Globetrotting YouTubers to take on new world tour

1 day ago

John BrayWest Midlands

News image — Chris and Marianne Fisher travelled 66,000 miles in their last van

A YouTubing couple who spent four years documenting their round-the-world trip in a 20-year-old camper van are off on their global travels again.

Chris and Marianne Fisher and their Fiat Ducato van, known as Trudy, visited 29 countries and travelled 66,000 miles, racking up millions of views on their Tread the Globe channel along the way.

They returned home to Shropshire in September 2024 and immediately began working on their next adventures, while also editing the series that chronicled their trip.

Now the pair have put Trudy into "semi-retirement" and next month will fly to Malaysia to take delivery of a new off-road vehicle, which will be shipped to New Zealand for their next adventure.

Tread The Globe's new vehicle is currently being built in Malaysia

The new vehicle, a custom-built 4x4 Toyota Hilux, has already been christened Trevor.

"We were struggling with the idea of giving Trudy an early retirement, but the reality is you have a 20-year-old vehicle that's been battered driving around the world," Marianne said.

"We wanted to be able to take Tread the Globe audience on some really epic new adventures and having driven around the world there's always new places to find.

"We want to really go off the beaten track and connect to new cultures and experience new places."

Tread The Globe A woman in a brown top and a man in a blue top pointing at a blue sign with the words Arctic Ocean. Behind them is a white Fiat Ducato camper van — Chris and Marianne drove their camper van to the Arctic Ocean, one of the major highlights of their round-the-world trip

Another favourite moment was encountering elephants in Kruger National Park in South Africa

The trip from New Zealand back to Telford is stage one of a three-journey plan.

The Fishers' second trip will be from Shropshire to Cape Town in South Africa and the third will start in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and end in Alaska.

Marianne said: "These three trips have a minimum of 52 countries. It will probably grow though and it will take six to seven years for all three legs."

A big part of funding the trips will be through YouTube advertising payments.

"When I stopped working at the hospital, my work colleagues said 'you are never ever going to be a YouTuber'," said Chris.

"And I never really expected that we would make money from it, but it just kind of grew.

"I look back now to when we first set off and we were excited if we got a hundred views and then now I think the channel's had 32 million views and we tend to get a hundred thousand views on a video.

"It's actually quite mind-blowing to see to see how far it's come since 2018."

Tread The Globe The back end of a camper van with some trees and part of the Grand Canyon in the background — On a visit to the United States, Chris and Marianne drove Trudy to the Grand Canyon

Chris and Marianne's trip from New Zealand to home will include visits to Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey,

"I still have this belief that 99.9% of people in the world are kind, and every time we've ever had trouble, or we've broken down, it's always been the kindness of strangers that's helped us," said Chris.

Since returning to the UK, the Fishers have given several talks at camper van shows.

"At the last one, one of the questions was what how we would describe van life," said Marianne. "I said it's not easier, it's just simpler."

Chris added: "We just love this life. When we finished the last world trip, we came back here to the house and I couldn't believe how lost we felt."

Tread The Globe A man in a blue t-shirt with a mug of tea sat at a desk with a laptop and several orange hard drives — Chris has been working through thousands of video clips which he recorded from the passenger seat of Trudy

Chris has spent time back in Shropshire working on a series about their worldwide trip in Trudy called Expedition Living, which will be showcased on YouTube.

"Looking at the footage gets me excited for the next adventure," he said.

"I was driving to the supermarket in Trudy the other day and my brain just drifted and I felt quite emotional.

"I was like I cannot believe that this van has had elephants walking around it in Africa, it's driven past the Taj Mahal in India and it's parked up next to Mount Fuji in Japan."