Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / The Landy Expedition on Heading Off on the Trip of Your Dreams
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your
- 0:04Speaker 1: host Scott Brady. I'm joined today by Harry and Chloe
- 0:09Speaker 1: from the Landy Expedition. Now I bumped into them when
- 0:13Speaker 1: I was in Nairobi, Kenya. In fact, we were driving
- 0:17Speaker 1: two opposite directions on the same road and we were
- 0:20Speaker 1: able to connect, have lunch and hear a lot about
- 0:24Speaker 1: their journey. I was so inspired by their trip and
- 0:28Speaker 1: the time that they've taken to explore Africa that I
- 0:31Speaker 1: really wanted to have the conversation with them on the podcast.
- 0:34Speaker 1: They both had regular jobs and they decided to leave
- 0:38Speaker 1: those behind, buy the land Rover their dreams, ship it
- 0:42Speaker 1: down to South Africa. They actually had an alue cab
- 0:45Speaker 1: camper fitted at that time, and then they drove it
- 0:48Speaker 1: steadily up the east coast of Africa before deciding to
- 0:51Speaker 1: start to make their way back south and west again.
- 0:55Speaker 1: So very cool conversation about traveling as a couple, how
- 0:59Speaker 1: they earned money on the road as content creators, and
- 1:03Speaker 1: how they really kind of made the decision made that
- 1:06Speaker 1: leap to go and explore the world.
- 1:09Speaker 2: So please enjoy my conversation with Harry and Chloe and.
- 1:14Speaker 1: A special thanks to Kuat Racks for their support of
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- 2:08Speaker 1: the bed when you need it. It's going to be
- 2:10Speaker 1: available later this summer, so visit kuwat dot com for
- 2:15Speaker 1: more information. Thanks again, Kuwat, Chloe and Harry, thank you
- 2:20Speaker 1: so much for being on the podcast with me today.
- 2:23Speaker 1: It was so fun to connect with you guys over
- 2:25Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks. Because we're both bouncing around
- 2:29Speaker 1: Africa and we just had a great little lunch. If
- 2:33Speaker 1: you are all ever in Nairobi, go to Cultiva. It's
- 2:38Speaker 1: become a little obsession of mine over the last few days.
- 2:42Speaker 1: So it was nice to have a nice to have
- 2:44Speaker 1: a proper cappuccino. I think we had a passion fruit.
- 2:47Speaker 1: We had about seven of those. I think we would
- 2:50Speaker 1: have kept kept in coming. They were they were non alcoholic,
- 2:53Speaker 1: but I wanted more. Yeah, yeah, for sure. It was delicious, delicious. Well,
- 2:58Speaker 1: I'm so excited to talk to you about your adventure.
- 3:01Speaker 1: I think you have such an inspiring story. So let's
- 3:05Speaker 1: go back to not so much the beginning, but where
- 3:09Speaker 1: did you both grow up in the UK?
- 3:13Speaker 3: So I grew up close to the South Coast in Hampshire, so.
- 3:18Speaker 4: Yeah, all right, yeah yeah, and me just just north
- 3:23Speaker 4: of London on a farm side.
- 3:26Speaker 3: Yeah, south coast of England.
- 3:27Speaker 1: What a cool what a cool thing to do. And
- 3:31Speaker 1: in growing up in the South, I noticed when I
- 3:34Speaker 1: traveled in the south in that part of the UK
- 3:37Speaker 1: that it was actually quite a bit more temperate. I
- 3:40Speaker 1: was surprised by that. And there wasn't as many people
- 3:43Speaker 1: there as you think, given the fact that it was
- 3:44Speaker 1: such a temperate part of the UK, so, yeah, that's
- 3:49Speaker 1: really beautiful. And then how was it, How was it
- 3:51Speaker 1: growing up on a farm in the in the UK?
- 3:55Speaker 1: What were some of the things you learned about life
- 3:57Speaker 1: growing up on a farm in the UK.
- 4:00Speaker 4: I always tell stories about how we used to get
- 4:03Speaker 4: vehicles from people that were scrapping vehicles in the local village,
- 4:06Speaker 4: and we'd stripped them all all downs, out of doors,
- 4:10Speaker 4: out of the windscreen, and like rally them around the farm.
- 4:13Speaker 4: So we used to get up to some fun, fun stuff.
- 4:19Speaker 1: I think that that happens on every farm in the world. Yeah,
- 4:21Speaker 1: but I don't think it matters which country. Yeah, because
- 4:25Speaker 1: after I was out of the military, spent a few
- 4:27Speaker 1: years living on my animal ranch and kind of the
- 4:29Speaker 1: same thing. Patrols. Yeah, you know, no windshield.
- 4:36Speaker 4: We used to get cars stuck and I'd run down
- 4:38Speaker 4: to the farm and pick up my mum's discovery and
- 4:42Speaker 4: quickly whip it up the top of the field and
- 4:44Speaker 4: drag everything out.
- 4:46Speaker 3: You've got some stories, don't know if they're appropriateline, but no.
- 4:52Speaker 4: It was. It was good fun. And you do learn
- 4:54Speaker 4: a lot of like small mechanical skills and how to Yeah,
- 5:02Speaker 4: just fix things when you need to and make a plan.
- 5:05Speaker 4: Make a plan. Yeah, I was going to say that.
- 5:08Speaker 1: And you also spent so much time outdoors, which is
- 5:12Speaker 1: quite rare in the UK. Not everybody gets to do that.
- 5:16Speaker 1: There's a lot of people work indoors, give whatever and
- 5:19Speaker 1: things like that, so I would suspect that it also
- 5:23Speaker 1: influenced your love of being outside.
- 5:27Speaker 4: We have a woodland where we'd often go and camp
- 5:30Speaker 4: for the weekend and we still do now. When we
- 5:32Speaker 4: were back in the UK a few months ago, Yeah,
- 5:34Speaker 4: we went up there camping and just love it. I
- 5:38Speaker 4: really love the place, you know.
- 5:40Speaker 1: And Chloe, what was some of your experiences along the
- 5:44Speaker 1: coast or growing up that inspired your interest in travel
- 5:49Speaker 1: to begin with.
- 5:50Speaker 3: Oh, I think I've always loved nature and being outside,
- 5:55Speaker 3: so I think, yeah, that has really inspired me to
- 5:57Speaker 3: travel and stuff. And my parents did a big trip
- 6:02Speaker 3: to Australia and New Zealand when just before they got married,
- 6:05Speaker 3: just before they had me, and I've always heard so
- 6:07Speaker 3: many stories about their experiences and some pictures and things,
- 6:10Speaker 3: and I think that has always been in my mind
- 6:13Speaker 3: that I've wanted to travel and see the world because
- 6:16Speaker 3: of the experience that they had.
