Meet the Guys That Travel the World Overland

For our People of the World feature this week, meet the dynamic duo Lesh and Jazza from NOMADasaurus. This power couple’s current goal is to travel overland from Thailand to South Africa without flying. Aside from being really adventurous and awesome, we also love all the photos in their blog!

So tell us a little bit about you and your blog, Nomadasaurus. How did you guys start?

Well we started long before NOMADasaurus was even a thought. We have both been travelling for many years, and met in Canada back in 2008. Since then we have been travelling the world trying to find the best adventures this planet has to offer.

The blog itself came as an afterthought while we were planning our current overland journey from Thailand to South Africa without flying. All our friends told us we should make a blog about our travels, but we always shrugged it off. In the end we thought we would give it a go to see where it went. We’ve been running the site for almost 18 months now, and I would say it has been going pretty well.

How did you guys first get into travel? How would you say you have grown as a traveler compared to your first trips?

Lesh grew up on a farm in a small community in country Western Australia where the normal thing to do is to get married, have kids and never leave your town. She wanted something different out of life, (we love this!!! This is why we travel too!) and decided to backpack around Australia at the age of 20. Her travels grew from there.

Even though I grew up in Sydney, Australia, I had always had an obsession with Canada, and when I turned 20 I created the chance for myself to finally visit. All it took was the first look at a new city through a bus window, completely on my own, to make me realise I wanted to travel forever.

We have definitely cut back on the partying since our earlier days, and we are more sustainably conscious in our decisions when we travel now. We’ve also learnt to budget a lot better (thanks mostly to Lesh) and to adapt to new situations and cultures relatively easy.

What inspires you to travel? What do you love most about traveling?

There is so much that inspires us to travel!  I think the most substantial thing for us is the ability to experience new destinations and learn about new cultures. We are also very active and adventurous people, and love exploring new activities that we would otherwise be unable to try at home.

The thing we love most about travelling is seeing the world through different eyes every day. Each morning we wake up we are a little different to who we were the day before, and this means we appreciate whatever we encounter each day a little differently.

What is the most difficult/challenging travel experience that you guys have gone through?

The two times that we have had to go home have been the hardest, as we never actually wanted to stop travelling. However the first time we were too far in debt to continue on in Canada, so had to go home to pay off of our debts. The second time we flew back to Australia from Central America for my mum’s 50^th birthday. I couldn’t miss it! But every time we are home we become depressed at how little has changed and how normality quickly takes over. For me flying back into Sydney and driving through the same city and down the same roads I knew all too well from my youth was an upsetting climax. Both times we were making plans to leave Australia again before we had even landed.

What’s next for you guys? Where are you headed to?

We’ll be finishing up our China leg, possibly check out South Korea and Mongolia, and then we will work our way through Central Asia and the Middle East before settling in Europe early next year. Cape Town is the final destination for this trip, but between now and then, we could end up anywhere!

What is the biggest lesson that traveling has taught you? Do you see yourselves stopping anytime soon?

We have learnt quite a few life lessons over the years, but I think the biggest one is that the world is not that scary. The media portrays it to be full of danger and evil, but really the scariest thing of all is not experiencing this beautiful planet. We definitely don’t see ourselves stopping anytime soon, but we will eventually slow down at some point and change our style.

Do you have any advice for people that want to travel and don’t know where to start?

Pick a country that you have always wanted to visit, and buy a flight. Worry about your plans and logistics once you have that flight purchased. It is way too easy to over-plan for your first trip, and often it might get to the point where it is all just too overwhelming. Once you have that airfare, you are committed. From then on, just do a bit of a research on the essential things you need to do before you leave, and then simply let nature take its course.

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