World by Land: A fascinating trip around the world by car

Technical Information:

Copyright © 2016 Roy Rudnick & Michelle F. Weiss

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except for short quotations in publishing reviews and magazine and newspaper articles.

Text:

Roy Rudnick

Text of A woman out in the world:

Michelle Francine Weiss

Cover photo (Fish River Canyon - Namibia):

Roy Rudnick

Back cover photo (Maasai Mara – Kenya):

Michelle Francine Weiss

Internal photographs:

Roy Rudnick and Michelle Francine Weiss

Supervision, structural review and revision:

Eloi Zanetti

Revision:

Elisa P. Carneiro

Michelle Muller

Graphic design:

The New Black Studio

Translation:

William Daniel Piazzetta

Proofreading:

Neil Dallas

Digital Conversion:

Cumbuca Studio

ISBN: 9781939614711

Dedicated to our parents and siblings.

Preface

THE CALL OF ADVENTURE

As they left their house on a journey that would last 1,033 days around the world, Roy and Michelle were already starting on their way back home.

What is an adventure if not an endless return home?

That is what the hero’s journey is like. At first, they are challenged to leave the common world, their comfort zones, the simple life. The call of adventure doesn’t knock on just anyone’s door. On a night in August 2005 it came knocking, unexpectedly, on the door of a certain Roy, who went knocking on the door of a certain Michelle. The world awaits you - was the message.

Initially, they faced their first trial - the moment of fear. Just like all heroes, they hesitated, were reluctant and almost gave up on the venture. But after conquering the initial trepidation, they made their decision: to leave and go around an unknown world in an automobile - a Land Rover. After the decision was made, and after communicating it to parents and friends, they couldn’t go back anymore.

The first threshold presented itself in Venezuela, where they put their vehicle in a shipping container for the first time, heading for another continent. Then began the rules and teachings of how to live and behave in this new and special world.

As with all heroes since the time of Ulysses, during their odyssey, Roy and Michelle faced dangers, difficulties and challenges. They made partnerships, won over new allies, and received advice from mentors.

But it was only after a certain point they realized they had always been on the way back home. It was when doubts started to arise: Why did we get ourselves into this? What were we thinking? that our heroes started to learn to deal with the consequences of being faced with their ordeals. Going back to the ordinary world was tempting, but there were still so many dangers, trials and new adventures ahead of them, so much ground to be covered.

And so they crossed India, Nepal, and all of Africa, Europe and Oceania.

The journey would have no purpose if, at the end, they hadn’t brought back with them some lesson from their special world to share with the rest of us. In history and in legends, they appear in the form of magical potions, treasures or some sacred chalice or sword.

This time, Roy and Michelle bring us this wonderful book, where they deliciously narrate the diverse stories of their trip and adventures throughout this vast planet.

As with all travelers, they have certainly come back home with new understandings about themselves and about the peoples they met. Having been purified, they display this collection of stories and tell us that it’s possible to go around the world in a land vehicle. All you have to do is to make the decision and not look back.

Eloi Zanetti

Table of Contents

Preface

1. The Decision

2. Planning

3. South America

4. Oceania

5. Southeast Asia

6. India and Nepal

7. Middle East

8. East Africa

9. Southern Africa

10. Western Africa

11. Europe

12. South America 2

13. Epilogue

Photos

1.

The Decision

IT’S NOW OR NEVER. NOW!

My focused gaze, stuck on a single letter written on that huge blackboard, didn’t move for anything. Not even for the teacher who talked nonstop and paced the room. I was mesmerized, disturbed by the conversation I had during our break. A conversation that made me stop to think and that could change my life forever. I would need to muster the strength to follow through with an important decision. I closed my notebook, put away my things in a black briefcase I used at the Marketing and Integrated Communication course at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation in Curitiba and left the room so excited and resolute I don’t know if anyone noticed or not.

But little did that matter to me. I was happier than I’d ever been before: I had made the decision of a lifetime. I confess that I also felt a little guilty for thinking of abandoning everything to go on a crazy adventure. If I were to tell anyone around me at that moment, I’m sure they’d say it was a bunch of nonsense. After all I was already past 30 – time to get my feet on the ground.

