Some of us were born in the wrong decade, and some were born in the wrong century. If you had asked me years ago which period in history I would have liked to inhabit, my knee-jerk response would have been the Viking Age. But then I would have thought for a while and realized that…
Don’t Go There; You Will Die
Have you ever wondered why planning for and embarking on a modern, maiden, extended overland journey is so stressful? Well, prolific overland travelers (myself included) are partly to blame as we tend to focus more on the adventure than ease of travel, which creates a false impression. Let me explain. I, and many of the…
Humanity :: Pay It Forward
My family has been on the road for a long time now, almost a quarter of our adult lives and the majority of our children’s lives, through thick and thin. There has been an abundance of spectacular thick and inexplicably regular suffering of thin. You soon realize as you travel to foreign continents far, far…
The “True Tropics” of Africa
Africa, the Mother Continent, home to the largest variety of people, languages, wildlife, flora and fauna on our sublime planet. The African continent from the Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic of Capricorn is not one large, moist and humid jungle. Most of northern Africa is desert as is much of the south, but to…
The Pandemic and International Overland Travel
When the pandemic bore down, our family had recently completed a journey across West Africa. Our plan was to remain in South Africa for a few months, recover our finances, and prepare the Land Rover for a trip from Cape Town to Vladivostok. In March 2020, we left Cape Town as news of Covid-19 rang…
Nordic Excellence
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal’s Winter 2020 Issue. The Nordic countries have been ranked among the most successful on the planet and for good reason. Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark have arguably the happiest, most-satisfied, longest-living people, and a sublime natural world to escape to. And they escape to…
South Africa Overland
There are countries within continents which are quite unlike those surrounding them: Uruguay and Turkey are good examples. And South Africa is unique on the African continent. It is a land of extremes: wealth and poverty, desert and tropical coast, cities and wide-open spaces. Yes, it has its challenges, but the crime and political instability…
The Overlander’s Christmas Wish List Part 2 (2020)
Dear Santa, Well, I’m kinda annoyed. I reluctantly wrote a letter last year asking for wonderful things like time, beautiful weather, health, and a Cummins diesel. And what did you leave under the tree? A six-pack of Corona (we won’t mention the actual Corona) and a pair of flip-flops. Whoop dee doo! So here we…
Are you an Overlander or an iOverlander? Or both?
Photography by Graeme Bell, Luisa Bell, Keelan Bell. Designed to enable access to specific and relevant information, travel apps have become an integral part of the modern overland experience. But, is this an entirely positive development? Are these apps essential? And how have these apps changed the overland travel experience? It is 2010 and…
Gear Spotlight :: Spot, Halite, Sawyer, and RedArc
In preparation for our overland journey from Cape Town, South Africa to Vladivostok, Russia we have been accumulating gear that will be employed to make the journey easier, safer, and more secure. The following is a first impression look at four products which will be put to the ultimate test on the world’s longest possible…
North American Product Launch | RedArc, RedVision and RedVision Kit (with Manager30)
My friend Shayne has a fire-truck-red Defender 130, which was once touted by Outside Magazine as the “greatest overland vehicle ever built by an Australian living in America but still obsessed with Australia.” He and I drive the same old British vehicles but are at different ends of the gizmo/gear spectrum. With one click on…
Coleman Powerhouse Dual Fuel 414 Stove | Field Tested
There are people who love old Triumph motorcycles and classic Italian sports cars, and for good reason. These machines were design icons in their time, and they force the user to become active and essential participants in the experience. For every thrilling apex, acceleration, wind in your hair corner, there is a greasy oil puddle…
Snomaster CL56D Long Term Review | Field Tested
We have been travelling for a long time now and I am a large man who loves a cold drink, my family consumes more meat than even the most carnivorous Uruguayan. What do cold drinks and meat have in common? Well, they both need to be kept cold, or at the very least cool. Until…
Gear Spotlight
We are planning another intercontinental overland journey, and as always, our gear is an essential part of the trip. While we are not always able to get our paws on an actual product, the internet is a wonderful, addictive creature, and a few hours are easily lost to drooling over new gear, gizmos, and essentials….
Is a “Hard-Side” Camper Worth the Investment?
Hard-side, built-on, live-in campers are all the rage these days. But are they worth the investment? I was having a conversation with my friend John the other day. Three times a year, he tows a large off-road caravan with a V8-powered Land Cruiser to Namibia, Botswana, or Zimbabwe. I suggested that a hard-side camper such…
Overlander Lubricant – Drink Responsibly
It has been a long, hot, and trying day. The rig has been behaving badly, the last of 20 checkpoints involved a locked and loaded Kalashnikov, your convoy partner has been very hard work, and there is a difficult multi-day remote mountain pass ahead. It is at times like these that all an overlander needs…
How To Motivate Your Significant Other To Travel Overland
Often we meet people as we travel who would love to explore as we do but have one serious problem: their spouse hates camping. If this is your problem then we suggest that you try the following Travel Indoctrination Campaign (TIC) utilising Behaviour Modification Training (BMT). It would be a shame to go through all…
Slow Is the Way to Go
We were recently reminded that the unquestionable fundamental principle of off-road driving—drive as fast and necessary, as slow as possible—applies equally to overland on-road driving. Nigeria is a difficult country to travel overland: the roads are either terrible or okay, the police either horrific or friendly and relaxed, the heat sucks the energy from your…
An Overlander’s Real Christmas List
Dear Santa, I hope all is well up north; I hear that it is unseasonably warm up there. It has been a while since I last wrote you a letter, about 34 years to be precise. My older brother told me then that you didn’t exist, but he also told me that the bottom of…
How to Pack for Life on the Road
In preparation for your journeys, you will no doubt visit REI or Cape Union Mart or Decathlon or whichever “outdoor adventure” retailer has the market share in your country. There you will be seduced by a vast array of products, each seemingly essential and equally desirable. Water filters, solar torches, fire starters, carabiners, deep Arctic…