Dave the Nomad

Mission
To follow, document, and celebrate a 13,500 km trek overland completed by my father 35 years ago.

While I do have a plan and itinerary to my trip, I am specifically leaving a lot of details out. I don’t want to have everyday or even every week of my trip planned. More of guidelines than rules…

“It’ll cost nothing to dream and everything not to.” – Anon

Motivation
One of my earliest memories while growing up was watching projector slides of my Dad’s travels while listening to him recollect faraway lands and stories capable of wisping any young and impressionable imagination into a frenzy of dreams. I’ve cherished and hoped for the fruition of those dreams in my own life for many years, but always with a bit of hesitation. As I am preparing to graduate from college, I find it hard to find a reason daring enough to stop me from repeating a trek my father completed after he graduated college.

Many of my Dad’s stories are not just about the places he visited, but also the people who were with him, how his traveling group was constantly changing, and his travel plans were flexible and refreshingly unstructured at times. It is this experience that I hope to emulate during my travels, and this documentary is my way of not only recording all that I encounter, but connecting a father-son journey.

The Plan

I am planning to travel by foot and hitch-hike whenever possible for several reasons; it’s more interesting and randomly exciting, forces you to integrate and communicate with people on a more intimate level than pleasantries with the passenger in the plane seat next to you. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of costs incurred between visas, equipment, and food. Since I’m fresh out of college I will be relying heavily on donations to help make this trip a success.