Overland with Kids

We are Andrew (45) and Anne (42), planning a big overland adventure with our children Jessica (9) and AJ - little Andrew John (5) from the UK to Australia using a 1998 Land Rover Defender 110 300 Tdi County Station Wagon and a  South African ’off-road’ 1999 Jurgens Xplorer Expedition Caravan.

The Trip

Beginning our journey in Cambridgeshire, UK we’ll be driving as much a we can to Australia. Departing 1st April 2010 (a Thursday!), our journey will take us north through Scandinavia, Russia and Mongolia before heading south through China, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and beyond. We are hoping our budget will stretch to 12 months at least so we can soak up, experience, savour and enjoy as much as we can along the way.

We undertook a 7.5-week shake down trip this summer 2009, to France, Spain and Morocco to help us acclimatise, get outside our comfort zone and to get used to life on the road with our children and vehicles. Click here for more information. 

We will be using this site to update all aspects of our much needed planning and preparation including the vehicle, route, budget, children’s education and routine, sleeping and food, network and communications, links back home, security, health & safety, emergencies, trial runs and much, much more. 

The website layout and content will change from time to time as we go and we will be keeping a diary (blog) of our progress leading up to, during and after the trip, so please check us out from from time to time. 

‘You Can Help!’

During 2008, the children’s author Lauren Child (of Charlie and Lola fame) teamed up with UNESCO in support of its Programme for the Education of Children In Need campaign by creating a special edition of her widely acclaimed book ‘That Pesky Rat’.

We are supporting Lauren’s work with UNESCO and she has kindly provided permission for us to use an image of Pesky as our children’s mascot along with a link to UNESCO’s My life is a story website on both our website and vehicle/s.

Please have a look at www.mylifeisastory.org to see the work that Lauren, Pesky and UNESCO are doing to help under privileged children. We would be delighted if you can offer your support. You can also purchase a copy of Lauren’s special edition book of That Pesky Rat (the Unesco’d version!) to show your support. The book publisher Hachette Children’s Books is supporting both Lauren Child and UNESCO’s My life is a story campaign by donating all profits from the sale of the new edition of That Pesky Rat for a three year term. The book costs £5.99 and is available to purchase direct from places Amazon as well all major high street booksellers.

To find out more about how we are supporting Pesky, please check out our Fund Raising and Volunteering page and also our Kids Page section. You can also contact us via info@overlandwithkids.com if you’d like to find out more information about our fundraising efforts and cause.

We hope you enjoy reading about our experiences and that we can provide valuable hints and tips to others considering similar adventures with their children. And, if you have some good advice for us, please contact us.

Thank you for looking!