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…
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…
Traveling The World With The Barnsley Family
The Barnsley family have chosen to seize life by the horns. Mr. Jamie Barnsley contacted me in February 2017 asking for advice as he prepared to overland the planet in a Defender 130 with his wife, Angela, and two children. We have been friends since, and I have watched their journey from afar with envy….
Do Not Start Overlanding
“Begin er niet aan, dit is verslaavend (Do not start, it is addictive).” –taken from a sticker given to me by a Dutch overlander Recently I wrote a short letter to my friend Dr. Rosselli seeking clarification. Dr. Rosselli is an internationally renowned Colombian neurologist, and himself an overlander who primarily travels unknown and dangerous…
Should You Bulk Up for an International Overland Journey?
Recently, I was sharing a cold beverage and stories with a new adventurer friend in Bavaria. Carsten has travelled the world for decades; he’s a wiry, muscular fellow who speaks with the gravelly voice of a man who has rolled his own cigarettes for 30 years. Carsten complained that gaining weight was a struggle since…
Water Matters
In mid-November 2013, we drove our Land Rover Defender from Arequipa to Cuzco, Peru. Well, that was the plan. At roughly 15,500 meters on the desolate, lifeless altiplano the engine management system beeped a loud warning: we were losing a lot of coolant. After a few minutes spent diagnosing the problem, we replaced the coolant…
What We Have Learned From European Overlanders
We had the best seat in the house to witness the sunset and for the following day’s hot air balloon show, which was scheduled to arrive as the sun rose, a hundred multicolored balloons competing in an endless Turkish sky. Parked on the rim of a canyon overlooking Cappadocia in central Turkey, we watched bemused…
Roof Top Tents Vs Campers: The Pros and Cons
Four years. That is how long my family and I lived in a roof top tent. The four of us camped almost every day of those long years—cooking outside, living outside, and sleeping between walls of canvas. As the kids grew and our journey evolved from an adventure into a lifestyle, we realized that it…
Remote Breakdown Strategy
The trail rating was “moderate to difficult” but the weather had taken a turn for the worse, and the track we were driving on that cold afternoon was anything but moderate. It was tough going. Tough enough that the Defender 130 needed low range and diff lock to conquer some of the steeper, muddy switchbacks…
Overlanding With Purpose
When you first start overlanding, the journey itself is the goal, but we have found that having a purpose behind your travels can enhance the experience even more. Your hobbies reflect who you are, so weaving those passions and interests into your journey will ensure that you enrich your life and take your skills to…
GrizzlyNbear Overland
In the Czech town of Český Krumlov, I piloted my Defender 130 down a cobbled village road, heading towards the Vltava River. There, parked on the lawn next to a gigantic teepee, stood a spectacular Land Rover Defender 130. Leigh, a tattooed, muscular, and energetic Australian mountaineer and oil rigger stood beside the Landy with…