The World Off Road

Epic Off-Road

JOURNEY
after 700 days on and off road, a landrover discovery 3 pulled into Sydney.
It had been driven 112,000km through 46
countries but still had a long way to go.
words by Akis Temperidis Photos by Vula Netu and Akis Temperidis

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The World Off Road

FAQ
Where do you service the car?
There are more than 1500 Land Roverofficial workshops around the world.
So far we have serviced our Discovery inMorocco, Senegal, Namibia, South Africa,Tanzania, Pakistan, India, Malaysiaand Thailand.
How do you wash your clothes?
We give them to a laundry or wash themby hand and dry them in the car. This is a
picture you’d rather not see!

B

efore we get too far into whatbecame an epic journey, let me
introduce the two of us. We are acouple from Greece. A motoring
journalist and a dance teacher.
We had a dream for many years
to travel the world without areturn ticket but we never had themoney, the time or the guts totake that dream seriously. That pretty much made us, justlike everyone else that has a dream but never really makes
the sacrifice to follow it.
One day we said to each other, that’s it, we have to
do it and it has to be now or never. It was not simple to
make this wide ranging and rather ambitious dream cometrue but 23 months later we were in a brand new, fullysponsored Land Rover Discovery 3, departing to, welldeparting to wherever we wanted pretty much. Our trip had
a name and an official site as well. Anyone that wanted toknow where we’re and what we were up to, could log onto:
theworldoffroad.com and we’d come up with a motto aswell, ‘Explore the earth in 800 days!’ Off road, possibly…
We had planned from the start to cross Europe, getto Africa and drive around the African continent for six
months. In the end, we spent almost ten months eventually
getting back to Greece for a break. That meant 41 bordercrossings, 58,000km, 45,000 photos, 70 hours of video
filming and more than 150 pages of travel stories publishedin different magazines around the world. In 291 days, wehad not put a single scratch on the car or experienced atyre puncture. (That’s it Akis, you’re coming on tests withus from now on with that kind of luck Mate. TN)
After that ten-month epic and a two-month breakback in Greece, we thought, now we are strong enoughto challenge Asia. So we hit the roads of Turkey, Iranand Pakistan. Three very hospitable countries, which
was somewhat surprising for us given two of thesecountries’ horrific images and portrayal worldwide. Yes,

k coilssie
Vula trl necditionaon tra

What do you eat on the road?
Most evenings, Vula cooks. Our menuincludes pasta, noodles, rice, eggs,fried vegetables, fruits and Greek salad(tomatoes, olives, onions) with olive oil
is a must. In Asia, we cooked less, as thelocal cuisine is great even at the cheapest
stalls. In Australia we discovered
barbecues and it was great!

We had a dreamfor many years
to travel theworld without
a return ticket
but we never
had the money,
the time or theguts...

How do you know where you will campby night?
We don’t! We search on our guides and if
there is nothing, we try to find a shelter
anywhere. In Australia, anywhere means
where there is not a ‘no camping’ sign.
We have had no police arrests so far.
Do you carry a gun?
No. People are good and a smile is thebest protection from the few bad ones!
The worst moment of your trip?
Akis’ brother died in Greece when wewere in Kathmandu. In Sumatra our car
stalled completely.

Cameroun
The baby chimps inming.
lco
weyverwereThe best moment?
Difficult to say. Just take a look at thepictures in this article!

.

in Asia

OVERLANDER nov.0945The World Off Road
Position reporter. It
transmits automaticallythe real position of thecar to a satellite so thatyou can see where weare on the web.

75W solar panel by Conergy
provides 220V electricity
through an auxiliary 45A
dry type battery and a
500W inverter.

Thrane Explorer 300
Inmarsat satellite
antenna, provides
broadband (492kbps)
internet connection
wherever in the earth(98 percent coverage).
Provided by Navarino
Telecom-Greece.

Snorkel, protective
sliders and 10mmsump shield.

Tyres used, Cooper
Discoverer STT(245/70-17) in Africa
and BF Goodrich245/75-17 in Asia.
Engine CPU is tuned byOverfinch – for better
torque at low revs. It
is combined with a TGI
air filter.
Car interior: rear seats
were. Two customised
safe boxes and a 55litre water tank fitted.

The 4WD
Land Rover Discovery 3 TDV6 S, MY 2007, Tonga
green colour, provided by Land Rover Greece (KEDOS.A.) with manual gearbox, coil springs and 17-inchwheels. Technical support by Roverland Gabletsas,Athens, Greece.

Garmin 276C GPS.

Heavy-duty coilsprings by KingSprings andcustom made shockabsorbers by JamSport of Greece.

Bullbar with auxiliary
headlights .

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www.overlander.com.auWarn winch.

Car graphics designed by
4Wheels magazine art
director and applied by
Dobby Design-Athens.

Roof-rack andheadlamp protectors.

Motorola 9505A Iridium
phone. Use costs $1/
minute to landline phones.