- 6:18Speaker 1: Isn't it incredible how important our parents are to not
- 6:22Speaker 1: only our self confidence, our belief in what's possible, but
- 6:26Speaker 1: a lot of times with the inspiration of what's possible,
- 6:29Speaker 1: you know, with how close my parents were, it just
- 6:32Speaker 1: showed me. It modeled like what a healthy relationship could be. Yeah,
- 6:37Speaker 1: and it sounds like your parents traveling and seeing the
- 6:40Speaker 1: world just showed you like that's normal and that's so
- 6:43Speaker 1: it's possible.
- 6:44Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, and made it something that I knew I
- 6:47Speaker 3: definitely wanted to experience for myself.
- 6:51Speaker 1: And what were some of your first adventures, your first travels?
- 6:57Speaker 3: Oh, you know, I was lucky enough to go on
- 7:01Speaker 3: holidays with my family every summer to France and Spain
- 7:06Speaker 3: and places in the UK and things, which, yeah, I
- 7:09Speaker 3: was very lucky to do that every year. And then
- 7:12Speaker 3: when I started going traveling myself, going into Europe and things,
- 7:17Speaker 3: going to different cities in Europe, So not really so
- 7:19Speaker 3: much the camping side of stuff that Harry and I do. Now,
- 7:22Speaker 3: that's definitely something that I have experienced since meeting Harry,
- 7:26Speaker 3: and he kind of introduced that more into my life.
- 7:29Speaker 3: So it was probably more cities actually, which is crazy
- 7:32Speaker 3: because it's so different to what I do now and
- 7:34Speaker 3: what I enjoy now, but.
- 7:36Speaker 1: They both are so great. Yeah, Like cities are filled
- 7:39Speaker 1: with energy and possibility and unique personalities and rich.
- 7:47Speaker 3: Cultures exactly in history.
- 7:50Speaker 1: When do you feel like in that transition from traveling
- 7:53Speaker 1: with your family to traveling more solo, When do you
- 7:57Speaker 1: feel like you transition towards from being more of a
- 8:00Speaker 1: tourist to be more of a traveler. Was there a
- 8:03Speaker 1: point that you kind of remember that you weren't so
- 8:07Speaker 1: tight on the itinerary and you started to be more
- 8:11Speaker 1: just in the moment of the trip.
- 8:14Speaker 3: I think that's probably come since we have traveled together,
- 8:18Speaker 3: more so just being quite you know, I guess, free
- 8:23Speaker 3: spirited in a way, and being quite okay with not
- 8:26Speaker 3: having so much of a plan and just going for
- 8:30Speaker 3: it and seeing what the day or the month or
- 8:32Speaker 3: whatever where it takes us. And I think that's come
- 8:35Speaker 3: more from the way that we traveled together, Like we
- 8:39Speaker 3: were discussing earlier, when you are in a shorter trip,
- 8:42Speaker 3: you do want to squeeze with these things in so
- 8:43Speaker 3: you have an itinerary. But the way that we've been
- 8:46Speaker 3: fortunate enough to travel for a long period of time,
- 8:49Speaker 3: you can just go, oh, let's go here, or you
- 8:51Speaker 3: meet someone and they take you this way. You know,
- 8:53Speaker 3: it's way more flexible and free flowing.
- 8:56Speaker 1: Yeah, I think when we were talking about that earlier,
- 8:58Speaker 1: I think the longer the trip is, I think the
- 9:03Speaker 1: more that that type of planning is actually doesn't really
- 9:06Speaker 1: serve you, because then you get attached to ideas of
- 9:10Speaker 1: how something is supposed to go, and then something happens
- 9:13Speaker 1: logistically that makes that either impossible or impractical. So I
- 9:18Speaker 1: think the longer the trip, the more that you're better
- 9:21Speaker 1: off planning like the next couple moments and then being
- 9:27Speaker 1: open to the idea that that next moment that comes
- 9:31Speaker 1: up may be so incredible that you choose to you
- 9:35Speaker 1: choose to stay. In fact, I remember a good friend
- 9:38Speaker 1: of mine, Patrice, out of France. He had been riding
- 9:41Speaker 1: around the world with his wife on in the bicycle
- 9:45Speaker 1: and they were doing that planning just one day at
- 9:47Speaker 1: a time, and they got to Brisbane in Australia and
- 9:51Speaker 1: they just decided that that was it, like there was
- 9:54Speaker 1: no more planning, because that's where they wanted to i
- 9:57Speaker 1: wanted to have their family. So I think that being
- 10:00Speaker 1: not being too attached to that is important, and I
- 10:04Speaker 1: know that for me in some of my travels where
- 10:07Speaker 1: I had to be there was so many logistics, there
- 10:10Speaker 1: were so many vehicles, there were so much at play
- 10:14Speaker 1: that I don't remember those trips as well because it
- 10:17Speaker 1: was such a blur of tasks and requirements that had
- 10:22Speaker 1: to be done. I also learned a lot too, So
- 10:25Speaker 1: I'm not suggesting that there wasn't benefits, because there was.
- 10:28Speaker 1: But I have found on this trip that, like I
- 10:32Speaker 1: was telling you earlier, I didn't even start my first
- 10:34Speaker 1: visa for this next leg until I got to South
- 10:36Speaker 1: Africa because I just didn't know what was gonna yeah,
- 10:39Speaker 1: like were there going to be delays? Was something's going
- 10:41Speaker 1: to happen?
- 10:42Speaker 4: You know?
- 10:43Speaker 1: So I just didn't even worry about it until I
- 10:45Speaker 1: had to worry about it.
- 10:47Speaker 4: Yeah, predictable.
- 10:49Speaker 1: And have you found that, Harry, for yourself, that you've
- 10:52Speaker 1: adjusted well to a bit of serendipity.
- 10:56Speaker 4: For sure. Yeah. I have always light structure the past,
- 11:00Speaker 4: I think, but actually learning to be more in the
- 11:04Speaker 4: moment has been really good for me because I'm always
- 11:08Speaker 4: looking at the next, the next thing, So it has
- 11:11Speaker 4: been a difficult adjustment to do that.
- 11:14Speaker 1: But and do you think that that's part of like
- 11:17Speaker 1: your entrepreneurial spirit, because you own your own business before
- 11:21Speaker 1: you started the journey, and you were talking earlier about
- 11:25Speaker 1: how challenging it was for you to let go of
- 11:29Speaker 1: what had become part of your identity, your own your
- 11:31Speaker 1: own business. Talk a little bit about how you gave
- 11:35Speaker 1: yourself permission to go do something incredibly irresponsible a ship
- 11:41Speaker 1: a vehicle to South Africa and head off without a plan.
- 11:46Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess, I don't know. We just we ended
- 11:51Speaker 4: up just deciding one day, right, let's do it, and
- 11:57Speaker 4: it kind of just became We talked about it for
- 12:00Speaker 4: a long time, and then when we were just decided
- 12:04Speaker 4: to do it, it became like, right, well that's what
- 12:06Speaker 4: we're doing. So everything else started tearing or teeling down,
- 12:13Speaker 4: and yeah, starting I basically I booked myself out for
- 12:19Speaker 4: a year, so if my customers were getting in touch,
- 12:22Speaker 4: they would I'd say, well, I'm booked out for a year,
- 12:24Speaker 4: so it'll be next year. And when it seemed impossible
- 12:28Speaker 4: to walk away from my business, I the more we
- 12:32Speaker 4: talked about it, the more it was like, this is
- 12:34Speaker 4: actually a good time to do it.
