A World Tour In Our 2012 Land Rover Defender

In 2015, planning a world tour was not on our agenda. I am French/Italian and grew up in Asia and Africa. I currently travel through Europe opening international markets for a French tech start-up. Mathilde grew up in France and at the age of 20, left to live in the Americas and the Middle East. She currently works for the United Nations and travels to Africa on a regular basis.

BIRTH OF THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY

In 2015, Mathilde and I decided to take a weekend road trip through Belgium. It was fantastic. It really wet our appetites for more vehicle based travel. As a matter of fact, from that fated week-end, we never stopped travelling. Holidays and weekends provided opportunities for more adventures. We travelled up the west coast of the United States sleeping in a rented SUV, crossed Sri Lanka driving a Tuk Tuk, and drove along the Loire River in France by motorcycle…no free time was left unexploited.

Some of our other trips include: Southeast Europe from Paris to Montenegro, Corsica, Northern Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Iceland, Faroe Island, the Alps, Cabo Verde, and Peru. The years passed and many new places were explored, but that was still not enough for us. We longed for a trip that would take us farther. A trip that would eclipse everything we had done up to that point. We wanted to go on a worldwide overlanding tour.

In March 2020, we raced a 1100 Renault 4L in the ‘4L Trophy’, a French race in Morocco. After multiple months of finding sponsors and equipping the car, we started our 5-day race in the eastern desert of Morocco and came in 9^thplace.

This achievement along with our extensive love of travel were the catalysts that led us to realize the adventure of a lifetime: A three year world tour spanning 88 countries and all seven continents in our 2012, fully modified Land Rover Defender, which we christened “Albatross”. We would call this 186,411 mile journey, “The Next Meridian Expedition”. And all this began with that fated week-end trip through Belgium in 2015!

Many people talk about travelling around the world, while few actually do it. There were many questions from friends, family and frankly from ourselves such as, “Aren’t you scared to leave your stable jobs? When will you start a family? Aren’t you afraid of spending all of your savings? What does your family think about this?”. These questions plagued us, but ultimately we decided that we needed to do this. We decided that this kind of experience could not wait for retirement. Mathilda and I strongly believe that life is meant to be lived to the fullest and that, with hard work and planning, dreams can be realized. The Covid-19 pandemic strengthened these feelings and we knew that we had to get busy and start making some concrete plans.

FINDING THE MONEY

The decision had been made. Now reality began knocking at our door. We needed to find money and a car in order to begin to plan our project. Deciding how you will realize your dream does not come easily. Over a series of Sunday brunches, we put together a savings plan. Strict and fair, we decided we would put all our money that was not allocated for necessities (rent, insurance, etc.) into a specific and untouchable bank account. A year before departure, we started selling anything we were not using on a regular basis. We sold our car, some of our clothing and electronics. Every Euro counted in order to turn our dream into reality. After estimating a rough figure of how much money we would need for three years of world travel, we calculated how long it would take to save that amount and established our departure date: 18^th April, 2022. Not the 19^th or the 17^th… it would be the 18^th , right after Easter weekend.

PROJECT NAME AND LOGO

Our next step was to come up a project name and logo. We decided to brainstorm all the words that would illustrate our project. We came up with the likes of: Tropics, Meridians, Travel, Journey, Adventure, Odyssey, Expedition, Horizon, Road Trip, and Continent. After long hours of playing with words, we found it. Our project name would be: Next Meridian Expedition or NME. It meant, “The ongoing motion of driving from one meridian to another.”. After a couple more evenings of work and with the help of my brother’s photoshop skills, we had a logo. The project was becoming a reality.

CHOOSING THE ULTIMATE VEHICLE

Choosing the perfect vehicle took us longer than we had thought. For me, no questions asked, it had to be a 4X4. Gravel roads are nice for a weekend jaunt, but for a world tour we needed a 4×4 capable of travelling on all types of roads and under all types of conditions.

