Overland Journal :: Summer 2020

SUMMER 2020 $12

OVERLAND

SOUTH AMERICA | MEDICAL KITS | MONTANA | LAOS

JOURNAL

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OVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

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CONTENTS SUMMER 2020

Feature s 32

Protecting the Unprotected: Adventuring South America, Janelle Kaz

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Overland Medical Kits: Being Prepared in the Middle of Nowhere, Andrew Moore

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Montana by Land Rover: Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, Paul J. Driscoll

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Feature Vehicle: Trakka Troopy, Chris Cordes

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Pacific Divide: Road Trip Bliss on the West Coast, Olivier de Vaulx

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Velar to Timbuktu: A 900-mile Off-tracks Desert Leg to Reggan, Tom Sheppard

Dep artments

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The Feed

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Field Tested

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Overland News: Adventure Reads, Camp Cooking, Scott Brady

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Latitude, Greg Mills and Michelle Romeo

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Modern Explorers: Mac Mackenney, Tena Overacker

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Life on the Road: Moto Proven, Scott Brady

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Destinations: Laos, Graeme Green

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The Collective: Overland Journey Perspectives, Scott Brady, Graham Naismith, Chris Simon, Lisa Thomas

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Skills: Wheels 101, Chris Cordes

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Overland Chef: Basil Butter Chicken, Jennie Kopf

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Tail Lamp: Maiden Voyage, Nicholas Bratton

On the cover: Three purpose-built Vanagons and their pilots Greg Mills, Brian Carpenter, and Bill Radobenko, caravanning through the deserts of Eastern Oregon with Steens Mountain standing tall in their rearview mirrors. Photo by Greg Mills and Bill Radobenko This photo: Exploring the light-flooded playground of the deep forest while overlanding the Pacific Divide brings a sense of pure childlike joy. Photo by Olivier de Vaulx Back cover: Taking a moment to slow things down and enjoy an Idaho sunset with man's best friend. Photo by Greg Mills OVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

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OVERLAND J O U R N A L

WE ARE ADVENTURERS

Constantly traveling.

Testing and using gear in real-world situations.

Gaining experience, which we readily share.

OUR RESUME

7 continents | 161 countries | 496 years combined experience

EXPERIENCE MATTERS

WE ONLY KNOW THINGS WHEN WE LIVE THEM

SUMMER 2020

PUBLISHER AND CHAIRMAN Scott Brady

PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR OF DESIGN Stephanie Brady CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER Christian Pelletier

CHIEF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT OFFICER Brian McVickers CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Andre Racine

DIRECTOR OF EUROPEAN OPERATIONS Michael Brailey EDITOR, OVERLAND JOURNAL Tena Overacker CONSERVATION EDITOR Åsa Björklund

MEDICAL EDITOR Dr. Jon Solberg, MD, FAWM

ARCHAEOLOGY SENIOR EDITOR Bryon Bass, PhD

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Nicholas Bratton, Chris Cordes, Olivier de Vaulx, Rocky Donati, Paul J. Driscoll, Graeme Green, Janelle Kaz, Jennie Kopf, Arden Kysely, Andrew Moore, Graham Naismith, Tom Sheppard, Chris Simon, Lisa Thomas SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Bruce Dorn CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Isaiah Branch-Boyle, Olivier de Vaulx, Will Mather, Chris McGowan, Greg Mills, Michelle Romeo, Cecile VR COPY EDITORS Jacques Laliberté TECHNICAL EDITOR Chris Ramm CARTOGRAPHER David Medeiros CUSTOMER SERVICE COORDINATOR Miriam Glade CONTACT

Overland Journal, 3035 N Tarra Ave, #1, Prescott, AZ 86301 service@overlandjournal.com, editor@overlandjournal.com, advertising@overlandjournal.com, 928-777-8567 MOVING?

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Overland Journal is a trademark of Overland International, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Overland Journal is a wholly owned subsidiary of Overland International.

NO COMPROMISE We carefully screen all contributors to ensure they are independent and impartial. We never have and never will accept advertorial, and we do not allow advertising to influence our product or destination reviews.

