Now this is a road trip.
Meet the couple who are part way through a drive around the entire planet.
Nick Chazee and Mathilde Vougny have so far clocked up 110,000km (68,350 miles) across Australia, Europe and South and North America in a very sturdy Land Rover Defender 110 that they’ve converted into a mini home on wheels.
In a chat with MailOnline Travel they reveal the countries with the most welcoming people, the ones with the best and worst roads – and how Instagram has helped keep their spirits buoyant.
Two of the countries that surprised the couple the most were Honduras and El Salvador. Mathilde says: ‘They’re not necessarily as highlighted and they have a reputation for being dangerous, but we didn’t find them to be dangerous. We were still wild camping there. You still meet very nice people. There are still beautiful beaches.’
Mathilde Vougny and Nick Chazee are travelling the world in a converted Land Rover Defender 110. They’re pictured above in Australia, where they’re currently located
LEFT: The couple tackle the Frenchman’s Track at Cape York in Australia. RIGHT: Attempting the Reynold River tracks at Australia’s Litchfield National Park. They aim to ‘get off the beaten path’ on their travels
Nick and Mathilde have wild-camped for most of their trip. They’re pictured above in the Cotopaxi National Park in Ecuador
Where did they find the most welcoming people? The couple are quick to answer – Colombia, followed by Canada and Argentina.
Friendly Colombia is also one of the pair’s top five places they’ve visited, along with Peru, Argentina, Norway and the USA. But it’s a tough choice. Malthilde, who’s from France, says: ‘I think every country has something. For the best beach – it’s Costa Rica. For the scenery – Argentina.’
South America also gets the thumbs up for its relaxed attitude towards wild camping, which the couple have done for most of the trip.
They fondly recall waking up there ‘far from anything with just llamas walking by’.
However, South America also gave the pair some of the toughest driving challenges.
They chose their Land Rover Defender based on its ‘pop-top’ roof, which ‘allows them to stand inside’ and has a security bonus – they can get to the driver’s seat without having to come out of the vehicle. The picture above was taken in Canon de Macho de Monte in Panama
The couple tackled the Cordillera Blanca, a mountain range in northern Peru (above left and right). They say the hardest roads they have faced so far have been in South America
The images above show some of the twisty roads in Cordillera Blanca. Nick explains that many of the roads in South America are ‘very high’ and congested with trucks bringing goods from one place to another
French-Italian Nick says they had to tackle some precarious mountain passes there that were congested with trucks.
He explains: ‘The roads are very high, 5,000m [16,400ft] or so, and a lot of them are filled with trucks bringing goods from one place to another. And so they’re very cliff-hanging types of tracks full of gravel and rocks. They’re very slow and also a bit dangerous at times.’
In Bolivia, the couple faced a 400km/248-mile area of ‘sand and dunes without any tracks’, while in the Rainbow Mountains in Peru, they tackled ‘very rocky tracks’ at ‘really high altitude’.
But for Nick and Mathilde, the joy of the journey is in the challenge.
They say: ‘Honestly, you could drive from Alaska all the way to Ushuaia – at the bottom of South America – in a two-wheel drive electric car if you wanted to and you’d be mostly on tarmac. We wanted to go off the beaten path. We didn’t want to do tarmac. We didn’t want to do highways.’
The couple are pictured here driving along a beach on K’gari Island in Australia
The Pan-American highway, a road network that stretches right across the Americas, is ‘not that interesting’, say the couple. They explain: ‘It’s very dusty with busy and flat roads. When people say they are driving the Pan-American highway, mostly they get off that main road and go through the funky tracks.’
In the Andes, where the couple faced delays, Mathilde says the driving was ‘more rewarding because there were people everywhere’. They add: ‘Even if there are delays, you chat with people alongside the road.’
Meanwhile, in Australia, where the couple are currently located, the driving they say ‘has probably been the least rewarding because you need to do 700km/434 miles to go anywhere’.
So how did they plan their epic adventure?
After feeling frustrated with the limits of a two-week holiday allowance in their jobs, the couple say they drew a ‘rough line’ of the countries they wanted to visit and then consulted Overlanding Facebook groups to get advice and refine their route.
Mathilde says Costa Rica has the ‘best beaches’. This picture was taken in Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula
Mathilde and Nick have found a ready-made support network of Land Rover Defender fans around the world. Here they’re pictured on the Old Telegraph Track in Cape York, Australia
LEFT: The couple in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago in Argentina. RIGHT: Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina
They chose their Land Rover Defender based on its ‘pop-top’ roof, which ‘allows them to stand inside’ and has a security bonus – they can get to the driver’s seat without having to come out of the vehicle.
And with a Land Rover Defender – there’s a ready-made support network around the globe.
Fans of the brand have followed the pair’s journey on Instagram, with Mathilde revealing: ‘In every country, there was someone with a Land Rover Defender that would help us if we needed anything. They would always welcome us so well.’
