How did we actually got an off-road car? Well... on our first big trip through Europe we came more often to points on our trip where the road ended for our van. The decisive point for the fact that we much rather wanted to have a car which is offroadable came then however in Montenegro. We were in the mountains of Durmitor National Park when it was spring. Of course, there was still a lot of snow up there at that time, but the roads were free everywhere and good to drive on. At some point, we came to a stop where a small hill of snow blocked the road and we couldn't possibly pass or cross it with our van.

Thus, we came to the wish on a somewhat more flexible car for a change.

That was the period where Hugo (Troopy) a Isuzu Trooper Magic 2 came into our life. A nearly 30 years old off-road vehicle with a lot of charm and character in which we immediately fell in love with.

A few weeks ago, we came to the point that Troopy did not want and could not do as we wanted. So, we sold him on the street to a man who gave us a jump start because the bae didn't want to start again.

This summer we’ll change to a new period in our travels with a new Van and we couldn’t be more exited!

Here are some of our favorite photos of Hugo and our adventures.

We had Hugo for about 4 years

and drove more than 70.000 KM

Our first car with which we started the roadtrip / Vanlife life was a very ordinary family van. We didn't have much money back then and wanted to get going so we searched the internet for a cheap big family van where we would have enough space to sleep. When we found Kalli, a Kia Carnival, we decided that that is the one. It has two rows of seats in the back and our naive thought was simple, yes! Yes, there will be enough room for our stuff and us.

Without further ado we found a cheap one on the internet, looked at it right away and decided that it was our car. Within a week we have converted the car cheap and quickly to our first "Travelvan". Just a few Ikea shelves underneath. Of wooden slats we put a slatted frame on top with velcro tape. Underneath was all our stuff as well as our kitchen. We could’ve reached our stuff very easy by lifting the mattress which was all over the place and that worked well for us. After all, we just wanted to go. At that time, we didn't know that Kalli was awarded the golden carrot for the most unreliable car, but we wouldn't have given a damn at that time.

The experiences we had in and with this car were simply all we wanted back then, and we loved it. Even the fact that the hand brake in Greece tore us wasn't stopping from travelling any further and after all this that car carried us for over 55,000 km through Europe and showed us that you don't need much to be happy and to have beautiful experiences that you won't forget.

Here are some very old pictures of our Kia.

We drove Kalli for 1 year

and drove more than 55.000 KM

Our Offroad Car

Our first Van