The Kombi Chronicles
New member
Hi folks, long time lurker finally posting.
For the last six year my partner Willow and I (Lee) have been travelling across the Americas in our 1976 late bay VW.
We originally bought Ruby with the intention of going on a 12 month overland adventure around North America and in August 2019, we quit our jobs, rented our our house and shipped 'Ruby' on a boat from Southampton to New York.
We then spent an incredible 6 months touring the US and quickly came to realise only how incredible the freedom of overlanding truly is and decided to pop into Mexico so we could return to the US with a further 6 month visa.
Five weeks into our time in Baja, the pandemic struck and within 24 hours, the border to the US closed and remained so for an insane amount of time.
And so, we ended up following some German overlanders who we had spent months hiding away in the Baja desert with and started making our way south.
Our travels have not always been smooth and if we were ever to write a book, I may have to steel the title 'A series of unfortunate events'!
Last December, 1960 days after first arriving in New York, we finally reached Ushuaia. Known down there as 'The End of the world', as it is the most Southern point you can drive to in the entire world.
When we bought Ruby, we had dreams of driving her down long highways and I must confess that it was a vehicle choice based more on aesthetics than practicality.
Whilst we have driven many long highways, we find more pleasure tackling dusty tracks over mountains and Ruby has been spotted driving 5000m above sea level across the Bolivian altiplano. A harsh desert wildness filled with long dormant volcanoes and stunning pink Lagunas.
Sustaining a trip over this amount of time has not ways been easy. We budgeted for a year and our main income come from 2 rental properties back in the UK. But we got creative and some how made it work.
Whilst classic VWs are notorious for breakdowns, their biggest strength is how easy they can be to repair them. Especially if like us, you aren't fussed about how original the part is. Or how ugly the rewelded chassis looks, as long as the 80 year old welder working from his garden has reinforced it.
During our time on the road, we've crossed paths with other overlanders from all over the globe. Some in this very group. We've been gracious guests to locals who have invited us into their homes as they have supplied us with tradional food and drink.
Our experiences have certainly changed us and I often ask myself if I would have been so generous if I had seen a dusty camper with 2 foreigners parked in my town before we set off. Mostly likely not!
So as well as allowing us to explore some truly spectacular landscapes, overlanding has given us a much deeper understanding of people and especially changed our perception on countries that people once warned us about visiting due to how dangerous they are. Mexico and Colombia were 2 that we were specifically warned about, but they are probably our top 2 favourote countries we have visited. And ironically, the only crime I have ever witnessed on a street was actually on my first day of this trip in Brooklyn. That's not to say there aren't problems in any of the countries we have visited, but it would have been heartbreaking if fear of something happened had stopped us visiting.
We have currently been living in a workshop in Chile for almost 5 months. Repairing our tired VW after 4 months losing ourselves deep in the heart of Patagonia. Our next plan is to cross back into Argentina and explore Una De Atacama. It's another baren region, 4500m above sea level, much like the Bolivian altiplano. From there we will make our way to the east coast to spend at least 6 months exploring Brazil.
I'm going to be less of a lurker on here in the future and I am happy to answer any questions about our experiences over the last couple of years. Or to share some gems we have found along the way.
If you'd like to follow our future adventures you can find us on most social media platforms by searching for the Kombi Chronicles.
I'll leave a link for our most recent attempt of a cinematic travel film documenting our time in Patagonia.
For the last six year my partner Willow and I (Lee) have been travelling across the Americas in our 1976 late bay VW.
We originally bought Ruby with the intention of going on a 12 month overland adventure around North America and in August 2019, we quit our jobs, rented our our house and shipped 'Ruby' on a boat from Southampton to New York.
We then spent an incredible 6 months touring the US and quickly came to realise only how incredible the freedom of overlanding truly is and decided to pop into Mexico so we could return to the US with a further 6 month visa.
Five weeks into our time in Baja, the pandemic struck and within 24 hours, the border to the US closed and remained so for an insane amount of time.
And so, we ended up following some German overlanders who we had spent months hiding away in the Baja desert with and started making our way south.
Our travels have not always been smooth and if we were ever to write a book, I may have to steel the title 'A series of unfortunate events'!
Last December, 1960 days after first arriving in New York, we finally reached Ushuaia. Known down there as 'The End of the world', as it is the most Southern point you can drive to in the entire world.
When we bought Ruby, we had dreams of driving her down long highways and I must confess that it was a vehicle choice based more on aesthetics than practicality.
Whilst we have driven many long highways, we find more pleasure tackling dusty tracks over mountains and Ruby has been spotted driving 5000m above sea level across the Bolivian altiplano. A harsh desert wildness filled with long dormant volcanoes and stunning pink Lagunas.
Sustaining a trip over this amount of time has not ways been easy. We budgeted for a year and our main income come from 2 rental properties back in the UK. But we got creative and some how made it work.
Whilst classic VWs are notorious for breakdowns, their biggest strength is how easy they can be to repair them. Especially if like us, you aren't fussed about how original the part is. Or how ugly the rewelded chassis looks, as long as the 80 year old welder working from his garden has reinforced it.
During our time on the road, we've crossed paths with other overlanders from all over the globe. Some in this very group. We've been gracious guests to locals who have invited us into their homes as they have supplied us with tradional food and drink.
Our experiences have certainly changed us and I often ask myself if I would have been so generous if I had seen a dusty camper with 2 foreigners parked in my town before we set off. Mostly likely not!
So as well as allowing us to explore some truly spectacular landscapes, overlanding has given us a much deeper understanding of people and especially changed our perception on countries that people once warned us about visiting due to how dangerous they are. Mexico and Colombia were 2 that we were specifically warned about, but they are probably our top 2 favourote countries we have visited. And ironically, the only crime I have ever witnessed on a street was actually on my first day of this trip in Brooklyn. That's not to say there aren't problems in any of the countries we have visited, but it would have been heartbreaking if fear of something happened had stopped us visiting.
We have currently been living in a workshop in Chile for almost 5 months. Repairing our tired VW after 4 months losing ourselves deep in the heart of Patagonia. Our next plan is to cross back into Argentina and explore Una De Atacama. It's another baren region, 4500m above sea level, much like the Bolivian altiplano. From there we will make our way to the east coast to spend at least 6 months exploring Brazil.
I'm going to be less of a lurker on here in the future and I am happy to answer any questions about our experiences over the last couple of years. Or to share some gems we have found along the way.
If you'd like to follow our future adventures you can find us on most social media platforms by searching for the Kombi Chronicles.
I'll leave a link for our most recent attempt of a cinematic travel film documenting our time in Patagonia.