Although Mathilde agreed with me that a 4×4 was the best choice, she highlighted the need to have some sort of livable space within the vehicle. This led us on a quest for a pop up style roof top tent. I talked to dozens of car sellers, analyzed all purchasing options in Europe and North America, compared taxes in different countries and test drove a variety of models. Our final choice was between either the Toyota Troopy 70 series or the Defender. The Troopy was too expensive and hard to find in Europe, so we decided on the original Land Rover Defender. It was within our budget and could be fitted with a pop-up tent. That was it, I went online and knocked at every door trying to find one. In less than a month, we ended up driving nine hours from Belgium to the center of France to pick up our 2012 TD4 Land Rover Defender already partly equipped for Overlanding with a pop-up rooftop tent!

Meet Albatross, (Albo) our 2012 Land Rover Defender

Originally from the United Kingdom

TRAVEL HISTORY: The Americas, Morocco, France, Belgium, Sweden, Faroe island, Iceland.

SPECS: Land Rover Defender, TD4 2.2L Turbo Diesel Puma, 2012 model. Ex-Tec interior and pop-up roof, 16″ BFG tires, VisionX lighting, T-Max winch, Engel Fridge, Coleman stove, MaMousse mattress and tons of other custom made furniture and utility parts. It’s time for the BIG trip.

PREPARING FOR A WORLD TOUR

Savings, a car, and a name was not enough to enable us to leave on our expedition. Planning the routes, figuring out the administrative requirements for each country, finding partnerships, launching social media pages and developing a website and preparing Albatross for the long journey ahead were the next orders of business. Our professional backgrounds made completing the administrative tasks relatively easy, but knowledge of travel requirements for crossing borders and continents, navigation, business, and social media does not make two young office workers into mechanics; experience and training do. We really had to step up our game to be able to prepare both ourselves and the vehicle for our World tour.

We received a helping hand from a few sponsors to equip the car:

Euro4x4parts, a spare parts company from France who has proposed a yearly budget on Defender spare parts to be sent worldwide when needed.
SunWare a Marine Solar Panel company from Germany who create solar panels for the maritime and overlanding markets. They’ve provided us with two types of Solar Panels. A fixed 100W flexible panel which we set-up on the roof and a Plug&Play 100W panel which we use to charge our electronic devices.
Rough-Parts, an accessories company from Switzerland who offered us a Sand Ladder Bracket Mount which acts as both a recovery sand board carrier and when opened up becomes an outdoor side table!
MudStuffUk, a well-known accessories and equipment company from England who has sent us a package containing new car speakers, mud guards, storage nets, a first aid kit and documents storage pouch.
Rover Land, a 1-person accessories company from Belgium who has set us up with a water heater kit for our shower.
Bart Fluitsma, a friend and 1-person company based in the Netherlands who built our Next Meridian Expedition website. www.nextmeridianexpedition.live

In Exchange we will act as ambassadors for the brands. If you need anything or have questions, don’t hesitate to contact them directly.

GETTING OUR DEFENDER “WORLD TOUR READY”

Although our vehicle was already decently equipped, some work was left for us to do. We really had to sharpen our mechanical skills…. and we did. Here are some of the fixes and upgrades that we made. We changed the intercooler, shock absorbers, axels, injectors and the breaks. In addition, we had to replace the existing water tank with a new 65L version, which required us to completely unmount all the interior set-up.

New installations included a set-up of better lights, a new air compressor, solar panels and a water heater system for the shower. We pierced holes in the side of the Defender to set up the rack mounts for the jerrycans and we got some help from Mathilde’s father to custom-build a drawer in place of the back passenger seat for us to store our electronics. In order to make sure that the entire vehicle was comfy enough for a multi-year expedition, we ordered a new mattress, I installed LED lights inside for a cozier feel and Mathilde hand-sewed couch cushions and matching pouches to style the rest. The result? A tiny house on wheels!

NEXT STEPS

We are impatient to leave but before our departure on April 18th, 2022 we have a lot to do. We will be quitting our jobs, finalizing the last few installations and administrative documentation for the trip and making sure we’ve got everything ready for D-Day.

