How Overland Travellers Deal With The Corona Crisis

2020 will be remembered as an exceptional year. The worldwide Corona pandemic triggered panic reactions worldwide and led most governments to introduce uncoordinated restrictions and often poorly-thought-through bans on short notice. It caught everybody by surprise and unprepared.

Overland travellers are different to other tourists. Here they tell their stories of how they deal with the challenges of being caught in corona lockdown.

Many segments of society were simply overlooked and fell through the cracks of new regulations. In almost every country, overland travellers were one of these groups, but certainly not the only ones. Digital nomads, homeless people, gypsies, casual and migrant workers, and countless other minorities were also ignored!

What Distinguishes Overland Travellers From Other Tourists?

The positive aspect of overlanding is that we visit places away from the main tourist hotspots, thereby promoting new destinations and spending money in underdeveloped parts of countries. Our different way of travelling is not recognised by governments, therefore we are expected to follow the same rules as short term visitors.

Right now, most countries would like us to simply go away. But it isn’t that easy.

What to do with your vehicle?

First of all, we all travel with some kind of vehicle. For every one of us, the vehicle is an important and valuable possession. It’s our trusted and (mostly) reliable transport, it carries all our belongings, and for the majority of us, it is our home.

To guarantee that we take our vehicle with us when we leave a country, we need either

• a Temporary Import Permit (short TIP) for each country we visit or
• a Carnet de Passage, which is an internationally recognised Customs document we have to buy. It guarantees a deposit of an amount equivalent to the value of the vehicle.

Before we can leave a country by plane, we have to deal with a lot of red-tape, as well as finding a secure place to leave our vehicle and then preparing it to go into indefinite storage.

Tourists, go home!

The second problem is the idea we hear and read about everywhere: “go home”.

Most overlanders travel for extended periods, more likely years than weeks or months. Not many of them keep a vacant home. Some even burn all bridges by selling everything before leaving; others rent their home out on long contracts as we did from March 2013. So, while most of us have a country we call “home”, we don’t have a physical home to go back to.

We have contact with many fellow overland travellers online. We continuously see calls for help; people looking for assistance or ideas on how to deal with bureaucratic obstacles thrown up by the current situation. This inspired us to collect some of their stories. Before we get to those, here’s ours.

How We Arrived in Greece Early – But Right On Time

This is our story here at dare2go. Some of our regular followers might already know bits and pieces from Facebook.

The number of overlanders in the early days was much smaller. This shows us at a spontaneous get-together outside Ushuaia in Argentina in 2009, our truck camper on the far right. We’re still in contact with most of these overland travellers and consider them like-minded friends.

We had been travelling in Turkey from early January 2020. When we finished a housesit near Fethiye at the end of February, we had two choices: use up our remaining month in Turkey, or leave. Part of our future plan was another housesit in Kosovo from mid-May, so we knew we needed to exit Turkey towards the west.

During the housesit, we had noticed news reports about an amassment of Syrian refugees along the EU border. Headlines we saw stated: “Greek closes border with Turkey”. (Now this is a forgotten story; coronavirus has taken over.) That’s why we decided to leave.

We arrived at the Greek border on the 12^th of March; it was open with no sign of trouble except a stronger military presence.

The very next day, Greece announced their first far-reaching restrictions: cafes, bars and restaurants (except for takeaway); and museums, art galleries and archaeological sites – all closed. It sounded like an inconvenience to us, but a reasonable and swift response to what might otherwise become a crisis.

On our way from the border to Thessaloniki, we took our time and a few small detours. After all, our biggest hurdle, the Greek-Turkish border, was behind us. Or so we thought. Corona wasn’t really in the foreground of our consciousness since Turkey hadn’t had a corona case by then.

We were shaken awake very quickly! Greece extended its measures, closing down non-essential shops and all seasonal accommodation and campgrounds. A day or two later, travel for all non-island-residents on Greek ferries was banned.

It looked like it was only a question of time until we could be restricted in our movements. Accessing propane gas for heating and cooking isn’t easy with foreign cylinders, so we wanted to be somewhere where we shouldn’t need to heat. Hence, we were rushing as far south as possible.

We had just reached the Peleponnese on Friday 20th when Mandy, from Movin’n’Groovin , sent us a message that she had heard that free movement might be restricted from Monday. Our worst fear seemed to be materialising. We arrived in Kalamata on Sunday, only 50 kilometres from where we could find refuge at the same place Mandy is staying, near Koroni.

