Wandering Footsteps: Wandering the World One Step at a Time » A travel journal following a family on their overland trip around the world.

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  • Welcome to Wandering Footsteps, the travel journal of a nomadic family on an overland trip around the world. With thirty years of travel experience, a round-the-world trip already under our belt, a newly-converted bus, and a new baby in tow, this journey is bound to be interesting! Join us in our global wanderings - we've saved an extra seat just for you!

    - Brittany, Bruno, and Phoenix

Posted in Location IndependentTags: ,

In this post, we answer transportation questions pertaining to overland travel: what documents and objects you require to drive in a foreign country, why you need a carnet de passage en douane, how to transport a vehicle on a container ship or a ferry, and what to expect when driving in different countries.

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  • Champa Soma - Would love to hear about your travels.

    many thanksReplyCancel

    • Brittany - Thank you, Champa, for the comment and for expressing interest in hearing about our travels. We’re getting geared up now to hit the road again, so if you follow this blog, you’ll stay up-to-date with all our travels! May I suggest adding your email to our list of subscribers on the right side of the page and/or “liking” our Facebook page? That way, you’ll always know when a new post comes out!
      Thanks a bunch for your interest, feel free to write anytime!ReplyCancel

  • Geoff Kingsmill - Great web site.ReplyCancel

    • Brittany - Thank you Geoff! Where’d you find the website? What type of overland adventure are you on? We’re always interested in hearing the stories of others!ReplyCancel

  • phil and angie - superb blog entry.

    Concisely written, easily understood, thorough explanations.
    Highly recommend anyone considering a travelling adventure to read this.

    Beginners guide to all those ” but how …. ? ” questions.

    Thanks Brittany & Bruno for being out there!ReplyCancel

    • Brittany - Thank you for your support, Phil and Angie! If you think of any other common questions you get that I haven’t answered here, please feel free to let me know and I’ll add them into the entry. I’d like this to be as complete as possible! 🙂ReplyCancel

Posted in Africa,Europe,North Africa,Southern EuropeTags:

Wandering Footsteps will soon be heading back on the road! Over the next several months, we’ll be sharing stories and photos about hikes in Spain, coastal drives through the Iberian Peninsula, bush-camping in the Sahara, souqs and food in Morocco, and more. Subscribe and stay-tuned for an exciting and eventful fall and winter 2015!

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  • guillaume - Bonjour ,
    nous sommes croisés il y a quelques années ds un camping en namibie , je suis en fauteuil rouland.
    Si vous passez vers Biarritz faites nous signe ,sinon nous partirons courant novembre vers le maroc .

    Au plaisir de vous revoir

    guillaumeReplyCancel

    • Brittany - Bonjour Guillaume,

      Oui, on se rappelle de vous, et je pense que vous avez recemment envoye un mail a Bruno? Je sais pas s’il vous a repondu… il est en train de faire beaucoup de petits travaux sur le Toyota en ce moment. Nous allons partir lundi pour Andorre, Espagne, et eventuellement le Maroc, et on a des soucis de rouler en France avec la voiture, donc on ne passera pas pres de chez vous. Mais ca sera notre plaisir de vous revoir encore sur le continent africain! On a une page sur ce site “The Road Thus Traveled” qui montre nos points GPS, ca pourrait vous server pour voir si on est proches l’un de l’autre.
      Restez on contact et a bientot! 🙂ReplyCancel

  • Kat - May your travels be safe and all of wonder.ReplyCancel

    • Brittany - Thank you Kat for taking the time to wish us well. We really appreciate your wishes, and will do our best to open our eyes each day with the wonder of children! 🙂 We wish the same to you.ReplyCancel

  • Kat - Hi just came upon your website and am excited to follow you. We are from California. We have walked portions of the Camino Francis in Spain and plan to complete it in sections so we can do it slowly. We are not into rushing through it. The whole area that is passes is fantastic. I urge you to do the first section over the Pyrinees from St. Jean Pierre de Porte, as it its beautiful and gives you a good but short experience of the Camino experience.(weather permitting) You can just do a few days and it can be very cost effective. We also took the train North up from Burgos to the coast and saw such dramatic and varying terrain I really think that you would appreciate that. We love all of the areas of Spain we have visited. you will love it.
    The website I gave you is the one for our charity The Heart,Mind & Soul Project- http://www.hmsproject.org. We primarily work with schools and support students in the rural village area of Bali. We dream of someday being able to live there part of the year and travel other places on the way there and on our return each time.
    Look forward to following you.ReplyCancel

