Our MOMs drove a Beat up 4x4 in Kyrgyzstan - What Could Go Wrong?

Kyrgyzstan overland: we flew our two mothers to Central Asia and gave them a Land Cruiser, no hotels, and two weeks of wild camping. Week 1 of 2. 🎒 Our bags: https://get.aspr.app/SH1Dll — 15% off The redesigned Matador collection, hand-delivered to us by the moms in the middle of Kyrgyzstan. The 18L packable now lives permanently in Albatross. ⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 Picking up the moms in Bishkek 03:47 The rental Land Cruiser is a disaster 08:00 First wild camp with the moms 16:31 The moms take the wheel 19:50 Into the Konorchek canyon 26:30 Issyk-Kul, Central Asia's inland sea 51:52 Who the moms really are It's been four and a half years since we left France, and opportunities to see our families have been very few. So we stopped waiting to go home and brought home to us instead. Two mothers, one rented Toyota 80 Series, two weeks across Kyrgyzstan. The rental was a fiasco. Duct tape holding the body together, a fridge that didn't work, tires at the wear bar, and a diesel leak within five minutes of the first fill-up. We named it the Jerk. It took three days to get it swapped. What followed was everything we love about this life, compressed into a week: a first camp at 2,100 m, a vertical climb into the Konorchek canyon, three days along Issyk-Kul, off-road tracks buried in wild Afghan lavender, and a camp at 2,000 m with horses for neighbours. By day four the moms were driving the 80 Series alone through the ruts and dips, and we had stopped pretending we were teaching them anything. Alessandra grew up between the Dolomites and Venice, then worked across The Gambia, Laos, Tanzania, Nepal, China, Ethiopia and Ukraine while raising two boys. Isabelle went from sailing in Normandy to studying design in Belgium, then became a painter with her own workshop in the French Alps while raising three. Born the same year, completely different lives. Neither had ever slept in a rooftop tent. Also with us: Espen and Camila, the very first people who hosted us in Denmark on day four of this expedition, now four and a half years into their own journey — and Tom and Lola, met by complete accident on a track in the middle of nowhere. Next week it's not a warm-up anymore. Same crew, high glaciers at 3,400 m, nomad territory, all the way to the Chinese border. /// Episode 201 | Filmed July, 2026 | Kyrghyzstan → WANT MORE FROM US: Join the Patreon family: Patreon: NextMeridian → OUR WEBSITE: https://nextmeridianexpedition.live /// WHO ARE WE? Join us as we travel the world on an expedition throughout the 7 continents, crossing about 88 countries, making new friends, meeting the locals, exploring cultures, traditions, foods and every corners of the continents. Join us! We are traveling in our Land Rover Defender, our tiny home on wheels for the next 5 years. 5 Years | 88 Countries | 7 Continents | 300 000km Nick; 32 y/o, French/Italian. 🙋‍♂️🇫🇷🇮🇹 Mathilde; 33 y/o, French.🙋‍♀️🇫🇷 Albatross; 14 y/o, UK. 🚙🇬🇧 We are incredibly grateful to be able to continue doing something we love every day. 😊🎥🌎 Thank you to everyone who has been a part of our journey! @NextMeridian.Expedition Music from Epidemic Sound