The year 2025 was an inside-out year for us, but it ended up being just what we needed. In our latest video, we catch up with you on everywhere we’ve been, what we’ve been up to, why we got off the road, and what’s next.
Watch now:
You’ll quickly notice this video doesn’t follow our usual first-person travel vlog format. Instead, you get Eric and me talking to the camera about all-things 2025 (and 2026). In between, we share never-before-seen footage to bring our stories to life.
In our last video, we finally make it to Montevideo, Uruguay, after a massive northern push up South America. We are so tired by this point. We say goodbye to our Jeep, Dauntless, leaving him in a storage facility. We move into backpacks for what will end up being 10 months!
Then we pick up with you in this video. We share how we had no idea where we were going after Montevideo! We didn’t have flights or lodging sorted out. Nothing. From the office of the storage facility, we booked an Airbnb in Montevideo for one week (starting that same day). That’s how long we gave ourselves to figure our lives out.
We ended up spending March through August in our favorite country south of the border. How perfect to circle back to where we started, reflecting on everything we’d experienced in Latin America and how we’d changed. 💛
From September through December, we visited the United States. We were always planning to spend Christmas 2025 with family. But we lengthened the trip to give Eric, especially, a chance to rest in a place where he is more comfortable to let his guard down.
We left my brother’s house in Denver on New Year’s Day to begin our long trip to Africa. These were the legs of the journey:
- Drive Denver to Salt Lake City: drop off our Jeep Wrangler, Guardian, to be stored until next visit in 2027
- Fly Salt Lake City to Phoenix: short positioning flight for our big flight over the Atlantic
- Phoenix to Paris: we used credit card points to fly Business Class on Air France and actually sleep thanks to lie-flat seats
- We spent five days in Paris, where it snowed hard and was extremely cold!
- Paris to London: another positioning flight to get ready for our big flight to Africa
- 10 days visiting London because why not?
- London to Cape Town, South Africa: this is happening on Tuesday!
Dauntless is on a container ship off the southeast coast of South Africa. The ship needs to visit Durban, and then will return west to Cape Town. We hope the ship will arrive on January 23, but these things seldom go to plan and we’ll need to stay flexible.
After watching our video, we recommend these three interviews that we gave this year. They are full of very personal reflections and meaningful stories:
- Love. Explore. Study. Share. – Alu-Cab blog
- From North America to the Bottom of the World – Overland Journal Podcast
- Today’s Explorers – explmore
We really put our hearts into being transparent in these interviews, which is not always comfortable or easy. But we believe it’s the only way we can really share, which is part of our family mission statement.
As always, if you have any questions for us or we can help provide resources for your own journey, leave a comment and let us know.
Thank you for joining us on this journey. We’ll see you in Africa!
-B
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