas system: £900+
* Battery charger replacement: £506
* Ferry booking issue: £356
* Various electrical upgrades and repairs taking vehicle related costs to almost £3,000

The Real Story

When people ask if travelling Europe in a motorhome is expensive, the answer is both yes and no.

If you include all the upgrades, repairs and improvements, it soon adds up. But if you strip those out and just look at the day to day cost of living, Petra and I have travelled through 18 countries for less than many people spend staying at home.

We’ve parked beside Norwegian fjords, watched otters on the Vistula in Poland, climbed mountains in Slovakia, sat beside turquoise rivers in Bosnia, wandered ancient streets in Croatia and Slovenia, and met some remarkable people along the way.

The biggest surprise?

After 6,075 miles, dozens of border crossings, countless beers, schnitzels, sausages, pork roasts and supermarket raids, our actual day to day living costs worked out at less than £44 a day between us.

Not bad for a retirement project that was supposed to be a little holiday.

And we’re not finished yet!

07/06/2026

Country No 15 Bosnia & Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to surprise us. A chance meeting over a beer with a retired criminal investigator in Banja Luka led us to a giant of a man called Jove, who served up some of the finest roast pork and lamb we’ve tasted on our travels. For about a tenner, we left with enough food to feed a family and a big thumbs up for the Nandi School Project.

Following the detective’s advice, we headed on to Bihać, although a couple of extra hours spent talking and eating at Jove’s place meant our schedule was well and truly abandoned. No regrets there.

That evening we parked beside a crystal clear turquoise river so inviting you wanted to throw your clothes in one direction and yourself in the other. Just as we settled in, a huge storm rolled down the valley and treated us to a couple of hours of thunder, lightning and torrential rain. By morning the river was calm again, the sun was shining, and Bosnia had somehow become even more beautiful.

04/06/2026

Country No14 Hungary

Some countries deserve weeks. Hungary got a few hours.

We rolled in from Slovakia, bought a vignette, rattled across roads that gave the motorhome a full body workout, stopped for a quick look around the lovely town of Mohács on the banks of the Danube River, and then carried on towards Croatia.

Not exactly the deep cultural experience we’d planned.

Sorry Hungary, we were a bit pushed for time. We’ll be back one day to do it properly.

For now it was simply:

Hello Hungary. Goodbye Hungary.

The whole visit lasted about as long as a pint of IPA at the Thursday T.H.U.G.S club gathering at the The Crown Inn at Sydenham
(Missing you guys🤣🤣)

30/05/2026

Elkana K R Lelei

Peter Wambugu: Entrepreneur Who Grew His Unique Apple Business Into Billions After Rejecting To Sell It For 30 Million

In Summary

°Mr. Peter Wambugu introduced a new variety of apples that attracted a Caucasian investor who offered him a handsome Ksh. 30 million but Wambugu declined.

°Wambugu says he is not like the Biblical Esau who betrayed his birthright.
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Peter Wambugu, the brains behind Wambugu Apple is a man accredited with introducing a unique apple variety with high demand across the globe. His idea is now worth billions of shillings besides providing generational wealth to his children.

Here is the story as told by WoK:

Foiled military job

Had he succeeded in his ambition of joining the military, Wambugu Apples wouldn’t be in existence today. The entrepreneur recently opened up of his tough beginnings where he worked at a farm attending to chicken and pigs. His employer had made a promise that he would help him land a military job.

After four years, Wambugu sought to inquire from his employer as he was slowly running out of patience and thought of leaving his place of work.

“I had done the work for four years but I couldn’t find help to join the army,” he detailed in a recent interview.

Luckily, he was invited during recruitment and emerged position one on the 8 kilometres run. Wambugu thought his prayers had been answered only for his name to be struck off the recruits’ register on allegations of having fluorosis.

Fluorosis is a condition brought about by ingesting too much fluoride and is usually a hurdle for most people joining the army because it leads to weak bones.

The heart wrenching news to Wambugu meant his ambitions had crashed.

Working as a mechanic

The entrepreneur later started working as a mechanic in Nyeri town where he married his current wife while aged only 18.

The couple began cultivating coffee on their land only to be frustrated by the then authorities which declined to pay for their produce. Frustrated with this, Wambugu slashed the entire farm and embarked on tree tomatoes and passion fruit farming.
He would sell his produce in Nyeri and Nanyuki until one day he got the idea of cultivating apples

Wambugu Apples

As a newbie in the cultivation of apples, he realized that there was an insatiable demands for the fruits in Kenya.

As he had heard of apples that were grown in Aberdare Ranges by Mau Mau fighters, he ventured into the forest for exploration. He succeeded in getting the fruits which he used for propagation with apples derived from Israel and South Africa.

This introduced a new unique variety leading to the inception of Wambugu Apples. A research done by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) proved that Wambugu Apples were extraordinary.

“It was discovered that my fruits had extraordinary nutrients and were not available anywhere in the world,” he says.

With that, KALRO assisted Mr. Wambugu obtain patent rights for the apples now named after him.

