Overland, under open skies

Living and learning on the road, camping along the way and experiencing life between two points along the route... Rasshme Rao meets a couple who roughed it out and how

Nandita and Jupp

For those with a sense of wanderlust, difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations and happiness could come in the form of a camper van, the road winding ahead and a best friend to make memories with. This description would fit adventure enthusiasts — Nandita Nanda and her husband Jupp Schmitt — like a glove! The couple decided to embark on a year-long overlanding trip and quit their well-paying corporate jobs in the UK to pursue their dream.

Nandita hails from India, while Jupp is from Germany. “We had very comfortable lives but we only got five weeks of holiday a year, in which we had to fit in travels and family visits. So we decided to quit our jobs to go on a long road trip. Jupp had gone on a hiking trip in Japan before and I had travelled in India. After meticulous planning, we decided to go to Malawi in Africa where we would spend two months volunteering and living with locals in the most beautiful surroundings Mother Nature could offer before we travelled to South America for our sojourn,” said Nandita. For the uninitiated, overlanding is a concept of land travel where you get to a starting point of your choice by any means of travel and start your journey which remains on road for the entire duration.

Overlanding is living and learning on the road, camping along the way and experiencing life between two points along the route. Often, this means living in tents or campers with bare minimum essentials, to be able to cook and clean, sometimes encountering scary situations, experiencing nature up close, creepy crawlies and all! “We lived in our camper so accommodation was as comfy, the sheets were ours, we had a kettle, stove and small utensils. We picked essentials in stores in little towns along the way and cooked our meals. We didn’t have a toilet in our van, so we were open to the elements as it were. In Columbia, we had a huge problem with bugs and insects,” she recalled. A trip like this would need months of planning. It’s not a ‘ZNMD-like road trip’ where a group of friends drive to different places with paid accommodation, local fare at restaurants and sightseeing or pre-planned activities. Overlanding requires one to rough it out. You can have as big or small a budget, but the idea is to live on the road, where you allow the experience to teach you about living.

Jupp says his trip to Japan gave him the confidence to plan this trip. “Besides, our age (both in their early 30s) gave us the comfort of knowing we could attempt something like this. We had decided on a long trip after marriage and this overlanding trip was our honeymoon. We took three months to whittle down the trip details. Since I’m German, I had it easy but Nandita had to work a little to get her visas since she’s Indian. We took into account emergency situations and did not carry too much cash on our person. Even so, we got robbed twice (in Bogota and Malawi) but our insurance did pay us back,” he explained.

The trip, said Jupp, taught more about sustainable living than any schooling could. They learnt to catch fish, volunteered for work on farms for weeks where they got fresh meals and beds to sleep in exchange for their time, learnt to speak Spanish, make friends with people of different cultures, woke up to breathtaking sunrises, watched animals like penguins and alpacas up close, bathed in hot springs, caught mesmerising sunsets and slept under starry skies. Their journey took them through Argentina, Chile, Columbia and a small part of Ecuador, through landscapes ranging from the Andean mountain range (which was part of their initial leg where they had to acclimatise quickly), desert areas, Amazon rainforest and urban farms.

Nandita added that they met gracious villagers as well as urban mobs. They camped in official campsites as was required in Argentina and Chile but in other places, they could pitch tents anywhere. “We downloaded the app ‘Overlander’ where people give feedback on the places they visited and we relied on it to find safe places on our route. One of our helpless moments was 15,000 ft high in the Andean mountain ranges where we had problems of camper overheating, engine making sounds we couldn’t figure out and the biting cold as our vehicle was not insulated. Luckily, we did not have big problems, and this trip has been an enriching experience,” she said.

The couple’s journey from March 2019 to March 2020, started from and ended at Malawi, a place that Jupp describes as one of the most beautiful places on earth with generous and happy people inhabiting it. They spent 20,000 pounds in all, including camper, tickets, insurance and travel. “We didn’t hold back and did everything we had planned to. It was as lavish as we wanted it to be,” said Jupp.

They have since returned to normal life, with Jupp even getting a lockdown harvest of onions, chillies, tomatoes and pumpkin in his backyard in Berlin, thanks to his learnings. Nandita, who came to India to meet her parents, has not been able to travel back due to lockdown restrictions. “But I’m in talks to set up overlanding experiences here. We have a beautiful country and there are challenges to camping but we want people to experience it,” she added.

For their next overlanding trip sometime in the near future, they have their hearts set on Africa.