Across Europe to Nepal and back in a double decker

Two British blokes — Daniel Spokes and Matt Lumber — are driving 22,500 miles from Bristol to Nepal, in a double decker bus! Details are a bit scanty, but it looks like they started recently and although they have a great website (maps, video diary and all!), it’s not being updated as frequently as promised, and we cannot tell where they are right now. Nevertheless, I love reading about trips like this and I particularly enjoy them when they are doing it in a way never done before.

Planning and work for this trip has been tremendous: it’s taken the guys 5 years to fix the second hand double decker they will be driving in — and it’s pretty impressive what they’ve managed to do with it.

It doesn’t look like they have a deadline on the trip, but the top speed of the bus is 70 miles per hour and I can’t estimate how long it might take. Nor can I imagine the trip to be easy: what happens if the bus breaks down? They unexpectantly run out of fuel? Accidents? I guess it’s all part of the experience — a once in a lifetime adventure undertaken by two friends with an ardent passion to travel.

It’s not a commercial venture, the duo will also raise money for charity by offering friends a bed on board for a charge; the money will go to Mr Spoke’s charity, the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, and Mountain Rescue.

You can read more about their trip on their website, and there is a recent feature on them in the Guardian.