Walking a few blocks over to my girlfriend Michelle’s apartment I already started to think about schedules and deadlines, surely influenced by my lack of experience planning something of this magnitude. God protects the inexperienced.

In this short time, I estimated I’d need at least a year and a half for planning, research, securing resources, adapting a vehicle, documentation, contacts, establishing the route to be followed and departure. I thought, If we’re now in August 2005, a year and a half from now we’ll be in the beginning of 2007. Perfect: I’ll work until the end of November 2006 in order to increase my savings and there will still be a few months left for me to dedicate myself full time to the remaining details until the big day of departure. In my beginner’s mind, I hadn’t imagined almost all the details would not get taken care of.

Great. On February 1st 2007 I would finally set out to achieve the dream that I had been planning to taken on 10 years from now. The funny thing is, before this decision, even as the years went by, those same 10 years were still keeping me from my departure. It’s easy to have a challenging dream like this: 10 years is enough time for you to be able to run away from it.

I reached Alferes Poli St., 11th floor of the Maria Ângela building and my heart was racing. It seemed to want to jump out of my chest amidst a very high dose of adrenaline and happiness. As soon as she opened the door I went straight to the point, no beating around the bush. Michelle, I’m leaving on a trip around the world by car. Are you coming with me? I think to this day that, at that moment, I could have conveyed my intentions in other words, in a different order, with more tact and less selfishness... But that’s what came out then, that’s how excited I was.

THE BREAKFAST THAT BECAME A ROUTINE

My life, up to that moment, was rich with learning opportunities and new professional experiences. But the hectic pace of being a young executive had already started producing signs of stress. During the week, I worked as Manager of Marketing and New Product Development at Móveis Rudnick S/A. On Mondays and Tuesdays, I’d leave the factory around 4 pm and would drive 68 miles (110 kilometers) toward Curitiba to attend the post-graduate Marketing course at night. Tired, I’d sleep at Michelle’s apartment and return to São Bento do Sul around 4:30 am to be able to have time for a 4,900 feet (1,500 meter) swim at the town’s municipal pool before work.

On the way back, I just had to stop for a large latté at Gas Station 47, which forced me into a juggling act so as not to spill anything while speeding up, braking and going over speedbumps. And that kept me going. It had become such a ritual that when I got to Gas Station 47 I didn’t even need to order the coffee anymore: the clerk knew the drill.

Since I’ve always been into social activities and outdoor sports, my weekends were spent going to parties, rehearsals and performances with the Edelweiss Coral and Music Group, of which Michelle was also a member. But what I really enjoyed were the four-way skydiving trainings and competitions with the Trash team in the city of Boituva in São Paulo. Other activities I enjoyed were hikes, camping and short trips. Actually, the hikes sometimes happened during the week. We’d gather a group of friends and would head toward the tire repair shop at the top of the Dona Francisca mountains, between Campo Alegre and Joinville and from there, in the middle of the night, with or without a flashlight, we’d walk for an hour and a half on a rugged trail in the middle of the Atlantic rainforest. Our destination was a cave called Bugres’ Castle, where from way up high we could see the city of Joinville. The mixture of wine and Coca-Cola, that we called pancadão (hard knock) and a barbecue were also part of these outings.

HOW DID THIS DECISION COME ABOUT?

Michelle, who at the time was in her third year studying Architecture and Urbanism at the Federal University of Paraná, was thrown off balance and not knowing what to say, started to question me about where the crazy idea of traveling around the world by car had come from. I believe her responding with another question was a way to stall so she could digest the idea after the shocking announcement. So she wouldn’t feel cornered, I replied that she wouldn’t need to answer me that night, but that I’d made up my mind to travel and there was no turning back now, because I’d mulled it over for a long time.

I slowly drank a glass of water and started to tell her how the decision had come about. On that Tuesday, during a break between classes, I met an executive from São Paulo who wasn’t a part of our class, but who attended another course at FGV and was just catching up on some school work with us.