That night, we received an emergency alert by phone, which stated that from 6am Monday nobody was allowed to leave the house without a permit listing one of six permitted reasons for movement, time of leaving your residential address, and ID number. So Monday morning we stocked up at two supermarkets and rushed to Koroni, where we still are…

We are grateful to the owner of a property by the beach, who opened his place for foreigners to stay during the lockdown. It wasn’t all perfect on this small block of land, but it took the pressure off of all of us.

Drone photo of the beach in Peroulia where we were parked the first 2 weeks (in the spot of the white van). Photo courtesy of Flo, who owns the white van.

We were sure and still are that nothing much will change in the next couple of months. Therefore, we looked into renting an apartment. For two weeks now, we have a small house in the town of Koroni where Bertita is parked right across the street. Shops are within walking distance, which wasn’t the case at the beach.

Going “home” on short notice isn’t an option for us. Regular followers will know that we left Australia in March 2013 and that we don’t have a “home” there to go to.

Greece is receiving a lot of praise from the international press for its early intervention. The Greek corona cases are among the lowest in Europe. This does make us feel that, by sheer luck, we came to the right place!

A view inside the kitchen of the rustic little house we rent in Koroni, Greece

We’re riding this out!

What happens when you are overlanding from Argentina to Mexico on horseback and you are stuck in locked down Argentina. It’s a very difficult situation.
This story is in question & answer form. We provided the questions and gave the storytellers the option of answering the questions or telling their story in their own way.

This family travels in South America on horseback with an RV as support vehicle. Now of course the animals are an added responsibility to care for.

Who you are and where you are from?
A French-Polish couple with 2 toddlers.

How long and where have you been travelling?
We are travelling on horseback and with a motorhome as support vehicle since July 2018. Our project is to travel from Argentina to Mexico on horseback.

Where were you when you first heard about the coronavirus crisis?
In Argentina, doing our monthly visit to town, where we do vehicle service and big shopping for the month ahead.

How quickly did this country introduce restrictions, and how did you deal with them?
Argentina started its restrictions on 16th March as soon as Spain shut down. We were treated so stupidly that day. I was shopping in Walmart and was about to pay when the security pulled me and another guy in the queue out to talk to us, knowing we are foreigners.

My latest entry to the country was on the 23rd Feb and since the rule was 14 days quarantine, I was more than 20 days in the country so I did my shopping. Because the security guard pulled me together with the other foreigner, who was only in the country for 5 days, I was forced to be in quarantine. If the guard did not pull us out together, then we would not have met. We were threatened with prison for trying to explain this.

Where are you now? In lockdown in that country or have you returned home?
We are in Barreal, San Juan Province, Argentina. It is not easy for us to leave our horses and dogs to someone else to take care of them, so we stayed.

Lockdown in the west of Argentina. The RV might be parked up for quite a long time, the horses still need their daily feed and exercise.

How have you dealt with bureaucratic issues involved in staying or getting home?
It’s terrible being a tourist in a small village, every time we go to the center to buy supplies, someone calls the Cops and we have to spend 2 hours explaining the same thing over and over again. Despite the fact that we are one of the 2 foreign people who are stuck in the village.

How do you see the future?
I really hope that at least travel within the province will be allowed as the village has run out of Hay bales for our horses, we are now struggling to feed them properly. The dates keep getting postponed and it seems that it will be at least the end of the year when things will start to get back to normal.

You can find more of our story on Facebook and Instagram

Update May 01: This family is still trying to get permission to move their horses to a lower altitude before winter. This is the latest story in that battle .

Stuck at Walmart in the USA

This couple should be on their way to South Africa, but the coronavirus got in the way.

When times were better: our Landcruiser parked on top of a mountain, overlooking some stunning scenery

We are Aldo and Vera from Italy and Moldova; we are travelling nonstop since 2016 with our Converted Toyota Land cruiser Prado nicknamed ‘Toto’. So far we’ve crossed 5 Continents, 50 Countries and, just before the Covid-19 Pandemic exploded, we were ready to Ship our Car to South Africa to Explore our 6th Continent.

We keep a diary of our Journey on Instagram .

