Undercover van travels

(First published in Issue 9, June 2023) Hi, we are Gary, 36 years old, and Sheila, 29 years old, from Switzerland, and we would like to share our story with you. When it comes to sharing our story, we would like to put an emphasis on facts and numbers of our journey. Of course, we also like to share our adventurous experiences and interesting stories about the countries we are traveling to. But we have learned that numbers and simple facts are particularly helpful for other like minded travelers or for interested people who dream of traveling with their self converted van on their own.

Certainly, only numbers and facts would be boring, so we try to do a little bit of both, interesting stories and facts. In the hope of reducing fears and insecurities and inspiring some of you out there to go on your own adventures, here is our story.

It all began in 2018, when Gary, half Italian and a business economist, and Sheila, half Brazilian and a psychologist, first met. It quickly became clear that we had a lot of common interests and dreams for the future, especially traveling and videography. We wanted to break out and explore the world, leaving behind sedentary life and the familiar. So we made plans to go on a big trip in a self converted van together and film the whole project along the way.

In July 2019, we bought our Fiat Ducato. It took us a lot of time to research and plan the build, as well as to select and order suitable materials. We built our van completely without external assistance and acquired all the necessary knowledge from books, the internet, YouTube, and through learning by doing. At the beginning of 2021, we quit our apartment lease and our jobs, another big step toward our goal. We finally finished our build in August 2021 after more than two years of work.

For our big trip, we saved up 150,000 USD from 2018 to 2021. Additionally, we invested 90,000 USD in cryptocurrency. While traveling, Gary occasionally does minor administrative work for his family business, which brings in a few hundred dollars per month. Once a month, Sheila writes an article for the local newspaper Bieler Tagblatt, earning about 200 USD. This monthly income is too small to cover our daily living expenses, so we have been living off our savings since quitting our jobs.

Our Fiat Ducato was a former security van from the Swiss Post. It is equipped with a 2.3 liter Multijet diesel engine and has 130 horsepower. At the time of purchase, it already had a mileage of 208,000 kilometers (129,245 miles), and now it has around 280,000 kilometers (173,984 miles). The vehicle is from 2015, so it has the comfort of cruise control, a rearview camera, and air conditioning. We opted for the standard size L2H2, which means the following dimensions, length 5.41 meters (17.74 feet), height 2.54 meters (8.33 feet), and width 2.05 meters (6.72 feet). The vehicle has four wheel drive, a maximum permitted weight of 3.3 metric tons, and a trailer hitch. Concerning our build, we like to think of our van as a small high tech van with many amenities and a generous electrical setup. From the outside, the van looks very inconspicuous, but inside it feels like a small chalet where we feel safe and comfortable.

Our van includes 680 watts of solar panels, 400 amp hours of lithium batteries, an under bench air conditioner, a heated bathroom with shower and dry separation toilet, four infrared surveillance cameras, drainage with an electric ball valve, a diesel heater with a 10 liter hot water boiler, a two plate induction stove, a compressor cool box, a large sink with hot and cold water of approximately 32 liters, and an external shower.

We started our trip in August 2021 in Europe. After four months, we had traveled through 15 countries and driven over 17,200 kilometers (10,688 miles). From Germany to Austria, through Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the Czech Republic, back to Switzerland. For both of us, the highlight of our first van trip was reaching the North Cape in Norway. Our self made home on four wheels managed to get us to the northernmost drivable point of mainland Europe in November, in snow, ice, and freezing temperatures. We arrived there at almost 3 a.m., all alone, and felt like we were on a polar expedition.

We were also unlucky during our time in Finnish Lapland. While preparing dinner, Gary was chopping wood for a fire when, in a brief moment of carelessness, the hatchet fell out of his grip under his arm. The hatchet caught his little toe and almost severed it completely, with the toe hanging by a small piece of flesh. After visiting three hospitals and driving 350 kilometers (223 miles) through a raging blizzard on snow and ice covered roads, Gary was finally treated. His foot was x-rayed and a doctor sewed his toe back on. He had to spend the night in the hospital. The next morning, Gary was discharged, and each day his toe got better. More than a year has passed since the accident, and his toe is now completely healed.

In May 2022, we shipped our van from Hamburg in Germany to Halifax in Canada. In the past eleven months, we have traveled through North and Central America, and now we are in Panama. After our cold European trip, we could not wait to drive our van to warm, tropical, and exotic places. Our highlights so far include the US national parks. The variety and diversity of nature is breathtaking, from desert to mountain, alpine, and lake landscapes. In Philadelphia in the USA, we were mugged by a group of hooded men, but since we had no cash with us, they let us go. In Central America, we were particularly amazed by Guatemala. From the imposing Mayan site of Tikal in the middle of the rainforest, to the turquoise natural pools in Semuc Champey, Lake Atitlan with stunning sunsets, and the hike up the active volcano Fuego, the country left a strong impression on us. Our journey continues. Next, we will ship our van in a container from Panama to Colombia. Meanwhile, we will make a five day sailing trip through the Panamanian San Blas Islands to Cartagena. Then the adventure of South America awaits us. Our time horizon is simple, until we run out of money or until we no longer feel like traveling.

We always strive to continuously improve our skills in videography and to create content with emotion. We want to tell stories in pictures, reach people, touch them, and inspire them. We appreciate contact with other like minded people and are happy to answer any questions about the van conversion or the trip. Feel free to contact us on social media and we will write back.