- 12:38Speaker 1: It takes a lot of courage though, Yeah, especially said,
- 12:41Speaker 1: you had been doing it for seven years.
- 12:44Speaker 4: And from nothing as well. So I felt like I
- 12:47Speaker 4: had built up a career for myself and a future
- 12:52Speaker 4: and I was working on that and kind of just
- 12:55Speaker 4: as stopped. But honestly, I don't think. I don't think
- 12:59Speaker 4: I'll go back to it when I get back. I
- 13:01Speaker 4: think I have so much energy for new ideas and
- 13:05Speaker 4: new projects.
- 13:07Speaker 1: That's one of the biggest gifts that the trip. Anything
- 13:12Speaker 1: is possible. Yeah, you guys just drove around Africa, so
- 13:16Speaker 1: anything is possible. Yea. So tell me how you guys met.
- 13:21Speaker 3: We actually met at a music festival.
- 13:23Speaker 1: That's fun. Yeah, so you have shared music interests. That's
- 13:27Speaker 1: always a good place to start.
- 13:29Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 13:29Speaker 3: So it was on the Isle of Wight, which is
- 13:31Speaker 3: just off of the South Coast, Okay, and obviously Harry
- 13:34Speaker 3: growing up north of London, me growing up South coast
- 13:37Speaker 3: with a few hours from each other, and you just
- 13:41Speaker 3: came and said hi.
- 13:42Speaker 1: And.
- 13:44Speaker 3: The rest is history.
- 13:47Speaker 1: That takes I mean, there's like a the great things
- 13:50Speaker 1: in life come from taking a little bit of a risk.
- 13:55Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a risk.
- 14:00Speaker 1: That was what eight year that's incredible. Yeah, that's incredible.
- 14:05Speaker 1: And then so how long have you been planning this trip.
- 14:10Speaker 3: Actually not very long at all. It took it took
- 14:14Speaker 3: a bit of time for you to decide, yes, I'm
- 14:17Speaker 3: going to put my business and hold off stop this
- 14:20Speaker 3: particular business for us to go and do this trip.
- 14:23Speaker 3: And so we were shipping with our friends the MH
- 14:28Speaker 3: and they had a date at which they wanted to
- 14:30Speaker 3: ship their car and they were like, put your car
- 14:32Speaker 3: in a container with us, and let's do it. So
- 14:34Speaker 3: we kind of only had maybe six months where we
- 14:38Speaker 3: were doing our planning, but in that process we were
- 14:41Speaker 3: doing it for rebuilt basically Defender.
- 14:46Speaker 1: Yeah, and what what year is the car?
- 14:48Speaker 4: Two thousand?
- 14:49Speaker 1: Okay? And it's a three door, looks like. And did
- 14:53Speaker 1: it have a hard top when you shipped it or
- 14:56Speaker 1: did you decide to ship it without that because of
- 14:59Speaker 1: the conversion.
- 15:01Speaker 4: Yes, it had a hard top. Yeah, when we bought
- 15:05Speaker 4: the vehicle, it was as it would have come out
- 15:07Speaker 4: the factory. So we've done quite a lot to it,
- 15:11Speaker 4: including a chassis swap and the new engine. The Yeah,
- 15:18Speaker 4: at the time, I think I bought it six years ago,
- 15:21Speaker 4: and at the time I didn't have enough money to
- 15:24Speaker 4: buy a land drover really, so I ended up buying
- 15:26Speaker 4: probably the worst one on the market, but we got
- 15:31Speaker 4: up to it was in Ripon in North Yorkshire in England,
- 15:35Speaker 4: and I drove the car and it felt nice. The
- 15:41Speaker 4: engine felt good, the gearbox felt good, but I knew
- 15:43Speaker 4: the chassis was rotten. I thought, well, it drives well,
- 15:46Speaker 4: so I'll buy it. Oh, no, I need to replace
- 15:48Speaker 4: the chassis. And on the way home the engine blew up.
- 15:53Speaker 4: Within the first couple of months of owning a land drover,
- 15:56Speaker 4: we did a chassis swap, an engine swap and everything else,
- 16:02Speaker 4: but it then became like the base vehicle for a
- 16:05Speaker 4: perfect over landing rig. Not that we knew we were
- 16:08Speaker 4: going to do that at the time. I mean I
- 16:11Speaker 4: had interested in buying a roof tent and things like
- 16:13Speaker 4: that and going camping, but we never never thought we
- 16:17Speaker 4: were buying it for.
- 16:19Speaker 3: This, No, not at all.
- 16:22Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a big step. And then did you guys
- 16:24Speaker 1: find that there was any thing or any maybe other
- 16:28Speaker 1: travelers that inspired you to want to go explore Africa
- 16:32Speaker 1: or was it was it something that was always in
- 16:35Speaker 1: the back of your mind.
- 16:38Speaker 3: Well, I don't know really. I think Africa is always
- 16:42Speaker 3: somewhere that I think's interested and intrigued both of us,
- 16:46Speaker 3: but I don't think we ever thought we'd be traveling
- 16:49Speaker 3: to this many African countries over this period of time.
- 16:52Speaker 3: In a way, we're doing it. But I think once
- 16:55Speaker 3: you got the car and we started doing camping, the
- 16:59Speaker 3: land Over community is a very big community of you know,
- 17:05Speaker 3: very enthusiastic, passionate people, and as soon as we kind
- 17:08Speaker 3: of got the car and started doing camping, we were
- 17:11Speaker 3: just immersed in this land drover community, which was amazing,
- 17:15Speaker 3: and we met a lot of people who have inspired us,
- 17:18Speaker 3: who have traveled a lot and Andy in their mah
- 17:21Speaker 3: pat you know, your friend stands got a defender, Johnny,
- 17:25Speaker 3: like lots of people that we know who are good
- 17:27Speaker 3: friends of ours who travel and have these kind of vehicles.
- 17:31Speaker 3: So that was definitely an inspiration. And then that then
- 17:34Speaker 3: snowboard into maybe we should start a little Instagram And
- 17:38Speaker 3: then once you're on Instagram, you see what everyone else
- 17:41Speaker 3: is doing.
- 17:41Speaker 4: And then you're like, exactly, simo sure for Africa, though
- 17:50Speaker 4: I don't know whether the seed was planted for me.
- 17:53Speaker 4: Back in twenty fifteen, when I was in South Africa
- 17:55Speaker 4: and La Suitu, I was riding bikes around South Africa,
- 17:59Speaker 4: and La Su Tou.
- 18:00Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 18:01Speaker 4: Yeah, just that like raw adventure you experience up there.
- 18:04Speaker 4: I don't know if that maybe was a Yeah, it
- 18:10Speaker 4: was incredible.
