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From Rust To Roadtrip

Travelling filmmakers telling stories of our adventures in a (t)rusty old van and the people we meet along the way. https://linktr.ee/fromrusttoroadtrip

Lucy & Ben • F R T R
stories from the road in a (t)rusty old van 🚎
Building the world’s first Land Rover x Freight Rover Sherpa 4x4
🇬🇧 Land’s End 👉 Land’s End 🇮🇳 2027
watch the van build ▼

10/08/2026

can’t go wrong with a Land Rover, right? 😄

The next stage of our 1988 Freight Rover Sherpa 4x4 build is an important one: replacing its tired original O-series petrol engine with a Land Rover 300Tdi from 1994.

Not because older automatically means better, but because for an overland journey from Cornwall to India we need something simple, mechanical and most importantly- repairable.

That means mechanical fuel injection, minimal electronics, globally available parts and an engine that can hopefully be repaired- or at least bodged- anywhere in the world with a spanner and some duct tape. Not to mention a warm welcome at last into the UK Land Rover community.

So rather than dropping the 300tdi straight into the van and hoping for the best, I’ve been rebuilding it with my dad, getting properly acquainted with the machine we hope will carry us across the world through Europe, Central Asia and into India.

There were homemade engine-moving contraptions.
There was a loose engine swaying precariously from a tractor.
There was also some smoke- and not from the exhaust.

A modern engine would almost certainly be quieter, faster and more refined. But somewhere far from home, we’d rather be able to work out what’s happening under the bonnet than stare helplessly at a warning light pleading with a computer.

The full engine rebuild- and the first real steps forwards in the Sherpa Project- are waiting in the comments below👇

03/08/2026

best of both or twice the trouble? 😅

There are far easier ways to find a 4x4 camper van for an overland journey from Cornwall to India.

We could have bought a Land Rover Defender, a Mercedes Sprinter, a Ford Transit 4x4 or one of the many modern expedition vans already built and ready to go.

Instead, after 10 years and more than 100,000 miles travelling in our old LDV Convoy, we chose its 38-year-old grandfather: a 1988 Freight Rover Sherpa.

But there was one problem.

In its standard form this little van wouldn’t make it past Devon, let alone cross continents.

So we’re combining the compact living space and character of the Sherpa with old-school Land Rover running gear and proper 4x4 capability underneath, so we can get really out into the wild on our journey.

The aim is to create a simple, repairable, Land Rover-powered overland vehicle that feels like a natural evolution of our old LDV, and can hopefully carry us all the way from Land’s End in Cornwall to Kanyakumari, southern India.

Would a Defender, Sprinter or Transit have been easier?
Absolutely.

But we weren’t looking for the easiest vehicle; we wanted to build the right one for us.

Catch the full story of this crazy project in the comments below 👇

02/08/2026

We nearly never made it to this part of the story…

Firstly, we're humbled by the support everyone has shown us after our recent exposé on the conman who stole our money and almost our dream. But even more than that, by the encouragement we’ve received to keep pursuing our vision. Sometimes we doubt ourselves and often we question whether posting so much of our lives- the highs and the lows- online is really such a good idea. But I think this has concreted the belief that we’re surrounded by a pretty good bunch of humans here.

After the events of that video, we stepped back for a long while to work out where to go next. Did we want to carry on with this van project after everything that had happened? Should we just give up? Could we? For a while, we honestly didn’t know.
Finally, after reclaiming ownership of what happened through telling our story, we felt able to carry on at last. We would try and bring this crazy dream to life after all.

So what next? Well, when you’ve hit rock bottom the only way is up. So our next video will be a breath of fresh air. We’re taking back control of the Sherpa project. You’ll see us stripping out the engine bay, de-rusting and welding the underside of the van, rebuilding the engine, fetching parts from all over the country and most importantly, finally finding a decent workshop to undertake the heavy engineering.

This is the (real) start of the project, and we can’t wait to share it with you all 💙

The next chapter is waiting in the comments below 👇

16/07/2026

rescuing our dream van was only the beginning.

Honestly? We weren’t sure whether to make this video or not.
It isn’t a story we’ve been looking forward to sharing- not because we’re embarrassed or ashamed of what happened, but because we no longer want to spend our time thinking about it.

