dare2go – Overland Travel is our Life

Overland travel or Overlanding – are they just new buzz words?

Not for us!

Basically, overlanding is independent road trip travel in your own vehicle, often off the beaten track. Full-time overland travel is a conscious choice for us, for several reasons:

• we always have our tiny house with us
• we can go anywhere
• we can travel at our own pace
• we can visit any places that sound interesting

Overlanding doesn’t necessarily mean off-roading, although most overlanders choose vehicles, with which they can drive rougher tracks when required. But, at the end of the day, most of us are rather careful about the routes we choose. After all, our vehicle is not only transportation, it’s our home and contains all our belongings.

At dare2go.com you will find a wealth of useful information, beginning in early 2006 [In July 2019, we have deleted our archive pages, as they contained fairly outdated information and the format wasn’t mobile friendly.] beginning in early 2014, right up to the present!

The Beginning (2006-2009): our first Pan-American Highway Trip

Yes, dare2go.com has been around so long that it was probably the first English language website to cover a road trip from the Arctic Circle, in the north, to Ushuaia, the southern tip of Argentina, in detail. We like to travel slowly, so our first trip took us more than three years. After returning home, we soon realised how much we had missed – despite the long time. Therefore, we returned for a second time.

Arctic Circle along Dempster Hwy. in Yukon, 2006. Yes, it was grey, wet & cold, but beautiful.

South America Overland Tour 2014-2018

We returned to South America in early 2014 to see more of this vast, interesting continent. Although we don’t claim to have explored every nook and cranny, we believe that we have now been to most major attractions. If you browse through our posts, you will also discover many lesser known destinations and several fascinating places or special events, which are uniquely South American. At this time, the majority of our blog’s content is from that continent.

Worth a Detour: the Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos

We visited more World Heritage sites in Bolivia’s east: the 6 Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos which we found absolutely enthralling and worth a detour. >> Read >>

A Fiesta, Famous across Ecuador, yet Unknown to Tourists

The Corpus Christi fiesta of Pujilí in Cotopaxi Province, is famous right across Ecuador. But it is relatively unknown to tourists outside of the country. >> Read >>

Storytellers of Comuna 13: More Than a Street Art Tour

We took the Stairway Storytellers’ tour of Comuna 13 in Medellín to see the famous street art. We also left with our heads full of many amazing stories. >> Read >>

Overlanding around Europe since 2018

After South America, we decided to tackle Europe. There’s so much to see in Europe that it could take us years to see more than a fraction of it – particularly the speed we’re going! Can you imagine that we spent 6 weeks in Wales alone?

Our style of travel isn’t really suitable for major big cities, the fly-in fly-out major tourist hubs. In most cases, we simply bypass them in favour of the quieter attractions each country has to offer. We can visit these without guided tours, and explore at our own pace…

Diversity in Wales: Interesting Historic Towns & Villages

During our UK roadtrip, we were astonished by the diversity Wales offers travellers. This post introduces you to Wales’ interesting towns and villages. >> Read >>

Roadtrip Route through France with 10 Interesting Stops

We take you along country roads from the Alsace to Avignon. On this roadtrip through France, we visit 10 interesting, historic & natural sights, worth stopping for! >> Read >>

Visit the Andalucía White Villages on a Scenic Roadtrip

There are dozens of White Villages in the hills of Andalucía in Spain. We explored some the nicest on our roadtrip from Algeciras to Córdoba. >> Read >>

Will that be all?

No, by no means! To comply with the Schengen Visa regulations we have to leave central Europe every 3 months. This gives us an opportunity to look further afield, and explore surrounding nations. I’m writing this updated “About Us” in Marrakesh, Morocco. Our big dream is to drive east, possibly as far as Iran, and explore the exotic Middle East.

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Dare2go – what’s that all about?

When we began preparing for our first trip in 2005 many friends were doubtful or teasing: “You’ll never do it!” We were determined to give it a try, although we always said that we had no idea how long we would be away. When asked, our answer was: “We will come home when we have seen everything we want to see, or when we get sick of travelling”. Hence, when Juergen searched for a domain name for the website to cover our journey, DARE2GO was an obvious choice, not only to raise the middle finger at all the doubters, but also to encourage others to DARE TO GO.

Remember: the first step is always the hardest!

Who are we?

Can you imagine spending almost every hour of every day with your partner, living in a space of roughly 8 square metres, for over 3 years? We did exactly that during our first trip through the Americas, and we enjoyed the life so much that we decided to do it again.
We must be crazy about travel!

Us at Iguazu Falls – Garganta del Diablo

In 2013 we built our very personal overland camper, from an empty ex-army shelter into a comfortable tiny house on wheels. The first set of wheels was rather big and heavy, a Mercedes 1019 AF, a serious “expedition truck” called ‘Berta’ . Upon our return to Europe, we swapped this for a smaller truck called ‘Bertita’ . Both have their own pages (please click their respective names to read these).

Our last year in South America: driving with our overland truck Berta through the jungle of Colombia.

Our Bertita in an autumn forest in Germany. She’s quite a bit smaller than Berta.

How do we afford to travel?

We financed our first trip by selling our home and investing the money. For most of that trip we lived on what the investments earned – until the 2008 Global Financial Crisis cut a serious chunk off our savings. Back in Australia we found it difficult to turn this around and eventually thought that since we were going backwards financially, we might as well be doing it for something we love.

And, we live much more cheaply on the road than we could, living in a house in Australia.

We also look for businesses, which recognise that we have the right target audience for their products or services, to partner with us . Having said that, we have no interest in advertising products which in no way relate to our audience, e.g. gambling, brand name copies, or retirement villages!

A few links on this website are affiliate links, from which we earn a small commission, but you don’t pay a Cent more than otherwise.

And don’t forget, we have our own products you can order online . We offer photo prints (both paper and canvas prints), tote bags, cushion covers, phone cases, and much more.

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