- 18:11Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just such it feels like you're going to
- 18:14Speaker 1: another world. Yeah, the Kingdom in the Kingdom.
- 18:18Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 18:19Speaker 1: So that leads a question to some of your guys'
- 18:22Speaker 1: earlier trips together. You didn't use a vehicle, used motorcycles
- 18:29Speaker 1: and you have a or you have a real love
- 18:31Speaker 1: for riding motorcyclest. So tell me a little bit about
- 18:36Speaker 1: your travels in Asia. Did you rent bikes? Did you
- 18:40Speaker 1: buy bikes and then sell them? How did you guys
- 18:42Speaker 1: do some of your early trips.
- 18:44Speaker 4: We went out there with backpacks really, and we were
- 18:47Speaker 4: backpacking around and there were a few routes that the
- 18:52Speaker 4: Grand or top Gear had done that we really wanted
- 18:55Speaker 4: to do fun Vietnam in Vietnam, and then there was
- 19:00Speaker 4: also a route from Chang Mai to Pi in northern Thailand. Yep,
- 19:06Speaker 4: that we rented bikes or a bike. Was it scooters
- 19:10Speaker 4: or no? It was like a two fifty okay, yeah,
- 19:15Speaker 4: kind of off rod tires sure, but still quite a
- 19:18Speaker 4: small bike.
- 19:19Speaker 1: And you rode two up on that.
- 19:21Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 19:22Speaker 3: Put a little bag on the back and went on,
- 19:25Speaker 3: that's all you need.
- 19:25Speaker 4: Yeah, and that was that was really really good fun.
- 19:29Speaker 1: And what what did you because now you've done this
- 19:33Speaker 1: about as light and minimal as you can get. Yeah,
- 19:35Speaker 1: two fifty motorcycle, two up with a little bag on
- 19:38Speaker 1: the bag, and now you pretty much have your home
- 19:40Speaker 1: with you in a large vehicle. What were some of
- 19:44Speaker 1: the things that you learned on the bike that helped
- 19:46Speaker 1: you on decisions with the truck.
- 19:50Speaker 3: I think it was so different.
- 19:54Speaker 4: Never really put two together.
- 19:55Speaker 3: No, actually not compared the two as what we would pack,
- 20:00Speaker 3: what we've planned for one or the other.
- 20:02Speaker 4: Yeah, certainly when you're on a bike, you are way
- 20:05Speaker 4: more immersed in that culture and in the surroundings.
- 20:11Speaker 1: Yeah, you're totally dependent.
- 20:13Speaker 4: Yeah, you've got your helmet and then you're just you're open.
- 20:17Speaker 4: When you're in your car, you almost have like a
- 20:20Speaker 4: bit of a I don't know if you want to
- 20:21Speaker 4: call it a safety barrier, but I guess it is.
- 20:24Speaker 3: It is a bit of a barrier that blocks you
- 20:26Speaker 3: off from like other people or the elements or whatever.
- 20:29Speaker 3: So there is that is a big difference, isn't there.
- 20:33Speaker 1: Yeah, whereas so many people are no matter where you
- 20:37Speaker 1: go in the world, a motorcycle seems very accessible and
- 20:42Speaker 1: it seems like their neighbor has one, or they have
- 20:45Speaker 1: one or whatever in it. Yeah, and it's I think
- 20:47Speaker 1: it's it's such a shared like even when we were
- 20:49Speaker 1: having lunch today, the guy who's telling us about his
- 20:52Speaker 1: motorcycle journeys. So there is something about motorcycles that is
- 20:58Speaker 1: it really flattens the experience where you're just another motorcycle
- 21:03Speaker 1: on the road. I mean, sometimes if you're on a
- 21:05Speaker 1: GS or something, it is it stands out. But for
- 21:08Speaker 1: the most part, if you're on local bikes like you
- 21:10Speaker 1: guys were, you really are like if it's cold, you're cold,
- 21:14Speaker 1: if it's hot, you're hot. Yeah, and then you're just
- 21:17Speaker 1: in the flow everybody else Whereas once you're in a
- 21:22Speaker 1: vehicle like a land Rover, which you guys, your landover
- 21:26Speaker 1: is big and lifted, aggressive tires and a camper on
- 21:29Speaker 1: the back, so it has a lot of presence on
- 21:32Speaker 1: the road, so you definitely are in a different position.
- 21:35Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. I do think any vehicle that you
- 21:38Speaker 3: travel in when you're brining it or driving it yourself,
- 21:43Speaker 3: it is just so freeing to just travel on the
- 21:46Speaker 3: open road, and you experience so much more than you
- 21:49Speaker 3: would if you were flying in and out of destinations
- 21:52Speaker 3: and stuff overlanding however that looks for you. It's just
- 21:57Speaker 3: such an experience and so free.
- 21:59Speaker 1: And I think what I find is just all of
- 22:02Speaker 1: the benefit of experiencing everything from this border crossing to
- 22:06Speaker 1: the next one. Yeah, you don't, you don't go to
- 22:10Speaker 1: You certainly do go to tourist destinations, but you get
- 22:12Speaker 1: to see everything between thee and that's probably where some
- 22:17Speaker 1: of my best memories of coming is like, you're totally
- 22:22Speaker 1: off the beat path. Yeah, absolutely so, Chloe. Now, you
- 22:29Speaker 1: had a career that allowed you to work from the road,
- 22:34Speaker 1: So was that part of what gave you guys some
- 22:36Speaker 1: confidence to leave is that you still felt like you
- 22:39Speaker 1: could generate a little bit of revenue I think for
- 22:42Speaker 1: your guys's travels.
- 22:44Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so. We did work hard before leaving
- 22:48Speaker 3: to try and save up as much money as we
- 22:51Speaker 3: could for the trip, but being able to work remotely
- 22:56Speaker 3: has been amazing for financially. It helps huge amount. But
- 23:01Speaker 3: also I like working, you know, having like a bit
- 23:06Speaker 3: of normality as well as the traveling side of what
- 23:10Speaker 3: we do. I've actually enjoyed it, and I think needed
- 23:15Speaker 3: it because you've kind of missed that in a way,
- 23:20Speaker 3: haven't you. We were saying this at lunch as well.
- 23:22Speaker 3: Is when you're working every day and you just want
- 23:26Speaker 3: to be traveling, or want to be on holiday, or
- 23:28Speaker 3: want to just have some time off, but then when
- 23:30Speaker 3: you actually get only time off, you miss the normal
- 23:34Speaker 3: structure and getting your head into something and having a purpose.
- 23:38Speaker 3: And we were saying this, it's just the balance, and
- 23:41Speaker 3: I'm grateful that I've had that balance because I think
- 23:44Speaker 3: I needed that.
- 23:45Speaker 1: Let the audience know what work you do, what kind
- 23:48Speaker 1: of work you do, and how your clients and your
- 23:51Speaker 1: opportunities have changed as a result of your trip.