If you wish to follow our adventure or get in touch with us, you can find us here:

Website: https://nextmeridianexpedition.live/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nextmeridian.expedition/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/nextmeridianexpedition

Facebook: https://facebook.com/NextMeridian.Expedition/

If you’d like to see our set-up, watch the video below. A new Video will be coming out soon as we’ve already made other major changes to the build.

To check out other awesome trips click HERE

Living in Long Shadows – Andy Best

Andy Palmer

“Living in Long Shadows” – featuring photographer and filmmaker Andy Best.

The film follows Andy Best and his family—(Andy, his wife, and his two children)—as they trek in their kitted-out Tacoma and Four Wheel Camper across the American Southwest, searching for sights few have seen, and fewer have captured on film.

A creative from birth, Andy Best grew up with art in his blood; his grandmother was a successful oil painter, and he followed in her creative footsteps, sketching and drawing. His love for sharing emotion through visual mediums expanded into filmmaking and eventually photography, both of which led him to his outdoor adventure lifestyle.

Today, Andy Best’s location-independent living is key to his success: He’s able to take work wherever it presents itself, and capture stunning images and footage along the way. He has partnered with National Geographic Adventure, ROAM, and other well-known adventure media outlets, all while maintaining a family and living a nomadic lifestyle few successfully claim as their own.

Having been out on the road for almost a decade now, Andy Best continually seeks inspiration in our wild places and the wonderful people he meets along the way.

“Creating experiences for my children, while having the unique opportunity to work from the road, allows me to be more present in my family’s lives and produce the best work possible,” says Best. “This is a chapter we’ll never forget! I hope you enjoy our story.”

TAP Editor’s Note: As Overlanders and Adventure Photographers, Andy Best is an inspiration to us here at TAP! A committed and seasoned Overland traveler who truly lives Life Without a Ceiling. Thanks Andy for this beautiful short film.

Travel The Planet Overland Field Manual- 2nd Edition

Andy Palmer

Written to inspire and inform, the Travel the Planet Overland Field Manual is the second edition of the exceedingly popular book first published by Graeme and Luisa Bell in 2016, with 70% new content! A decade lived full time on the road, across five continents, has taught the Bell family how to thrive and survive the overland lifestyle. The manual includes comprehensive topics ranging from choosing and building your own vehicle to making money on the road, staying healthy, raising and educating children, dealing with border crossings, living in the great outdoors, and everything in between. The Bell’s share their hard-earned knowledge and wisdom with the reader.

‘What I love about this book is how Graeme and Luisa’s love of life and travel really shine through in its text, while providing practical information and a healthy dose of their tongue-in-cheek South African humour. This is not a dry, scientific expeditioner’s guide to travelling the world. This is the antithesis. A book that can keep your attention while providing good information based on common, real world experiences. It not only gives the reader the Bells’ viewpoint but also from other adventurers’. Scott Brown 4xOverland

To secure your copy click HERE

Building a Life you don’t have to escape from

Contributor

Four Wheel campers, pop up campers, FWC, Overlanding, over land, overland, off-roading, offroad, off road, vehicle supported adventure,

Building a life: Chris and Jillian McLean of McLean Metalworks have been working to build a life they don’t want to escape from since they first found each other 10 years ago. When they met while working at an aerospace company in 2011, they would structure their off-hours around exploring the Pacific Northwest- offroading, hiking, paddleboarding, and of course, seeking out the best breweries and casual food spots in town. The McLeans were always looking for the next vehicle supported adventure to escape the day-to-day grind. Back then, they usually took Chris’ 1988 Toyota Pickup, a cooler, a two-man tent, and headed out to the Cascades. They loved the ability to get to a remote spot where they wouldn’t have cell service or see other humans the whole time they were out there. Hitting the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route (WABDR), playing on the Naches trails, and camping along Salmon La Sac outside Cle Elum remain some of their favorite experiences.

Whenever they weren’t out and exploring, Chris could often be found tinkering away on trucks, projects, and well…hammock stands. A hitch-mounted hammock stand was an idea he came up with years earlier as a part of a college manufacturing project and Chris spent hours after work and on the weekends iterating on his prototypes. After a few more years, Chris finally found an iteration he was ready to take to market. He was never sold on the corporate life, so the decision to quit his job and start McLean Metalworks full-time was one they both knew would be a fulfilling one and certainly a life change.

