There are fundamental elements of a good overland vehicle: the combination of serviceability (or ultimate reliability), capacity (payload and cargo volume), capability for when the terrain gets technical, and enough comfort to keep driver fatigue at bay.  For the last 15 years, American Expedition Vehicles has been trying to pull the Jeep Wrangler into the range of a functional overlander….

Photography by Andy and Mercedes Lilienthal It’s late afternoon on Waiheke Island, a 30-minute ferry ride from Auckland, New Zealand. We’re aboard a tour bus that takes people around the small idyllic isle, which is complete with lush scenery, wineries, historic locales, and a small central village. Our tour guide and bus driver is Horst Meyer, the husband of my…

The streets are deserted, save a few lone Land Cruisers parked on the main street of the desert town of Wadi Rum. The Petra-Amman highway, which feeds the town, is closed due to snow. As a result, there are no tourists around, which gives most local people a chance to stay at home, drink tea, and rest, although a few…

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal, Spring 2019. Photography by Jake Hamby and Alex Manne We rolled up the 20-foot-tall garage door a little bit before 3:00 a.m. The temperature inside the WWII-era steel Quonset hut plummeted as the wind forced snow and ice in around us. One by one we pushed the bikes and sidecars…

Photography by Ryan Resatka and Francis Fraioli It’s an expansive tract of land, roughly equivalent in length to the West Coast of the United States, but with countless roads that to this day remain unmapped and infrequently traveled. Like many deserts, it’s a place the earth wants for itself. The sense of isolation and beauty Baja offers its visitors is…

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal, Gear Guide 2018. Photography by Alfonse Palaima, Scott Brady, and Colin Evans Expedition 65 was not a tour; it did not even have a leader. While some might view that as a recipe for ending friendships, it played into a grand experiment and ultimately a transformative experience. The concept was…

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 he does not like food…

DayStar Cradles Airbags are a rather hotly debated subject in the overland space, and there are good arguments on both sides of the fence. Personally, I’m a firm believer that you should never rely on them for your regular driving conditions, as a vehicle’s suspension should be catered toward its most common operating weight, but airbags do have their place….

The 2020 Range Rover Evoque – To Call Forth A crossover SUV was never meant to be a truck; they have been designed to be a far more capable and usable car, and in some cases like the Evoque, a great car with the backroad performance that exceeds some traditional SUVs. This is not an attempt at suggesting that the…

An unexpected detour and dash of luck lead to a miracle pup deep in the heart of Navajoland.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal, Spring 2018. Dusk is settling into the hills along the Sea of Cortez. The sky is a bruised purple, still streaked with veins of red and yellow, a reminder of the brilliant but difficult day behind us. Our band of friends rides west leaving the coast behind, crisscrossing the invisible border between…

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal, Gear Guide 2013. There are certain events you never forget. While some drift away on the winds of memory, those that stay with you define your attitudes and perceptions for life. Camping by the banks of the Boteti River in the Kalahari Desert, Botswana, when I was 10, is something that has…

Yeti is an impressive company, based on a simple ethos: “Build the cooler (i.e., product) you’d use every day if it existed.” They certainly made their name constructing extremely robust coolers that endure full-tilt adventure travel, but they have also extended their product line to include soft coolers, drinkware, bags, and now chairs. Pulling the Hondo from the box, I…

If you’ve ever looked into overland vehicles, you’ll almost certainly know of Earth Cruiser. This Oregon-based company builds expedition-grade trucks specifically designed to address the needs of international travelers. They’re rated for four-season camping, capable of tackling remote terrain, and provide a rather large living space while still fitting inside a container for shipping. Unfortunately, this wonderful package was only…

Packboat is my made-up word for easily portable boats that roll into a bag but deploy in minutes, in contrast with hardshell kayaks or canoes in aluminum, plastic, or composite. I’m here to suggest that if lugging a cumbersome hardshell on your overland rig isn’t for you, then a packboat weighing from 2 to 40 pounds and never bigger than…

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal, Summer 2018. Photography by Joe Fleming and Scott Brady TRAVEL CHANGES US IF WE LET IT. There is something different about Peru. On my third trip to this variegated country in as many years, it became clear. It is easy to say that the difference is in the water, that…

Have you ever noticed that on most phones and computers, overlanding auto-corrects to overloading? Call it a fun coincidence, but it’s also appropriate given our tendency to weigh down our vehicles with bumpers, winches, armor, tents, and other equipment. Any of these upgrades can add comfort or capability, but they also make the engine work harder, reduce acceleration, decrease fuel…

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal, Spring 2018. I still remember my very first overland trip, a 4-day journey across El Camino Del Diablo, the infamous border road with Mexico that crosses the most remote region of the Sonoran Desert. The track has been in use for over 1,000 years, including the first European crossing in…

“…as woman, I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world.” -Virginia Woolf Six months ago I became the “woman behind the phone” managing the Women Overlanding the World Instagram account. On that site, I share tales and photographs sent from women adventuring all over the globe. It is a privilege…

It was two days after Christmas with the temperature in Johannesburg sitting at a boiling 37 degrees. Abby (my American pit bull terrier) and I were desperately looking for some activity or adventure to keep us occupied during the holidays, and I knew that staying in Johannesburg was not going to be an option. We needed somewhere to go. It…