Route

A 12+ Year Journey Around the World

It began with a dream: to have a year free from schedules to explore the world, remote backroads, unique cultures and the beauty of nature. The dream grew into a reality with the purchase of an overland vehicle in 2009 and the departure in November 2010. Destination: South Africa.

See also: A map of all countries visited in the last 12+ years

West-Africa – 2010-2011

The trip started with a voyage into the African continent, we took the ferry crossing from Spain to Morocco where the culture shock was real. We then drove through the desert down with our compass on the south. We took our time and ended up sticking around West-Africa only, as we enjoyed the slow pace and the culture of the countries on the way. Countries we visited: Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin.

Eastern Europe – 2011-2013

After turning back to Europe from Africa we headed to Eastern Europe where we enjoyed traveling around for three years, exploring untouched nature and places that didn’t see that many tourists as it was still relatively unknown to the rest of the world.

Turkey, Caucasus & Central Asia – 2014

Europe is a great continent with it’s diversity of countries and cultures but long distance adventure longed. This time we drove through Turkey to Georgia, Armenia, Nagorno Karabach and into Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. This trip made us fall in love with Central Asia with it’s friendly people and amazing foods.

Baltic States & Scandinavia – 2015

Back to Europe exploring the north of the continent, meeting very friendly welcoming people in Baltic States and remote wilderness in Scandinavia.

Russia, Central Asia & Mongolia – 2016

Central Asia needed more time to explore in detail; in 2016 we went back for a longer period, this time we crossed from Ukraine into Russia and onto Kazakhstan, Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Gorno Badakhshan with its famous Pamir Highway where we reached it’s highest point of 4655 meters by vehicle. From there we spend some days at the Karakul lake and entered Kyrgyzstan once again, driving north towards Kazakhstan, Siberia and entering Mongolia. In Mongolia we tried to spend as much time as our visa allowed and explored every corner of this interesting country and culture. Later that year we went back once again to experience Central Asia in winter time, which was interesting to say the least.

Greece – 2017-2018

After far away adventures it was time to slow down by spending a full year in a single country: Greece. With it’s amazing beaches, great wild camping spots, tasty foods and super friendly people we loved every minute of our time there.

South East Asia – 2018-2019

Exploring South East Asia by vehicle was another dream come true, we started in Indonesia and drove up through Malaysia to Thailand and Laos. Eating everyday tropical fruits, exploring temples, and meeting amazing people on the way.

Caucasus, Iran & Iraq – 2019

After coming back Asia we headed east once again, spending time in Turkey and Georgia but really falling in love with Armenia. We spend many months exploring every single corner of the country, making friends and feeling like home in this little relatively unknown country. We then applied for a visa for Iran, which was granted and for a month we explored Iran with it’s amazing culture and sights. We then went on to Iraqi Kurdistan and headed back to Europe for the winter.

Spain & Morocco – 2020

Exploring countries by an overland vehicle with a slow pace in much detail we ended up in 2020 in Spain & Portugal, traveling along the coast, spending time on the many beaches, eating amazing foods and enjoying the year round nice weather.

Italy & Croatia – 2020

After spending our first COVID-19 lockdown in the Netherlands, we left the country as soon as the borders opened up and decided to explore more of Europe, we then spend most of the rest of the year traveling around Italy, Croatia and later Romania.

Poland & Baltic States – 2021

In our quest to see every corner of Europe we ended up again in the Baltic States, spending time in forests and at lakes. Making friends and imagining ourselves living our lives in one of these beautiful countries. But as usual this didn’t last long and we moved on once again.

Balkan countries – 2022

This part of Europe we visited in 2009 on a long one month roadtrip, but this being a decade ago and with so many small countries to explore, with each there own culture, foods and religion we were exciting to experience it in much more detail this time. And it didn’t disappoint; with its turquoise blue water lakes, beautiful nature, beaches and quiet remote wild camping it gave us that feeling of adventure once again.