Dan Grec was working as a software program engineer for a telco when he realised life was not making him comfortable.
The Aussie wished to get out and expertise the world – and he dreamed of huge adventures.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Dan Grec give up his job to ‘drive around the globe’.
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As a substitute of the same old vacationer locations, Grec was drawn to the ‘paths much less travelled’, and his visions have been each grand and granular.
His journeys needed to be unimaginable but additionally intimate sufficient to permit him to get to know a vacation spot and its folks.
So in June 2009, he give up his job – to drive around the globe.
Grec, who’s now 41, was residing and dealing in Canada on the time.
After months of meticulous planning, he offered all his belongings and purchased “a little bit Jeep Wrangler”, which he took over the border to the US.
Over the following two years, he drove 54,000km – from the highest of Alaska to the underside of Argentina.
He handed by 17 international locations as he travelled the size of the Pan-American Freeway, assembly the locals and attending to know the land and the cultures.
“I truthfully didn’t know if an abnormal man like me may make these desires come true, so I simply went for it,” Grec tells 7Llife.
“On the expedition, I poked lava with a stick, climbed a 5,897m energetic volcano, met unimaginable locals, realized Spanish and lived the lifetime of journey I had all the time dreamed of however by no means knew was attainable.
“It was the largest journey of my life, and I turned hopelessly hooked.”
Upon returning to Canada in June 2011, Grec reluctantly returned to a desk job – with the only intention of saving sufficient cash to embark on one other big journey.
African odyssey
After greater than 4 years of saving, this time it was Africa – and Grec’s travels took him 87,000km by 35 international locations over three years.
Between early 2016 and early 2019, he adopted the shoreline of the African continent, travelling and staying in international locations “together with all of the infamous ones just like the Congo, Nigeria and Sudan”.
For his residence on the street, he had constructed a “full home on wheels Jeep 4×4”.
“That journey utterly modified my life,” he says.
“I knew it might be an enormous journey, but it surely turned out to be 1000 occasions larger than I even dreamed attainable on planet earth.”
Alongside the best way, he contracted malaria twice, rolled his Jeep in distant Uganda, and have become caught in mud a number of occasions.
“Each time, the extraordinarily type, welcoming and pleasant native folks throughout Africa have been there with a smile,” he says.
“And I all the time managed to discover a approach ahead, navigating all of the borders and logistics, security, wars, horrendously dangerous roads, navigation and all the remainder.”
Exploring Australia
After conquering the Americas and Africa, Grec determined to show his sights to his personal, huge yard – Australia.
Throughout travels in 2020, he had met his accomplice Katie, and wished to point out his residence nation to the Canadian native.
Once more, he labored to save cash as he deliberate the Australian expedition.
Grec reworked a Jeep Gladiator Rubicon “right into a home on wheels”, and he and Katie explored “all of Australia” over 12 months.
“It’s bought working consuming water and filtration, photo voltaic panels, twin batteries, a big fridge and kitchen, tons of storage and, in fact, all of the 4×4 upgrades like a winch, suspension, wheels and tyres and many others,” Grec says proudly of the 4×4 car.
Though he doesn’t profess to be a mechanic, he tinkered with autos as a teen and says he has turn into fairly useful through the years.
“I’ve by no means needed to do a serious restore, although I’ve completed all my very own upkeep on all my expeditions, and constructed out the autos solely myself, so I’ve an excellent understanding of how the autos are working,” he says.
“Automobile preservation is the primary precedence if you’re tens of hundreds of kilometres from residence.”
Katie and Grec’s journey – which started in November 2021 – took in places together with Tasmania, the Victorian Excessive Nation, the Purple Centre, Simpson Desert, Fraser Island, Cape York, High Finish and Gibb River Street.
After their unimaginable year-long journey collectively on the street, Katie needed to fly again to Canada.
Canning Inventory Route
However Grec had dreamed for about 15 years of tackling the well-known Canning Inventory Route in Western Australia – thought-about the world’s most distant and rugged 4×4 monitor.
The 1,850km monitor – which runs from Halls Creek in WA’s inhospitable Kimberley to Wiluna within the Mid-West – is the longest historic inventory route on the earth.
Between 1910 and 1959, it was utilized by drovers to maneuver cattle.
The CSR is now seen as the head of four-wheel-driving in Australia, primarily traversed by adventurers who usually take between 10 and 20 days to finish it.
“I like problem, and I like testing myself to see what I’m able to,” Grec says.
“The lure was an excessive amount of for me to cross up, and I knew I’d remorse it for a few years to return if I didn’t try it.”
This time, nonetheless, he would have a unique – and really particular – companion on his journey.
Travelling with dad
With Grec’s superb overland adventures primarily having been abroad, the chance had by no means arisen for him to incorporate his dad Geoff, 71.
“I’ve been exploring the distant corners of the world by 4×4 for over a decade now,” Grec says.
“And because of a bunch of causes, it has by no means lined up for Dad to hitch me on any section of an expedition.
“As soon as I knew the CSR was attainable and open once more after COVID, I knew I needed to sort out it with him.”
Grec’s mom died from most cancers a number of years in the past, making the father-and-son journey much more particular.