We first heard of Coronavirus at the beginning of February, when we had just entered the state of Florida, USA. We underestimated, like many people around the world, the effect of the COVID-19 Virus. We had the first reality check only when Italy locked the country down; Aldo is Italian, with old parents living there and he was concerned for their well being.

We continued with our plans as it seemed other Countries around the World would not take any action, but when Covid-19 was declared a Pandemic in March, things started to escalate quickly. In addition to this, our Visas and the permit for the car were expiring on the 14th April 2020. We had to leave the USA and we were not allowed to leave the vehicle here and fly away.

Literally a few days before packing our car into the container, we heard the news that South Africa had stopped international travelling and cancelled all the Visas released previously. We couldn’t take the risk to send our car to Africa and not be able to fly there to collect it.

We placed the shipment on hold and started a bureaucratic process, still ongoing today; we contacted our Embassies, Consulates, Immigration here in USA where we are and South Africa. Our Embassies could not help and said to push for an extension that to date we still haven’t received.

We made it to the local News and an immigration lawyer is helping us with the paperwork, but all the offices are closed until the 3rd of May.

USA was among the last countries to lock-down and at the moment we live between car parks of supermarkets and get WiFi from outside fast foods. With all the public facilities closed including gyms, even taking a shower is very difficult. We are living in limbo and hope that everything will come back to some sort of normality soon.

What a contrast: now we’re stuck with our Landcruiser on a Walmart parking lot – with nowhere to go

For now, we are waiting. It’s all we can do. We keep positive for the future and we understand our problems are nothing compared to thousands of families that have either lost a dear one or their financial status is at risk.

Part of us is very happy that the World has been given a break from humankind that mainly just takes from it without giving anything back, and also wildlife that is having a bit more freedom to roam around. We hope people will start to weigh on a scale what really matters in life, and many will change in a positive way…

We can only hope. People don’t change easily and history teaches us humankind rarely learn from their mistakes.

No Beauty, but The Traveling Beast is Home

We first ‘met’ Joanie before she started her overland travels. We asked the question: What inspired you to travel the Pan-American Highway? Joanie was one of 23 travellers that answered the question for us. And here she is again, telling us the end of that story.

Joanie standing next to her trusty Jeep, Beauty, in a desert landscape

Hello! I am Joanie, also known as The Traveling Beast! I am from Canada and in 2018, I decided to drive down to Argentina. I was on my way back up Argentina when I first heard of the virus outbreak in China. The last 2 outbreaks never got bad enough to close borders worldwide, so I had no reason to believe that this would be a problem and thus, in January, I bought plane tickets for Europe in June. It was 2 months later, in March, that I finally saw the gravity of the situation. I was in Punta Del Diablo at the time, in Uruguay. My shipping container was planned for the end of March and then I had a flight to the US to go wait for my car to arrive in Florida.

I was just a bit worried for my trip to Europe but I still didn’t think it would affect me in the short term, but once again, I was wrong: despite having only 4 recorded cases at the time, Uruguay still decided to close all non-essential services and schools. Though honestly, this still didn’t affect life much in Punta Del Diablo. It was off-season and most things were already closed. I met a lot of European overlanders on my stay there and they were all very worried about being able to go back home. This outbreak was already the only subject of discussion from tourists and locals alike.

I had heard of many cases where locals turned against travelers in Argentina, but I had no such experience in Uruguay, everyone was still very welcoming, still giving kisses on the cheek when introducing themselves and happily sharing mate with me. What worried me, however, was all the border closing. I was getting very worried that by the 28th, as a Canadian I would no longer be allowed in the US. I also finally realized that this was going to last for a while and that there was a risk that even if I was allowed in, I could end up getting stuck there, so I asked my shipping agent if it was possible to give them Beauty earlier and when they told me that it wouldn’t be a problem, I bought tickets for the next flight to Montreal.

The end of a 2-year trip: Beauty, the Jeep, parked in the yard of a shipping agent in Montevideo

Once I reached Montevideo, the reality of the situation hit a bit closer: everything closed, deserted streets, people wearing masks… It was about lunchtime and my flight was only at 1am, but with everything being closed, it wasn’t really the best time to visit the city, so I decided to go to the airport 12 hours early and wait there. I met up with a few overlanders who had the same idea as me, so the time went by fairly fast, but deserted airports are a bit eerie!