We chatted for a while, or I should say, he was the one who did most of the talking. He told me about the time that he worked as executive director at a large company in São Paulo and that, one day while on vacation in Europe, believing he’d finally be able to rest a little from his exhausting work routine, wound up straight in a hospital. His mind and body weren’t able to handle the sudden change from a state of high tension to a few relaxing days off. What a situation, he said, you work, work, work and when it’s time to enjoy your deserved rest, you end up in an unknown hospital in a strange city, far from everyone and your family.

Right then and there on the hospital bed he called the owner of the company and quit his job. He had realized there are things in life that are more important than work or financial security. Upon returning to Brazil he started running marathons, doing exercise and went back to studying – one of his great passions. Only two years later, when he felt completely recovered and prepared, did he go back to work, although this time at a healthier pace.

As he talked, something started to mess with my head. It was as if I were watching a motivational speech on lifestyle change. But I realized that it wasn’t just about that when the conversation came to focus on me and he asked, And you Roy, what are your experiences, expectations and dreams? Tell me a little about your life.

And I foolishly talked about that dream of mine I’d been postponing for so long, but that if everything worked out I might get around to 10 years from now. I dreamt of circling the globe by car.

Sure enough, the conversation took another turn. Ten years? You’re nuts! In 10 years everything will be different. You’ll marry, then soon have kids, they’ll have to go to school, your responsibilities at the company will grow considerably, either that or you’ll leave to start your own business. If you really want to go on this trip around the world, do it now, don’t wait anymore."

What frustrates me nowadays is not remembering the name of this guy who in 20 minutes said things that changed my life. I don’t recall his first or last name and I also have no idea where he worked. Years after that conversation we had, I went back to FGV in Curitiba and, with the help of one of the secretaries, went through the whole system looking for information that could lead me to him. We searched the student records of people who had studied with me, class by class, anyone who by chance had even studied only one course, but we found nothing. None of the people matched the information I had, or better yet, none of them fit the profile I had made of him in my mind. It’s a shame, because he would have been the perfect person to write the foreword for this book.

As for Michelle, I believe that what helped the most in her making up her mind was her own question, Roy, if by any chance I don’t go, are you still going? I wasn’t fair to her on that day, because I was proposing to start the trip in 2007 – when she’d be only one year away from finishing her course. Wow! Just one more year! But consider that year in minutes, seconds, and imagine all that can happen in that time. I said, sharply, It can’t wait. It has to be now. Otherwise, the chance of us not going will be big. Today, looking back, we both say, it was worth it. We’re both more mature and experienced. Michelle came back with information and life experiences that are helping her be a much better professional than she would have been without having gone on the trip. I’m sure other decisions will need to be made and next time she won’t hesitate.

THE NEWS

The strategy that I used so I wouldn’t give up going on the trip during the preparation phase, which was a year and a half, was to tell the people closest to me right away about my decision: parents, friends and relatives. That way, I would be publicly committed to the project and if I backed out it would discredit me in front of them. At the company where I worked, owned by my uncles, I broke the news in August 2005. I told them I’d work until November 30th of the following year. They understood and gave me full support. But in a way, this notice in advance would have some side effects. What company would invest in someone young, at the start of his career, who said he planned on leaving the company to go around the world a year from now?

At home, the news didn’t seem to shock my parents, Leomar and Leones. I believe they were already used to comings and goings: my brother Igor had lived for eight years in Germany, my sister Natascha had lived there for two, and I’d already lived away from home for six months. When we were little, I remember that every now and then when my father went to his office we would tag along to do our homework there, as my mother had traveled to Germany to take courses in choir conducting. When I broke the news to my mom, she euphorically said, I want to go too!

