About us
Once upon a firetruck…
Who thought it was done. With work. With flashing lights. With adventure.
Thats where we came in.
We are Douwe(39) & Karlijn(36), our four kids – Sophie(14), Tobias(11), Pepijn(9) and Olivier(5) – and two adventure-loving cats, Izzy and Fox. Since the spring of 2025, we’ve been traveling the world in our self-built overlander truck – former fire truck build in 1975. This is not our first old truck. In 2022 we traveled through Europe in a vintage green van build in 1970. What was supposed to be a ‘once in a livetime journey’ turned out to be so amazing that we wanted more. So thats were we started to build a bigger dream to start an even bigger journey! From Eastern Europe through Turkey and the Arabian Peninsula, heading toward Africa — as a family, as a team, and sometimes (oftentimes) simply as a rolling circus.
Once upon a truck is our real-life fairy tale. With dust, mud and detours instead of glitter, and lessons you only learn when you’re on the road.
We share our story to show you that you don’t need a perfect plan – just the courage to start moving.
The ideal moment doesn’t exist. But the moment that is good enough does.
Whatever your dream may be; Dream big and start moving!
Some random facts about us
– We have written a book about our first trip through Europa in a small, vintage van that kept breaking down. English version on the way!
– The truck weighs 9 tons
– The cats have lived in the truck since they were kittens, they do not know anything else
– One big reason to completely change our lives? Karlijn’s post-Covid recovery. After 5 years, she finally starts to feel good again.
– We love boardgames! A whole cabinet is filled with them. Who needs clothes anyway.
– We take turns driving. The other one navigates and judges.
– We don’t have a 5-year plan. We barely have a 5-day one. But it always works out.
– Thanks to the boys we have a steady collection of odly shaped sticks available at any given time.
– School happens everywhere and every day. Best classroom update ever.