The flight should have been simple, but I realized after buying my tickets that my layover in New York was in two different airports! New York was already the city with the most cases in the US and I was worried that they would not let me in, especially since I had so much trouble entering the US in 2018, but I worried for nothing: it was one of my simplest customs experiences ever! As I was about to exit the airport, a security guard stopped me… “Miss! Miss!” I turn around and he says “You forgot your luggages!” Haha, no! I decided to fly back home without them, leaving most of my belongings in Beauty.

Entering Canada, the situation was a lot tenser, with airport employees all wearing masks. I was given an information paper about the virus, was asked multiple times about symptoms and the declaration paper now included a field where I had to declare that I would self-quarantine for 14 days and that failure to do so could warrant a fine of up to 75000$! This was not a problem; I had already made plans for that and my mother came to deliver me enough food for those 2 weeks the next morning!

As for now, about a month later, I just found a new job. So, after nearly 2 years on the road, I am back to a somewhat normal life of working 8 to 5 except, this time, working from home. I’m still very disappointed about having to cut off the Europe part of my trip and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do that trip, not because travel will forever be changed (although I suspect there will be changes in the future the same way 9/11 brought changes), but because I cannot simply quit my job and sell all my stuff all the time! If there is ever going to be a new big adventure, it wouldn’t be before 10 years or so. I already have some ideas of plans about that, but that’s a story for another time!

You can find out more about my adventure on Instagram or on Facebook .

Update: On the day we posted this story, Beauty, Joanie’s Jeep, was loaded into a container for shipping to the USA.

Locked down and Lucked out in Nepal

It was such a pleasure for Yasha to read Hugo and Emeline’s story as it evoked memories of her 33-year-old self in Pokhara more than 30 years ago. And also because their experience has a happy ending – for now.

Overlanding can be so interesting! Get off the road and enjoy some beautiful countryside

We are Hugo (33 y.o. humanitarian worker) and Emeline (33 y.o. textile designer) from France, overlanding Asia since June 2017 in our pop-top Land Rover Defender.

We travelled from France to Japan: through Italy, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, The ‘Stans, China, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Japan. Then on the way back home: Southeast Asia again, Myanmar, India, Nepal.

We first heard of the CORONAVIRUS when in India. But it was just the beginning and India was not impacted, so we continued on our way toward Nepal as normal. It was there, after a two-week trek in the Annapurnas without any internet connection, that we realized the world had just changed. We turned on the 4g and BOOM! It was crazy discovering all this: the lockdown everywhere, borders closing, etc. We were literally shocked!

Nepal hadn’t imposed any lockdown at that time, but they decided to do so 2 days later and with only 24h notice. We were back in town by then and all the locals didn’t believe it would be strictly implemented. Shop owners and even the trekking permit office told us that they would be open doing business as usual. But actually, the lockdown got strictly enforced and the next day, streets were empty and all shops were closed. Thankfully, we had planned for the worst; extended our visas and bought all the necessary supplies that same day before contacting other French overlanders we knew were around.

At first, we all (3 vehicles, 8 people including two kids, and a dog) regrouped in a free camp site along a river. Locals welcomed us at first glance but, after a couple of days, got more and more anxious and finally asked us to leave the area. Luckily, we knew a guy (Laxman) from a cosy village near Pokhara that was planning to open a camping on his family land. We asked him if we could come camp and he was glad to accept us as his “First Customers”. And dude, that place is a gift!

Three overland vehicles parked up in lockdown on a property in Nepal – with a vista of the magnificent Himalaya mountains

We now camp there in Nirvane village behind a traditional Nepali house in wood and slate, with a view to the Annapurnas on one side and Pokhara lake on the other. Laxman’s family is super nice, we have mineral water on the tap plus 24h electricity and plenty of things to do: from crop harvest, to building a bread and pizza oven for the family, cooking local and French dishes, learning Nepali, bamboo weaving, goat breeding… (you can have a look at our FB page where we put pictures of activities on a daily basis, and also introduced our lockdown mates and the family and place where we are now).

So here we are. We have a visa valid until the end of May with the possibility to extend (to a max of 6 months in a year). We decided not to take the repatriation flights because:

1. we would need to leave the car here, which is not easy both legally and logistically
2. we don’t have a home back home
3. what’s the point to be back in a lockdown country where we cannot work, cannot find a place to live and that has a living cost way WAY higher than Nepal
4. we want to finish our trip by road and we have time; we can wait for months

So on our side, we have decided until now to wait and see. When borders with India or China re-open, we will try our chance. Our main issue is to try to move before monsoon hits as we have a small camper with no possibility to spend all our time inside when it’s raining.