- 23:54Speaker 3: Yeah, so the work that I do from back home
- 23:58Speaker 3: is kind of it's set to the opportunities that we've
- 24:02Speaker 3: now had traveling. So just managing social media platforms and
- 24:06Speaker 3: doing website work, marketing plans basically for different companies back
- 24:11Speaker 3: at home, and from the experience I've had with that
- 24:15Speaker 3: and since we started our Instagram and things, it's definitely
- 24:19Speaker 3: enabled me to know what to do to kind of
- 24:22Speaker 3: build our platform a bit more. And with that, we've
- 24:25Speaker 3: kind of when we've got the car we've got a
- 24:27Speaker 3: camera as well, and we're not professional photographers, but we
- 24:31Speaker 3: just thought let's capture some of what we're doing. And
- 24:34Speaker 3: it's kind of evolved into creating content first companies and
- 24:39Speaker 3: also filming our adventures and putting weekly YouTube videos up,
- 24:43Speaker 3: which it's.
- 24:44Speaker 1: A lot of work. It is a lot of yea,
- 24:47Speaker 1: and who does the editing me and who does the
- 24:50Speaker 1: shooting either to just grabs the camera yea.
- 24:56Speaker 4: Interestingly enough, though, the content create for other brands has
- 25:01Speaker 4: also sort of integrated into your business as well. Yeah,
- 25:07Speaker 4: because now now you approach companies and say, well, I
- 25:11Speaker 4: can run your marketing efforts, but also create content to
- 25:15Speaker 4: do that as well.
- 25:16Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 25:16Speaker 4: Interestingly enough, we just picked up a new contract in
- 25:20Speaker 4: ib a couple of weeks ago, so the two have
- 25:23Speaker 4: sort of rolled into.
- 25:24Speaker 3: One and traveling and meeting people your networking basically, which
- 25:30Speaker 3: is awesome and it's Yeah, it's definitely opened up a
- 25:33Speaker 3: lot more opportunity for us. And so when this trip
- 25:37Speaker 3: comes to an end, whenever that may be, we've got
- 25:41Speaker 3: exciting things planned that.
- 25:43Speaker 1: You know.
- 25:43Speaker 3: The work that we've done on this trip has opened up.
- 25:48Speaker 1: And then recently you started to bring your storrelink along. Yeah,
- 25:52Speaker 1: and is that made work easier or you just work more?
- 25:56Speaker 3: Now it's definitely made it easier. I think before we
- 25:59Speaker 3: had this starlink, we were planning where we were camping
- 26:02Speaker 3: based on what I ever Lander said about their Wi
- 26:05Speaker 3: Fi speed, and also spending quite a lot of money
- 26:09Speaker 3: on data. Some countries their data plans it actually expensive
- 26:13Speaker 3: more than Europe would be, and so we were rinsing
- 26:16Speaker 3: through our data try and upload videos and do work
- 26:19Speaker 3: and stuff. So the starlink is meant that we haven't
- 26:22Speaker 3: had to rely on that and not buying some cards
- 26:26Speaker 3: and just have peace of mind of knowing that you
- 26:28Speaker 3: can just smash out a bit of work wherever you
- 26:30Speaker 3: are and it just happens so cold.
- 26:32Speaker 4: Yeah. Also, the uploading could take so long that we
- 26:36Speaker 4: would often find we're set at a campsite waiting for
- 26:38Speaker 4: a video to upload. Yeah, and now with the starlink,
- 26:42Speaker 4: we actually use it. I don't know if you do,
- 26:43Speaker 4: but we use it when we're moving. It works fine,
- 26:46Speaker 4: So we can just leave the laptop uploading while we're
- 26:49Speaker 4: doing a five six hour journey and then we haven't
- 26:53Speaker 4: wasted any time set around twiddling our thumbs waiting for
- 26:55Speaker 4: a video to so for sure it has been pretty
- 26:59Speaker 4: pretty good.
- 27:00Speaker 1: So your Instagram is the Landy Expedition and then what's
- 27:04Speaker 1: your YouTube channel? The same expedition. Awesome, So the guys
- 27:10Speaker 1: should be checking out this amazing content. So one of
- 27:14Speaker 1: the things that I think is important for because your story,
- 27:18Speaker 1: again is so inspirational of you guys had regular jobs
- 27:23Speaker 1: and you decided that you didn't want a regular life.
- 27:26Speaker 1: You wanted something unusual or something that was more suited
- 27:30Speaker 1: to your to your passions. If you were to give
- 27:34Speaker 1: some advice to either your younger self or maybe a
- 27:38Speaker 1: nephew or a cousin or something like that that was
- 27:41Speaker 1: getting ready to do the same journeys as you, looking
- 27:45Speaker 1: back on what you've learned over this last year full
- 27:47Speaker 1: time on the road, what would you say you'd give
- 27:50Speaker 1: some advice to those listening.
- 27:54Speaker 4: It's interesting because I think we wouldn't have been able
- 27:58Speaker 4: to do what we've done if I hadn't of earned
- 28:01Speaker 4: money in my business, like building the vehicle that cost
- 28:05Speaker 4: We pretty much paid for just about everything on the vehicle.
- 28:09Speaker 4: You building that up I could we couldn't have done
- 28:15Speaker 4: it in that vehicle if I hadn't earned the money
- 28:17Speaker 4: or we hadn't earned the money to do it. So
- 28:20Speaker 4: what I wanted to say, do it when you're a
- 28:23Speaker 4: little bit younger. Start younger to anyone that was listening.
- 28:27Speaker 4: But you do need to be able to save up
- 28:30Speaker 4: enough money to buy a vehicle. It doesn't need to
- 28:34Speaker 4: be kitted out the way we've done ours, so you
- 28:37Speaker 4: can simply buy things a lot more than what we have.
- 28:43Speaker 4: But yeah, if you dream of doing it, then just
- 28:46Speaker 4: like put pen to paper and just start making a
- 28:49Speaker 4: plan to do it. And whether that means saving up
- 28:53Speaker 4: that money to buy that car, then just do it.
- 28:56Speaker 4: And then once you've got it, you don't need to
- 28:59Speaker 4: spend thousands of pounds getting it out. Just go do
- 29:01Speaker 4: little trips around your local area and campsites and stuff
- 29:06Speaker 4: and work out what you need rather than what you want. Yeah,
- 29:09Speaker 4: that's a big thing. And yeah, if if you love it,
- 29:15Speaker 4: then just make a plan to do it. That's what
- 29:18Speaker 4: I'd say.
- 29:19Speaker 2: And a special thanks to win Obago for their support
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- 30:10Speaker 1: Have any any regrets or things you would have done
- 30:13Speaker 1: different or you or did it? Did it really? Was
- 30:18Speaker 1: it the dream you hoped that it would be.
- 30:20Speaker 3: I think it's been more than what I imagined it
- 30:23Speaker 3: would this.
- 30:25Speaker 4: We didn't know what to expect. No, and it wasn't
- 30:28Speaker 4: I have to say, it wasn't like a lifetime dream
- 30:31Speaker 4: of ours to come to Africa and to overland in Africa.
