A New BJ45, part 1 – A New BJ or not, That’s the Question

Last spring, we had no idea our lives would be turned upside down in so many ways. In recent weeks, I’ve blogged about the most dramatic change – Coen’s health – which you can read about here. Around the same time, we had a happier project: a new Land Cruiser. Since we haven’t had the chance to share this due to the sudden events in Cyprus, I’ll be posting a series of blogs to document this journey with you.

We each sat on a small box in the center of the Land Cruiser, facing each other with our tiny tabletop between us. Coen glanced around with satisfaction and said, ‘We don’t really need any more space, do we?’

‘Agreed. This is just what we need,’ I replied.

This wasn’t the first time we’d discussed the state of our rusty but comfy home on wheels. Over the past couple of years, we’d often expressed our frustration about its recurring issues – the five cracks in the frame, the rust, the leaks, the electrical problems. The Land Cruiser was tired, no doubt about it.

Looking back, the first six years of our overland journey had been smooth sailing with regular maintenance. Sure, the bodywork had been rapidly declining, but we had chosen to ignore it as this didn’t bother us. That is, until one day, a part of the chassis broke off, leading to our first major overhaul – a dramatic saga in itself, which you can find in this blog post series.

For years, these problems had simply become part of our journey. A real pain at times, yes, but they had also led us to many beautiful encounters along the way. Through our interactions with workshops and 4×4 communities – whether in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, South Korea, Japan, Russia, or Central Asia, or the online community on Facebook and Instagram – we’ve met wonderful people and made friends worldwide.

The troubled Land Cruiser has enriched our lives in so many ways.

A turning point came in 2019 when the Land Cruiser underwent its fourth major overhaul. We spent a memorable summer in Bishkek, with Coen and Nicolai at the workshop, making fantastic repairs we wished we had done earlier – during the first overhaul in Bolivia in 2009.

I spent much of that summer at our Airbnb, welcoming a steady stream of fellow overlanders passing through. That time in Central Asia remains one of my best memories, filled with laughter and captivating stories shared with kindred spirits.

That 2019 overhaul sparked conversations about the possibility of a new home on wheels. But then Covid hit, turning the world upside down and disrupting our nomadic lifestyle for quite some time. Our ongoing journey became fractured, with bits of overlanding here, long-distance hiking there, and longer stretches in the Netherlands promoting our books (and getting my broken hand healed). The focus had shifted from full-time overlanding to doing a little bit of everything.

The idea of a potential new overland rig had faded into the background, until it resurfaced, last spring in Cyprus. The previous winter, Coen had worked on replacing the problematic gearbox in Turkey, as it had been unable to shift properly out of third gear for years, sometimes leading to dangerous situations. This experience had left him weary of constantly facing such issues, knowing there were undoubtedly more serious ones to come.

What Overland Rig?

The question that had been plaguing us was whether we wanted another BJ45 or a larger rig. Being in our fifties, we had noticed that overlanders often sought more comfort as they approached sixty or older. Should we rebuild a BJ45, only to replace it again in a few years? Or were we overthinking the future too much?

Of course we were. We live in the present and should focus on the near future, rather than speculating about what might happen a decade from now.

From southern Turkey we took the ferry to Cyprus. The island surprised us with its gorgeous landscapes and rich, ancient history. We loved driving the narrow roads, finding our way through the tiniest of villages. Our small Land Cruiser allowed us to explore places a larger rig couldn’t reach.

Another rig? A bigger rig, or the same rig?…

Should we or shouldn’t we? 

The back-and-forth went on for some time.

The Answer

The answer came suddenly one evening when rain pounded on the roof of our rusty yet comfy home on wheels.

‘If you parked a well-maintained BJ next to this one, I’d pack up everything here, move it to the new one in exactly the same set up, and we could simply continue our journey,’ I said.

That settled it.

Another BJ45 was the way to go.

Reflecting on our years of indecision, I realized how unclear we had been about what we wanted.

‘If you’re not clear about what you want, nothing will happen,’ I said. ‘We need to communicate our desires to the universe in order to move forward. Now that we have a firm plan, the energy will flow again.’

Sure enough, it did.

Within a week or so, a friend or brother-in-law sent us a photo of a BJ45 for sale in the Netherlands. It wasn’t quite what we were looking for – too expensive for another rust bucket – but the universe was moving. Things were finally set in motion.

By the time we had been in the Netherlands for a number of weeks, we received another email. A used BJ45 had been listed for sale on a French auction site, similar to eBay. The listing looked promising, but the prospect of traveling all the way to France just to check it out felt daunting. We were about to head back to Cyprus to resume our journey.

Coen suggested we go take a look and check out some Land Cruiser workshops along the way. Excited by the possibility of finding our dream overland rig, we planned an itinerary through Belgium, Luxembourg, and into France, with only a week left before a plane would take us back to Cyprus.

Our mission was clear: Let’s find ourselves a ‘new’ BJ45!

More on this next time!

Best,

Karin-Marijke

(P.S. The photos are all mine, taken with my iPhone, so they might not be the high quality you’re used to. Since Coen lost half of his vision, working on his laptop and processing his own beautiful photos has become too difficult.)

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