Declining Ksh 30 million offer

With the fruition of his idea, Wambugu story was featured on Daily Nation. In 2001, a potential investor reached out to Wambugu for a meeting at Westgate Mall, Nairobi.

He remembers the meeting being scheduled at 11 a.m before being pushed to 1 p.m. Because of this, Wambugu became suspicious.

The entrepreneur tagged along with his children to Westgate where they met a white man who made an offer of Ksh 30 million to take over Wambugu Apples.

“He told me that we should head to a lawyer because he wanted to buy Wambugu Apples for Ksh 30 million,” says Wambugu.

However, Wambugu turned down the handsome offer, much to the disbelief of his children. According to Wambugu, he wasn’t going to sell off his idea just like the Biblical Esau who betrayed his birthright.

He later ensured that his children acquired land to continue with apple farming.

Read the full story in the comments

28/05/2026

Country No 13 Slovakia Part 2

Slovakia really did creep up on us a bit.

You arrive expecting a few old communist era buildings, some grey towns and maybe the odd bloke selling cabbages by the roadside. Instead, what you get is mountains, deep forests, medieval mining towns and enough natural beauty to make you seriously question why more people don’t come here.

We first tackled the Suchá Belá Gorge in the Slovak Paradise National Park.

Now “walk” is perhaps the wrong word.

This was more of a vertical argument with nature.

Ladders bolted to waterfalls, narrow wooden walkways hanging over rushing water and enough steep climbs to make my lungs file an official complaint to management. At one point I genuinely wondered if the emergency plan involved Petra rolling me back down the mountain like an old tractor tyre.

But my word… what a place.

The gorge twists through towering rock walls with water crashing below your feet and forests hanging over you from above. Every corner looked like something from a fantasy film. You half expected a dragon to appear or at least an old Slovak bloke selling smoked cheese and beer from a cave.

Then later, after exploring the incredible old mining town of Banská Štiavnica, with its cobbled streets and dark forgotten mine shafts disappearing deep into the hills, we settled down for the night at an old off grid mining spot hidden deep in the forest.

Underneath those hills are hundreds of years of tunnels and workings from what was once one of the richest gold and silver mining regions in Europe. One nearby shaft is said to drop nearly 800 metres deep. Local stories claim if you throw a stone down there, you never hear it land.

Probably nonsense of course… but standing there in the mist with the woods completely silent around you, it suddenly didn’t seem impossible.

And that’s Slovakia really. Quietly brilliant. No fuss. No crowds. Just history, wilderness and adventure around almost every bend in the road.

A country that deserves far more attention than it gets.

23/05/2026

Country No 13 Slovakia Pt1

Slovakia probably isn’t the first place most people think about when booking a holiday. For years it sat quietly behind the old Iron Curtain while the rest of Europe grabbed the headlines. But my word… what a surprise this country turned out to be.

Stunning mountains, medieval castles, beautiful old towns, deep history and some of the friendliest people you could wish to meet. Yet everywhere you look there’s also a feeling of energy, progress and optimism about the future.

This wasn’t just another stop on the map. Slovakia genuinely got under our skin and completely exceeded expectations.
I
Here’s our latest adventure through a country that deserves far more attention than it gets.

19/05/2026

Country No 12 Poland Part 3

It’s a strange thing travelling Europe. One minute you’re clambering around castle ruins in Poland and two weeks later you’re sat on a beach in Croatia watching little boats drift past.

We are doing a bit of island hopping here in Croatia at the moment and it’s stunning. Crystal clear water, little stone villages, fresh fish, sunshine wonderful!

But looking back, Poland really caught us by surprise.

I genuinely didn’t know what to expect before we arrived. For some reason I had this picture in my head of grey concrete and gloomy old Soviet leftovers. Instead, what we found was one of the most varied, beautiful and interesting countries we’ve travelled through so far.

One minute we were wandering through historic old towns that looked like film sets. The next we were parked beside huge rivers, forests and wild countryside where you half expected a moose, an otter or possibly a retired Russian tank commander to emerge from the bushes. This part three, you’ll hear about an Otter and not a Russian tank Commander.!

The thing about Poland is it slowly gets under your skin. The further we travelled, the more we liked it. There’s a real authenticity to the place. It doesn’t feel polished for tourists. It just feels… real.

So yes, Poland, you surprised us. In a very good way.

Will we return? Absolutely.

Right then. Onto Slovakia next I heard some good things about this place so I’m very excited.

16/05/2026

Country No 12 🇵🇱 Poland Part Two of Duncan and Petra’s European Adventures.

This week features beautiful scenery, questionable navigation, a near death experience for Petra thanks to my outstanding cycling skills… and yet more proof that letting me take charge is always a terrible idea.

Did I attempt to kill my wife?

Absolutely not.

Did she briefly disappear into a grass verge while I swerved away from an oncoming car like a startled moose?

Possibly.

Polands been a blast collapsed bridges, stolen tools, suspicious protein ideas involving dead insects, riverside magic, old castles and enough drama to keep even Jeremy Clarkson quiet for at least three seconds.

Come along for the ride. It’s Poland… with us involved, so naturally it all went slightly wrong.