Has anyone got experience of overland travel with a 2 year old

[nitwit 66]

Hi just interested to know if anyone has travelled overland with very young children -if so how did it work out. Did you use a rooftent? Where did you go. What was it like? Do tell all!

[Swingletree]

Not oerlanding but the wife does horsey events that entail camping out for a few nights at a time. We started taking our little princess when she was two. She thinks its geat fun but there are usually a few other kids there as well so she can always play with them if Daddy gets boring :eek:

We use a big ground tent though so no probs with climbing up and down and plenty of room if its wet. It can get a PITA if she ges bored and starts whinging when horsey needs wifey and I to sort him out but a DVD player in the Landy sorts her out for a while ;)

HTH

[Ben_J85JTY]

We went to Cosrica this year with a couple with their young daughter. They have been travelling with her since she was 6 months old. They also took their two dogs along with them, all in a Disco 2.

For tentage they had a large roof tent and I believe she slept across the width of the vehiles, they slept lengthways. She was a good as gold most of the time, with just a few minor tantrums over the 2 weeks.

The only issue that I could see was that they had to have a lot of gear up on the roof, in a box infront of the tent. That (and the 2" Lift) made the disco top heavy, causing one scare on a track.

They have made me think about taking dogs with me thats for sure.

[sniff my diff]

Do as my unthoughtfull brother does... dump yopur child on the grandparents:eek::eek::eek: mumble mumble mumble bl00dy brother aint got a thought for any one mumble mumble .... sorry rant over.

Does the little one not have a whale of a time? It must be a massive adventure for them ,i would perservere just so i could keep the landy .

Mark

[dwair]

Go for it – its great!!

We introduced our youngest to over landing when she was about 3 and our youngest when he was about 18 months. Both my wife and myself are obsessed with exploring the Sahara and decided not to stop hanging out in the desert just cos we had kids – best thing we ever did.

Basically the hardest bit is saying your going to do it and putting your fears behind you. Taking the kids breaks down barriers between cultures like nothing else. Toddlers are surprisingly easy to deal with when camping – esp outside Europe.

Where have we been with the kids? All over Northern and Southern Africa – lots!… With out counting I think the oldest has crossed the Sahara on maybe 6 or 7 major expeditions now and done a good few short trips to Morocco, Algeria and Libya ect. The youngest has just seen the Sahara (5 trips and counting) as the wife was 5 to 7 months pregnant with him when we were last in Namibia.

As for sleeping, we have gone from roof tent to ground and back again. The ground tent didn’t suit us as it was a pain to pitch, collected snakes and scary spiders and our youngest started to get out and wander off as soon as it got light (OK in Africa but a bit iffy in Europe) Current roof tent is a 1.4m Eazy Awn T-Top which we all fit into easily (2 adults, 3 and 8 yr old)

Lots depends on where you are going – eg African / Islamic countries are the easiest and really child friendly. I have a theory about the more westernised the country is, the more anti “family” it becomes with the UK and France the hardest by a long chalk. If you can manage a long weekend camping in the UK – 3 months in Africa is a doodle in comparison.

Tips for over landing with kids
1/ Get very comfy car seats - they spend a lot of time in them

2/ In car dvd player
3/ Good supply of small but interesting toys you can produce every few days

4/ Cheap light weight push chair (use for confining them in when cooking / breaking camp – useless for pushing them in so use a back pack)
5/ Light weight portable high chair. Outside the EU high chairs are unknown
6/ Good first aid kit
7/ Above all – a good sense of humour. “Are we nearly there yet?” takes on a whole new dimension.

I don’t want to spam on my first post here but if you don’t fancy doing it on your own the first time – we run child friendly Saharan expeditions so look us up on the web or PM me. There are other tour companies out there who I’m sure would accommodate you as well, just check to see if there are any other kids in the group otherwise it may cause some friction.

On a blatant sales pitch - If you fancy taking the family down to Mali next summer – we are organising a charity run where all proceeds are going to good causes ( and you win free holiday when you get back if you raise the most cash!) www.mali2009.co.uk (http://www.mali2009.co.uk/) for details.