- 30:35Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not something that we've been planning or thinking
- 30:38Speaker 3: about or working towards for a long time.
- 30:42Speaker 4: But adventure is something that we always dream about and
- 30:45Speaker 4: we do every year. We try and do a different adventure,
- 30:49Speaker 4: whether that's small, which they have been up until now.
- 30:54Speaker 4: So yeah, coming here without really any expectations and then
- 30:57Speaker 4: just being totally immersed in so many different cultures which
- 31:02Speaker 4: change every border crossing you go across, the culture has
- 31:05Speaker 4: changed so much.
- 31:06Speaker 1: It's amazing.
- 31:07Speaker 4: Yeah, it's crazy actually across a border and like landscape
- 31:10Speaker 4: is different, the people are different.
- 31:14Speaker 3: I also think it's you don't have to overthink it
- 31:19Speaker 3: too much. I think that's something that I probably did
- 31:22Speaker 3: before we came away, is I'm not worried, but wanted
- 31:26Speaker 3: to know everything and planning so that I knew a
- 31:30Speaker 3: lot about each different country we'd go to, which is
- 31:33Speaker 3: important to have an idea. But I think you can
- 31:36Speaker 3: overthink it and you can get in your head and
- 31:38Speaker 3: you can think this is no, this is not achievable
- 31:40Speaker 3: for me. I just definitely can't do this. And honestly,
- 31:42Speaker 3: I didn't think that we would be doing this, but
- 31:46Speaker 3: we are. And actually, once you get here, once you
- 31:49Speaker 3: meet people, once you experience like the craziness that Africa
- 31:53Speaker 3: can be. Sometimes it's it's amazing and it's so much easier.
- 31:59Speaker 1: Than alive place like this, and I think it's because
- 32:03Speaker 1: the people of Africa are so incredible. They like I have.
- 32:08Speaker 1: I have learned so much from the people of Africa
- 32:12Speaker 1: of you know, just having joy and see how much
- 32:17Speaker 1: fun they have and they're not on their damn phones
- 32:21Speaker 1: that much, if at all. Some of them don't even
- 32:25Speaker 1: have a phone, which you know is a blessing in
- 32:29Speaker 1: the modern day. And I'm not to say that they
- 32:32Speaker 1: don't they don't deserve to have all the same access
- 32:35Speaker 1: to those things that we do. But because they don't
- 32:38Speaker 1: have sometimes access to that, you see them chasing each
- 32:43Speaker 1: other around, laughing and swimming and and just being kids
- 32:48Speaker 1: as opposed to allude to their screens that you see,
- 32:54Speaker 1: okay in the US.
- 32:55Speaker 4: So you see you see that more so when you're
- 33:00Speaker 4: in the more remote areas where they really don't have much.
- 33:05Speaker 4: I remember driving through some villages in Zimbabwe when we
- 33:09Speaker 4: just got there and just colors of people smiling. It
- 33:13Speaker 4: was just like, wow, this is I've never seen anything
- 33:16Speaker 4: like this before, and there's nothing arout. They have their
- 33:20Speaker 4: houses which are made of mud and they paint, you know,
- 33:23Speaker 4: paint on the on the walls, which is really cool
- 33:25Speaker 4: to see. But yeah, other than that, they just have.
- 33:28Speaker 3: Themselves and people work hard.
- 33:32Speaker 1: People have they work hard.
- 33:34Speaker 3: Walk really really far to get water. And then the farmland.
- 33:40Speaker 3: In the agriculture that we've seen, it's just plowing a
- 33:43Speaker 3: whole field by hand, and everyone is working from like
- 33:47Speaker 3: the grandparent done to the child. They're all working. There,
- 33:50Speaker 3: are all making it happen. And that is really amazing
- 33:53Speaker 3: to see how much work people put in and also
- 33:56Speaker 3: how happy people can be doing it. You know, not
- 34:01Speaker 3: a lot. You have your water, your food, your shelter.
- 34:07Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, it doesn't seem like that happiness grows
- 34:12Speaker 1: at the same rate of convenience or luxury or comfort.
- 34:17Speaker 1: In fact, it seems like the most wealthiest nations oftentimes have. Yeah,
- 34:26Speaker 1: so you have powerful lessons. So, Chloe, what would you
- 34:30Speaker 1: say is your top one or two adventures or experiences
- 34:35Speaker 1: that you had in this last year, Like what was
- 34:37Speaker 1: the one place that completely surprised you?
- 34:41Speaker 3: You know exactly what I'm going to say.
- 34:44Speaker 1: You might have different different answers. I think it's going
- 34:48Speaker 1: to be that's okay, so you have to pick another one.
- 34:54Speaker 3: We drove up into Demorrowland and Namibia and we were
- 34:59Speaker 3: around the Brambo Mountain area, which is very remote and
- 35:03Speaker 3: we just started driving one day and I was looking.
- 35:07Speaker 3: I knew that there were desert elephants within that area,
- 35:10Speaker 3: and so I just searched where can you find the
- 35:13Speaker 3: desert elephants in the Maryland, And there's a dried up
- 35:16Speaker 3: riverbed called the Ugab River, and so we just kind
- 35:19Speaker 3: of started heading towards that way and spent four days
- 35:24Speaker 3: totally isolated to drive along this dried up riverbed, seeing nobody, nothing,
- 35:30Speaker 3: elephant footprints, elephant down everywhere, and just wild camping. We
- 35:35Speaker 3: then passed the Doris Crater, then Burnt Mountain, and that's
- 35:40Speaker 3: actually a hot spot for oh what's it called geologists
- 35:47Speaker 3: because of the rock formations and stuff. There's so much
- 35:50Speaker 3: history and stuff there as well, so ancient almost, isn't it.
- 35:55Speaker 3: And it was just so beautiful, so remote, and we
- 36:02Speaker 3: were running out of fuel, we were running out of water,
- 36:05Speaker 3: we'd run out of food. Basically we were living off
- 36:07Speaker 3: of like beans and rice.
- 36:09Speaker 4: But it was just.
- 36:11Speaker 3: The one of the best experiences of the whole I would.
- 36:14Speaker 1: Agree, Well, you can't pick the same one. What's the other?
- 36:19Speaker 4: I think the If I couldn't pick that, then it
- 36:22Speaker 4: would be when we crossed from Botswana down by Francis
- 36:26Speaker 4: Town into Zimbabwe, okay, And it was like a border
- 36:31Speaker 4: crossing that's not very popular among travelers, and it took
- 36:37Speaker 4: us through some very remote parts of Zimbabwe, like I
- 36:41Speaker 4: mentioned earlier, and just crossing that border and seeing the
- 36:45Speaker 4: color change that red African and the sun it was
- 36:49Speaker 4: quite late in the day, some was setting, just the
- 36:52Speaker 4: colors and like how vibrant place was. We ended up
- 36:57Speaker 4: wild camping near a village because we were driving into night,
- 37:00Speaker 4: which we don't normally do. But just that drive with
- 37:03Speaker 4: the sun setting over these painted huts was I just
- 37:06Speaker 4: really felt like this is where we should be right now.