Chris founded McLean Metalworks in his and Jillian’s garage in Shoreline, WA. The first hammock mount was released in Spring of 2017 and they were so caught off-guard with the interest the product was receiving that they had to bribe some of their friends with beer to get help packing up the first batch of orders. The McLeans started attending local trade shows as vendors for the first time, and through growing their network and appreciation of the adventure industry, began to evolve their own adventure setup as well. Chris and Jillian picked up a vintage Lance cab-over that was older than them both, and a whole new level of truck camping was opened up to them. Within a couple months of purchasing the camper, they embarked on a several-week road trip down the western coast to see the sites and visit their families for the holidays. While the comfort of their setup had improved greatly, their ability to get off-the-grid had deprecated. Chris lovingly refers to the “sail-like” feeling of driving that setup in wind to this day.

Over the years, Chris has grown McLean Metalworks from a one-man operation in the garage to an independent business that occupies a growing commercial space and employs a handful of hardworking enthusiasts. While she has maintained her corporate career, Jillian jokes that she gets to do marketing, finances and product testing for McLean Metalworks on her nights and weekends. Together, they have scaled the company year over year since it’s inception. As the company has evolved, so has the McLeans’ adventure setup. They had been eying the Four Wheel Camper setup since getting to tour them at their very first Northwest Overland Rally as attendees in 2015. Many tours and hours of research (on Chris’ part) later, they finally placed their order for a slide-in Hawk in Fall of 2019.

The timing couldn’t be better as they picked up their new camper in January of 2020, before the world and life changed as we knew it. The first few months of the pandemic were slow for business, as the world grappled with the uncertainty that came with COVID-19. Chris, never excelling at the ability to slow down, took advantage of this time to build out a custom utility bed for the Hawk.

The utility bed started out as a concept with the goal of maximizing all of the dead space between the camper and outside of the truck. While the Four Wheel Camper really does maximize the space for a typical truck bed even utilizing space above the wheel wells and including access panels for the outside space in front of the wheel wells, they knew there was more opportunity. The goal was not only for more storage, but also improved functionality. This led Chris to develop his design around 2 prefabricated storage boxed (heavily modified) and leave the rest of the space open to the elements. This design allowed the McLeans to have a large, single door to close out this space while functioning as a table for an outdoor kitchen or anything else. The setup for an outdoor kitchen was a requirement neither Chris or Jillian was willing to compromise on. The steel framed bed was then coated and skinned with aluminum and ABS plastic depending on the surface requirements to create an overall aesthetic.

The bed was just the beginning of the truck evolution from street queen to adventure machine. With the utility bed complete and Hawk acquired, the McLeans had their mobile home and plenty of storage space, but still wanted the parts that would help them get further, quicker. So, the next modifications included adding a set of 35” Nitto Ridge Grapplers on KMC wheels, Fox Shocks (custom tuned by Accutune), a Trail Ready front bumper, and a custom rear bumper with swing out tire/bike carrier. Finally, the whole setup was wrapped with a custom design for a unique and eye-catching look. After years of hard work and planning, The McLeans had finally built their dream bug out rig.

Now, McLean Metalworks isn’t producing these beds commercially…but who’s to say that they won’t change their minds with enough peer pressure?

Beyond creating the time for the utility bed development, the pandemic also provided Chris and Jillian an opportunity to make yet another major move towards their dream life. With Jillian proving that she could hold her corporate role virtually, the couple realized they could live anywhere they wanted as long as they could bring the business with them. They had always dreamed of retiring in Bend, OR, but now could pull that dream up to the present! Many road trips down later, the McLeans had moved their family and their business to this small town in Central Oregon.

