Getting Lost Again

Global Overland Travel, Vehicles, Gear and Life

Overland Travel Blog

Vehicles, Resources and Stories - Europe, Australia and soon Globally...

About Us - Getting Lost Again

How it all started.

We are Wendy and Dan, this blog is the story of our overland travels together with our daughter, when she was young, and what has led onto our current and future travels plans, our story together starts in 2007, but the “seed was sown” years before. Although we met in the United Kingdom, we both grew up in different parts of the world, Wendy in South Africa and Dan in the Middle East, where off-roading and 4wd touring or camping in the desert was a given.

Early Overlanding
Michelin 705 Europe Map - Overland Routes

Early Years - Overlanding

Having emigrated to England in our early adult life, we were in an ideal spot to explore mainland Europe for many years, however study and training put the reigns on that for a while, but it was not long before we started travelling and doing bigger trips around both Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans. In those early years we recorded our European trips in a Journal and also on a Michelin 705 – Europe Map. Which went everywhere with us and was the focus of many dreamy planning conversations. Ultimately though life moved on and we ended up emigrating again. This time we travelled to Australia, where we established a new life, with new opportunities. Now our daughter has grown up and we are able to travel further afield again. In the interlude, apart from getting on with life and work, we have been exploring Australia and re-discovering old passions. Our overland journeys have been less adventurous and we have had to roll with the punches for a while.

Land Rover Defender 110 - Our First Overland Vehicle

You can start overlanding, with any kind of vehicle, depending on your budget. You could even start with your feet if you wanted. If you budget is tight you do not need a fancy van or 4×4. You can start with what you have. We started with our sudan vehicle, it was great we got where we needed and did loads of cool trips.

Our first 4wd was a Land Rover Defender 110 300tdi, which we restored gradually on a tight budget. That vehicle took us all over Europe and the Balkans for years. We managed to get to isolated places and see things that many others only dream of.

We parted company with the Defender, when we emigrated to Australia, our Land Rover, was the vehicle we had built to travel in. You can read about “Tusky” in the blog.

Overland Land Rover Defender Vehicle

The Initial Dream - Plan A

 

Although we have travelled extensively in Europe, we have always talked about doing a bigger trip. Ideally with no set end date or place.

Initially (way back in 2007) we planned for the continent of Africa to depart in 2009. The plan was to travel to Cape Town from Brighton, in the UK, along the classic overland route down the East Coast of Africa following what is sometimes referred to as the Cairo to Cape Town route.

The African trip started as a joke. Dan threw a suggestion, out of the blue, about selling the apartment and travelling the world. However one thing lead to another and we had to kill that for a while…

Given our current location, Australia, we have accepted that when the big trip happens it will probably now look different to those initial ideas. Which we are fine with. It’s funny how life changes and you have to roll with the punches. Most likely we will start in Asia and end up going to the Middle East, some time in the future.

In the meantime, until we are in a position to leave, we have been trying to fit in as many trips as we can, which we are using too soothe our itchy feet, these are our “mini expeditions”.

International Moves - What's Next

We spent many years in Australia travelling in between work and as we can. For years we did that in an old Subaru Forester, who would have thought that it would be such a capable vehicle off-road. As they say “tires, line, speed”. During the Global Covid Pandemic, we decided that it was time to move one and took the plunge to order, the vehicle we had always dreamed of. We placed an order for a Troopy, or what is know as a Land Cruiser 78-Series Troopcarrier in the rest of the world. Little did we know that the wait would be over 2 years!

To prepare for our next trip we are building a Landcruiser 78-Series Troopy, with a view to establishing an overlanding travel platform for the next 10-years of exploring Australia and globally. 

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Overlanding Travel Blog

Land Cruiser Troopcarrier (Troopy) - 78 Series

 

Now that the Troppy, Dusty, has arrived we are busy building and preparing her as our next overlanding rig. So far we have done the basics, like cutting the roof off and installing an alu-cab hercules roof conversion (i.e. pop-up roof tent), fixed the rear axle track (long story), we chose the Multidrive Technology Tru Tracker, upgraded the suspension to allow for a higher load (3870kg GVM) and also installed a 90l water tank.

 

You can follow the build in the blog pages or on Instagram and the other socials.

 

 

The new vehicle will be used to explore Australia first, as work allows, before we eventually travel further afield, travelling from Australia via Asia, Iran and the Middle East to Europe.

The Journey Continues...

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Snapshots From Recent Adventures

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