THE FEED ROW 1 @aroundgaia No matter how good and accurate your GPS is, just ask the locals and you will discover the most magical places in each country—and usually they’ll invite you for a refreshing cup of tea. @truckin.terry Trying to position the car in the Wakhan Valley to create a windbreak, Pim managed to get the car stuck. While we were crawling around in the sand trying to dig out the car, Robin was passed out in the passenger seat because of some good old food poisoning—a typical day in Tajikistan. @scoutoverland The most dramatic entrance into Death Valley is Red Pass and Titus Canyon, one of many interlinked trails from the 4,750-mile Old West Expedition, now showcased on overlandfrontier.com.

ROW 2 @clarkglobal [Here is a] great shot from our weekend at the top of North Island in New Zealand. #MogLife#OffRoadAddiction @lukephill17 Riding through the Gate of the Dead, somewhere near Angkor Wat. This was definitely my favourite little section of all the temples. No paved roads meant it was empty and peaceful. @christopherthoms To this day, this is still my favorite Jeep to photograph: Alex’s Jeep Commando. @earlemotors #DesertVibes #VintageTruck#HotWheels

ROW 3 @wilburthelandcruiser Big Foot, unicorns, the yeti—all real. I’ve experienced the glitch in the matrix, and it is beautiful. @ode2theroad Nearly 20 months on the road, and still experiencing firsts, booking our first @youcampproperty, Deepwater Dreaming.

Chilly mornings, days spent exploring sandy tracks to a secluded beach, pretty sunsets, and evenings sat chatting by the fire, stargazing. Tough life, eh, @nichosoffgrid? @robin_m_fiore@overlandjournal This is Sinatra, our 4-year-old Australian Shepard, [best friend] and co-pilot. He travels the country in our Sprinter van, keeping us safe and grounded—we don’t dare leave home without him. @sinsadventure_puppy

CORRECTION In Gear 2020’s “Overland Truck of the Year,” we reported payload for the Chevrolet Colorado Bison as being 1,493 pounds, according to Chevrolet’s data. Final GVWR certifications now list the new payload range at 1,100 to 1,325 pounds.

This changed the overall rating of the Colorado down slightly, but not enough to alter the rankings for the test.

CORRECTION 14

I [came across] an error on page 137 of the Gear 2020 issue: the photo of the pictured Camel Trophy vehicle is [called out as] a Defender, but appears to be a Discovery. It’s a small error and not consequential to the article, but I know your team [members] are perfectionists. Thank you for the great storytelling.

Doug Harakal 2000 100-Series Toyota Land Cruiser OVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

It sure is a Discovery. Thanks for pointing out the error and for paying such close attention to the magazine. We appreciate it.

FIVE’S A CROWD I particularly enjoy the Journal’s slightly insane approach to reviewing products.

Camping with a family of five has led me to be frustrated with the number of relatively compact (but not necessarily lightweight) options for saucepans and pots. My searches turn up mostly super-light backpacking stuff, or [gear] that’s aimed at car campers, but is still about 2 quarts. I would love to see a review aimed at those of us who feed a crowd.

Best regards, Bill Rice Collapsible pots like the Sea to Summit X-Pot are a great solution when feeding a crowd. They

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WHERE HAS YOUR OVERLAND JOURNAL BEEN? Send us a photo, along with your name, the location, make/year of your vehicle, and a brief description. editor@overlandjournal.com

make a 4-liter model that weighs just over a pound as well as a range of smaller options. And while it may be rolling with the “overland stereotype” now, weʼve also seen meals prepared for up to 10 people on the Skottle. It’s not light or compact, but it’s certainly the easiest way to cook for a large group.

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CONTRIBUTORS SUMMER 2020

ANDREW MOORE

OLIVIER DE VAULX

Janelle is a biologist and journalist traveling solo on a motorcycle to document the positive actions taken to protect wildlife. The only thing she’s been passionate about longer than riding motorcycles is wildlife. One of her favorite achievements in this lifetime is bridging the two worlds of fueling motorcycle travel with the purpose of honoring the natural world— seeking habitat protection, and fighting against the illegal wildlife trade. These pursuits have taken her from the outlying places in Laos to the mountains and jungles of South America.

She’s lived on a motorcycle for nearly five years now, riding different bikes on different continents. You can follow her current journey through Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia under her pen name, Motogypsy.

A wilderness emergency medical technician with more than 20 years of mountain rescue and guiding experience throughout Central America, Baja, Mainland Mexico, and the United States, Andrew has raced a vintage motorcycle in the Baja “Circle of Death” and feasted on eye tacos, simply because they were on the menu. Whether on a motorcycle or in a 4WD, he is making a concerted effort to find the best tacos and ceviche on the planet—one roadside stand at a time. Andrew’s base of adventure is Flagstaff, Arizona, home to the 12,000-foot Mount Humphreys, with easy access to thousands of miles of beautiful desert to explore.

Born and raised on the French Riviera, Olivier de Vaulx graduated in communication and became a teacher before working full time as a journalist and photographer for motorsports magazines in France. Overlanding in Europe and Africa with his wife and two kids, he enjoyed the freedom of van life, windsurfed, raced motorcycles, and flew planes. Discovering the USA in 2012, he immediately fell in love with the immensity of the untouched American wilderness. A move to California with his family in 2014 has allowed him to work with American brands and publications worldwide to promote the great outdoors of the United States. Embracing the local culture, he has now added surfing to the list of addictions.

Photo by Chris McGowan

JANELLE KAZ

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PAUL J. DRISCOLL

TOM SHEPPARD

GREG MILLS, MICHELLE ROMEO

Born and raised in southwest Montana, Paul Driscoll has lived and worked throughout the West as a newspaper reporter, technical writer, editor, illustrator, and website manager. He is a fair backcountry skier, a passable dry-fly fisherman, and a damn poor elk hunter. He currently lives outside of Helena, where he develops natural history and travel articles for regional and national publications, including New West, the Washington Post, and Weber—The Contemporary West. Paul is currently working on a collection of natural history essays, due out in late 2020. He has owned a 1965 Series IIA Land Rover for almost 35 years and estimates that many of its 250,000 miles have been racked up on two-track dirt roads to nowhere.

Tom’s overlanding experience spans over 50 years and 110,000 miles, including three UK–Gulf journeys (one through pre-tarmac Saudi Arabia), off-tracks exploration in Northern Africa, and the first-ever lateral crossing and continuous gravity survey of the Sahara from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, for which he gained the Royal Geographical Society’s Ness Award. Tom is, as he puts it, “CEO, MD, author, photographer, designer, and postal clerk” at Desert Winds Publishing in the UK, from which have emerged the Vehicle-dependent Expedition Guide, Four-by-four Driving, The Nobility of Wilderness, and Quiet, for a Tuesday—the story of his 16th foray into the remotest regions of the Algerian Sahara.

Greg Mills and Michelle Romeo have been living, working, and traveling North America in their 1982 VW Vanagon for the last seven years. Together, Greg and Michelle have spent countless hours restoring and rebuilding this once-bone-stock Vanagon that they’ve fondly named Arabella. Now repowered with a modern 2.0 Tdi engine from Boxeer, alongside countless other mechanical and aesthetic upgrades, they have transformed Arabella into both a capable overland vehicle and a comfortable full-time home that is able to sustain their adventures. Alongside their dog, Casey, they spend October through May out on the road working as freelance photographers. Each summer, they return to their home state of New York, where Greg works as a seasonal ocean lifeguard for New York State Parks.

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CONTRIBUTORS SUMMER 2020

ARDEN KYSELY

LISA THOMAS

Arden has been riding loaded dual-sports and adventure bikes into the backcountry since high school, following a single goal of camping in the middle of nowhere. With stints as a whitewater river guide and National Park Service seasonal in Utah behind him, Arden favors the Red Rock Country but also enjoys the Mojave Desert and wide-open spaces of Nevada. Based in Santa Barbara, California, he has shared stories of his adventures, as well as tests of motorcycles and accessories, in print and on the web for the past 25 years.

In that time, he’s worn out two Kawasaki KLR 650s and is currently stirring up the dust on his BMW F 800 GS and Suzuki DR-Z400S.

Lisa and Simon Thomas of 2RidetheWorld are considered by many to be the world’s foremost adventure motorcyclists. With more real-world experience than anyone on the road today, they have ridden their way into a life that most of us can only imagine. Since setting out on their journey in 2003, the duo has amassed an insane half-a-million miles on their ride, through 80 countries, across six continents.

Along the way, they’ve traversed 36 deserts, survived a broken neck in the Amazon Jungle, cheated death, and have become explorers, authors, photographers, and celebrated public speakers. Remarkably, they’re still going strong today. It’s easy to say that Lisa and Simon inspired and ultimately helped define what we all now call adventure riding.

CHRIS SIMON

CHRIS CORDES

GRAEME GREEN

Chris Simon is an aspiring overlander and writer. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with his wife, two children, a Boston terrier, and a ghetto cat. Born in Germany, raised in South Africa, and educated in the US, Chris is also an immigrant and a migrant, blessed and cursed by not having a single national and cultural identity. His professional background is in anthropology, in which he has a PhD from UC San Francisco and Berkeley, and in ethics, in which he has postdoctoral training from Case Western Reserve University. Anthropology has fed his intrigue with cultural norms and differences; ethics has taught him to pay attention to the richness of people’s moral struggles and strivings, including his own.

Chris was born and raised outside of Dallas, Texas, and didn’t receive a real taste of the outdoors until moving to Arizona in 2009. It was there that he fell in love with four-wheeldrive vehicles and the great outdoors, quite literally altering the path of his life. Instead of pursuing his planned career in aviation, Chris accepted a position with Overland Journal and Expedition Portal, where he would hone his skills in writing, photography, and off-road driving. Over the years, he has lived full time on the road, mapped trails from the Arctic Circle to Mexico, driven across Australia, and backpacked the Himalayas. He is currently an Airstream Ambassador and works for onX Offroad, managing their Trail Guide community.

Graeme Green is a photographer, journalist, travel writer, and editor for international publications including BBC, The Guardian, the Sunday Times, the Sunday Telegraph, Wanderlust, South China Morning Post, and others. He has traveled the world for 15 years with his camera, notepad, and laptop, from Ethiopia to Japan to Haiti, working extensively in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. His photographic work encompasses local life and cultures, wildlife, landscapes, adventure travel, and more, covering stories from human trafficking to endangered animals. Photographer Steve McCurry says of him: “Graeme Green has an eye for capturing cultures with a particular sensitivity. He gives a vibrant testimony of the world we live in.”

Photo by Andrea Moreno

ROCKY DONATI Rocky has a quirky sense of humor, the mouth of a sarcastic sailor, and talks supersonic fast. Her insatiable drive and knack for creative problem-solving meant a decade of spearheading high-level business strategies for the outdoor industry. Now she manages her own consulting firm, Donati Agency, but more often than not, elects to play hooky with her partner in crime and two Aussie pups.

From wheeling to jet-setting out of a remote Park City chalet at 8,000 feet, she and her husband are constantly in search of the perfect pocket water for fly fishing. This decade, she’s embracing the hermit lifestyle, writing gibberish for hire, and renting out the adventurous getaway of your childhood dreams, The Treehouse Utah, on Airbnb.

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NICHOLAS BRATTON

GRAHAM NAISMITH

JENNIE KOPF

Nicholas Bratton is a lifelong adventurer and traveler. Currently based in Seattle, he has lived for six years in Africa and one in France.

His pursuits include working as a whitewater rafting guide in South Africa and Washington, as a mountaineering instructor in the Cascades and Rockies, and exploring eastern Greenland. His travels have taken him to 30 countries. Closer to home, an overland highlight has been driving the 600-mile Washington Backcountry Discovery Route in his Land Rover Discovery. Bratton’s work has been published in the Boston Globe, Daily Telegraph, Rovers Magazine, Hidden Compass, Land Rover Monthly, and Alloy+Grit.

