About Us

Hi! Thank you for sneaky peeking our blog.

This is Us. John and Betti, an English-Hungarian couple from the UK. Just over the big 4 X’s we decided to make a change in our lives, expand our horizons and have a real adventure on the other side of the Atlantic.

About Us

The plan is to drive the length of the American continent from Canada to Argentina on the PanAmerican Highway. More or less like this: (or exactly. Below image was being updated throughout the trip accordingly)

The finished route

The finished route

(And a little bit of West Africa at the end:)

Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco April-July 2016

Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco
April-July 2016

The decision’s not always been easy and effortless. We are just humans too. Having plenty of fears, efforts, grinds, challenges and so on our courage, and sometimes blind stupidness, made us go ahead with the plan step by step.

After we sold our house, quit our jobs we bought a 17 years old, 12 tone Mercedes truck that we converted to an overland expedition vehicle and we left the wonderfully foggy Albion for the wonderfully snowy Halifax and our big trip had begun.

Please join us here or at our facebook page (with the name: Betti John Burt) Hope you will enjoy reading our short but sweet stories about the joy and challenges of the trip, what we see, smell, taste, laugh about and smile at, and we will try to capture these moments on camera too.

Note: Our story is written from our emotional and intellectual point of view so it is lacking in an awful lot of technical details. (although we have everything documented and if you are interested in any technical, mechanical, documentation or travel planning feature we are more than happy to share)

14 thoughts on “About Us

  1. I took a picture of your vehicle in Bakersfield, it caught my attention of being very unique , as I was driving down the road , pulled out my camera phone and snapped.
    Welcome to the USA, welcome to Bakersfield, have a good and safe travels on your adventure .
    Your living the dream

  2. Enjoyed your article in the Bakersfield Californian. Your adventures remind me of those wonderful years when our children were young: We would pack up for three months and travel the US and Canada in our “homemade” gypsy wagon as we called it. Now in my twilight years, I asked the children if during all those years of traveling, did they miss the summer sports, camps, group activities with other kids? A resounding answer: “No, you gave us memories we’ll cherish forever.” Our kids kept journals and we adults (both English teachers) made sure they were attended to on a daily basis. What treasures!! Enjoy all your experiences to the fullest. They’ll all come back to you in your twilight years. . .and sustain you. Trust me. I know. I will joyfully follow your escapades as long as you blog. Thank you for sharing. Lake Isabella Belle

    • What a sweet message. Sounds like, back than you and your family had wonderful times not even aware how precious these moments will be one day. Thank you for sharing it with us. It is always inspiring to hear stories like this. Many thanks for your best wishes too.

  3. Wow, what a cool vehicle. I had lunch today at the “247” cafe in Lucerne, CA, and saw the cool truck… in fact, now that I see your picture, I was standing behind you at the order counter while you were fixing your coffee… I wish I had known that you owned that vehicle. If you make it to the top of those local mountains, to a place called Big Bear Lake, I hope you’ll give me a call… love to talk to you guys about your adventure… Bill Young, 909-553-3564.

    • Small world Bill. Thanks for the compliment.
      Actually that was our second time in Lucerne and in the cafe in the past 6 weeks and we met the same nice guy, Ray who we met 6 weeks ago right there at the cafe. Small world.
      We are still around the area and if we make it to Big Bear Lake we would love to get in touch. Many thanks for your offer. If not (we are running out of time on our visa so have to move on) then please keep in touch.
      All the best,
      Betti and John Brooks

  4. Hello John & Betty! Just getting settled back into things after our ten days in Baja. It was great running into you at Alphonsinas, sorry it didn’t work out for you to join us on our exploration of the beaches north of Bay of L.A. Easily my new favorite spot in Baja and that is saying something.
    How did everything work out with the fuel tank? It’s too bad they couldn’t help you out in town. Sounds like it was more work than they wanted to take on.
    Love the blog, we’ll be following along as you make your way south. You two are living the trip Mary has had rattling around in the back of her mind ever since we picked up our Sportsmobile…

    -Mark, Mary, Zoe & Shane

  5. What a great blog! It’s too bad we’re on different schedules but who knows, maybe we will see each other one day. We wish you both all the best in your amazing adventure! Buena suerte!

  6. Pingback: “Why take the Highway?” Meet BURTWAY | Central America Overland Expeditions

  7. I saw you and toke a picture of your truck today, at 16:00 in El Vigia-Merida-Venezuela.

  8. Hola,

    it was a pleasure getting to meet you in our posada, having a nice evening with dinner and breakfast with you. It has been a while since I have been in such a good company and I am quite sad that you had to leave that fast and we did not get to enjoy some more time together… but since you always meet twice in life, I suppose we shall meet again at some point.

    I am quite a little envy of the trip ahead of you.. 🙂 If I could, I would have probably joined you.. but we will see what is coming next.

    Stay safe, enjoy your trip and let me know how you are doing. All the best,

    Ben

  9. Welcome home! Just looked up your web page going through customs. Got a pick but trying to work out how to post it

  10. What’s the new truck you plan on getting…no doubt benefiting from the knowledge you acquired while running the Mercedes.Having the bigger engine (rather than the 170:-P job) certainly seems to make a lot of sense…although less MPG…maybe. Regards Ted.

    • Hi Ted,
      We had a quite powerful engine (OM352 240) and served us very well. Sadly no truck for us time. Other plans on the plate which involves a static life. (I love a garden you see)
      Thanks for your message, Betti and John

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *