Over 100,000 KM ON THE ROAD across 17 countres
Who are the Kombi Chronicles?
We're Willow and Lee, two former teachers from the UK who left our ordinary lives behind to travel the world in Ruby, our tiny old VW van.
What started as a twelve-month road trip quickly turned into a multi-year, multi-continent adventure. We have no end date, no master plan and, on several occasions, no engine.
If that sounds like your kind of chaos, come along for the ride.
Willow
Willow grew up in the south of England and originally planned to become some kind of artist. She studied Jewellery Design at university in Birmingham, where she met Lee. Until then, despite a lifelong desire to travel, the idea of living in a van had never even crossed her mind.
To prepare for life on the road, she took a college course in vehicle mechanics. Somewhere along the way, she accidentally became a full-time mechanics teacher and spent four years teaching while slowly transforming Ruby from a non-running project into a functioning vehicle.
These days, she's responsible for keeping the wheels turning, managing the endless logistics of long-term travel and writing the blog.
Lee
Lee spent most of his life in Birmingham and couldn't wait to get out and see the world. Before setting off, he worked a wide variety of jobs, from serving burgers and laying bricks to property management and recruitment. His main qualification, however, is as a primary school teacher.
He hadn't travelled extensively before meeting Willow, but he was adamant that if they were going to explore the world, it should be done in an iconic vintage VW bus. After years of hard work, that dream became a reality.
Lee manages the social media channels, films and edits the YouTube videos, and is responsible for much of the route planning that somehow gets us from one country to the next.
Ruby
Ruby is a 1976 Volkswagen Type 2 (Late Bay) originally built in Germany. After spending part of her life in Hungary, she was imported to the UK and eventually listed on Gumtree when the scale of repairs required became too much for her previous owner.
In 2015, she was purchased by a rather naïve Willow and Lee, who thought buying a project vehicle would be a cheaper way to get their foot in the door of van life.
They were very, very wrong.
Once the true extent of the work became clear, Ruby was moved to Willow's college workshop, where she spent the next eighteen months undergoing extensive bodywork and mechanical restoration.
At the same time, her original 2-litre air-cooled engine was removed and replaced with a more modern Subaru powerplant. Once she was finally roadworthy, a new pop-top roof was installed and the entire interior was built from scratch, largely thanks to Willow's dad and his woodworking workshop in East Sussex.
In 2018, Ruby headed to Scotland for her first real test trip, followed by three weeks exploring the south of France the following year. Neither journey went entirely to plan and, in true Ruby fashion, the trip home from France ended with a destroyed gearbox.
Undeterred, she was optimistically loaded onto a ship in Southampton in 2019 and sent to New York to begin a journey across the Americas.
She has been breaking down ever since.
Despite being nearly fifty years old and barely larger than a garden shed, Ruby is a surprisingly capable off-grid vehicle. She's carried us through deserts, mountains, jungles and some of the most remote corners of the continent, proving time and again that reliability and capability are not necessarily the same thing.
Aimee
Aimee is the original van kitty.
She was rescued from a kill shelter in Washington, D.C. in November 2019. At just six weeks old, she'd been born at almost exactly the same time our trip began.
Since then, she's crossed countries, borders, deserts, mountains and jungles, making her one of the best-travelled cats on the planet.
Years on the road have left her highly experienced, extremely confident and completely unwilling to tolerate any of your nonsense.
Her hobbies include destroying mosquito nets, biting things she shouldn't and conducting detailed inspections of any vehicle that dares to park nearby.
Despite her small size, Aimee is a vital member of the expedition team. She takes responsibility for campsite security and ensuring nobody ever forgets meal times.
Officially she has no income, yet somehow remains one of the expedition's largest ongoing expenses.
Lexi
Lexi was rescued at six weeks old in Quito, Ecuador after being offered for free on Facebook as part of an unwanted litter of kittens.
She settled into life on the road almost immediately and has already travelled through eight countries. While she may be the least experienced member of the team, she makes up for it with enthusiasm.
Lexi is currently going through what can only be described as her terrible teenage phase and, as a result, cannot be reasoned with under any circumstances.
Her hobbies include using the roof windows as her own personal hammock, bothering Aimee whenever she's trying to enjoy a moment of peace and somehow finding the most ridiculous sleeping positions imaginable.
She's the baby of the team, an absolute sweetheart and the living proof that two travelling cats are significantly more than twice the trouble of one.