Graeme Bell
Graeme Bell
We are the Bell family – ordinary people who enjoy the extraordinary. Luisa and I inherited a particularly strong strain of wanderlust from our ancestors. We grew up moving around South Africa and both loved the outdoors and camping. As adults we were initially happy with the odd camping trip in one of our Land Rovers (we had three old oil leakers at one stage) but once returning to “normal” life after a six-month drive from Cape Town to the Serengeti, Tanzania in our Defender 130, we became restless and insatiable. We realized that the overlander addiction was too strong to ignore and eventually decided to take the leap into long-term overlanding. There were also other motivating factors. Having grown up in isolated Apartheid South Africa, we both wanted to explore the planet and learn more about this world we inhabit. The opportunity to spend every day with our children, to watch them grow and to be their primary educators was irresistible. We were not satisfied with the level of education the children were receiving back home and were determined not only to learn invaluable life lessons but to also share those life changing experiences with our wonderful kids.
- Daily Driver
- 2003 Land Rover Defender 130 Camper
- Fun Fact:
- I broke my leg in eight places in a motorcycle accident when I was twenty, the scar looks like a shark bite so that’s what I told pretty girls (before I met my wife, who never believed the shark story, btw)
- How I got started
- I bought an old Land Rover in my mid late twenties and soon became hooked on overland travel. A journey from Cape Town to Dar es Salaam convinced me that this was my calling in life - to be a long distance, permanent explorer.
- Most Memorable TEAM GT Moment:
- Circumnavigating South America with our kids was the greatest three years of my life.
- My ideal roadtrip would be
- East coast to west coast USA along the Great Northern Route 2.