As most of you know, last year we entrusted someone to carry out a bespoke 4x4 conversion on our dream van. Instead, we were substantially ripped off.
We lost thousands of pounds, 18 months of time and most of our faith in people along the way.

It was a tough pill to swallow knowing we could have done more to stop it reaching the stage it did. We could have listened to our heads a little more, and we certainly should have stopped handing over more and more money much earlier.

The trouble is, when you’ve got a dream and you’re so determined to make it a reality, it’s easy to become blindsided rather than stopping for a moment and looking clearly at what is actually going on.

We thought long and hard about whether to share this chapter or simply skip ahead to the good part. But ignoring what happened didn’t feel honest- and we hope that telling the full story might help somebody else recognise the warning signs sooner than we did.

It’s a difficult watch in places, but we’re incredibly proud of how honestly the video tells the story. And, importantly, it doesn’t end where you might expect.

Now that this chapter is finally out in the open, we’re putting it to bed and focusing on what comes next: getting our 1988 Freight Rover Sherpa built into the 4x4 expedition van we originally dreamed of, and setting off on what is shaping up to be our greatest journey yet.

There was far more to this story than we could ever fit here, so we’ve finally told the whole chapter- you’ll find it waiting below 👇

13/07/2026

when a dream van build goes very wrong… 💔

This is where our dream van build should’ve started. Instead, it turned into a disaster.

Thousands of pounds gone. Parts missing. Labour overcharged. And our van left rusting and dismantled outside in the Cornish rain.

We entrusted a workshop in Cornwall with the bespoke 4x4 conversion that would eventually turn our 1988 Freight Rover Sherpa into an overland vehicle capable of driving from Cornwall to India.

Instead, after 18 months, we came away with little more than a shell, missing parts, an empty bank account and very little belief that the Sherpa Project would ever continue.

It took us a long time to feel ready to tell this story.

We just wanted to hide away, but when we realised how many people had had similar experiences we knew the right thing to do was speak out.

The trouble is, when you’re so determined to make a dream happen, it can be surprisingly easy to overlook the warning signs. Every new promise makes you believe things are finally about to change.

We thought long and hard about whether to share this chapter or simply skip ahead to the happier part of the van build, but ignoring it would have meant leaving out the moment that changed the entire project.

So this is the story of how our dream expedition van became a disaster.
And, more importantly, how we eventually found the strength to take it back, start again and keep the journey to India alive.

The full chapter is waiting in the comments for anyone who wants to understand what really happened 👇

12/07/2026

After what happened, we weren't sure if we'd ever share this video or not...

Last year we posted a simple video of us both sitting in a field talking about how we'd poured 18 months and thousands of pounds into a van build dream that had turned into a disaster. We just wanted to update our followers on why we'd been absent; we weren't expecting it to get thousands of views and hundreds of comments.

But the outpouring of support at a moment when we felt almost unable to speak was one of the things that really spurred us on to keep going. We just wanted to hide away, but when we realised how many people had had similar experiences, some even with the same builder, we knew the right thing to do was speak out.

This is the follow-up to that video: the full story of how we entrusted someone to build our dream van and came away with little more than a shell, missing parts, an empty bank account and (for a while) very little belief that the project would ever happen.

Looking back now, we can see how easy it is to become blindsided when you're chasing a dream. We were so determined to make it a reality that we ignored things we should probably have questioned sooner. We should have listened to our heads a little more, and we certainly should have stopped handing over money much earlier. It's a hard lesson to learn, but one we hope might help someone else avoid making the same mistakes.

Most importantly though, this is the story of how we picked ourselves up and carried on.

This video was always going to be part of the story, no matter how difficult it was to show. But making it turned out to be genuinely cathartic. It allowed us to take ownership of what happened, reclaim the narrative and finally move on.

We don't know if "enjoy" is the right word for this one, but we hope you'll watch it and let us know what you think now that the full story is finally out in the open.

Once this video is out, we're putting this chapter to bed for good. From here on, our focus is exactly where it should be: getting this Sherpa built and setting off on what we hope will be the greatest journey of our lives.

Happy Sunday all 💙

06/07/2026

hey 👋 we’re Lucy & Ben. Many of you know us already, but for those who don’t yet here’s a little (re)introduction:

We’re partners, photographers, filmmakers and writers.

