Home away from home: overlanding to Thailand

Kim, Laurens, Voss and Soy are on their way to Thailand and beyond. We were delighted to supply them with the Gibson 460XE they are using for this trip. They will be blogging for our website at irregular intervals to let our readers share in their experiences and adventures along the way.

Blog 1

Our home, the Gibson 460XE

At the beginning of 2024, we took the plunge. We moved into our camper van with our then ten-year-old son and an equally active border collie. We have since moved twice and now live in our robust off-road Gibson 460XE caravan, travelling the world of our dreams.

We started out in an Eriba caravan and then switched to a Mercedes Vito that we converted into a mobile home ourselves. After we stopped using our 1984 Mercedes 310 as a food truck, the Vito made way and we converted the 310. We drove up mountains and went on beautiful trips in Switzerland and Italy. We love to seek out mountains where we can hike for hours and enjoy the minimalist travel lifestyle. Then we got the idea to really live this way and started testing and trying out different motorhomes in Europe. After two different white motorhomes, which quickly proved unsuitable for getting to the places we wanted to go, we went back to the drawing board. We wanted to leave Europe temporarily and head for Asia. We are going off-road.

At first, we looked at each other like crazy when the option of a caravan came up, but now we are totally enthusiastic. It felt like we were switching from snowboarding to skiing. Which is what happened eleven years ago, and no offence to skiing, because it's great.

We are now in Turkey and have started the journey we have been dreaming about for years. Since our four-legged friend has been travelling with us, flying is no longer an option, so we are going overland with our Land Rover Defender 130 and Gibson 460XE.

The advantages we experience with our Gibson 460XE.

• The convenience of a separate car

Being able to use the car separately gives us a lot of freedom and peace of mind. We can set up camp in the most beautiful spots and stay as long as we want. We can run errands, visit places in the area that are too far to walk to, and don't have to move our home.

• Off-road trails

The problem we encountered with our motorhomes was that we couldn't get to the places we wanted to go. We wanted to get a little further off the beaten track, to lakes and places with views. Even with our current combination, we plan our routes carefully and check whether we can turn and manoeuvre, but bumpy tracks and potholes are no problem for us!

• The enormous bed

The caravan is our home where we live all the time. We love minimalist comfort. Sleep is one of the most important things, so we were looking for a home with a spacious and open bed. We found it. Even with three of us, we can occasionally watch a film or lie in bed a little longer. Actually, it's often two of us who stay in bed a little longer. One of us likes to get up early and wants to do some work while the others are still in bed. This is important because we are also working while travelling. This fits perfectly. What we didn't want was to convert the bed into a table and vice versa.

• Space for the three of us to work

We also work while we're on the road, and the seating area we chose is perfect for that.

• The outdoor kitchen

The kitchen is so complete that it's a pleasure to cook. We always cook outside with the most beautiful views. This brings you into direct contact with your surroundings and we live so much more outdoors than we ever did when we had a permanent home.

• Compost toilet

What we encountered before was constantly looking for a place to empty the chemical toilet. We stayed on an organic farm with a family with children in Portugal, where our son immediately made friends. This is important to us when travelling, because he doesn't go to school, so we have to find other children to play with when we're on the road. After three days, we really had to empty our toilet and there was no option in the vicinity. If we had had a compost toilet at the time, we could have stayed as long as we wanted.

In the coming months, we will continue our journey towards Mongolia. In September, we want to drive through China to Laos and Thailand. Thailand is where we will take a break from travelling. We want to stay there a little longer, but plans are always subject to change, so who knows where we will be in six months' time.

Freedom, Joy and Wisdom.

Love,

Voss, Laurens, Kim and Soy.