Evenings of endless reading on blogs about which vehicle performs best on which roads
followed. What engine? Which tires? How about the mileage? What about weight? Do
we need 4x4 and diff locks? The classic Volkswagen surf van or the more agile Landrover
Defender? Maybe we can combine the two. A Syncro perhaps?
Nowadays everything is so geared towards performance and perfection, to such an ex-
tent that upon leaving you really believe that the most important aspect of your whole
overland journey is the engineering of your vehicle. And of course it is important to be
comfortable in your van, knowing it can handle driving up that steep dirt road or that it
is able to cross a river. But there is something else that really shapes your trip, something
we found out only when we were well on our way.
After all considerations we ended our quest at a German engineered, mostly mechani-
cal and very sturdy 4x4 vehicle; a Mercedes Vario 814DA from the year 2000. It is large
enough to fit a fixed bed, kitchen, shower and seating area and tall enough to stand up-
right. Big enough to bring a couple of surfboards and have enough storage but also still
possible to drive it up little forest roads and the odd tiny alley in Antigua, Guatemala.
The mileage for this heavyweight was pretty good too. So this actually might be the per-
fect overland vehicle then? Almost.
To say we fell in love with it from the beginning? Not really. Maybe due to the fact that it
was standing in a puddle of mud on a grey winter day when we first saw it. The van was
filthy and filled with rusty old rims and a heavy-duty workbench. The dashboard and
upholstery full of stains of dirty workers fingers. From the outside it was dark blue. The
kind of blue that absorbs every tiny ray of light.
So one of the first priorities on our list was to paint it a lighter color, since we would trav-
el through some very hot countries and there was no air conditioning.
When it was done, I wasn’t sure whether I liked it. Custard might be the best word for
its new coat. ‘Who on earth paints his vehicle custard?’, I thought. Of course sand, beige,
white or green are the overland vehicle colors to go with. But green, or white was out of
the question since we were afraid that would potentially turn it into an aggressive look-
ing army truck or just a stupid white panel van. And beige is just, well, beh. This custard
icing could go two ways we thought, either people love it, or they don’t like desserts.
We topped it off with some Tibetan prayer flags, baptized him as ‘Balthasar the 1st’ and
hoped for the best. Also, we were shipping it in two weeks, so there was no time for sec-
ond thoughts anyways. And as long as we liked it, who cares? After all, it is more about
how it performs. This is what we thought. But thinking is overrated.