We were drawn together in 2013 through a shared love of photography while studying in our home county of Cornwall, now we’re engaged!

For the past decade we’ve lived and travelled in a (t)rusty old LDV Convoy camper van, covering over 100,000 miles overland through 34 countries across Europe, Asia and beyond.

We tell stories of our encounters with the people we meet and the wild landscapes we move through, as well as the challenges and breakdowns along the way. We always try to offer a candid and unpolished insight into life on the road.

Our ethos is simple: say yes more- to opportunities, to experiences, to an unconventional life. Because giving up rarely makes a good story.

We believe the best journeys are measured in stories, not just miles.

Oh, and we’re slightly obsessed with hot springs. We’ve somehow managed to bathe in more than 100 natural ones and even turned that wonderfully niche obsession into part of our work.

If you’ve ever wondered whether there’s another way to live, travel or see the world- or you’re simply into old vans, new places, human stories and the occasional mechanical disaster- we have a feeling you’ll feel right at home here.

So if this all sounds like your kind of adventure, we’d love to have you along for the ride. The biggest journey we’ve ever attempted is only just beginning… 🚎

02/07/2026

it can’t be that hard, right? 😬

Turns out driving to India isn’t exactly straightforward...
Quite a few of you have been asking what route we’re actually planing to take from Cornwall to India.
The truth is... we’re still working it out.

Back in the 1970s you could simply drive the Hippie Trail through Iran and Afghanistan all the way to India. Today it’s a very different story.

So instead, we’ll be setting off from Land’s End in our home county of Cornwall, driving through Europe, Türkiye, the Caucasus and Central Asia, crossing Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan before eventually reaching Pakistan and (hopefully!) the other Land’s End at the southern tip of India.
If we’re lucky maybe we’ll even make it into Turkmenistan.

We’re building this 1988 Freight Rover Sherpa into a Land Rover-powered 4x4 expedition van because the journey isn’t about getting from A to B.
It’s about the snowy mountain passes, endless Central Asian steppes, remote villages, roadside mechanics who help us keep going, chance encounters, cups of tea and of course the stories from the road.

The journey starts here in Cornwall.
India is the destination.
But the adventure is everything in between.

The full story behind the Sherpa Project and the journey from Kernow to India is waiting in the comments if you’d like to come along for the ride 👇

*Disclaimer: Iran is effectively out of bounds for British people and Afghanistan is kind of open but– let’s say– tricky. Maybe some day the world’s borders will be open again 💙

30/06/2026

whose nan is missing their carpet? 😅

Okay, I’ll be honest... we had a little too much fun stripping this old camper out. I do feel slightly guilty about it.
Ben doesn’t.
But it had to go.

Partly because we need to rebuild it to make the most of every millimetre of space. And partly because the greige aesthetic was slowly draining the colour from my very soul.
Not to mention the “insulation”... unless you count a few squares of somebody’s nan’s 1980s carpet glued to the walls.

This 1988 Freight Rover Sherpa is a proper little time capsule, and we’ll be keeping as much of its character as we can. But underneath it’s being transformed into something very different: a Land Rover-powered 4x4 expedition van, built to drive overland from Cornwall to India.

This is only the beginning of the Sherpa Project.

The full story (why and how on earth we ended up buying this thing) is in the comments 👇

29/06/2026

how not to strip a camper… 😅

Okay I’ll be honest, we had a little too much fun tearing the old camper interior out. Though I do feel a bit guilty about it (Ben doesn’t).

But it had to go. Partly because we need to rebuild it to optimise the available space, as every millimetre counts. And partly because the greige aesthetic drains the colour from my very soul.

Not to mention the lack of insulation... unless you count a few squares of somebody’s nan’s 1980’s carpet glued to the walls.

This 1988 Freight Rover Sherpa is a proper little time capsule, and we’ll be keeping as much of its character as we can. But underneath it’s being transformed into something very different: a Land Rover-powered 4x4 expedition van, built to drive overland from Cornwall to India.

This is only the beginning of the Sherpa Project.
The full story (and how on earth we ended up buying this thing) is in the comments 👇

Address

Thingvellir National Park
Cornwall
801

Website

http://www.fromrusttoroadtrip.com/, https://www.youtube.com/@FromRustToRoadtrip, https://www.instagram.com/fromrusttoroa

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