    • Brittany - Hi Kat, thank you SO much for your message! First of all, for taking the time to share useful information on Spain and the Camino, and secondly for sharing your dream and website! We will definitely keep your tips in mind as we plan our trekking – we think we’re going to walk in the Pyrennes in both Andorra and at least one Spanish national park, and we’re hoping to do a bit of the Camino del Norte along the coast, so it sounds like we’ll be doing some of what you suggested!
      We wish you all the best as you begin to plan a new location-independent life, hopefully with a part of the year in Bali doing what appears to be some very excellent work. You can do it!!
      Please do stay in touch, we’re happy to have you here. 🙂ReplyCancel

Posted in Location IndependentTags: ,

What if you get sick? What if your vehicle breaks down in the middle of nowhere? Aren’t you scared of traveling in X country? Do you buy travel health insurance? Do you take anti-malarial prophylactics? In this blog post about health and safety, we answer all these questions and more. Read on and get ready to cast your worries aside!

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Posted in Location IndependentTags:

This blog post is all about money! We describe some of the ways that people fund long-term travel and we specify our own particular financial means. We also talk about what we do when money is low, and offer some tips on how to travel more for less. Read on and take the steps to make your own long-term travel plans a reality!

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  • Sean - I have not looked for what you do about health care or if you have medical insurance but I would like to know if either of you have any coverage. I lived in Vietnam for around 12 years and traveled from there to other parts of Asia. I would return to Canada every 6 months because I had a studio there that did marketing, design, commercial photo and publishing. In fact I published a life style/travel magazine which was how I first saw Vietnam. I was fortunate because I had worked very hard for 25 years to build my business to the point I was able to finally not be the only asset, or so I thought. I started a clothing factory making yoga wear in Vietnam which was expensive, complex, and took several years to get licensed as 100% foreign owned company, train staff at something I had no experience in, find staff, develop designs, and then market the brand which was my original intention so I could carry on with my work but be my own client and work from any where. Because I had sold my dream home (too early) and had decent cash flow from the marketing business in Canada I could cash flow my life style and the business but with limits which made growing a slow process, after 3 years I had everything working, was making enough money from both that I wasn’t cash flowing everything and hadn’t burned threw the money I had and even had enough to buy a beach property in Vietnam (didn’t though luckily) and thought I had beat the odds. Everything was working, I had reached my goal and thought I was free then WHAM, a major motorcycle accident where I hit a tree head first and was laying dying in a Vietnamese dump of a hospital in the morgue where they had put me without even putting an IV in because typically people who have such serious head,brain neck, spine, facial and internal die there due to either the poor medical care, training, facilities. I recall one time when Vietnam won a soccer tournament the local all went to the street to celebrate by racing their scooter threw massive crowds and within the first 15 minutes there was something like 12 DEO at the one hospital.
    Luckily I did get found by staff the next day and with friends help they got me to a SOS clinic (international) who had me air evacuated to Bangkok, I won’t get into the details but i was barely alive even after several days of surgery, went into a coma and a month later woke. Even though I was basically totally disabled, disorientated and in extreme pain I almost instantly was trying to find out if my insurance had been contacted knowing the costs would be devastating. I had cash in Vietnam which paid the $32K for the Air Ambulance and had a large sum of cash in the bank plus a large amount of money in bank drafts, travelers checks and still had my business but had I not I would have died for absolutely sure! You do not get charity in most countries and if they know you can’t pay your left in that morgue.
    A week later I was pushing very hard to be allowed to leave the hospital that was costing $2500.00 a day because I had heard from my lawyer in Canada that the insurance company wasn’t paying which is another story but what I am getting at is my entire retirement, savings, emergency cash was sucked up like dust in a hurricane.
    I am back in Canada and have been for 6 years after trying to save my company and now working on my new escape plan and building my Overland Vehicle.I lost almost everything I had worked my entire life for and people don’t realize how quickly that can happen over something as unlikely as a freak accident that an insurance company manages to weasel out of paying because they know your nearly wiped out and can’t fight the buggers in court for years.
    What do you guys do for insurance, have you had to use it (test) or have you found a company you trust and know isn’t a typical insurance company that is happy to take your money for 30 years as long as you never ask them to pay for anything. People really need to be very skeptical about insurance, I have seen people die because of it.
    Sorry for the downer post and for the length but I thought this is an important topic for anyone wanting to live the amazing life style your living.
    Save travels,

    SeanReplyCancel

  • Dee - Really useful info for anyone thinking about overlanding and how to budget, we’re always asked how we manage to travel for extended periods!

