“Birds and animals had never seen humans, warblers flew to me and touched my face, a badger trotted up and sniffed my boot, coyotes sat watching me walk by, an antelope paced for a mile. In complete silence and isolation, it was like what walking on the moon must be.” Julian D. Hayden (1911-1998), from The Sierra Pinacate

We’ve all got them, those treasured playlists we save for kicking up dust on our favorite backcountry trail, or hammering out long miles on some grand trip. They might be filled with throwback tunes from the ’70’s or a modern mashup of electric funk, but their rhythms are like a narration to our adventures, and the beats a constant companion…

Anyone that has ever walked into an REI or Cabelas will know that there’s basically an endless supply of widgets and gadgets available for camping. Do you want an outdoor oven? Sure, they make that. How about a 12-volt blender? You can have it. Need a rolling cooler with an integrated sound system and charging for your phone? Oh yeah,…

I settle into the driver’s seat of a clean 1996 Toyota FZJ80 and ask Stephen Sanders, program leader for the Cummins Repower Crate Engine Program if I should keep the RPMs below a certain mark, stick to predetermined highway speeds, or mind some shift points on the hills. A heavy black data wire exits from under the steering wheel, runs…

Mauritania has an air of infinite sunburned monotony, the entire country a distant sandy horizon wallowing under a powder-blue sky. Maps of the country only highlight the emptiness, the few landmarks achingly lonely amongst the dunes. Of all the maps.me files I downloaded for the commute, the Mauritanian one measured only 12MB. In contrast, east England, one of eighteen files…

If you’ve gone shopping for a full-size diesel truck recently, you’ll know that they’re far from cheap. These “utility vehicles” now carry price tags exceeding those of many luxury sedans, and are just as luxurious inside. But what if you wanted something different? Something with a massive payload, a ridiculous amount of room, and a commanding view of the terrain…

We’ve all had the dream: buy a cool 70 Series or Defender, ship it to some exotic destination, and explore the world. Many of us spend hours, hell even days, browsing the depths of classified sections hoping to stumble upon that perfect truck here in the states. Unfortunately, when we do find it, the fairy tale often falls apart. Since…

“Sorry to interrupt. Coen, on the bed are clean socks, underwear, and a shirt. The shower is all yours,” I said as I walked into the living room of our friend’s home in Bolivia. Coen and our host Willy were having a discussion while I had been doing chores and had just finished taking a shower. Two pairs of eyes…

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal, Fall 2007. After crossing the Rio Pico Mayo we entered the Chaco, the vast semi-desert area of northern Argentina. During the rainy season, the Chaco floods, and the clay soil makes travel nearly impossible. In the hot, dry season, the scrub forest sheds its leaves and bares long, sharp thorns….

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal, Winter 2016. Photography by Sinuhe Xavier The wind is always blowing on Alaska’s North Slope and on this particular day it was in rare form, buffeting the Tacoma and reducing visibility to a few meters. It was the middle of winter, the temperatures were well below zero, conditions unforgiving, and…

Expletives flowed freely as another gust of wind throttled the canvas, throwing a support leg into the back of my head while I tried to wrestle the awning’s unwieldy form into submission. The now bird’s nest of guylines, stakes, and metal poles of death had me surrounded, and the prospects of surviving the ordeal looked grim. Sadly, I was only…

How can you combine your travels with online work? What kinds of jobs work, how do you organize it, what equipment do you need, and what challenges do you face? Ten overlanders share their experiences.

Few names garner as much respect in the overland world as Toyota. The brand’s quality, capability, and reliability have made it legendary among travelers and enthusiasts alike, but during the last two years, American auto manufacturers have been turning up the heat on this Japanese giant. Trucks like the ZR2 are coming equipped with better off-pavement features, more horsepower, and…

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 his wife, Stephanie, a Frenchwoman,…

As we head further into the summer season and our adventures grow in grandeur and danger, we want to make sure safety is top of mind. One crucial aspect of that is medical evacuation insurance, and thus we’re bringing Christophe’s article back to our front page. We hope you find it as informative and helpful as we did! – Chris…

Overland Journal addresses wheel diameter and ground clearance on the LR4.

Our resident archaeologist digs into the best shovels for overland vehicles.

The Blue Nile has been called the Everest of rivers. It was an unmapped, unconquerable section of water, a raging torrent that extends 500 miles through Ethiopian gorges and at times runs over a mile deep. It was plagued by bandits, crocodiles, disease, and rapids that could swallow a boat whole, but 50 years ago a team of 70 people…

There seems to be a vehicular renaissance upon us. Iconic names like Defender and Bronco are returning from the golden days of four-wheel drives, and manufacturers are realizing that capability sells. Jeep’s JL has already blown us away on the trail, Chevy’s ZR2 is nothing short of phenomenal, Toyota is offering a range of capable 4x4s with an increasing array…

A few years back, I decided I’d try for once to get some people together on my birthday. We set a three-day expedition date in February to the high desert in Western Nevada, which was a risky proposal due to the potential conditions. I invited some friends from Prometheus Design Werx, Exploro, and some guides from my former company Bay…