In just two months, Andy Howard’s been pulled over by police five times. The Irish national is in Australia for an important cause, but the eye-catching vehicle he brought with him continues to attract attention on the road at every turn.
He’s travelling with a little-known “car passport”, a document that allows him to legally drive a foreign-registered car through Australia without importing it.
It’s a kind of stamped log of where the vehicle has been and when.
As Andy describes it, it’s “kind of like a human passport for border patrols — it keeps a record of everything.”
The attention, though, isn’t slowing him down.
Andy, 31, is attempting to drive the car from Australia all the way back to Ireland on his own — a year-long journey covering 32,000 km across more than 20 countries — to raise mental health awareness and funds for Make-A-Wish.
“I decided to take on my own dream, to drift across the world from here in Australia all the way back to Ireland,” he told Yahoo News Australia.
“It’s been one of my dreams to be able to do this for a very long time.”
Andy Howard’s on a mission to spread awareness and raise funds for mental health on an incredible journey across 20 countries. Source: Andy Howard
The 31-year-old has already tackled enormous endurance challenges, including a previous fundraiser where he travelled from the UK to Australia with no money, relying solely on strangers.
That experience reshaped his understanding of generosity and set the tone for this new mission.
He’s now started The Great Life Project, a movement “dedicated to inspiring and empowering individuals” to live with “purpose, passion, and positive mental well-being”.
Andy said he wants his journey to show that “literally anything is achievable”.
“Put your mind to it, no matter where you start from, as long as you know what you want to do, put a plan in place and just get it done,” he said.
Andy’s incredible challenge ahead
His route from here is enormous: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, China, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Europe, the UK and finally home to Ireland — all within 12 months.
It’s a massive task, but Andy remains unfazed.
“If you think about it too much, it’s just too much information,” he said.
Despite the police stops, breakdowns, and looming visa deadlines, he insists he’s keeping it simple: “I’ve just been living on a day-to-day, almost hour-to-hour basis.”
Recently, while he was cruising through Victoria, Andy was stopped by a set of rather curious police officers — an encounter that went viral online.
“I mean, if I were a police officer, I’d pull me over as well, just to see what the story is,” Andy said, pointing to the fact that his car sticks out on the road like a sore thumb.
“I’ve probably been stopped maybe five times by police, and two of those were actually just to take pictures because they’d seen the car online and they just love what I’m doing.
“And the other three were just, they didn’t have any idea what the car was about, because on English registration, it would make sense to pull over a car just to question it and see what’s going on.”
He said largely though, “everyone’s just been really nice, and at the end of all of it, after all the questions are answered, they just wish me the best of luck”.
Andy’s now in Brisbane, and from there he will head to Singapore. He wants to spread the word about his mission as far as possible.
“There’s a lot to live for, and if you put your mind to it, anything’s achievable,” he said.
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