What an adventure: Team L.I.F.E!

All photos included in this post via Facebook/Overload Stories

Earlier this week my friend (thanks Kav! ☺️) sent me this story, and it's just SO incredible - I have to share it with you guys!

Basically, this family of four (who call themselves Team L.I.F.E - Little Indian Family of Explorers) went on a road trip from Bangalore in India, to Paris, France. 

You know, casually.

Dhriti (8), Punita (36), Anand (38), Yash (12).

111 days.

11 countries.

50 cities.

22, 780 kilometres.

One car.

One family of explorers.

Absolutely insane!!!

India àNepal àChina àKyrgyzstan àUzbekistan àTurkmenistan àIran àTurkey àGreece 

àItaly àSwitzerland (Alps)àSpain àFrance.

Anand had just quit his job, his wife had two months of holidays and they were able to convince the kids' school for some extra time off.

It started as a joke on the way back from a within-India road trip they had done, saying that that was just preparation for their world tour ;) 

And then they thought of what an actual learning experience something like that would be for them and their kids - they worked on making it a reality.

Before they began they said, 

"I'm a believer of transcending and not arriving at a destination. We want to see different landscapes, and meet people. We hope they'll hear our story and invite us to stay with them. Language is a barrier, which makes it more exciting. And all this is happening live in front of the kids - that's the adventure"."From the beginning I was clear that this is not a trip to tick things off on a checklist; we didn't want to have an agenda. We are going to see what we like and enjoy it."

Eight months of meticulous planning and organisation, reading travelogues, contacting travel agencies and embassies for visas, and over 2,500 emails later - they were off!

"You know that saying, when you want something, the universe conspires in helping you achieve it? It might seem cheesy, but this trip was something we were destined to do".

I mean there are so many factors at play with a journey like this! 

Firstly, how many of us could even say we could sit in a small car with our family on a 111 day road trip? Yeahhh, me neither. 

I love my family beyond but, I would probably want out after 2 hours.     

But, chuck in two young kids, such an array of different countries, crossing borders, visas, safety, weather - craziness!!!

So, it was inevitable that a trip like this didn't come without its challenges...

They got stuck in their car at the Nepal-China border, with lots of army personnel around, for 5 days due to an earthquake (which frustratingly pushed their plans back by 15 days).

 Boulders the size of trucks were normal for those few days.

The vegetarian family carried their own cooking equipment (which they made good use of!), as they knew not every country would be able to meet their dietary requirements.

However, from making friends in China.

To visiting the "Door to Hell" in Turkmenistan.

Going from sunny skies to sheets of snow, within hours in Kyrgyzstan.

And passing through just a couple other countries on their casual drive :P

Uzbekistan.

Iran.

Turkey.

Greece.

They reached Paris! ☺️

Understandably they decided to fly back to India and have their car shipped home :P

Didn't feel like another 111 day road trip? #arewethereyet?

The intelligence and planning, and the physical and mental strength that went into this,
SO MUCH RESPECT AND ADMIRATION FOR THEM - it's absolutely insane!

The sheer amount of exposure that these kids would have gotten to countries, cities, cultures and, just life, before even becoming teenagers, I bow down to their parents!

An experience of a lifetime, for sure!

To see more of their adventure, visit Facebook: Overland Stories. ☺️

If you couldn't already tell by how inundated this post is with exclamation points, I still can't get over this and just really wanted to share it.
 I hope you enjoyed seeing and reading about this amazing story.

New blog post will be up next Tuesday!!! 

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Have a great rest of the week!

❤️, Raashi