- 37:10Speaker 4: It was actually it was quite an emotional evening. Yeah,
- 37:15Speaker 4: because these these moments they do take your breath away
- 37:19Speaker 4: and yeah, really put you on the spot where you are.
- 37:23Speaker 4: It's hard, it's hard to do that.
- 37:26Speaker 1: Oh the number of times that I've been just had
- 37:28Speaker 1: tears running down my face because the place that I
- 37:30Speaker 1: was seeing just like you think, like, how is this?
- 37:33Speaker 1: How am I this fortunate to be able to experience
- 37:36Speaker 1: that moment in some place so beautiful, you know, such
- 37:42Speaker 1: a rarity mm hmm. And it's important to allow ourselves
- 37:45Speaker 1: to be in those places and like recognize how fortunate
- 37:51Speaker 1: we are too, and just to really remember those those
- 37:55Speaker 1: moments for sure. So how do you guys find you
- 38:00Speaker 1: help support each other as a couple while you're traveling,
- 38:04Speaker 1: because a lot of couples do aspire to travel together.
- 38:07Speaker 1: What are some things that you've learned about how to
- 38:12Speaker 1: keep your relationship strong and healthy? Because of course it's
- 38:15Speaker 1: the most important thing at the end of all of
- 38:17Speaker 1: this is that you guys are closer and more capable
- 38:23Speaker 1: together than when you left. What are some of the
- 38:25Speaker 1: things you've learned around that.
- 38:26Speaker 4: It's definitely a test, isn't it, Because it's not normal
- 38:29Speaker 4: to spend a year in a land driver with your
- 38:32Speaker 4: partner and not see that many other people, especially as
- 38:36Speaker 4: we've come further north in Africa, there's not so many travelers.
- 38:41Speaker 1: Up here, so we're prised by that too.
- 38:44Speaker 4: Yeah, there's not so many people up here, so we
- 38:46Speaker 4: don't have that social interaction.
- 38:48Speaker 3: So yeah, to Botswana, we were going to campsites and
- 38:52Speaker 3: there are other people here like traveling like us, so
- 38:55Speaker 3: you socialize. I think you definitely have to be patient
- 39:01Speaker 3: at times, and because when you're spending so much time together,
- 39:06Speaker 3: you get the good moods and the bad moods and
- 39:09Speaker 3: everyone has a bad mood. Everyone has a good mood.
- 39:12Speaker 3: And don't get me wrong, those times where we annoy
- 39:15Speaker 3: each other and that's totally normal.
- 39:19Speaker 1: Oh, it is normal. And how do you where do
- 39:21Speaker 1: you find works when you're stuck in the land rover
- 39:24Speaker 1: and one of you is starting to feel annoyed?
- 39:27Speaker 3: Is there?
- 39:27Speaker 1: Like you guys have like a plan of like we're
- 39:29Speaker 1: going to put on your music, or you're going to
- 39:32Speaker 1: put in headphones, or you're going to crawl out of
- 39:34Speaker 1: the back way to walk.
- 39:39Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean we're pretty good if there's been whatever,
- 39:45Speaker 4: a little hated yeah moment or whatever, we're pretty good
- 39:50Speaker 4: at both just having some quiet time and then going
- 39:53Speaker 4: back to each other. Yeah, we need twenty minutes or
- 39:56Speaker 4: an hour. Yeah, we nip stuff in the bad. Yeah,
- 40:00Speaker 4: just have to be what's the word I'm looking for,
- 40:04Speaker 4: just understanding and I guess yeah, that we're both in
- 40:09Speaker 4: this situation, yeah each other. Yeah, and literally we are
- 40:15Speaker 4: with the two pieces that make this thing work. So
- 40:18Speaker 4: we're going to be at each other. It's not going
- 40:20Speaker 4: to work. Yeah, take quiet time twenty minutes.
- 40:24Speaker 3: I think it's also important to know that in a relationship,
- 40:28Speaker 3: you're not going to get everything you need from one
- 40:32Speaker 3: human being. That's why you have like different relationships friends.
- 40:35Speaker 1: And family and stuff and so and the work we
- 40:37Speaker 1: do on ourselves.
- 40:38Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, having time alone is also really important and
- 40:43Speaker 3: there's nothing wrong with that at all.
- 40:45Speaker 1: So you know, we.
- 40:48Speaker 3: Try to you know, meet other people, be social in
- 40:52Speaker 3: that way because it's important to have connection with other
- 40:55Speaker 3: people as well as just with each other. And that's yeah,
- 40:59Speaker 3: that's something that we try and do.
- 41:00Speaker 4: I think when you're when you're over landing the way
- 41:04Speaker 4: we have been, we don't we don't really stay in
- 41:06Speaker 4: accommodation at all unless we're in a city, so like Nairobi,
- 41:11Speaker 4: we stayed in hotels for ten days. But you do
- 41:14Speaker 4: need to take time to do things for yourself as well, Yeah,
- 41:19Speaker 4: whether that's doing a bit of exercise or or reading
- 41:23Speaker 4: a book or something, because you can very easily slip
- 41:26Speaker 4: into a way of just you know, driving setting up camp, yeah,
- 41:32Speaker 4: and not really doing anything for yourself.
- 41:36Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 41:36Speaker 3: Sure, you had that. When we were in Zimbabwe, we
- 41:39Speaker 3: had that where we were getting up in the morning,
- 41:43Speaker 3: driving all day, setting up camp. This was the same
- 41:45Speaker 3: thing going on for weeks and we were so close
- 41:47Speaker 3: to the mozobat border and we thought, let's just go
- 41:51Speaker 3: to the beach, so we did went to the beach
- 41:53Speaker 3: and then decided that we were going to we're in
- 41:56Speaker 3: villain Coulos and then we decided we were going to
- 41:57Speaker 3: go down to Tofu and we thought, let's to dive,
- 42:00Speaker 3: so we did our Paddy of course, and we met
- 42:03Speaker 3: friends there because we stayed in Sport. Yeah, so nice.
- 42:08Speaker 3: I wish we had we left the day of these
- 42:11Speaker 3: it was running out. We would have stayed longer.
- 42:12Speaker 1: But it's almost free, yeah to be there. Yeah, Like
- 42:15Speaker 1: the food is so inexpressed.
- 42:17Speaker 4: Yea.
- 42:17Speaker 1: Yeah, people are wonderful.
- 42:21Speaker 3: Yeah, we made friends that are friends for life. We're
- 42:25Speaker 3: already planning like trips with them and stuff. And it
- 42:28Speaker 3: was we absolutely needed it at that time and it
- 42:31Speaker 3: was so good for us and we recognized that and
- 42:33Speaker 3: we did it and then we were like refreshed. And
- 42:36Speaker 3: actually a friend we met there jumped in the car
- 42:39Speaker 3: with us and we did three weeks with her and
- 42:41Speaker 3: she stepped in the back of the car and we
- 42:43Speaker 3: traveled around together. It was just the best.
