Overland Interlude - what have we been up to?

It’s difficult to believe that we have been back in the UK for two and a half years. The irony is that time moves faster when you are not moving. When we are travelling, time slows beautifully.

Why did we stop?
We simply ran out of adventure funds.

When did we decide that we wanted to get back on the road?
The exact same day we left it. 

The bonuses of blighty (that's England for our international followers)

Family. A new baby niece has been one of the highlights of our rooted respite, sharing in parenting has been overwhelmingly cherished and an exciting, precious new experience for us both. Spending time with our close family including our 4 nieces has been wonderful.

Friends. Catching up with mates has been brilliant; birthdays, holidays, festivals, parties. We met some pretty special new friends too who have kept us sane in working towards our adventure goals.

Familiarity. After so much uncertainty and unpredictability on the road it was a relief and comfort to be in a country where we were accustomed to the people, food, language, culture and environment. Life in the UK where everything is recognisable and relatively straightforward is a welcome respite from the instability and irregularity of overlanding and gave us both chance to ‘re-charge’ our adventure batteries (and funds!).

Focus. Time ‘off the road’ instead of ‘off-road’ has allowed us to reflect on our travels and given us the opportunity to share our stories through presentations and talks. We have been privileged to impart our knowledge and travel tales to photography clubs, women’s groups, hiking clubs and at overland shows. Andy established ‘The Overlanding Podcast’, the first audio programme of its kind, as well as developing our website as both a documentation of our trip but also a resource for other adventurers. We have been able to spend time sorting our photographs and film footage ready for editing. Bee-bee has been well rested but we have a relaxed timeframe in which to get her adventure-ready. We have had the luxury of time to research our next route and plan without pressure.

The most difficult adjustments we had to make to a stationary existence?

Initial dependence. We journeyed until our last Malaysian Ringgit coin so gratefully and fortunately relied on my parents to house us while we initially got back on our feet, starting again from nothing; selling, working, earning and saving.
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Employment. Working outside of our chosen careers and being confined within archaic structures of organisational incompetence was testing. Why are so many people in positions of authority such dicks? We are both far too free and feral after years on the road to integrate fully back into ‘jobsworth’ society. Fortunately we worked day to day with some incredible clients who gave us a whole new inspiring insight into life. Retiring again after 2 years of working for the ‘man’ has been euphoric.

Urban dwelling. The concrete, the grey, the lack of wildlife, the same kitchen sink window view. We both developed an extreme obsession with houseplants to the point our flat resembled a jungle obscuring most windows. Andy built a 2m high bed so we still had to comfortingly climb up into our ‘roof bed’ at night. New friends and wildlife volunteering gave me purpose and strength to keep a balance between a dishearteningly destructive world and my environmental values.

Depression. The demons returned armed with weapons of environmental anxiety, lost control, financial stress, and dark winter melancholy. Many people think we are crazy for what we do when we overland but static existence creates its own personal insanity for us.

What have we learnt from our time ‘home’?

Time with loved ones is precious, don’t take it for granted and make an effort to spend quality time with the people you love. The old cliché “absence makes the heart grow fonder” is not only true of people; we miss our homes and families when we’re away exploring but we also miss our wandering lifestyle when we stop. Time spent doing both allows you to fully appreciate what you have and not take anything for granted.

So a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has housed, fed, ‘watered’, encouraged, supported and helped us during both our travels and the interim period’s in-between. You are the people who truly keep our world turning.

We will be keeping our travel name ‘Around the World in 800 Days’, less so for camp-counting and more to emphasis our unhurried expedition style. The adventure continues.

Normal? No. Nomadic? Yes.

Our eyes are now fixed on the horizon in a westerly direction and we’re counting down the days…