A Kelowna couple started off 2018 differently than most of us as they set off on a road trip around the world on Monday.
The adventure — they're calling the One Big Road Trip — is a self-supported overland drive of huge proportions.
Claire and James Young have sold their house and Claire has quit her job as a family physician to go on the journey. James will be working remotely while they travel through his web and graphic design company, Young Media.
Inspired by memories of past trips, the two decided they wanted to follow their passion for travel and are planning to seek out places most people wouldn’t be able to see by overlanding.
James describes overlanding as having a smaller vehicle that you can live in and still get to some more out of the way places. He says people tend to spend weeks, months, or years doing this, exploring the country or the world.
“We thought that was a great opportunity to give up everything we’ve got here, sell our house, sell our belongings, and head off on an adventure,” says Claire.
They've been preparing for the trip since July of 2016.
They did their research on what driving a vehicle like that around the world would take, as far as importing it, exporting it, insuring it and shipping it.
The biggest part of the planning was choosing the vehicle, says Claire. They finally decided on something called an XP Camper, a custom off-road camper that goes on the back of a one-ton truck, made by a company in California.
James, Claire and their feline travel companion Millie, left Kelowna on Monday, and headed down to California to pick up their camper. From there, the real adventure begins.
They will be travelling from Canada down to Patagonia through the United States, Mexico, and Central and South America. They will head to South Africa and up through Africa and into Europe. Next up, they will take in Russia, "the ‘Stans’," Nepal, India, Mongolia, China, Russia, Southeast Asia and Australia before shipping to Alaska and driving back to B.C.
Although they say they plan on coming back, they aren’t sure when.
“It increased from two years very quickly to three years,” Claire explains. “We’re now sitting at five years, but talking about seven.”
“It’s a fairly open-ended trip. We don’t have to be back for anything in particular. The main thing is completing the journey, seeing what we want to see, and getting all the way around the world before the money runs out,” she adds.
Stay updated on their epic journey through their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram that they plan on updating throughout their trip.
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