The adventure lifestyle and access to the outdoors couldn’t be better than they are experiencing in Bend – Chris and Jillian love having epic dispersed camping just waiting to be found in under an hour’s drive, and can’t believe breathtaking sites like Crater Lake and the Painted Hills are now an easy day trip. They are still using their bug out setup regularly, whether it’s for a day trip to the river where they can cook breakfast outside, or a last-minute camping trip in any direction. If you were to ask them what their favorite feature on their build is, the answer changes with every trip. Most recently, Jillian was extra grateful for the external shower feature they got on the Hawk as their golden retriever had found some poop in the woods and needed an emergency shower at camp!

Now, with every day life being in Bend, you can still find the McLeans building a life they never have to escape from – whether that’s at their favorite brewery’s locals night on a Tuesday, out in the forest on a Saturday, or just on the road in their adventure mobile.

To learn more about McLean Metalworks check HERE

For more Four Wheel Camper stories check HERE

Editors note: This article is sponsored content.

‘Tacozilla’ – Toyota Has A New Camper Concept:

Andy Palmer

The Toyota Hilux Chinook popup camper is an Adventure Rig icon of the past! So, why not showcase a new concept version, a Tacoma-based “Tacozilla” at the Las Vegas SEMA trade show next month.

“The build we’re doing right now freaks me out.” – Marty Schwerter, the team manager for Toyota’s new “Tacozilla” project.

We can’t wait to see the finished “Tacozilla”

Driving from Alaska to the Lower 48

Contributor

By Kelly Laustsen and David Somach – Gnar Wagon

We capped off with a fantastic drive home to Oregon via the Alaska Highway, Icefields Parkway, Banff-Windermere Parkway, and Yahk–Kingsgate Highway, crossing the border at Kingsgate before ultimately ending our trip in Oregon. We did the drive in ten days, driving about 200 miles on our shortest day and about 450 miles on our longest day. Our key impressions from the drive are listed below, followed by some of our favorite stops along the way.

Gnar Wagon in Northern Rockies Provincial Park

We drove the van to Alaska earlier in the summer, taking the Stewart-Cassiar Highway to the Alaska Highway. This route is supposedly a few hours faster according to Google Maps. However, much of the road quality on the Stewart-Cassiar was so poor we drove at twenty- to thirty-miles-per-hour, leading us to believe the routes are close in travel time.
Driving between the northwestern United States and Alaska is much more reasonable than expected. Before our summer trip, we thought we’d only ever drive to and from Alaska once. At first glance, the route looked long with big sections with limited destinations. However, we’d happily drive the route many more times given all we found to do and the beautiful scenery.
While fuel stations were limited on sections of the drive to Alaska, our route home had many more services and we didn’t have to be as careful about running out of fuel. It was also easier to find fuel stations with ultra-low sulfur diesel on the way home, which our van requires.
We spent about a week driving from the Alaska/Canada border to the Idaho/Canada border and wouldn’t suggest doing it any quicker. Our drive truly felt like a road trip, with lots of time to explore and linger at spots we especially enjoyed. It didn’t feel like we had driven 1,900 miles between border crossings when we arrived in the United States, which is the true testament to a good road trip!

Tops Spots between Alaska and the Lower 48, from North to South

Kluane Lake: Kluane Lake is located about 140 miles from the Alaska/Canada border and is the largest lake in the Yukon. The views from the Alaska Highway across the lake are spectacular so you don’t even have to leave the road to enjoy Kluane Lake. However, if you want to stop awhile there are a lot of hikes near the lake. The weather was cool and rainy when we stopped at the lake, so we opted for the short hike to Soldier’s Summit. While we saw a lot of camping spots along the river, we weren’t confident on land ownership so opted to camp a little east of the lake.

Whitehorse and Miles Canyon: Whitehorse is the only city in Yukon and home to lots of restaurants, breweries, grocery stores, hiking and biking trails, and outdoor activities galore. When we drove up to Alaska Whitehorse was closed to visitors and we hadn’t realized the city had reopened, so we hadn’t planned on stopping on our drive home. Therefore, we didn’t spend much time in Whitehorse on this drive, but certainly plan to in the future. We did stop at Miles Canyon just south of Whitehorse for a quick walk and view of the impressive canyon. The area is rich with mountain bike trails and somewhere we could easily spend a full week.

