New Beginnings In New Directions ~ We are currently driving an old-used Lexus RX350 from England back home to Sydney Australia.
Having shipped the car from Sydney Australia to Southampton in the UK, we are now spending a year travelling overland home; ... via [Iceland, Norway, Sweeden, Europe, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, India]
and maybe more/ watch this space .

How did we end up driving & car camping in a Lexus SUV while overlanding 30000kms home to Australia.

Well, it is a good question, born from what happened previously and how we have been planning to go “overlanding” for almost 20 years, indeed before overlanding was even a term. So, needing to move on from the disasters of the previous episode, and what we had intended to be our vehicle for overlanding the world; we found ourselves with just four weeks to either cancel everything, go backpacking or try and find a last-minute alternative.

Truth be told we did seriously consider giving up on overlanding, and going back to our first love and backpacking across the world, after all, we have been around the world three times now, and recently backpacked the South American continent. However, we both found ourselves wanting more of the open road and the ability to get further into nature, and away from the tourist mass.

This is how we found ourselves with just 10 days or so, before we had to leave Australia looking for a car (or motorbike), in the end after looking at many alternatives and drifting back and forth between them all (even buying a new backpack) we decided to buy the Lexus, and ship it to the UK to then drive it home.

It is not that we wanted a Lexus or that we saw it as a true alternative car for overlanding. I am sure many will agree in thinking it is not an overlanding car; whatever that means. However, having more than twenty years of travel experience has taught us that there is no such thing as the perfect car and travelling on the road we have seen every means of transport you can name. What was important however, is that we stopped procrastinating watching YouTube videos and we finally got of the sofa and headed back out onto to the open road to somewhere…

So, rather than just looking at overlanding cars, it came down instead to time, budget, reliability, and comfort. Mostly however it was time and with just two and half weeks left before we had to leave Sydney, we bought the Lexus, prepared it, bought camping gear, contacted the shipping agent, and booked a container and started the Carnet de passage process rolling.

When the car went into the container it had only been out for two weeks and we had still not yet used a full tank of fuel. In fact, we drove around the shipping agent's office for an hour until the low fuel light came on and we could then deliver it to them for shipping. It was also full of spares, tools old and new camping gear with a brand new un-used roof top tent.

This is how we are, always last minute with our plans the first time we went travelling the world in 2003 we bought a round the world ticket on a whim from high street shop and were gone in less than two weeks. Indeed, on our trip to South America we learnt Spanish on the plane while also booking accommodation’s. It is not that we recommend this way of travel, but keeping it simple works for us.

The car now is in a shipping container waiting for the sailing in a weeks’ time, we, on the other hand, need to finalize some visas, & arrange our money; then we need to pop home for some business before we fly to Amsterdam for a little holiday and eventually take the train to the UK, meeting up with the car in around 50 days from now in the port. We hope to document this part in the next video instalment.

Then we turn the car around and point it back home to Sydney camping in our rooftop tent with the occasional visit to hotels/accommodations to recharge our electronics. It is a simple system and, a way to travel that works for us, part overlanding, part camping, part backpacking. This is how we have travelled many times before, including circumnavigating Australia 4 times.

It is not for everyone and indeed does not suit any affirmation of buzzword acceptance or for that matter fanboy-based admiration; however, we have used our system of travel for more than 20 years of independent world travel on 5 continents; keeping things simple; it works for us, it is cheap there is little to break and we buy what we need when we need it.

We hope you will follow along exploring the unfamiliar figuring it out as we go.
Paul and Zahra

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