With Michelle’s parents things took a little longer and were a bit more complicated, since she was only 21 years old and still in college. We started to slowly let her sisters, Viviane, Elisandra and Daniela, in on our plans to gauge her family’s reaction. At first we told her mother, Dona Arlette, that the trip would only last a year and that we wouldn’t be going around the world but would only stay in Europe. With her father, Odenir, I preferred to have a talk just the two of us during a Palmeiras soccer match (his favorite team). In between plays, he’d present his objections. Michelle has to finish college first. You should wait until after graduation. The conversation went back and forth between what we should do, our cheering for the team and commenting on the plays. So by the end of the match, the news was delivered. As for our friends, I believe that at first they didn’t even know what we were talking about. And to be honest, neither did we. Up to that moment, I had never met anyone who had taken a trip of that magnitude.

BUT WHERE DID THE IDEA OF GOING AROUND THE WORLD COME FROM?

One day, around 1998, I was having a beer with a group of friends who got together to ride jeeps and motorcycles at a restaurant called A Toca (The Den) in São Bento do Sul, in the state of Santa Catarina. We talked about trails, raids and endurance races on the weekends, and about traveling. At a certain point, maybe influenced by the beer, I challenged the group. Guys! Let’s ride our motorcycles until the place where the road ends! That place where we’d have to turn back because there’d be no more road to keep going on. The road I was talking about was the Carretera Austral, going south.

Almost all of them agreed on the spot. However, problems with time, family and financial affairs started to make people slowly back down. I ended up going on an 8,699 mile (14,001 kilometer) trip by myself, going down the Pacific coast (Chile) with my Super Teneré 750 motorcycle. A little further south of the city of Ushuaia (Argentina), I got to the sign that reads, This is where the road ends. Literally, the world’s end. I took it as a sign for my future voyage – the beginning of another world is right there, right after that curve, that river, that mountain.

During the preparatory phase that preceded the trip to Ushuaia, I went mainly on the internet looking for people who had already gone on this kind of adventure, looking for advice and information. But few people were willing to give any information and many tried to talk me out of it. It seemed like they wanted to be the only ones to have reached this southernmost part of the world.

It was then that I met the man who was to become my great mentor, a person for whom I have the greatest respect and hold in high regard. An adventurer from Curitiba who likes to share his experiences. His name: Iguaçu Paraná de Souza. He had already been on this path many times and demystified all the things I’d been told. Iguaçu helped me to set up a spreadsheet for the trip including all the information necessary.

After the trip to Ushuaia, I went on a few others to get more experience. I went through the Atacama Desert alone on a CB 500 motorcycle, crossing Argentina and Chile. I, along with two friends, Juraci Claudio Rossetto and Sandro Becker, also crossed Paraguay and Bolivia on a 4x4 S-10 pickup truck to get to Peru and go on the Incan trail to Machu Picchu. Carlos Liebl, James Pfützenreuter and I crossed the Brazilian Transamazonian Road (BR-230) on Falcon 400 motorcycles, including those parts that were most critical back then where the road was practically nonexistent. And finally, I returned to the Atacama Desert, this time with Michelle, in a Land Rover 110 through Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. That trip served as a test to gauge the intensity of her spirit of adventure. And she passed with flying colors.

One day after all these trips, while visiting Iguaçu at his house and looking at some maps hanging on the wall and talking about trips, one expression caught my attention: around the world. Back then, Iguaçu and some of his friends were planning on traveling to China and a few other countries on a modified Rural Willys truck. My spirit soared. Can you imagine a greater adventure than that? Unfortunately, their trip never happened, but I had that phrase stuck in my head.

What intrigued me was how someone in his right mind could have the time to take a trip of that dimension. All of my previous trips happened during my vacations. A car trip through China, however, would never fit inside a mere 30 days.

2.

Planning

PLANNING IS NECESSARY

We had decided that we would have a year and a half to plan but, like every good Brazilian, we ended up leaving everything to the last minute. It was only in the last eight months that we really put in our effort. In the first months, we spent most of the time daydreaming and trying to find the right way to make the dream a reality. It wasn’t a complete waste of time, it actually turned out to be an important part of the trip: preparing our spirits and the will to achieve our dream. When we started to really work on the project, we still had to reconcile things with my job and Michelle’s studies.