Lockdown-wise, we have a great place and are lucky enough to be with people matching our mindset and lifestyle; but after a month at the same place, it starts to be a bit difficult. Hence, as soon as the lockdown is lifted or eased, everyone will move somewhere else. So far the Nepali government is quite strict but the lockdown is planned to be lifted on the 27th April. Until then, we can still go to Pokhara to buy food once or twice a week with our car, and we can move around in the village itself. That’s it.

The end… ;)

La Vie en France

They went looking for a quiet place with nature in Portugal and hit the lockdown in France. But a local mayor has made all their dreams come true. We first met Paola and Igel in Paraguay in 2008. The next time we saw each other was last year at Willy’s Treffen in Germany .

Flashback 2008: we all enjoy a cool plunge pool in Paraguay, Igel and Paola are sitting on the right.

Paola and Igel travelled for many years by bicycle. This photo shows their last bicycles and the 2 dogs, Rambo and Caramba.

Who you are and where you are from?
Igel & Paola from Germany, Rambo & Caramba from Colombia

How long and where have you been travelling?
We are traveling since 2001. We started on trekking bicycles and went through Europe, to the US (on a freighter), Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America. 2004 in Colombia Rambo, a Rat Terrier joined the team. We cycled and paused some years in South America. 2009 Caramba, Rambo’s daughter, joined the family. 2011 we left South America to Europe and we changed to recumbent tricycles and a bigger trailer. Until 2015 we cycled in Europe, India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Some health problems with Rambo made us change the vehicle again. Since 2015 we live and travel permanently in a 1985 “DüDo”, a Mercedes L 613 D. His name is Big Blue.

Where were you when you first heard about the coronavirus crisis?
In Germany with Igel’s family.

How quickly did this country introduce restrictions, and how did you deal with them?
Our original plan was to see the Baltics this summer. When it was clear to us, that borders will close soon, we overthought our options. Paola had just recovered from a cancer operation and we have been “indoors” for 4 months already, something very “unnatural” for us. We didn’t want to stay many more months there, we were missing the outdoors, living in nature. So we decided to try to reach Portugal before the lockdown. We thought that would be our best option in case the lockdown lasts until next winter. We made it “only” to the middle of France when borders closed.

Where are you now? In lockdown in that country or have you returned home?
We are still near Limoges on the beautiful river Vienne. We arrived on March 17 and about 2 or 3 weeks after arriving the mayor of our little town was visiting us and agreed that we could stay until the end of the lockdown. We are very happy about that because it’s the perfect place for us to be, in quiet nature, we have water, garbage service, a little walking trail for the dogs, 11km to supermarkets… what else do we need.

What to do when you’re in corona lockdown? Re-arrange the van, do some repairs and maintenance, keep busy.

How have you dealt with bureaucratic issues involved in staying or getting home?
“Our” mayor was very collaborative. When we explained our situation, he agreed directly. Later he would check on us sporadically and he brought us the necessary paperwork to leave the spot for shopping or dog walking. Merci beaucoup Monsieur Duchambon.

How do you see the future?
Uff, very hard to see… still a very long way ahead of us, we think. A “back to whatever that chaos was” will not and cannot happen. We are optimistic and positive. Things have to change. For most of the “little” people, for nature for sure, it can’t get a lot worse. We hope for an awakening of the many people who got cheated, propagandised, lied to and exploited for decades. What if we put all that money, effort, intelligence and the will of a positive change together and create a desirable wonderful healthy green world? If we really wanted it, we could. We are a lot more than those few weirdos up there… so, let’s do it.

Find more about Paola and Igel’s life on GRENZENLOS Weltenbummler .

We hope you have found these stories from overland travellers dealing with the Corona crisis enlightening, interesting, and maybe even a little confronting.
12 more stories in COVID-19: a Challenging Time for Overland Travellers

Are you as curious as we were to find out what became of all these story-tellers? 4 months later, we asked them for a follow-up to describe how their stories have continued .

What’s your experience dealing with the current crisis?
Go ahead! Share it in the comments!

Please note: most photos were submitted by the authors of the individual stories. These images are their property and protected under © copyright.

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