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General Introduction:
The ambition for an overland trip started back in 2003 after Coenraad & Yolandi bought their first car, a Nissan Micra, and joked how they are going to buy 15 bottles of Tesco mineral water, take their Decathlon tent and head back home when their time in London came to an end. Soon after, the joke became a dream, and a decision was made to buy a more suitable overland vehicle, a Mercedes G Wagon, after the poor Nissan was written off by some drunks on a driving spree. They were miracously rescued from spending all their precious income to convert the 25 year old rusted to bits and slow as a snail G Wagon (named Charlise, because she's a Monster) into a comfortable overland vehicle, when she got stolen. (Please note we are still secretly in love with G Wagons, they are just VERY expense to repair).
The dream kicked into reality after Ivan joined the same IT team as Coenraad, and jumped in last minute when he heard Coenraad and a colleague is going on a three week trip from London to Bamako in a Fiat Uno, and that it was only a warm up for Coenraad who's planning to drive all the way from London to Cape Town. Within weeks Coenraad and Ivan became good friends, although they still to the day sound like enemies during their conversations, and made a few sums to show the Dajana (which has proven to be a bit unrealistic, but hey the convinced her), and not long after we bought our Toyota Land Cruiser.
Coenraad and Yolandi is doing this trip because they feel it has been their live dream, they want to see the world, get to know new cultures, and enrich their lives.
Ivan and Dajana is doing this trip to experience adventure, escape the rat race and find what direction in live they really want to go.
Travelling Tight is really tight, four adults in one car (oops and to make it even tighter Yolandi fell pregnant), and a very tight budget, we want to see and experience as much possible with the least amount of money.
We are first of all heading for South Africa via the East coast of Africa, no route is fixed although we have a general plan to drive through Europe and the Middle East before we enter Africa and then to ship the Cruiser to South America and see as much possible.
Please note that since Kenya Coenraad, Yolandi and Meinhardt unfortunately are not traveling with us any more. Read more about this in Tight Journal.
| Ivan Brgic | ||
| position: | The guts Ivan is an essential part, and making up for the lack of guts the rest of the team has. Ivan even had the guts to ship our Cruiser's side steps from work, saying to the courier after handing him two 1.5m long parcels, "that you'll be amazed these days what computers can do". Ivan is also the bargaining man, he will probable ask at every border post if we are allowed to skip the queue, and for every transaction we make he will ask for 100% discount. Apparently he will also run to find help if we get stuck. | |
|---|---|---|
| date of birth: | 1 January 1985 | |
| nationality: | Croatian | |
| Ivan was born and raised in Pula. He came to London to live his dream as racing driver and did pretty well saving up enough money to buy his own racing car and participate in Formula Ford. He worked at a well known pizza company as manager before he joint the same IT team as Coenraad. Ivan has a passion for racing and has an excellent sense of humour. He famous quotes include: "through out" - meaning through up, "staying pregnant" - meaning became pregnant and "try before you buy". | ||
| Ivan Brgic's view of the trip: | Now I’ll tell you my view of the trip. Since I was a little kid I wanted to travel. As I was getting bigger my desire to travel got bigger, but it always got pushed back for some reason. When I got my first scooter at the age of 13, within the first week I was going 100 miles from home to explore the country side of Croatia, with no driving license of course. Few years later, at the age of 15, I have rented a car and have driven from one side of the country to the other (700 km) with no license. The first week when I got my driving license, when I was 18, I went to Paris doing 3600km with few of my friends. My parents did know for any of this. And by reading this, it is going to be first time for them. After I have finished high school I got a season job in my mum’s shop to make some money for backpacking around Europe. And in the September 2003 I have spend two months in Europe`s train network. And then for some reason, I have moved traveling in to the second plan. Racing formulas started being No.1 for me. So I have spent few years concentrating hard on my racing career. The only small problem was that when I have started to race there was a lot of `politics` combined with the racing. And the more professional you get the less racing and the more politics it gets. So after talking to Damon Hill and exchanging few e-mails with him, I have decided to stop. Now there was a gap for me to do something else. Coenraad mention some Charity rally to Africa that he is doing with a friend from work. I took me 1.5 seconds to decide that I want to that. So after convincing Coenraad that I am an expert in fixing engines, they had me on board in Africa Corpse Team in the rally called Bamako Run. It took them 1.5 seconds to realize that I have no idea about engines. But still it was too late to kick me out so I have joined in. Coenraad was mentioning selling his Audi and buying a 4x4 and than building it in to an Overland vehicle. But that was always in a pipeline mode. I had more backpacking in my mind. But after going to Bamako I have seen that with the car you can reach some of the most remote areas and you can avoid all tourist places, which attracted me even more. I have started to like the idea of traveling with the car. And then I kind of got promoted so I was moved to a different team. Things have started moving good for me. I got my office cubical and my career was about to become the flag ship of my life. However, the problem I had was that I was bored to the bone! I had it all planned in front of me. I felt like I was small part of the big system and it is going to keep me in with dependency on money and social status. Or something like this. Anyway, it was very boring to me to know