And how do you plan such a unique endeavor?

I had acquired experience in planning as a professional collaborating in my company’s strategic planning along with other executives. During my post-grad studies I ended up coming into closer contact with the subject – it happened to be the theme chosen for my end-of-course work when I was required to present an actual marketing strategy. For this, we used a friend’s company as a model. But when it came to planning the trip, we didn’t even know where to start. We even had doubts as to what kind of information to gather and what was most relevant.

Suddenly Michelle and I were faced with planning a trip around the world. For starters, we knew a little about the Western hemisphere and nothing about the East. One of the advantages was that at least one of the team members was organized – Michelle!

When we spread out the world map, we felt two things. The first was connected to what we saw on TV and in the newspapers, with news of conflicts and wars. Famous locations of strife, like the Middle East or the center of Africa, for example, seemed impossible to us. How would we cross them? What bureaucratic and practical demands would we face? Would there be roads and would we be able to drive on them? We were learning the names of some of those countries for the first time.

On the other hand, with the map spread out before us – a piece of paper that was smaller than my outstretched arms – everything seemed close and flat. The roads seemed good and connected every place on the planet. We had fun running our fingers through routes in a world without borders. While we planned our route, we dreamed out loud. We can drive through here, cross there, that part we can travel by ship, that other one by plane, we pick up our car here and cross that desert. Easy. For young dreamers, everything is possible.

Nowadays with more experience, if I’m asked which of the two sensations is closest to reality, I’d say it’s the second one. The roads aren’t always good and they can’t take you everywhere, but one thing is for sure: the whole world is possible, negotiable and ready to be traveled. And that’s something Europeans have known for a long time, much more so than us Brazilians.

For those who plan to go on a similar journey, here’s a tip: there’s a little magic word that opens all the doors on the internet: overland. But we didn’t know that back then. Thousands of people are either traveling or have already traveled by car around the world. When you type that term into search engines, you get millions of sites describing trips through Africa, Asia and America.

In our case, not knowing the magic word made us look for other Brazilians who had already traveled around the world before us. We made contact and were able to set up two meetings for a chat. The first travelers we visited were the couple Robert Ager and Grace Downey from São Paulo, who had already traveled the world by car. Then we visited a family from the state of Maranhão – Valéria, José Rubens, Matheus and Gabriel – who traveled as backpackers and with a nursing child as part of the team. We’re very thankful to them for all of the information and support they gave us when we needed it the most, during our planning period.

Passports, visas, vaccines, insurance and all the rest of the red tape left us with a lot of doubts. We believed the Brazilian embassies in the countries we would visit would give us information. We got very few answers. We even heard things like their job was to promote Brazil in those countries’ communities and not to help Brazilians who wanted to visit them.

Disappointed with our representatives overseas, we tried it the other way around. We started to contact the embassies in Brazil of the countries we intended to visit. That was also a disappointment. The result was the same: little information.

So we focused on health issues, looking for information on disease prevention and vaccinations against Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, German measles, yellow fever, polio, the flu and tetanus. We also signed up for a complete healthcare plan. As for the visas, insurance and other documentation, we decided to leave that for the trip itself, because once you have a valid passport the rest is history.

THE CAR

After that, we had to choose, buy and prepare the car. It was real drama. After many conversations, some research, and comings and goings we settled on a small, light, cost-effective, practical, agile, robust 4x4. Besides those characteristics, the car would also need to be comfortable, safe and have enough room. After all, the trip would last around 1000 days – almost three years. This car would be our means of transportation, bedroom, living room and office. With what we had available in Brazil, the Land Rover was the best choice. I liked it because I had already owned two of them and had acquired some experience with them.

A friend named Juliano Diener found an ideal one in São Paulo. A 2004 Defender 130, with just 9,940 miles (16,000 kilometers) on the odometer. We were lucky because this model is hard to find, since the Brazilian market has a preference for Defender 90s and 110s. While I negotiated the purchase I never even spoke to the owner personally. Everything had to be done through Márcio, the salesman. The price was high, higher than market value, and I couldn’t even think of paying in installments. I asked for a few days to deposit the money because I was waiting to be paid for the car I had sold. The owner put his foot down: If you want to buy it, these are the terms: first deposit the money then you can have the car. So I bought the car and I was so fed up with all that negotiating that I sent Michelle a text message saying: I bought that piece of sh*t. But in the real message I didn’t use the asterisk.