- 42:46Speaker 1: Yeah, that's perfect. And making sure that you're at least
- 42:49Speaker 1: giving yourself unless you have to be your way behind,
- 42:52Speaker 1: but taking a day off from all of it, from
- 42:57Speaker 1: the travel, from the blogging, from the blogging, from their instagram,
- 43:03Speaker 1: taking a day off and going for a hiker, going
- 43:07Speaker 1: into important going scuba diving or circling, surfing or whatever
- 43:12Speaker 1: that is, to kind of give yourself that little bit
- 43:15Speaker 1: of a reset. So one of the things I wanted
- 43:19Speaker 1: to ask you about was your Alu Cab version on
- 43:23Speaker 1: the Defender. I'm seeing them have They're more and more popular,
- 43:28Speaker 1: and I'm actually interested in in that. For the one
- 43:33Speaker 1: ten that I've got, which is very similar to yours,
- 43:36Speaker 1: how have you found it? Like, what are some things
- 43:38Speaker 1: that you like about it? What are some things that
- 43:40Speaker 1: maybe you don't like as much?
- 43:42Speaker 4: M Sure, it's funny. We did review on our YouTube
- 43:45Speaker 4: last week.
- 43:46Speaker 1: That's good. People can check that out there. We'll give
- 43:48Speaker 1: us the give us the note the cliff Notes version.
- 43:51Speaker 4: Then it's been the best single modification reaped on to
- 43:58Speaker 4: the car just for this long term travel. It makes
- 44:02Speaker 4: everything so much easier, being able to stand up in
- 44:05Speaker 4: the back of your.
- 44:06Speaker 1: Vehicle away from the mosquitoes.
- 44:09Speaker 4: Yeah, Like last night we were being absolutely hounded by
- 44:14Speaker 4: killer mosquitoes and we said, right, let's just get in
- 44:17Speaker 4: the car, put something on the iPad and monopoly deal
- 44:22Speaker 4: so we played some cards.
- 44:23Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fine.
- 44:25Speaker 4: But the ease of use, yeah, it's just it's brilliant.
- 44:30Speaker 1: So it pops up and it's you know, angled from
- 44:33Speaker 1: the front and pops up in the back and then
- 44:36Speaker 1: so you guys can stand up in the vehicle.
- 44:38Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 44:39Speaker 1: And then is there a conversion process to get the
- 44:41Speaker 1: bed down or does the bed just fall down?
- 44:43Speaker 4: As the roof pops up, the bed goes up with it.
- 44:48Speaker 4: And then you pull that bed piece down, got it.
- 44:51Speaker 4: You climb up onto the bed and then you pull it.
- 44:54Speaker 4: It's like a tank hatch, pull that piece down, and
- 44:56Speaker 4: then the bed is the whole length of the vehicle.
- 44:59Speaker 4: It's real really big space as well.
- 45:01Speaker 1: Nice. Yeah, and has it proven to be pretty reliable? Yeah,
- 45:06Speaker 1: you have a lot. You have quite a bit of weight,
- 45:08Speaker 1: even on top of the camper. How are you finding
- 45:12Speaker 1: that the vehicle's handling all that weight up there?
- 45:16Speaker 4: It definitely does change the dynamics. Something I said in
- 45:19Speaker 4: our video as well, But we put slightly wider tires
- 45:23Speaker 4: on I had I had done anyway, But I do
- 45:27Speaker 4: feel that that does firm up the ride. We also
- 45:32Speaker 4: have heavy duty springs to help with the weight, so
- 45:35Speaker 4: it it does still drive pretty well. And even on
- 45:39Speaker 4: the on the tarmac going around corners and things. It's
- 45:41Speaker 4: not like yeah, yeah driving a boat. It's pretty well planted. Yeah.
- 45:46Speaker 3: Also we did because we work putting the reof racking
- 45:49Speaker 3: stuff on top of the gas stouts for theraded so
- 45:54Speaker 3: that they could take the weight.
- 45:56Speaker 4: Extravalucab actually don't recommend you put saying anything more than
- 46:01Speaker 4: a roof rack on the the conversion itself, but we've
- 46:07Speaker 4: had no problems with it.
- 46:08Speaker 3: It's been fine.
- 46:09Speaker 4: You could be worried about the the sill cracking maybe
- 46:12Speaker 4: from the way, we haven't had that.
- 46:14Speaker 3: We don't have a huge amount on there. We've got
- 46:16Speaker 3: a solar panel to front run, a wolf boxes, a
- 46:19Speaker 3: little bride thing table.
- 46:23Speaker 4: There's quite a lot, I guess there is.
- 46:28Speaker 1: It is amazing how it adds up.
- 46:29Speaker 4: Yeah, it does. Yeah, we try and trim it all
- 46:32Speaker 4: the time. But yeah, do you need these things when
- 46:36Speaker 4: you're traveling the way.
- 46:37Speaker 1: We are, You do when you guys are living this
- 46:39Speaker 1: is your home.
- 46:39Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
- 46:41Speaker 1: Well, Harry and Chloyee, thank you so much for taking
- 46:45Speaker 1: the time with me to it's been such a pleasure
- 46:47Speaker 1: to beat both of you. So well, we'll get a
- 46:49Speaker 1: chance lunch and we were scheming a little bit about
- 46:53Speaker 1: how our travels could integrate and it may not work out,
- 46:57Speaker 1: but it's always such a joy to connect with other
- 47:00Speaker 1: travelers on the road. Here are the stories, maybe open
- 47:05Speaker 1: our minds to other possibilities for routes or things to
- 47:08Speaker 1: go see. Yeah, and this is this is very much
- 47:11Speaker 1: the same. So again it's it's the Landy Expedition on
- 47:17Speaker 1: Instagram and it's the Landy Expedition on YouTube. What's next
- 47:22Speaker 1: for you guys? What's the next part of your adventure?
- 47:26Speaker 3: So next we're heading up to Uganda, Rwanda, and then
- 47:31Speaker 3: we kind of have some big decisions to make as
- 47:33Speaker 3: to where we go from here. What the end of
- 47:35Speaker 3: the trip is looking like for us. So yeah, stay tuned.
- 47:39Speaker 1: Yeah, more updates. Well maybe we can get you back
- 47:42Speaker 1: on the podcast when everything's all done. Yeah, and get
- 47:44Speaker 1: the get the final thoughts on all of that, you guys,
- 47:48Speaker 1: You guys have got a fun trip planned Australia and
- 47:51Speaker 1: some other things. So how exciting you is going to
- 47:53Speaker 1: keep the adventures going, that's sure, Although.
- 47:57Speaker 4: This one's feels like it's almost coming to and we
- 48:00Speaker 4: have to think about the next definitely for.
- 48:05Speaker 1: Us, no way at all. Well, I appreciate you both
- 48:09Speaker 1: so much for being on the podcast, and I thank
- 48:12Speaker 1: you all for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
- 48:18Speaker 2: And a special thanks to Real Truck for their support
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