I have an itch

Wanderlust. It’s a thing, isn’t it? Not for everyone, I grant you. But for some of us. The open road. The freedom. The ability to be able to move on, to find new places. To be surprised, amazed … disappointed. To carry little, but experience a lot. To do away with the need for things and replace that with the need for life. To travel, and not necessarily arrive. To meet new people, to see new things, to feel the sand between your toes and the wind in your hair (I struggling for cliches). And to do this with someone you love … who shares your desires to be out there, and not back here.

Wanderlust. It’s a draw.

I came across a remarkable couple the other day, David and Charlotte. He’s British and she’s Danish. They look like theyr’e in the 50s, and a couple of years ago they decided to give everything up (done that), buy a motorhome (done that) and waddle off into the sunset (done that). Except we haven’t done what they’ve done. They started with a bigger budget, both in terms of cash to buy a machine and ambition, as to where to travel. They spent £350k on an ‘overlander’, a urban term to describe any motorhome which is designed to get you to Cape Town without getting your feet wet, or leaving the ground. Normally 4×4 and normally truck-based, for many wealthy people it’s a thing of status. For true travellers it’s designed to go from Europe, due south … and not stop until you hit the southern oceans. It’s been a thing for a while, although many ‘overlanders’ have had their plans thwarted by war and conflict – especially in Central Africa. And this has got worse due to the pandemic.

David and Charlotte – https://www.sommertravelling.com/ – bought a nearly new Danish army truck and got a UK-based manufacturer to make a really decent overlander, so much so it featured in Ch5’s ‘Million Dollar Motorhomes’, which you can still find on My5 (we watched it yesterday). It is big … and fab, and well worth looking over, although their website does a very good job of showing you what’s what.

So that’s the truck. The ambition? Well, if you remember ours … we just wanted out of the rat race, and used our motorhome to search Europe and the UK for the answer to fundamental questions like: what’s the point of everything?; and, where’s the nearest wifi hotspot? And we did well. Five and a half years later and we eventually, sort of, settled down … although the itch to travel and explore needs permanent scratching.

David and Charlotte are on a different scale. They have a ten year plan to visit 100 countries, by travelling overland around the world – Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Americas. And then, they think, they’ll buy a pad in India and open a cats’ home. Their route is fascinating and after 14 months (I’m late to this) and mostly due to difficulty getting their van registered and covid, they’ve made it to Senegal having spent 4 months in Morocco. It all looks fab. There’s a blog (short and infrequent) and you can follow them on Instagram.

I take my hat off to them. We possibly could have found the money and we might have been able to set the thing up. Could we travel the world? I’m not sure C’s constitution is up for it. And, maybe a surprise, I’m not a great risk taker. But, and it’s a big but, it has reignited my absolute desire to get the most out of this life … and for me, and I hope for us, that’s about the freedom of travel. Sure, we have commitments – and I’ve just dropped my only work on – but we’re only on this planet once. So, Doris … get ready.

Doris looking all ‘ready’

Stay safe.