Carcross: We opted to take a small detour to see Carcross and visit the Carcross Desert. A few years ago, we saw the short documentary SHIFT about the indigenous youth working to make Carcross a mountain biking destination, so Carcross has been on our radar for a while. Again, this is somewhere we’d like to revisit when we have bikes and a little more time. Carcross Desert is an amazing little spot, an unexpected patch of sand among snowy mountains. While many articles cite it as the world’s smallest desert, it is our understanding that it isn’t technically a desert, but sand dunes left over from a glacial lake. Regardless of its classification, we enjoyed walking around the dunes and marveling at the juxtaposition of snow and mountains.

Watson Lake and the Sign Post Forest: We spent an afternoon in Watson Lake, including a workout and shower at the Watson Lake Recreation Centre, an impressive facility shared with the Visitor Information Centre. Watson Lake is a good spot to stock up on groceries and fuel. However, the highlight of the town is the huge Sign Post Forest. According to the website for the Sign Post Forest, it includes more than 80,000 signs and was started in 1942 when a US Army Engineer added a sign to a post which stated “Danville, Illinois, 2835 miles.” The huge collection of eclectic signs reminded me of the gum wall in Seattle or the Pont des Arts bridge in Paris with padlocks bearing personal messages, but taken to another level. We started out reading every sign, but quickly realized that approach was impossible and settled for wandering around and occasionally stopping to read a few. While we weren’t nearly as prepared as other visitors, we did manage to piece together our own small sign to leave behind!

Liard River Hot Springs: We read that Liard River Hot Springs is the most visited location along the Alaska Highway, and for good reason! This hot spring is the perfect blend of a natural setting with some modern amenities, including a boardwalk to the pools, changing rooms, and pit toilets. There is a campground within walking distance to the Hot Springs which we’d choose to stay at in the future. We arrived at the springs in the morning, so we decided to stop just for a couple hours before continuing our drive. We were surprised to learn that the US Army built the first boardwalk to the pools in 1942 during the construction of the Alaska Highway.

Jasper and Banff: While we spent about a week in Jasper and Banff a few summers ago, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity for another stop, especially since the most direct route takes you through the Parks. We revisited a few of our favorite hikes, including Parker Ridge and Little Beehive at Lake Louise, and stopped for another hot springs experience at Radium Hot Springs. The fall colors were incredible, especially paired with a light snowfall on the mountain peaks. From our experiences, we think October is the best time to visit Jasper and Banff, given the lower crowds, fall colors, and typically dry weather.

Cranbrook Community Forest: Our last stop in Canada before reaching the border was Cranbrook for a nature walk in the Cranbrook Community Forest, which offers a large network of hiking and biking trails. Cranbrook was recommended to us on a past trip through Canada and is also on our list of places to further explore. As we crossed the border back into the United States, we were already thinking about the next trip to Alaska and the places we’d like to stop along the way.

For Part 1 and 2 of Gnar Wagon’s Summer in Alaska check HERE

Check out The Gnar Wagon Youtube Channel HERE

Check out The Gnar Wagon Instagram Page HERE

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The Adventure Portal

A World Tour In Our 2012 Land Rover Defender

BIRTH OF THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY

FINDING THE MONEY

PROJECT NAME AND LOGO

CHOOSING THE ULTIMATE VEHICLE

Meet Albatross, (Albo) our 2012 Land Rover Defender

PREPARING FOR A WORLD TOUR

GETTING OUR DEFENDER “WORLD TOUR READY”

NEXT STEPS

To check out other awesome trips click HERE

Living in Long Shadows – Andy Best

Travel The Planet Overland Field Manual- 2nd Edition

To secure your copy click HERE

Building a Life you don’t have to escape from

To learn more about McLean Metalworks check HERE

For more Four Wheel Camper stories check HERE

‘Tacozilla’ – Toyota Has A New Camper Concept:

Driving from Alaska to the Lower 48

Tops Spots between Alaska and the Lower 48, from North to South

For Part 1 and 2 of Gnar Wagon’s Summer in Alaska check HERE

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