“Dad and I’ve turn into a lot nearer since we misplaced Mum,” Grec says.
“It was unimaginable to point out him what the lifetime of an overlander seems like – the day by day routines, the gorgeous surroundings and the locations you may get to on the planet with your individual 4×4 with out anybody else round, or anybody else calling the photographs.
“Once I see one thing unimaginable on a map I simply drive myself there – be it a glacial lake in Peru or a distant village in Gabon.
“The lifetime of journey is unimaginable, and after a number of days Dad was blown away by it.”
Planning the CSR
Grec wished to sort out the CSR in direction of the top of 2022, instantly after ending his lengthy Australian tour with Katie.
However a part of the problem was to finish the route earlier than the notoriously harmful moist season was in full swing.
Throughout that summer time season, between November and April, the tough inland is subjected to torrential rainfalls, which may end up in the terrain changing into impassable.
Due to the isolation of the monitor, Grec was additionally acutely conscious that he and his dad could be on the market solely alone.
“As soon as Katie and I accomplished the Gibb River Street and have been near Perth, it appeared like there may simply be time to finish the CSR earlier than the moist season would start,” he says.
“It was all the time going to be very tight on time.
“However I loved that sense of ‘perhaps we’ll make it, perhaps we received’t’, relying on how a lot rain had fallen and the way a lot mud was on the monitor.”
Tough terrain
Some travellers permit three weeks to do the CSR.
However, with time closing in, that wasn’t an possibility for Grec and his dad, who began out on November 10 – nearly two weeks into the summer time season.
Grec had figured the route would take between 14 and 18 days, however he and Geoff managed to do it in 10.
Already, the warmth was nearly insufferable.
“It was extraordinarily sizzling and humid every single day,” Grec says, citing typical temperatures of a scorching 42C with oppressive 95+ per cent humidity.
“So it was really extra fulfilling to be within the car on the transfer.
“We simply stored shifting and didn’t cease till sundown.”
Father and son drove as much as 12 hours a day, overlaying about 170km every day.
“It’s extraordinarily sluggish happening the tough terrain,” Grec explains.
“The monitor is each type of situation you’ll be able to think about – big vibrant crimson sand dunes, rock scrambles, mud, salt flats, gravel, nasty corrugations, mud like talcum powder, overgrown bushy sections and all the pieces in between.
“What shocked me most in regards to the CSR was how usually the circumstances change from one minute to the following, all the time conserving us on our toes.”
Mom nature
Provides for the journey included a fridge “packed filled with fruit, veggies and meat”, with Grec saying the duo cooked a “big meal each night time”, resembling stir fry, pasta, tacos, steak and rice.
For snacking, that they had wholesome meals resembling apples and bananas.
They carried 120 litres of water with them and, alongside the best way, checked every one among a sequence of 51 wells, hoping to replenish their provides.
“So late within the season, the one usable water we discovered was at Nicely 33, the half approach level, the place we stuffed again as much as capability,” Grec says.
Absent web, their leisure was the “silence and surroundings” of nature.
“The celebrities have been totally breathtaking, then additional north there have been thunderstorms and big shows of lightning on the horizon every night time,” Grec says.
In the course of the day, they have been awestruck by sights together with “monumental and majestic” herds of untamed camels, and have been challenged by having to navigate some harsh and sudden climate.
“In the direction of the top of the journey, we drove by a monster tropical thunderstorm full with thumping rain, hail, thunder and lightning,” Grec says.
“It was intense, driving immediately by the center of the storm.
“Of all of the issues I anticipated on the CSR, hail was not one among them!
“Crossing over a thousand vibrant crimson sand dunes was unimaginable, and since no one had handed the CSR in a number of weeks, the sand was solely undisturbed.
“There wasn’t even a tyre monitor within the windblown sand so it actually felt like we have been on their lonesome on the market.
“We didn’t see a single different particular person or car on the monitor for the complete 10 days, creating an intense feeling of isolation.
“It was very, very heavy realizing we have been on their lonesome on the market, and our security and survival was solely on us.”
Subsequent journey
Grec, whose Instagram account theroadchoseme has nearly 55,000 followers, is now busy planning his subsequent expedition, which he says entails “constructing a completely new car”.
Within the meantime, it’s again to desk jobs and different work to save cash.
That features writing for magazines and talking at occasions together with 4×4, journey and commerce exhibits, “instructing others how they will make their very own desires come true like I’ve completed”.
Grec has additionally printed two books about his adventures, The Road Chose Me Volume 1: Two years and 40,000 miles from Alaska to Argentina and The Road Chose Me Volume 2: Three years and 54,000 miles round Africa.
His Aussie odyssey is within the means of changing into a 3rd e book, and Grec can also be filming YouTube movies to encourage others to “have their very own life-changing adventures across the planet”.
“I’m additionally talking at a ton of exhibits this 12 months,” he says, including that he can have “loads of adventures in North America” that he plans to doc on YouTube.
The place will the following large journey be?
Grec needs to get all his geese in a row earlier than spilling the beans.
“However will probably be to part of the world I’ve by no means explored earlier than,” he says.
“And I’ll as soon as once more be delivery my very own 4×4 there for the journey.”
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