that the most exciting thing in my life is going to come from the shops. So naturally, I have started to complain to Coenraad about that. As usually for this kind of conversations somehow we got to a agreement that we need change, but there is a loan to be paid, the job we are going to lose, what the friends and family are going to say…etc. I had in my mind that we have to start moving. He had something else in his mind. Anyway, we started to plan a holiday with two Land Rovers in Libya. After about few days we realize that we can go twice as far if we can go with one car. And then we were thinking we should go flat to the South Africa, but what about if we just go travelling. No solid route, just go out there. Ask locals in the villages what to expect in the next one. Not long after that we have sat down and start going through our budget. And we started to work towards it. I don’t really know why exactly I have this desire to travel; is it to see new places and get new experiences, is it to learn new things, is it to have every day something new, or just pure pleasure of travelling. But I would like to think that it is all this combined. I expect this trip will to bring me closer to the truth; I will be looking for things that are common to all people on earth. Things we all love, respect, hate, fair, need and desire I hope I can learn and experience from locals, Not moving from camp site to camp side thinking about cold beer. | |
| Dajana Brgic | ||
| position: | position: The heart and creativity Dajana is the only one amongst us who has some creativity and secretly keeps a warm feeling in our team. She will add a bit of artistic touch to our trip and be the "person person" amongst us. | |
|---|---|---|
| date of birth: | 1 January 1985 | |
| nationality: | Croatian | |
| Dajana was born and raised in Pula. She met Ivan while he visited Pula during his time in London, and soon joined him. She worked for the same world famous pizza company as Ivan before she joined a major hotel group as supervisor. Dajana spent a great deal of time during our trip preparation organising her wedding, we hardly saw her, when she was not working she was back home organising her wedding (we still believe she only did this so that she can spend as much possible time in lovely Pula). Dajana likes spending time around her family and friends and caring about the enviroment. | ||
| Dajana Brgic's view of the trip: | Ivan | |
| Coenraad Strydom | ||
| position: | Group Leader and Mechanic Assumed leader position because he is the oldest male, but actually more because of his strong opinion and unwillingness to change his mind. He however accepts responsibillity even when he made the incorrect decision. Mechanic because of his interest and knowledge on cars. | |
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| date of birth: | 1 August 1980 | |
| nationality: | South African | |
| Coenraad was born in Newcastle, grew up in Pinetown, Lichtenburg and Centurion. He had a student live for four years at the University of Pretoria under the excuse, "studying Bcom Accounting" and married Yolandi in his final year at University (not his final academic year though) and moved to London in 2003. He spent all his whole time in London working in an IT Hardware breakfix team for a major bank in Canary Wharf. He did well though, started off as the "toner man", changing printer toners for one hour a day and sleeping for the rest, and ended up as Team Leader. Coenraad likes food, beer, cars, 4x4's, rugby, the internet and Tin Tin. | ||
| Coenraad Strydom's view of the trip: | Our lives these days are filled with a lot of clutter. My hope for this trip is that we manage to strip all the unnecessary out. So much of what we believe are needs are not needed at all and actually get in the way of living a fulfilled life. I hope we get answers to the most basic of man's questions. The questions modern man don't even ask anymore. | |
| Yolandi Strydom | ||
| position: | Organiser This is Yolandi's natural talent, anything that needs organising, will be dealt with in a efficient and effective manner. | |
|---|---|---|
| date of birth: | 1 January 1980 | |
| nationality: | South African | |
| Yolandi was born in Durban, and grew up in amanzimtoti, Somerset Wes, Bethal and Centurion. She studied Bcom Accounting and married Coenraad in her final academic year of University. She worked for the same classical music publisher company in London as Accountant before she become full time mum. Yolandi loves reading, being with her husband and organising. | ||
| Yolandi Strydom's view of the trip: | I'm looking forward to disappear into the wilderness. Living live from day to day, and not worry about deadlines. I want to experience new cultures, see how the live, taste what they eat and learn how they think. I want to spend my days wondering around exploring nature, relaxing and live a simple life. Nature will become my baby's playground, with new challenges everyday to raise a child without diapers, ready made baby food and all the luxuries modern day life offers us. I hope as a learn my child more, and will also learn more. Most of all I'm looking forward to live free from the judgement of not doing as society expects, but as my heart dreams. | |
| Meinhardt Strydom | ||
| position: | Resident diaper tester There is a direct relationship between Meinhardt's position in the team, and his age. He is currently brushing up on his map and GPS skills and should hopefully be able to fill the position as Chief Navigator by the end of the year. | |
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| date of birth: | 1 November 2008 | |
| nationality: | South African | |
| As the most recent addition to the team, Meinhardt really puts the "tight" into TravellingTight. There will now be 5 people squashed into one car, for a few years in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe on an even tighter budget. Meinhardt has only one thing he absolutely adores - boobs. | ||
| Meinhardt Strydom's view of the trip: | Meinhardt's views on the trip are fairly universal for all people his age. He sleeps until he is hungry and then eats until he is tired, then sleeps until he is hungry... you get the idea. Other | |
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