Juliano Froehner helped us with the outer design of the Lobo da Estrada (Road Wolf) – the name we affectionately gave to our new companion. With skill and creativity, Juliano understood exactly what we needed. The work was done so well that the final version came straight from the rough draft. The main idea was to remove the car’s original bed and build a sort of motor home on top of the chassis. With the project ready, we now needed to find someone to build it. I already had someone in mind but I wasn’t sure he’d take the job, as it would be a real pain to do amongst so many other projects that were sure to be more worth his time.

One Friday at Dejalma’s Restaurant, after a few beers and Cuba-libres, I took advantage of the opportunity to present the challenge. I went straight to the point, Ika, are we going to build this car together? I said together because I would be at the shop practically every day watching Lobo being built. I would be getting in the way more than helping because my thing had always been working with wood, not steel. Since Ika – Nivaldo Alquini – gave me the opportunity to talk about the project, I went running home euphorically and grabbed the blueprints Juliano had made. No sooner had I spread out the plans on Ika’s counter, than he took the job. One more dreamer for the team.

CULTURAL PROJECT

In an attempt to take greater advantage of our future experience and to make a social and cultural contribution, we thought of documenting children’s play activities we would find along the way through pictures and texts.

We came up with a project and sent it to the Ministry of Culture to request financial aid based on the Rouanet Law. The project foresaw the writing of a book and its original description went as follows, The cultural project Universo de Brincadeira (The Universe of Play) is a book that intends to document, through photographs and text, children’s playful activities and games in the rural areas of the countries covered by the Mundo por Terra (World by Land) expedition. The book intends to show to what extent children’s games reveal about society, and in so doing, build a much more dynamic and encompassing image of the past, present, and future. Thanks to the possibility of listening to this wordless dialog between children and adults in 60 countries in the five continents, we’ll be able to compose an extensive portrait of children’s hopes and dreams and we’ll get the reader to play a game of guessing as to the future of humanity by way of children’s games.

We got approval from the Ministry of Culture but weren’t able to raise funds, which made it a tough job, as the project dealt with a trip around the world. Deep down, we believed it’s a dream many people have. It was what we heard from the people at the marketing departments of the big companies, the people who were supposed to approve our project. Sailors, mountain climbers, athletes and adventurers all had to pay out of their own pockets when facing their first challenges. We were told to prove that we could make our dream come true by our own means first, and then they would talk about sponsorship. Frustrated with a lack of financial support, we ended up accepting our situation. Deep down we were happy because we were completely free, our commitment was to ourselves.

A GOOD CAMERA

I called a photographic equipment store in the United States with my rusty English to order an important part of equipment for our journey – a good camera. In order to understand what the salesman was saying and avoid any surprises when the equipment arrived I patiently asked him to repeat the details of my order several times. Some friends of mine who were professional photographers had recommended a Canon 30D with two Sigma lenses: one 28-70mm and the other a 70-300mm. In the end it was my friend Oldemar Mussi Jr. who ended up bringing us the equipment from the United States. Unfortunately he passed away shortly thereafter. We dedicate our images from around the world to his memory. Halfway through our trip, while in Malaysia we acquired a new lens, a Canon 17-40mm. We realized that the world was too big to be captured in a lens with a focal distance of only 28mm.

An automatic camera like this can do everything for you – even think and read the landscape to be captured in the smallest detail. It registers everything the untrained eye can see, but can’t do the essential, which only the trained eye of a good photographer can do. We needed to master the art of photography.

