Travelling with Ella and Geert

On this page we will tell you all about why we travel and why we have chosen to spend our lives travelling indefinitely. It's about freedom, mental and physical health, passion, people, cultures and living your dream. But we also write blogs on the topic of travel and provide all kinds of tips and recommendations here.

And what we believe may be important, but of course we also let others speak on the subject of travel.

Travel with us and others!

After Ella and I met in 2012, it soon became apparent that we shared the passion for travel. It may sound strange, but that was especially evident when we drove around for days when we were somewhere. Or, for example, if we went cycling for a day with no specific goal. The feeling of freedom, meeting people and seeing and experiencing new things is just amazing, that is life. But above all to do this without having a targeted goal or finishing a (bucket)list. We both just love a day of touring, in whatever form.

In our first years together we have mainly been to Florida and United States and we have been away some nice weekends in the Netherlands or somewhere in Europe. We were in Florida a lot because Geert had a house there, from a previous life. When we were in Florida, we used to go out for a few days or more. That could be south towards Miami and the Keys. That could be to New Orleans via Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. But that could also be along Florida's east coast towards South Carolina. And during those trips, we noticed that we were at our best. Go out freely, see where we end up, meet new (fun, sweet, peculiar) people and see and experience new things. People, places and cultures (yes, also in the USA). We can safely say that it was there that a large part of the foundation has been laid for our current life.

One of the amazing places we dicovered in Florida is Lake Weir. It is a fantastic quiet rural lake south of Ocala.

We just drove around Central Florida and ended up at this lake where we spent the weekend.

One of the fantastic things we did at Lake Weir was hiring a small boat and sailing accross the lake the entire day.

Florida

In 2015, we sold the house in Florida. We also wanted to travel to other places and we also had wishes in the Netherlands. In 2016 we spent a few weeks in Canada and the US. We then travelled through Ontario in Canada from Toronto. And in the U.S. pulled through New York (state), Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts. In those weeks, for the first time, the idea arose that it would actually be fantastic to live in this way continuously. We drove from one beautiful place to another. Then we stayed for a few more days and drove on. And so for a few weeks in a row. At Lake Champlain (blog about this is definitely coming) in the north of New York state and bordering Vermont we started to muse for the first time. The first idea was to do this towards our retirement. But have you actually thought about the traditional approach of retirement?

During our trip to Canada and the United States in 2016 the idea for travelling indefinite came to our minds for the first time.

We drove from one beautiful place to another. Stayed at beautiful spots for a few days and moved on.

We really became aware that this is how we want to live our lives.

Canada

In 2017 we did not spend long on holiday due to private circumstances. However, Geert went to New York with his best friend for a few days to celebrate their 50th birthday. And together we spent two wonderful weeks in Portugal. Because it had been hectic that year, we mainly took a rest there and did not travel around much in Portugal. It was actually planned for 2017 to make a long trip to New Zealand. But we eventually postponed this to 2018. In the meantime, of course, we were increasingly thinking about our ideas and our plans. By now, we had determined that one day we would stop working and move out into the wider world. But how, what and when? The great thing is that we now look back on that thought process and that development with great pleasure. It is part of the journey and for those who are in the same process, embrace that part of the journey as well and enjoy it.

The year 2018 was also a hectic year. Geert was unfortunately hit by a burnout as a result of years of working too hard and the unpleasant private circumstances. The whole year 2018 has actually been all about recovery and the trip to New Zealand at the end of 2018 came at a very good time in that respect. We had planned the trip at the end of the year. The reason for this was that we combined it with visiting a wedding in HongKong. Our good friends Lui and Frank, who live in HongKong, got married in October. And that was a prime opportunity for us to plan our trip to New Zealand and combine it. We would then be in New Zealand in the last week of October and much of November. That in itself is a good period, spring then arrives, so in terms of weather that is very possible and doable.

We chose to travel around New Zealand in a small campervan. That was a conscious choice. It was already anticipated to travel around in our future travelling life with a camper as well. And so we wanted to try out a number of possibilities. For the details of our trip to New Zealand, please refer to the page about New Zealand. But in New Zealand we did say to each other at one point that we were not going to wait any longer to implement our plans. And from that moment on, we started working towards it to fill in our lives in a different way.

In New Zealand at the end of 2018 we drove around in a little campervan. We were testing if we could adapt to this way of travelling.

The campervan in New Zealand was a bit too small for us but we knew that we could travel like this.
We decided in New Zealand to execute our plans to travel indefinite as soon as possible.

New Zealand

The small campervan in New Zealand we found just a little too small for our ideas and plans. So in the summer of 2019 we went to travel around Europe with a rented larger camper for a few weeks. This was a semi-integral camper of more than 7 meters long. In the weeks that we travelled through the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France and Italy, we liked this camper. The mindset had already become a lot clearer. If we were going to buy a camper in the future, it would probably be a bigger half-integral model than a smaller one. During these weeks we were also confirmed in our feelings and ideas about a different life.

Instead of focusing on 2025, or retirement, or a year somewhere far ahead, we now went for "as soon as possible". In addition, you have to deal with a lot of things, house, work, family, friends and health. But in the end we decided at the end of 2019 that we would definitely go in 2020. And our original plan was to try to travel back to New Zealand without using a plane. That means with the Trans Siberia Express via Russia and Mongolia to China. Via South Korea, Japan and again China and a bit of HongKong to South-East Asia. Tour Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. Cross to Indonesia and travel there. Then make the crossing to Australia and from north to south there. The last crossing to New Zealand without an aircraft is a challenge but mooring on a ship is always possible. In short, the plan was to leave in September 2020 because then you will travel through Siberia before winter. Unfortunately Covid came.

Of course, we doubted in the spring of 2020. A sad event also ultimately caused us to just travel and execute our plans. Ella's mother passed away in the spring of 2020 but she eventually told us to go! And we did! Such an inspiration. We were ready and we started the process. Before we knew it, our house was sold. And when that process was complete, we quit our jobs. That is of course quite a thing and that seems not easy and is not easy. But looking back on it now and we are saying this to everyone, just do it! Once you cross that threshold, there is only the beautiful way ahead.

We couldn't execute the original plan. Of course, we will certainly do that as soon as it is safe, the reverse route or an alternative route is also conceivable. But travelling with a camper has always been in our plans. And that turned out to be a very good approach to start our journey. In the summer we bought our camper after good preliminary research because it is our house for a large part of our time for a longer period of time. And on September 3, 2020, we left. It was the third of September…..

We started our life of travelling indefinite in our own camper during the months of September and October of 2020.

Unfortunately we had to stop driving around because of the Covid situation in Europe.

But driving around in our camper will always be a big part of our travel adventures.

Travel with Camper

You can read all about our adventures and experiences from September 3rd 2020 on the Travel page. There is an overview of our travels, where we have been, what we have been through, what tips and recommendations we have and especially how much we enjoy. And we are writing this in the spring of 2021, we are not quite up to date yet but check our site regularly and read about our adventures and experiences.

And for us it's completely clear, we made the right decision.

We live our dream

And that means that we travel, meet new people, we are in beautiful places and see the most beautiful things, decide for ourselves every day what we will or will not do and experience complete freedom. And we are never going to change that ever again.

Travelling