Sunday 28 June 2015

About Us

Having lived and travelled far and wide, it was only a matter of time before we -most prominently dad- decided to embark on this insanely long and incredibly extraordinary journey:
With a grand total of eighteen thousand kilometers, this is a 6 week trip that will take us from our house in the Netherlands, through Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan,  Russia, Ukraine, Poland and then finally Germany and the Netherlands again. Quite the mouthful. 

A lot of this trip follows the ancient trading and communication route(s) known as the Silk Road. This network of paths, across both land and sea, provided a place along which silk and many other goods were exchanged between people from across the world. Particularly on the oceans, this network linked East and West, and was used especially for the trade of spices, thereby collectively becoming known as the Spice Route. Besides this, the constant movement and mixing of populations incited the transmission of knowledge, cultures and beliefs, something that is still evident today all over the world. (for more info: https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/about-silk-road). Many remnants of the Silk Road still stand, through caravanserais, ports and cities, and remain largely unexplored. Being suckers for the untouched, this, for us, is what makes Central Asia such a thrilling place to explore. 

But who are we??





Family of five; Mum, Dad, Heleen (17), Olivier (14) and Pepijn (12). And of course the BFG (that's Big Friendly Giant, for all you lame non-Roald Dahl fanatics); our thoroughly pimped Toyota Land Cruiser, complete with roof-rack, huge tires, and torque, torque, torque and guess what? A little extra torque. 

The trip starts on the 27th of June, with dad doing the first chunk from the Netherlands to Turkey with a friend, since us kids are all still stuck at school. We will keep you posted on updates and photos! 




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