Why Truck life overlanding? How did we get here?
Truck life overlanding wasn’t our first go to! In fact, I had never heard of overlanding as a lifestyle. We always had the plan to travel the world! Not just through holidays or work, but to really see each country. We want to learn about the local culture; meet people from all walks of life; volunteer to help people or organisations in each country, to give us the opportunity to give back. We are extremely fortunate to have this opportunity, so we want to pay it forward whenever we can!!
There were a few deciding factors for bringing our plans forward. Losing a parent each in quick succession is what triggered our decision to overland now. Working long hours and both travelling a fair bit, but for work rather than together. And then there is my (Tobi) health. After losing our parents, it was a realisation that I may not even be able to travel as easily in 10+ years. Among other conditions, I have Fibromyalgia, which can be debilitating on bad days. We talked about going backpacking, but Steve quite rightly ruled it out as an option. He knew the impact it would have on the Fibro. So, in true Steve style, he came up with a solution…..
The Truck Camper
I would say the truck and the camper, are the most important elements of having a great experience on our adventure. Steve first found Alucab, which was an awesome option but unfortunately it didn’t suit our needs. Its important to me that we can make it home and not feel like we are just permanently camping. Having said that, the Alucab was what persuaded me to go with this type of set up. Steve then found Fourwheel Campers.
I wasn’t sure at first, but the more research we did, the more sense it made. It had what I needed to be able to make it feel like home. I liked the sofa and the bed is really a decent size! It pulls out to a full size bed – quite phenomenal in such a small space! Sleep is important to me (probably more so to Steve lol) as I get grumpy without it! As part of this series, we will do a separate blog on the camper and truck modifications that have taken place since we got them.
I started to pull together what information we needed to know for each country, such as:
- Travel and Vehicle documents
- Vaccines
- Visa requirements
- Embassies
- Car insurance
- Medical and Disaster Recovery insurance
- Weather seasons
- Vehicle shipping costs and requirements
- Emergency services
The list just goes on!
All of this research is really just to give us some insight; so we don’t feel like we are going in blind. We know plans will change. Different events in countries may mean we have to change course or have to leave unexpectedly. As well as any curve balls that we cannot predict! We have been following different overlanders for some time now and have been using that as a source of learning. This is helping us prepare – hopefully! Thank you to Dan @theroadchoseme your videos are mega helpful! Once we can hit the road, we look forward to meeting up with Dan sometime!
The world at the tips of your fingers
Having the world at your finger tips with nothing but time on your hands is absolute bliss. And it is. But, with so many countries, with so much to see, where do you start?
Our travel history
We have both travelled a fair bit over the years. I went backpacking at the age of 16, with £40 in my pocket, on a one way ticket to Israel. Why Israel? I lived there between the ages of 2 and 8. I still had family there too so it was very familiar. As a child, I never felt settled or accepted in the UK throughout my school years. So going back to Israel, was partly trying to find myself and partly that I had decided I didn’t want to live in the rat race and I wanted to explore the world.
I arrived in Israel and headed straight to my Aunts house in Netanya. Netanya is a beautiful town but at the age of 16, thinking I was an adult and could totally look after myself, even without any money, I was a handful! My poor Aunt didn’t know what to do with me! My cousin suggested I spent a few days in a place called Dahab, Sinai – which holds a special place in my heart and Steve and I still visit now.
That really was the catalyst to starting my backpacking. From there I worked in every country to get to the next and did way too much hitchhiking for my comfort level now! I ended up making it to 34 countries over 4 years. In the final year, I lived in Udon Thani, Thailand; living in a village in the jungle, without running water or electric. As you can imagine, I have a ton of stories of some of the not so great situations I got myself into, I may even do a blog on it some time!
A couple of pics from my backpacking days.
Working at Allegis Global Solutions I was also afforded the opportunity to travel a bit. Mostly Baltimore but also Connecticut, New York, Washington DC, Detroit and Hong Kong. There was also a fair bit of Europe travel too as that was my region.
Steve has also travelled a lot! Traveling around the UK and Europe with numerous race teams, in his job in Formula 1 (with Mercedes HPP) took him to various countries around the world such as Singapore, Monaco and Abu Dhabi, to name a few of them.
