I was around six years old when my father first took me into the mountains of Kongsmoen, Norway. Just the two of us, a tent, and a landscape that seemed to stretch endlessly in every direction.
Those early trips shaped my relationship with the outdoors. I learned to read maps, find my way through the mountains, and appreciate the kind of quiet you can only find far away from everything else.
Years later, after countless hiking trips and long stretches spent alone in the Norwegian wilderness, I discovered overlanding. Watching people travel across remote landscapes in their vehicles opened up a completely new way of exploring. Instead of hiking from one valley to the next, I could cover entire countries, bring everything I needed with me, and make the journey itself part of the adventure.
Then I met Eleni.
At first, she probably thought I was joking when I talked about spending weeks living out of a vehicle. But by the end of 2023, we had committed to the idea and bought a 2019 Jeep Wrangler JLU.
We named her Skaði.
Over the following six months, we built the Jeep into a vehicle we could genuinely live out of. Kitchen, storage, rooftop tent, and everything else needed to spend extended periods away from home. There were plenty of things we had to figure out along the way, but the goal was clear: we wanted to travel independently, explore new places, and see how far we could go.
By the summer of 2024, we were ready for our first real overlanding adventure.
Rather than starting small, we decided to drive from Norway to Greece and back.
The plan was simple: head south through Europe, cross the mountains, explore the Balkans, reach Greece, and eventually make our way home again.
Eleven thousand kilometres. Eleven countries. Six weeks on the road.
It was our first major test of the Jeep, our equipment, and ourselves as travel partners. We would be living in a relatively small space, moving between locations almost every day, and relying on our setup for everything from sleeping to cooking.
For Eleni, there was another first. She had never slept outdoors before.
I had spent years hiking and camping in the Norwegian mountains, but this was entirely new territory for her. There is a big difference between enjoying a few hours in nature and living outside for weeks at a time. You have to accept the uncomfortable moments, adapt when things do not go according to plan, and learn to appreciate the little things that make life on the road worthwhile.
We had no idea just how quickly we would be put to the test.
As we travelled south, spring gradually gave way to summer. The scenery changed, the days grew warmer, and we moved through the Austrian Alps before continuing into Italy and the Balkans.
Somewhere along the way, the heat became relentless.
Temperatures remained well above 30°C, with humidity approaching 90 percent even at night. The kind of heat that makes you slow down, avoid unnecessary movement, and start looking for shade wherever you can find it.
Our rooftop tent became an oven.
When we went to bed, the heat was still trapped inside. Even in the middle of the night, there was barely any relief. We would lie there sweating, trying to find a comfortable position while the temperature seemed determined to make sleep impossible.
For someone who had never slept outside before, it was a particularly tough introduction to overlanding.
Eleni was suddenly dealing with unfamiliar countries, constantly changing surroundings, the practical challenges of living out of a Jeep, and nights when simply getting enough sleep felt like an achievement.
Yet she kept going.
Six weeks of travelling in those conditions, and she never once told me she was done.
That meant more to me than I can properly explain. It showed me that we could face difficult circumstances together, even when the experience was far from the comfortable adventure we might have imagined before leaving home.
Eventually, we reached Greece, our southern destination and a place that would become increasingly important in our lives.
By that point, we were tired, experienced, and carrying six weeks of memories. We had crossed borders, driven thousands of kilometres, learned how our setup worked, and discovered what it really meant to live out of our Jeep.
The trip had not unfolded exactly as we had imagined. The heat made things difficult, and there were moments when we wished for cooler nights and a little more comfort.
But the experience had given us something more valuable than perfect weather or a flawless itinerary.
Confidence.
We knew we could travel for weeks at a time. We knew what equipment worked, what needed improving, and how much preparation mattered. Most importantly, we knew we could handle the hard days together.
For me, that was one of the biggest discoveries of the entire trip. It was not just about the places we visited or the distance we covered. It was about finding the person I wanted beside me for all the adventures still to come.
Eleni had gone from never having slept outdoors to completing an 11,000-kilometre overlanding journey across Europe. And somewhere along those roads, I realised that we had found something we both wanted to keep doing.
Our first overlanding trip taught us a lot about travelling with a vehicle. It also taught us something much simpler: there is a limit to how much Mediterranean summer heat you can enjoy when your bedroom is a rooftop tent.
By the time the trip was over, we knew our next adventure needed to be different.
We wanted cooler air, mountain landscapes, quieter roads, and nights when we could actually sleep. We wanted to return to Norway, a country I knew from childhood, and explore it together in a way neither of us had experienced before.
So, instead of heading south again, we started planning a trip to Northern Norway.
The idea was to travel through Trøndelag and into Nordland, revisit places that had shaped my childhood, and introduce Eleni to the mountains, fjords, and endless summer daylight that had made me fall in love with the outdoors in the first place.
We would be chasing the midnight sun rather than the Mediterranean summer.
We had no idea that the next trip would bring its own unexpected challenges, including temperatures that would once again make us question our choice of destination.
But that is part of overlanding. You can prepare the vehicle, plan the route, and study the weather forecasts. Once you leave home, the adventure is no longer entirely yours to control.
And after our first journey to Greece, we were finally beginning to understand that.
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