From a Dream to Reality

As you will have probably read in the About section, both of us have always had a desire to lead a simple life and travel without the restrictions of annual leave.

While researching and dreaming of the route we would take if we took a Gap Year, Stuart come across an article from the Land Rover Club about a South African couple who drove around the world in their Land Rover Forward Control called Dipli ( http://www.overlandhb.co.za). 

We eventually got to meet Jan & Leone in 2016 but it was their website which first inspired the idea of a longer and worldwide trip as early as 2010.  

Our early idea was to build a motorhome style camper on the back of a 4×4 truck, complete with bathroom.  We figured the space and home comforts would be ideal.

When Stuart was explaining the idea to a friend who had just moved back to the UK, our email exchange went as follows:

Mr. D: The Gap Decade hey? That sounds pretty cool, especially if you build your own wheels and accommodation. You could go wherever, whenever. It begs the question why more people aren’t doing that all the time! 

Stuart: I like the sound of a “gap decade”, never thought of it like that. Is it reasonably feasible or is it just a pipe dream, I think it is perfectly feasible with a bit of careful planning, some hard work & financial discipline and then some luck. It will require us to be sensible in our lifestyles and maybe make one or 2 sacrifices along the way,  but from our point of view these sacrifices are not big however.  

As an example, we had spoken of moving into a bigger house cause sometimes a bit of extra space would be good but then we thought about it and what we have is perfectly adequate (in fact very nice) and when I punched the numbers we realised that if we moved then after 8 years (ideal start date of the gap decade) we would have substantially less savings which could help to fund the gap decade.  So easy decision!

Another example, my car is 5 years old now which is when most people would be looking to buy a new one, but if I keep it for a few more years we can save all those repayments towards the gap decade.  

Why do more people not do it ?  Apart from the financial sacrifices required,  I think the next main reason is most people wouldn’t consider it that attractive, they would rather holiday in fancy hotels than live “rough” in a small truck.  Then there is security, even if you hate your job you usually know it will be there tomorrow and that at the end of the month you will get paid whereas if we do this we will be on our own….   I think when it gets closer to the time breaking away from the job security will be (certainly for me as an accountant) the hardest step to make 🙂  

In December 2010 we undertook a 3 week trip to Malawi for which we had planned very little and would be going further from home than ever before… Both of us considered it as a possible litmus test for being able to do a much longer trip.  The trip was fantastic and definitely cemented the dream in our minds. We also met the next couple (Chris & Erin Ratay of www.ultimatejourney.com) to inspire us (and who in turn we subsequently helped inspire to abandon motorbike travel and purchase a Land Rover). In return Chris regularly checks up on us to see when we will be setting off!

So after returning from Malawi we put together a ‘business plan’ that would allow us to embark on a Gap Decade in approximately 2020.  

Over the next few years we continued to dream, take holidays and save furiously.  

In May 2015 we set off for Mozambique, with the intention of going far north but plans are made to be changed and probably because we were both coming off incredibly hectic periods of work we ended up not going very far at all.  In fact we got marooned in Tofo for 11 days.  In the campsite with us was a German registered Landy driven by Hendrik and his Swedish wife, Caroline.   Hendrik was also carrying surfboards and trying to re-learn how to surf just like Stuart and so we spent a lot of time going to the beach and cooking meals together. They were able to partially stand-up in their Landy and possibly because we were starting to have concerns about a big vehicle for long term travel in terms of road access, costs and maintenance it was during this trip that we started to revise our thoughts and wonder if we could make Mr Jones work for us long term and what it would take to do that.  

Upon our return to South Africa we did research and found the Icarus roof conversion by AluCab which resulted in the seeds being sown to stay loyal to Mr J. The conversion of Mr. Jones to what he is today can be found here

9 years after the email conversation above, we are now in a position to leave and all the items (careful planning, hard work &financial discipline) have been needed, including right at the end a bit of luck.

In addition to those mentioned above who inspired and influenced us throughout the dream, we have also taken a lot of inspiration from: