If Overland Site sounds familiar, that’s because we recently featured their epic 1998 Iveco TurboDaily 4×4 on Expedition Portal and were also fortunate to interview the Hungarian duo on the Overland Journal Podcast. Their website is a wonderful travel resource with detailed blogs, gear reviews, overlanding guides, and even a step-by-step course to getting sponsorship. Their adventures have seen them drive from Budapest to Singapore, explore Northwest Africa, complete the Budapest-Bamako Rally, and much more. This week, we join them on the Alaska Highway as part of their latest mission to complete the iconic Pan-American Highway.
In this installment, the couple joins the Alaska Highway and they share why it was built and how. They explain that work began on the highway on March 11, 1942, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, to protect Alaska from the Japanese. Due to the situation’s urgency, it was completed in just eight months, which is truly extraordinary. Consequently, it was initially known as the Alaskan Military Highway until it was opened to the public in 1948. It originally stretched an astonishing 1,700 miles, but over the years, it was rerouted and straightened, so today, it’s just short of 1,400 miles. Ferenc narrates throughout the video, offering fascinating historical and geographical facts with a lot of helpful information for other travelers considering the route. If you have already subscribed to their YouTube channel, you’ll be accustomed to their extraordinary videography and aerial work. This episode is no different, with stunning visuals of forests, mountains, lakes, wildlife, and more. On that note, they discuss the various animals you can expect along the way and share their encounters and footage of black bears, moose, reindeer, goats, bison, and more. Idyllic camp spots are abundant along the highway, and Ferenc and Evelin take time to share an exceptional location alongside a beautiful river. The next day they visit the iconic Muncho Lake for a hike before relaxing in the Liard River Hot Springs. Finally, they arrive in the Yukon, where this episode culminates and the next installment, Alaska Highway: Two Flat Tires with Only One Spare, begins.
I discovered Overland Site via Ashley Giordano’s feature vehicle piece on their stunning Iveco TurboDaily 4×4 (one of my favorite overland platforms) and have been obsessed ever since. Their YouTube episodes are consistently excellent and provide valuable information and inspiration for the overlanding community. If you’d like to follow their Pan-American expedition, you’ll find their latest updates on Instagram.
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