In February 2007, two friends, driven by their everlasting desire for travel and adventure, left their home in Denver, Colorado, to embark on a journey of a lifetime. Steve Shoppman (28) and Steve Bouey (30) set off to circle the globe driving their two Toyota trucks. Their passion to see as much of the world as possible and to share what they saw with as many people as possible led them to the idea of creating the expedition The World by Road (TWBR) as a means to educate young people about the world and to increase their interest in travelling.

The main focus of the expedition is to show the cultural diversity of the world from a genuine, firsthand perspective, a perspective different from the one that conventional media provides. The team is documenting the entire journey and is uploading daily blogs and expedition photos to their website, thus allowing their audience to follow every step of the way. Through interacting with aid organisations and developping an educational initiative, TWBR’s crew proves they have really set out to make a difference.

Here is what the Steves shared about TWBR with Sofia Echo Media.

How it all began
The two guys met in college about eight years ago. Shoppman, originally from Denver, put an ad in the newspaper to find a roommate and ran into Bouey, who had just moved to Colorado from his home town of Oakland, California, to go to university.

Over the course of time, the two ended up hatching the trip. Shoppman, a freelance multimedia designer and consultant with a keen interest in travel and adventure sports (skiing, canyoneering, wake boarding, kayaking), says he has always had the idea of doing a trip of the sort, but on a smaller scale.

Bouey, for his part, used to work as an auditor for the Colorado state government. However, he was no stranger to travel and adventure either. “While I was working I was travelling a fair amount, doing triathlons around the world. I was living in New Zealand at the time, training and racing for Ironman New Zealand, and when I came back to the US I was sort of depressed that I was back home. I was looking for an excuse to go and travel again somehow, somewhere,” Bouey says.

“When he got back from New Zealand I asked him if he would be interested in doing a road trip from Europe to China through the Middle East. He said it was a great idea and we started doing that and then it grew into driving around the world and it became what it is today – we’re filming a documentary and it has become our job,” Shoppman says.

Planning and preparation
Having originally come up with the idea of TWBR expedition about two years ago, the guys started outlining the idea. The actual planning itself took them about one year. “There’s a lot more to it than deciding on the route,” Shoppman says. “When you pick 80 different countries you’re driving through there’s a lot of research that needs to be done so that’s the first step. From there you have to figure out how to get funding... so that’s the second part I would say. The third part is making sure you have all the gear you need – camera equipment, the right maps, camping equipment.”

With Shoppman’s background in multimedia and video production and website development, the guys were quick to build a website (www.theworldbyroad.com). It launched in December 2005. “The first month we put the website up we had 10 000 hits on it. So obviously there were some people out there that were interested in the expedition. Our web traffic has consistently grown from month to month after that... Right now half of our audience is international and half is back in the US,” Bouey says.

The website blog is translated into 14 different languages and Shoppman is currently working to have it translated into Bulgarian as well.

The expedition is being funded by sponsors and donations from TWBR’s audience. The guys spent all of their savings to finance the journey. They are always looking for more sponsors and donations, so anyone who is willing to help them in their quest can find the different ways to do that on their website.

Planning the trip turned out to be an ongoing process. When they first left the US, the two estimated that they would go through 95 or 96 countries. Now they say the number is probably down to about 80 because of the political climate in certain countries. “It kind of evolves all the time...,” Bouey says.

The Steves say that they are constantly planning ahead and although they are enjoying each place they are at and living in the moment, part of their minds always remains focused on what is to come.

Crew
Shoppman and Bouey are the only two permanent members of the expedition. Close friend and roommate Mark Strauss (29) recently joined them in Istanbul to travel along until the end of the trip. Apart from him, the guys have people joining in constantly for certain segments. This allows them to have different, international perspectives all the time instead of just an American one. TWBR has a join-the-trip submission form on their website, so anyone can apply to join them for a certain period.

“Sometimes we meet people just randomly,” Bouey explains. “In Malaysia we met a couple of kids from the UK and they travelled with us all the way through Thailand. We met some doctors from New York in Cambodia and they travelled with us around Cambodia. Another girl from South Africa travelled with us through Laos.”

TWBR has a home team of almost 10 people, on and off, back in the US as well. It helps them out with various tasks – research, contacting media, continuing relationships with sponsors, etc.

Experiencing the world
Starting from New Zealand, the crew drove their Toyota Tundra and Toyota Sequoia all the way through Australia, Southeast Asia, China and Central Asia to arrive in Bulgaria on the night of December 6 and to celebrate here their 300th day on the road (December 9). Accompanied by Mark, the Steves stayed for a while and left heading north – to North Cape in Norway. From there they will go all the way down to Cape Town in South Africa, then they will cross South and North America to go to Canada and then finish in New York City at some point in late 2008.

Why did they choose to travel in trucks? This way they really find themselves as close to local people and cultures as possible. “Definitely we miss out on some of the things a typical tourist will come to a country and see, but having our own motor transportation we get more of those unique and random experiences – they find us as opposed to us seeking them. That’s what makes the trip so interesting,” Bouey explains. “We have a lot of unplanned experiences and most of the really good experiences we have are unplanned.”

Such a large-scale project is bound to entail some negative experiences as well. Like both Steves contracting dengue fever back in Thailand. “It is similar to malaria and is like the worst sickness you’ve ever had,” Shoppman says. “You go from feeling like you’re too hot, that you need to go outside into the cold and then you need to get a hot shower because you’re shivering.”

