To live in South Africa as an adventure biker has many advantages. It is a great place to get your motorcycle fitted out with state-of-the-art equipment, as well as a great starting point for an expedition to some of the wildest and most beautiful countries in Africa, such as Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Tanzania, and Rwanda….
Overlanders Share Their Favorite Apps
Mobile apps are designed to improve our lives and provide us with readily available information. This is especially helpful while travelling. Hundreds of new apps are popping up left, right, and centre, so we connected with our fellow overlanders to help narrow down the search. Google Maps, iOverlander, and Maps.me were crowd favorites, and nearly…
Jessi Combs Posthumously named “Fastest Woman on Earth”
Jessi Combs, who died tragically in 2019 while attempting to raise the bar on the women’s land-speed record, has officially been named the fastest woman on Earth posthumously by Guinness. Combs’s fatal accident occurred in Oregon’s Alvord Desert on Aug. 27, 2019, where her two runs in the jet-powered car that she piloted averaged 522.783…
What I’ve Learned About Full-time Travel From Shelter-in-Place
Lead image by Amber Baldwin Perspective through being forced off the road for the first time in over six years. Cliché as it may be, “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone” certainly applies to this period of sheltering in place, the longest my husband, Eric, and I have stayed anywhere in more…
Expedition Portal Celebrates 15 Years of Adventure
June 25, 2020 :: Press Release In late June 2005, expeditionportal.com (known as ExPo) went live, serving initially as a community forum, and now as one of the world’s largest online overland resources for the vehicle-based adventure traveler. While the website has grown continually since 2005, growth has accelerated in recent years because of the…
Featured Adventurers :: Jamie aka ‘Captain Manicorn’ & Sandra
Sometimes you have to hit rock-bottom before you can realize your true potential, and for Jamie Leibert that meant landing in federal prison. This incredible low taught him what can happen when you lose your way. But after serving his time, Jamie decided to completely turn his life around. He abandoned his vices and took…
Maiden Voyage | Tail Lamp
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal, Summer 2020. I woke up to find my tent in my face. Why had my shelter collapsed, leaving me wrapped up in a lasagna of damp nylon? I lay motionless, listening for any clues that might suggest the cause of my predicament. It was early and quiet,…
Montana by Land Rover
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal, Summer 2020. Even by the standards of Montana Land Rover clubs, this idea seemed like a pipe dream under the paired influences of Scottish ale and mid-winter cabin fever. The proposal was such: a weeklong overland foray in early May into some of the most remote country…
Nitro Gear’s Restored Trakka Troop Carrier | Feature Vehicle
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal, Summer 2020. All too often, the vehicles we love are eventually lost. Old muscle cars are traded in for more practical sedans or wind up in a ditch, road trip vans succumb to high miles and blown motors, and our trusty camping trucks begin to rust after…
Forrest Fenn’s Rocky Mountain Treasure Found
As explorers and adventurers, no thrill is more tangible than discovering treasures left by those who came before us. Whether we discover a valuable and historically significant artifact or something as simple as a rusted can from the early 1900s, the experience is still exciting. These artifacts can immediately transport our minds to the past,…
XOVERLAND :: Arctic Solo Series, Ep 2
Expedition Overland’s newest series, Arctic Solo, tells the story of Richard and Ashley (@DeskToGlory) as they finish their Pan-American road trip by completing the final leg of their journey: Canada’s Northwest Territory to the Arctic Sea. Episode one gave us a rundown of the trip and the rig Richard and Ashely are driving to…
Destinations :: Lesotho
This article was originally published in Overland Journal’s Summer 2019 issue. By Emily Sheff Images by Emily Sheff Lesotho’s smooth rolling hills and intermittent rocky crags, and the way each mountain’s many shades of green reflect a sheen onto the unfettered landscape will leave you breathless. Meeting Lesotho’s people, who are warm and quietly affectionate…
Getaway :: Fordypningsrommet Fleinvær ‘The Arctic Hideaway’
The coast of Norway is dotted with ethereal clusters of islands, remnants of the last glaciation that blanket the mainland like a protective barrier from the icy Norwegian Sea. This windswept landscape of rolling hills and countless fjords is an explorers’ paradise of spectacular beauty and makes an especially stunning backdrop for a cluster of…
Minimalist Escape: Chalet Poisson Blanc
In the human quest for shelter, the trend has generally been bigger is better. Many builders and homeowners are creating enormous spaces and filling them with technology. WiFi-connected lighting, refrigerators with television screens, heated toilet seats, and voice-activated stereo systems are just a few examples. It would appear that despite our efforts, the perfected living…
Modern Explorers: Justin Coffey & Kyra Sacdalan
Embracing adventure, one day at a time.
Royal Enfield to the Dig Tree
In 2015, I had some fuel buried in the Western Sahara by a Belgian couple on their way to Mauritania. A few weeks later, they sent a picture of a thorn tree with “CS” carved on the trunk. “Mark two meters north, and dig,” it said. “We left you a mystery gift.” I nicknamed it…
Living Legends: Interview with Elspeth Beard
Elspeth Beard tells how motorcycling around the world at a young age set her on track for a life of challenge and achievement.
Crossing Borders
AK47s, Chicharones, Red Tape, and a Smile
COVID-19 is Leaving Overland Travelers Stranded Abroad
Overlanding During a Pandemic The novel coronavirus has swept across the world at exponential rates, infecting over half a million people already. In Denver, Colorado, and across the US, shelter-at-home orders are going into effect weekly, in a dramatic effort to slow the rate of infection. As someone who traveled extensively in my RV, I…
Thank You, Chris Cordes
A Special Thanks to Chris Cordes for his time as Editor of Expedition Portal. We wish him all the success in his new role with the OnX Mapping Team. I still remember the first day that Chris Cordes started working at Overland Journal, interning from the management program at Embry Riddle University. We knew he…