Since we were going to spend so much time traveling, without an opportunity to study, take courses or be trained, we decided that was one activity we’d be dedicating ourselves body and soul to – photography. We started a crash course with instructor Lya Uba and cousin Fábio Malewschik. Patiently and in record time, they were able to pass on to us the basic notions of what good photography was. We were forbidden from using the camera’s automatic settings, so little by little we developed the art of capturing the ephemeral. Our Canon camera was the most used piece of equipment on our trip, even more so than the GPS.

THE TUBES STARTED TO TAKE SHAPE

The construction of the car started soon. Little by little, the metallic tubes supplied by Tuper, a kindness bestowed on us by Marlon Weiss, were left piled in the corner of the auto shop. Whenever he had the time, and especially on weekends, master Ika used all of his mechanical talent to weld and shape those tubes. With time, our ambitious project started taking shape.

When we got to the structural part of the cover, we faced a problem: the car was supposed to fit in a 20 feet container for the ship crossings and at the same time allow us to stand upright inside of it while on land. Our original idea was to have a detachable 11.80 inches (30 centimeters) high roof. One day the always competent Ika called us and presented a magical solution that was very ingenious: he had devised a way to remove the ceiling that could also serve as a sunroof. This contraption would be secured by two screws in the front, like a hinge, and in the back it would be locked by two hood latches from a Scania truck which secured the roof from the inside. That way it could be opened at any time, which would improve the air circulation inside the vehicle. I can’t begin to tell you how thankful we were for that invention later on our journey as we crossed the blistering African deserts! As with all simple ideas, the solution was obvious, but in our day-to-day rush we never thought of those kinds of shortcuts.

The most painful moment in the construction of our Road Wolf was cutting the back part of the vehicle to allow for a passage between the motor home and the cabin. Since we had already grown used to the car, it felt like we were mutilating our best friend. With a sad look in our eyes, we watched as the saw vibrated and cut through the aluminum. I’ll never forget the shards and sparks flying all over the place. But it was for a good cause. I stood thinking about that momentary feeling of attachment. I was feeling melancholic because a certain organized amount of iron, aluminum and screws, that one day had given shape to a car, had to be cut. But cutting that passage open between the cabin and the motorhome was one of the best things we did. This space was crucial for comfort and safety reasons during our trip. With time, Ika’s part was over. His patient hands installed the ceiling, walls, doors, windows, flooring, passageway and everything else that was necessary. And then it was our turn: the interior and final touches.

We used polyurethane foam plates for soundproofing and thermal insulation. And we covered this insulation with beige-colored synthetic Nappa leather for a finish, which looked good and added to our comfort.

Behind our seats, we installed two wooden boxes that served as a closet space for our clothes, one for each of us. Nowadays when I think about it for future trips, I should transform those boxes into cabinets, which I believe will make it easier to organize our clothes. One interesting thing: the clothes that were in the bottom of the boxes came back almost without having been worn, stainless.

For the water tank, the solution was using PVC tubes 5.9 inches (15 centimeters) in diameter, an idea suggested by several people. We installed seven segments of pipe spread out under the floor lengthwise and placed in the lower area behind our seats. The segments were connected by T and U joints. This helped keep the liquid separated in compartments, keeping it from dislocating abruptly from side to side on the sharper curves and thus helping maintain the car’s stability. With this contraption we ended up with room for almost 26.4 gallons (100 liters), enough for a long stretch. The water was easily delivered to the sink and to a small external shower head by one of those pumps used in speedboats. Just so you know: this hydraulic system was not finished by the time we left on our journey.

For the kitchen cabinets and worktop we used a sheet of formica-like material 4 mm thick that was highly resistant to flames, which gave us a certain amount of security because we were always using our camping stove on the sink shelf. Since it was a present and you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, the bright red material sparked some discussions on taste during our trip. All the cupboards had sliding doors so they wouldn’t take up any corridor room when we had to open them. The Rudnick family’s decades of experience with furniture was helpful.

The internal layout of the vehicle was designed with the following principle in mind: it should allow for a corridor that began at the back door, crossed the entire car and reached the cabin with no interruptions. The solution we ended up with was this: if you looked inside through the back door, toward the left were the sink and the larger cupboard – for food supplies, dishes and pans. Toward the right side we installed a retractable bed that doubled as a worktop when closed. Underneath, also toward the right, we had some more cupboards installed.