The guys encountered a lot of shipping problems as well – every time they have shipped the vehicles so far, the shipments have been late. It took the TWBR crew four months to get all the papers they needed to drive their trucks into China. Visa problems continue to be one of the main things to deal with on a regular basis. And right now they are having problems getting to Africa, trying to figure out their route so as to avoid closed borders, visa restrictions and potentially dangerous regions.

The trucks, however, have held up remarkably well and have not caused any problems so far, in spite of the really bad roads in some places. “The only problem we’ve had is somebody broke one of our windows in Kazakhstan and stole a bunch of camera equipment, so Kazakhstan holds a little sore spot in both of our hearts,” Bouey says.

Aid and education
TWBR interacts with various aid organisations along the way, striving to promote their work. USAID has been a consistent partner from the beginning with its wide mission and project range around the world and the many different non-profit and non-governmental organisations to which it grants money. The guys describe USAID as the starting point. They say that before they go into a region, they will contact the USAID office and let them know that they are coming. Depending on their schedule and what they and the USAID might think is interesting, they will try and set something up. “Here in Bulgaria we called them in advance and they knew we were coming, so we’re interviewing the mission director on December 11,” Bouey says. “We’re spending most of December 11 working with them and visiting some of their projects to show people the work of USAID that is going on here in Bulgaria.”

Although USAID introduces TWBR to a number of projects and other organisations with which to co-operate, ideas come from everywhere – be it someone they met on the road, a friend or somebody from their website audience. Suggestions and story ideas are always welcome.

These are some of the projects TWBR has been involved with. In Laos they filmed with some people they met working for Swedish Aid, who were doing a project on teaching the local media how to become better journalists by overcoming communist-instilled journalism stereotypes. “We did some stories with WildAid, who are trying to stop illegal poaching of wildlife in Thailand in Southeast Asia. We did a story with Australian Aid – they are putting money into building schools in Indonesia…,” Shoppman says. In Thailand they did a story with a non-profit organisation that teaches local Thais how to get involved in a scuba diving industry dominated by Westerners.

“The main focus for the aid organisation piece is showing success stories in the world and showing that there are a lot of good things happening. You turn on the news and it’s all bad news, it’s all negative news and especially for a lot of our audience members coming from the US, a lot of their impression of the rest of the world is from what they gather on the news. And you’re not going to want to get out and travel much if all you see going on in the rest of the world are bad things. If we can show that there are good things happening in the world and people are happy and making positive changes, then we can inspire more people to travel. And I think ultimately the more people travel and get out and experience the world, overall the world would be a better place. Maybe that’s a little idealistic, but it’s a start,” Bouey says.

Another part of TWBR is the educational initiative the crew has taken up. They say that driving around the world they see so many interesting things, meet so many interesting people and learn so much that it would be selfish not to share all that, “especially with kids”. Therefore the crew has established a relationship with a school back in Denver. They keep in touch with the school on a regular basis and have started up a programme allowing students to ask them different questions.

“One of the questions they asked was ‘What is life like after communism in Central Asia and Russia?’. That’s a very interesting concept because it’s different in each one of the countries we go through. So right now I am working on writing a report back to the students,” Shoppman says. The crew is positive that this is a much more exciting way to learn instead of just looking at a textbook or watching a documentary, because the students get to participate directly by asking questions and getting answers from them being on site and experiencing exactly what the questions are about.

Bulgaria
The guys say they have had a great time in Bulgaria. Their introduction to the country has been more than welcoming – on crossing the Turkish-Bulgarian border on the night of December 6 (Saint Nikolas Day), one of the customs officials invited them to his house in Svilengrad and treated them to a traditional St Nikolas fish dinner with his family.

Having spent their first night in Svilengrad, the guys then went to Plovdiv where they spent their second night in Bulgaria. Then they drove on to Sofia, where some friends of theirs who they met online took them to celebrate December 8 (Students’ Holiday) at the club Escape. There was actually a double occasion for celebration since December 9 was their 300th day on the road.

“We had a great first impression here and first impressions are always very important. The people have been very friendly, hospitable and accommodating,” Bouey says. “It’s a very beautiful (…) and diverse country – there’s lots of different cultural aspects and lots of different ethnic groups so it’ll be really interesting to come back and spend some more time here.”

Shoppman say: “It’s very human here, everyone wants to help each other out, they want to shake your hand, they want to go out and have a drink with you or eat dinner with you and that’s a beautiful thing that some countries lack for whatever reason…When you come to a place like Bulgaria where everything is so nice and everyone is so nice, it’s very good, it’s a nice change.”

Post expedition
The guys have a lot of different ideas on what to do after the expedition is over. “Once we get back and have the time to catch our breath and decompress after the trip, then we can go off,” Bouey says.

Ten months into their expedition they say that they probably have 60 to 70 hours worth of footage. Therefore they are sure to do a documentary and are even thinking of doing several different documentaries on different aspects of the trip.

There is also the possibility of writing a book. “The hard part is probably going to be actually condensing what we’ve done over two years into a book,” Bouey admits.

The TWBR crew has also thought about doing a university tour. “A big thing for us is the education part and getting more young people interested in what is going on, especially for the US… So if we can go to these college campuses and get more students to do a study abroad programme or to want to learn more about the world, then that’s huge for us,” Shoppman says.