As with most work-related travel, all he got to see was the hotel and the race teams garage at whatever race circuit he was at. More often than not, the hours were long, arriving at the track at 7am and not leaving typically until 11pm.
It’s not quite as glamorous as the TV makes it out to be lol. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of great things about working in Formula 1 and he was very grateful for them. He absolutely loved his job, but with travel (especially with work) you sometimes wish you were there with a loved one to share special moments with.
On odd occasion’s, he got to see some sights which was a real treat. Here are some pics of him working in Singapore, Abu Dabi and Portugal.
Steve is a keen snowboarder but also loves a beach holiday. He has snowboarded in a few countries in Europe and holidayed anywhere from North America to Malaysia. He also used to race Siberian huskies all over the UK and has even run a husky team in the French Alps.
We have also had the opportunity to have some fantastic holidays. See our gallery for pics from some of those places.
So, back to deciding which country we wanted to start at….
We are both keen on Asia but we are as equally keen on the Americas. After much research and throwing around ideas we decided that we would start with the America’s. Its probably one of the more expensive continents so we would like to get that done first. Its also the easiest part of the world in terms of visa’s and import/exporting the truck camper, languages, currencies etc. This would hopefully give us a bit experience before we visit Africa or head East to Asia. I have always wanted to go to Canada. Maybe its the lakes, the mountains, the Rockies or the wilderness, or maybe just all of the above.
Canada
If we ship the truck and camper to Nova Scotia we could do East Coast to West Coast Canada. Its also only a week or two to ship the truck camper there from the UK. We have the ETA visa, which means we have to arrive by air. Once we are there, its easier to cross the boarder by land – so our research tells us. Will let you know once we’ve tried it!
Nova Scotia is a must stop for us after following The Curse of Oak Island for so long! From Nova Scotia we can head to Niagara Falls. From there we could visit family in Michigan. Then head West to the Rockies. From there, we can head to the border to cross into North America.
The other factor to consider for Canada are the seasons. For 6 months of the year it is mostly cold and down to temperatures as low as -30c during winter. We would love to see Canada when its covered in snow but we think we would have a much better experience if the weather is warmer. We will be aiming to get there for summer 2021, but completely dependant on Covid!
Once we had made the decision that we were going all in, we started to do some research… Steve looked into vehicle and camper options while I looked at countries, routes, immigration requirements, shipping etc. We quickly realised what a beast it was to tackle. So much research, for so many different things needed to be done! We started to understand why most people take a year to plan this kind of overlanding trip.
North America
Both of us have spent some time in North America, mostly on road trips. We did a road trip from Las Vegas, Nevada to Miami, for our honeymoon in 2011. I’m stating Las Vegas, Nevada as there is a Las Vegas in New Mexico. I only know this because I was pulled over for speeding in Texas. The officer couldn’t understand what we were doing when he clarified it was Nevada and not New Mexico. Once we explained it was our honeymoon and the route we were taking, he let me off; but warned me not to get caught in the state of Texas again, otherwise I would get a ticket. Such a nice officer!
We also did a second road trip from Las Vegas, Nevada to Yellowstone and back again. I had always wanted to go to Yellowstone, Steve had already been but wanted to go again. We made a few stops along the way, one being Salt Lake City. Salt Lake stands out for me on that trip as I got to see Luke Bryan at the USANA Amphitheater – amazing! We were also supposed to see the World Speed Finals but unfortunately there was too much water on the salt flats so it was cancelled. We made the most of the Salt Flats instead.
But there is SO much more we both want to see, too many to mention here! I have so far pulled together more than 50 different road trips within North America. Of course we are aiming to do Route 66 as one of those, we have done part of it but never all of it.
Central and South America
Neither of us have been to anywhere in Central or South America but both of us would really like to go. There is just so much to see from the Inka Trails in Peru to Glacia’s in Argentina!
Until we are able to get to the Americas, we will have to travel in the UK and may even get to Europe before heading to Canada. Watch this space 🙂
We hope you can join us on our adventures!
Thanks for reading! Come back soon for more updates.
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