The electric installation wasn’t hard to sort out thanks to São Bento Auto Electric. We installed a 12v to 110v inverter, several outlets and fluorescent lights. The system continually received improvements along the way. After so much traveling, we reached the following conclusion: the car is only ever ready, really ready, when you’re back from your journey. There are so many tricks, secrets and adaptations we learned through daily use, that we started with one car and ended up with something quite different. I think that’s the way life is after all: we learn along the way and when we’re almost wise, that’s when the trip is over. Camping equipment – like a refrigerator, stove and accessories – we decided to buy on our way through Australia. The adventurous people in that country gave rise to a wide range of options.

10 SECONDS, TOPS

There’s a crucial factor when you’re preparing a vehicle for long voyages that I’d like to point out: for everything you’re going to do, install, adapt, stick on or tie to the car, you should make sure the action takes no more than 10 seconds.

For example: I installed a reserve gasoline tank adapted from a Ford Belina. It was placed in the lower back of the car, but wasn’t connected to the main tank. This made it very difficult to fill up and whenever we needed to get fuel from it we had to use a separate gallon drum to get the fuel and fill the main tank. This was an irritating procedure that took a huge amount of time. So, that meant we almost never used it. Another example was when we got all excited about buying a bicycle at an auction in Australia. We put the bike on the rack, tied it up and put a padlock on the spare tire. It was a huge sacrifice to get it off of there. So, we ended up not riding it after a while. In Malaysia we got rid of the bike by giving it to our friend Arjune, who’s certainly made better use of it.

When we got stuck in the desert, we preferred to burn our hands on the hot desert sand than having to go up onto the car to release the shovel, which was always firmly secured with a steel cable and padlock. The whole operation of having to go up on the car, open the padlock, loosen the cables, come back down with the shovel, get the car out of the rut, and then having to do all of those steps backwards all over again was disheartening. It was better just to burn our hands on the sand. Good thing we never hurt ourselves doing that.

On a trip this big everything needs to be very practical, easy to reach and easy to do. Our trip lasted more than one thousand days – imagine having to assemble and disassemble the bed more than a thousand times! If each operation lasted one minute, that would be almost 17 hours doing only that. It may sound like laziness, but it’s not. It’s simply what we experienced.

THE FINAL DETAILS

Time was passing and the day of departure was drawing closer. Our passports were ready, but Lobo’s documentation for an international trip wasn’t. Tired of waiting for an answer from the Brazilian Automobile Club, we decided to contact other institutions, and that’s when we learned the trouble we were in: in order to take a trip by car through Oceania, Africa and Asia in your own vehicle you needed to acquire a document called a Carnet de Passages en Douane, supplied by the FIA – Fédération Internationale de L’Áutomobile. This document allowed travelers like us to temporarily import their vehicles into other countries. In reality, it was an international guarantee regarding obligations, taxes, accidents and even the illegal sale of the vehicle. Everything was guaranteed by a deposit made by the interested party to the Automobile Club of the country where the document was produced. To retrieve the amount deposited, the Carnet needed to be registered with proof regarding entries and exits in the signatory countries. When we discovered that the Brazilian Automobile Club was making it impossible to get the document, we started getting worried. The first country we would dispatch the car to was precisely Australia and without the document we couldn’t legalize it there.

We appealed to the FIA in Geneva where, unlike the people in Brazil who didn’t give us any answers, we were treated very well by department head Deborah Smith, who offered us a very simple solution – get the document in Venezuela.

Change the route before leaving? Our first plan was to pass through Argentina and from there to dispatch the car to Australia, but the solution given by the FIA was to get the document in Venezuela. What could we do? Change course and, instead of going south we’d head north. There was an advantage to the change: passing through Paraguay and buying some equipment that we were still missing. From there we’d follow to Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. Only 10,560 miles (17,000 kilometers) to get the document!

Our friend