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The World Off Road

How do we survive?

onWe write articles for different magazines, report
We are not rich, so we have to work on the road.
that permits us tosalaryaearnwewayThisomroad.crldoff
the radio and have our site, www.thewomodation.
spend on average AU$10 per night for accom
go on exploring. Our daily budget is basic. We
AU$20um
maximgpayin
hotelsbasicin
we would staySometimes we bush camp (for free!). In Asiaand hopefully a toilet and TV.
etintern
sswirelening,
nditioair-cowith
per night for a decent roomts in Africa. In
in cheap food stalls in Asia or in local marke
Food costs us about another AU$10 per day
steaks!
rump
thetosthankhere,t
but we gain weighAustralia, supermarkets cost us a little bit moreshipping (like the 30visas,e),averagon
100kmlitres/(12.5fuelMost of our money is spent on diesel
day shipping from Sydney to LA).
e failure‘Disco’ was under guarantee. Luckily, the engin
Car repairs cost almost nothing as long as theaccess cash? From
wedoHow.
00km
102,0done
ghavincar
was covered by Land Rover, despite thelike Sudan
here in the world except embargoed countries
VISA compatible ATMs that are spread everyw
rs inburgla
thetothistellDon’tcar.
the, well hidden inand Iran. In case of emergency, we have $1000
your neighbourhood though!

Iran and Pakistan are some of the most
hospitable countries in the world. That’sa fact we discovered first hand. Asa traveller, they make you feel like acelebrity there.
We then took a deep breath andentered India. We were overwhelmedby this country from our very firstexperience. India is a challenge
for any traveller. Despite ourexperience, the cultural shock wasunavoidable there. It is a toughcountry to digest. You need astrong stomach, strong eyes,of aitbastrong ears, a strong nose andecan bAfrica k.
ha big heart to survive there.
guo
shocg thr
cultureTravellin
Driving is literally like being in hell.
You just can’t snooze – you can’t even sneeze
and take your eyes off the road for a second. Something
will happen for the millisecond you clear your nose – there
are so many threats around just about every corner.
Communicating with people is tricky. At the beginning it’sa love/hate relationship between you and this incredible

melting pot of people, cultures, religions, languages andspices. At the end, India proves to be addictive. I still don’tknow why.
Next destination was Malaysia. We had to ship theLand Rover there as it was not possible to cross Burma.
‘No way’, we were told by the Burmese embassy in Delhi.
From Kuala Lumpur we did a long roundtrip throughThailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and back to Thailand
and Malaysia. 13,000km in two months across one of themost diverse, historic and cultural places in the world. In
the end we could easily distinguish a Vietnamese hot pot
from Pad Thai (Thai egg-fried rice) and knew much moreabout the Khmer Rouge genocide, the Vietnam War, theLaos bombings and the opium trafficking out of the mighty
Golden Triangle.
Back to modern Kuala Lumpur we were feeling like wewere home as we had to cross the Melaka straights by awooden vessel and get to Sumatra. What a thrill that was,watching our valuable car hanging from a crane by rottenropes. For a moment I was sure we would lose it in the sea.
It was on the road to Bandah Aceh – where the tsunami
hit in 2004 killing more than 220,000 people – that a‘tsunami’ hit the engine of our car. It must have been

It’s a love/hate relationshipbetween you and this incredible
melting pot of people, cultures,religions, languages
and spices.

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The World Off Road

The locals w
ere all very
friendly
and welcoming.

something like that as there
was no other reason to seize.
That was like ground zero for.
leyad lifestorff
our expedition. Where shouldoe
Living th
we take our car? And how?
For how long should we wait for a newengine? And how much would the repair cost? Finally,
we decided to carry our Disco back to Kuala Lumpur, theclosest place where we could replace the unit.
Towing and loading the car for 1200km was a painfuladventure for eight days. After two months of great effort
by the people at Land Rover, we were able to start our newengine and travel to Australia. Luckily, the replacementof the engine was covered under warranty by Land
Rover, despite our car having more than 100,000km on
it. We were told that this was a unique case that should
be inspected thoroughly. We are proud that our car willWe spent the next threemonths in a completelydifferent lifestyle. Nomore noodles, we could
have the best rump steak
here on a daily basis.

possibly make turbo-diesel engines better insome way after our break down.
So, one morning we arrived in Australia byplane and the car came afterwards in a container.
We spent the next three months in a completelydifferent lifestyle Down Under. No more noodles,
we could have the best rump steak here on a dailybasis. No more traffic, the roads were open, long,deserted. (Obviously you didn’t drive throughSydney Mate! TN) No more people! Just one
roadhouse every 400 to 500km, where the beer was
as cold as anywhere in Sydney.
That was the Outback. A 10,000km trip from Perth, toBroome, to Alice Springs, to Birdsville, to the Great Barrier
Reef. What’s left from this trip? Thousands of pictures,four destroyed tyres, 43 new friends and four flies in mystomach. Outback flies are a problem for any travellerin this vast country. A real ‘pain in the arse’, to use an
Australian term that we learnt on our trip.
As far as the other myths about the Outback, leavethem for the campfire. For sure, if you want to cross theTanami desert, you have to take it seriously but there isnothing horrific there, just an endless nothing for 1100km.
If you want to cross the Simpson Desert, this is even more
serious. You need a proper 4WD, the right mental approachand good company as well. You need the right season as
well and we didn’t have it, so we feel real sorry that wehad to circumnavigate the French line dunes and follow theOodnadatta and Birdsville Track.
For more reasons, we felt sorry that we had to leave
Australia but we are hitting the American roads and offroad tracks next. Possibly from LA to Chicago throughRoute 66 and on to Mexico. Or maybe we will go to Alaska
first, we really don’t know. This is the way we travel. We
are Overlanders, which means we are like rolling stones.
So stay tuned to Overlander and follow our adventuresfrom now on. For updated info you can also log onto: www.
theworldoffroad.com to see where we are in real time!

and Vula document
Next month, Akis
their epic journey
the first part ofyou can see fromAs
through Africa.
visually spectacularthese photos, it’s aa fantastic story.
asllvoyage as we

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