> the reality is that taking two years off means that landing a job will be substantially harder than it would have been if you worked during that time

When I got back from driving Alaska->Argentina I was out of money, so I went back to Software Engineering.

I put the trip on my Resume and put "Learned Spanish, learned to think on my feet, negotiation skills and quickly adapting to new information".

I applied for three positions and every one asked me in detail about the trip and how they would love to do something similar. I was offered all three positions.