    We wrote a short post about the challenges of actually living in a vehicle for a long amount of time and the things we’ve (occasionally) missed along the way http://www.followthehound.com/the-challenges-of-overlanding/

    Thanks!

    DeeReplyCancel

    • Brittany - Thank you for the comment, Dee, and for also sharing a link to your own post. Unfortunately, I couldn’t access it – you sure it’s the right link?

      Keep on traveling!! 🙂ReplyCancel

  • Louise Jones-Takata - Well done! And I love the photo of Bruno with the two lionesses.ReplyCancel

    • Brittany - Thank you Louise! Bruno looks like Tarzan, doesn’t he?ReplyCancel

  • Elizabeth (Mom) - I agree with Lisa; this is a great post. I frequently am questioned about how you are managing your full-time travel lifestyle so this clarifies points and offers suggestions. Thank you!ReplyCancel

  • Lisa Sharples - This was a great post to help people understand how you finance your travels. I would love to know approximately the cost of life on the road. Do you have a budget? Will you need to teach at some point to make more if you want to stay in more expensive countries?
    Keep up the great work….I’m living the dream through you….lol

    Love you,

    Lisa xoxoxoReplyCancel

    • Brittany - That’s a great question Lisa, so thanks for asking! We do have an approximate budget to make sure that we’re spending less that what we bring in from our rentals, but it’s flexible in the sense that we may spend more on diesel in some countries (like Turkey) or more on accommodation (like in Europe). Things always tend to even out, however, so if we spend more on some stuff, we will likely spend less on food and entertainment. Most “overlanding” couples can get by with anywhere between $1000-2000 USD per month, and we definitely fall into that category!ReplyCancel

Posted in North America,The AmericasTags:

Nearly seven weeks in my family home in Eastern Canada went by in a flash. That’s because they were full of family, food, and friendship. This summer will go down in the history books as one of my favorite all-time. And so, here is an ode to that summer, in photos.

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  • Angie - Well wow, haven’t you been a busy girl. But I think keeping busy makes the time slip by more rapidly. lovely, happy photos Britt.
    When do you fly back to Europe?
    Less than 2 weeks for us now. Boat has rescheduled and will arrive 10 days AFTER we do now. Boooo. Miss you both xxxReplyCancel

    • Brittany - Hi Phil and Angie! Lovely to get a message from you on my blog! Actually, the day I posted this entry, I returned to France and Bruno. Happily reunited, despite my sadness at leaving my family and friends in Canada!

      Hope your final preparations are under way smoothly and that no more challenges arise with the vehicle shipment. We can’t WAIT to hear about your impressions of Southern Africa!! We’re there with you in spirit, for sure!ReplyCancel

  • Rcs - Looks like you had a lot of fun…oh yeah, I was there.ReplyCancel

    • Brittany - Haha, very funny! In fact, you were an integral quarter of the original team! Miss you!ReplyCancel

  • Elizabeth (Mom) - Super snapshot of our weeks together here. I hadn’t yet seen the majority of the photos so can’t wait to look at the rest. It was, indeed, a wonderful time together and we did actually do more than it seemed. Miss you so much!ReplyCancel

    • Brittany - For me, these photos are some of the best, but in fact, there are quite a few good “selfie” shots of you and I too! It’s so nice to have the photos to help keep our wonderful summer memories alive! Miss you too mom!ReplyCancel

  • Micheline - Ton recit est très émouvant et donne envie… on voudrait y être aussi.
    Eh bien moi j’espère que mes meilleurs souvenirs restent encore à venir…. et surtout j’espère que mes étés seront très nombreux !!!
    Bises et à très bientôt.
    ladepluzenplujeunébellesoeurReplyCancel

    • Brittany - Nous aussi on a envie de vous avoir chez nous! L’ete prochain!?!?

      Merci pour le gentil message, on se voit demain! On creera des bons souvenirs! 🙂ReplyCancel