GE Nostr 🌆

A few weeks before our accident, we sat down with Ash from Overland Journal as she interviewed us for the podcast.
In it we talk about life on the road in a big truck and the realities of overlanding.
Listening back now, it seems almost prescient because we talk about resilience and the ability to solve problems and pivot when plans change.
And that’s exactly where we find ourselves now. Effectively homeless, back in the UK and staying with family, but still trying to work a way forwards. A way back on to the road to continue the life we began five years ago.
If you use Spotify and feel like listening to us, you can hear it here.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0RhyMDq0FnNuV5trJuXp8N?si=PWtx87pmSFSCvFNvET7Ucw&utm_source=copy-link

Its also on youtube and various other streaming platforms. If you do listen, let us know what you thought of it!

In the meantime, we are pushing forwards, making plans and figuring out what the road looks like next. Thanks to all of you hear for the messages, support and zaps. It is greatly appreciated.

GN Nostriches!

Watching our home, Bebe, being recovered after the accident in Kazakhstan was painful in the extreme. Seeing a truck this size, that you’ve built your life around for the last five years, all bent and twisted and out of shape, cut really deep.

But she gave us five years of incredible adventures and, when the chips were down, she kept us safe so we all walked away.

#overland #alternativeliving #expeditiontruck

GN Nostriches 🌅

Wow! Thank you so much for the support and zaps. As you may imagine this is a very challenging time as we try to navigate what the future looks like.
We are truly grateful for your support and words of encouragement.
We will rebuild. And we will continue this lifestyle we have chosen because we feel it is the best way, for us, to live our lives and raise and educate Isla.
If doing so brings inspiration to any of you, then so much the better.

“Why did Bebe have to hurt herself to keep us safe? It wasn’t her job.”
That’s what Isla asked us after the accident.

We didn’t have a good answer for her beyond saying that Bebe did exactly what she was built to do.

We’ve been quiet for a while because we’ve been trying to process what happened and work out what comes next.

A few weeks ago in Kazakhstan, Bebe’s front tyre clipped an unmarked concrete plinth at a half-finished toll booth. It slashed the sidewall and we lost control. The rear wheel then caught the same plinth and blew out too, swinging Bebe into a metal post and flipping her onto her side.

We all got out. I was taken to hospital and stayed overnight for X-rays, CT scans and other tests. I escaped relatively lightly with concussion, whiplash and a few minor cuts. Jess was shaken and bruised. Isla and Otis were unharmed.
We know how lucky we are.

Bebe, our home for the last five years, has been catastrophically damaged. The chassis is badly bent, the cab mangled and the habitation box, our actual home, has suffered major structural and internal damage.

Bebe was never just a truck.

Six years ago we sold up, sold almost everything we owned and put our life savings into building a different life. She became our home, office and school. The place Isla has grown up in. The place we’ve built our whole life around.

There is no comprehensive insurance to replace her. Commercially viable comprehensive cover for a truck like Bebe on a long-term journey outside Europe simply wasn’t available.
After a lot of encouragement from friends in the community, we’ve set up a GoFundMe to help cover the cost of getting all of us and as many of our belongings as possible back to England, deal with the aftermath of the accident and begin building a replacement family home on wheels.

Asking for help doesn’t come naturally to us. But right now, we need it.

If you can donate, either through gofundme or direct with SATs, thank you. If you can’t, sharing this post or the genuinely helps too.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-global-traces-family-rebuild

Thank you.
Jess, Dave, Isla & Otis

GE Nostr 🌇

Time for round 4 of this 2025 retrospective. I’m trying to mix up the pictures so it’s a cross section of genres and styles in the hope there’s something for everyone!

Which is your favourite from this set?

1. Meeting overlanders on the road is great not just because it’s fun to meet with like-minded people, but also because it’s great to share location knowledge. This park up was one such recommendation and proved to be an absolute stunner, with incredible views towards China across a dried river valley (see picture 3!) 📍Kyrgyzstan

2. We’d heard about a nomad festival in Bokonbayevo, Kyrgyzstan and managed to get ourselves there on the right day to watch. With archery, horsemanship, taigan dogs and eagle hunting… and all of them at once… it made an incredible day out and seeing people, men and women alike, cantering flat out while shooting bow and arrows from horseback, and hitting their thrown targets (like clay pigeon shooting from horseback with a bow) we were blown away by both the skill and bravery of the nomads.

3. Dried river bed, Kyrgyzstan. I spent multiple flights with the drone flying over this river bed studying the other-worldly patterns below.

4. On the shores of Lake Issy-Kul, and endorheic, saline lake in the Tian Shan mountains. Conveniently, despite its altitude it never freezes and is known locally as “warm lake.” It is the second largest mountain lake in the world. And the site of another amazing parkup that offered scenery, great walks, fun mountain biking and smooth waters for swimming and paddleboarding. Or even just somewhere to throw stones in the water!

5. Waiting for our Russian transit visa to come through, we spent a week or so touring around Georgia. Quite delightfully it was wildflower season and this meadow was a route of different wildflowers, so in single blocks like here, some like an artist’s palette of colours. Otis, our Hungarian vizsla, is happiest chasing stones. And if chasing stones includes leaping through the flowers like a stotting deer, so much the better!

#photography #art #travel #fineart #borderless

Part 3 of my favourite pics from 2025.

What’s your favourite from this set?

1. Turkey. On the drive to Ishak Pasha Palace I pulled over on the side of the road, clambered in the truck roof and grabbed this shot as the rain fell in the distance.

2. Kyrgyzstan. The Kara Bura pass was our first route in Kyrgyzstan. The coloured earth, exposed edges and spectacular views made for an incredible introduction to this most naturally beautiful of countries.

3. Shymkent, Kazakhstan. A city I’d never heard of but one that was such a joy to visit. It’s mostly set up to appeal to Kazakh tourists, but the combination of a great city centre park-up (very rare!) a fabulous mosque in the same style as you’d find in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, and great child friendly facilities made it a winner. Especially this splash pad that Isla loved playing around in cooling off from the summer heat.

4. Zanzibar, Tanzania. As part of my most recent work trip I visited Zanzibar including a trip to a local school to see the education system there at work, with the children learning English as well as Swahili.

5. Early in the year, on a beach in Greece. We took a small car ferry across to Elafonisos and spent a couple of days enjoying the beaches to ourselves. It was cool, but the water was clear and having no one else around was quite the joy (I sound like a hermit now!) of course a family fun aerial picture was essential!

#photography #art #fineart #travel