Born in Scotland in 1971, Graham initially had a nomadic existence which saw him attend his sixth school and tenth house in Scotland, England, and South Africa by his 14th birthday before finally settling near Windsor, UK. After uni, he joined the police, serving as a constable and sergeant in uniform and then as a detective. He left in 2000, moving into IT, where he still remains. In 2008 he drove a Toyota Land Cruiser 30,000 miles overland to and around Australia from the UK when his daughters were 1, 4, and 6 years old. He now lives in Kent with his family. Look for his illuminating book, Are We Nearly There Yet, Dad? in print, on Kindle, and Audible.

I love to cook and grew up on a resort in northern Minnesota. We fed our summer employees, and when I got old enough, my Mom gave me the option to cook or clean up—I cooked. I started catering over 25 years ago when my kids were very young, and my little cottage industry bloomed into a full-blown biz when they got older. My family enjoys having great food when we are out under the stars, and I enjoy making that happen. We own Colorado Backcountry Trailers, and I helped design the kitchen for the off-road trailer—it allows everyone to come together to create something spectacular, the perfect recipe for dining en plein air.

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FIELD TESTED SCOTT BRADY

T

he year was 1911, and Roald Amundsen had just arrived at the South Pole. Roald was known for his pedantic nature and the extreme lengths he went to in testing equipment prior to an expedition. His stove of choice was the Primus, and it not only helped feed him but saved his life as well.

“In deep cold, sweat condenses in its passage through the clothing, forming a deposit of rime, which then melts with horrible discomfort. Amundsen had to sit up late, drying his Netsilik reindeer fur kamiks over the Primus stove.” –Roland Huntford, Scott and Amundsen Primus was founded in 1892 and served notable expeditions from the South Pole to the first ascent of Everest in 1953.

As I considered my next kitchen kit, I researched the history of the major brands and found Primus so steeped in lore that I needed to give it a try. Had the legacy endured?

The cornerstone of my new kit is the Kinjia dual-burner propane stove, which uses standard 1-pound propane cylinders (or larger with an adapter), generating up to 10,200 BTU per burner. The unit is finished in a matte-black powder coating. The corners are cast metal secured with brass fasteners, and the lid locks closed, exhibiting limited rattles (mostly from the regulator). There are attractive wooden elements, and the drip tray is stamped from one piece of stainless steel. My only reservations are around the exposed valve knobs which should be guarded against damage.

For cooking, I selected the Primus Campfire cookset (small), which includes 1.8-liter and 1.0-liter pots, along with a frying pan and storage bag. Constructed

The Primus Camp Kitchen Products developed under the pressure of exploration. from polished 18/8 stainless steel, the set nests easily, with folding handles and individual lids with integrated strainers. The pan includes a bonded-aluminum base that helps with conduction. Additionally, I included a little kettle for expediting the morning coffee, and was impressed by how compact and light it was.

For accessories, the Campfire prep set includes a nice selection of wooden utensils, including a spatula, large spoon, and salad server, along with a grater and knife. The knife is sharp but lacks a storage loop, and it would have been nice to see a cutting board, too. I added a few stainless steel plates and silverware, all nicely finished and ready for decades of exploration service.

THE KIT KINJIA STOVE | $190 CAMPFIRE COOKSET | $100 LITECH KETTLE | $28 CAMPFIRE PREP SET | $80 CAMPFIRE PLATE | $10 CAMPFIRE CUTLERY SET | $15 SALT AND PEPPER MILL | $23 PRIMUS.US

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FIELD TESTED SCOTT BRADY

Claymore Ultra+2 Rechargeable Area Light When you need one camp light to do it all.

The business luminary Peter Drucker once said, “Don’t make a hundred decisions when one will do,” and that philosophy applies equally to overlanding. I have shifted my approach from highly specialized equipment to now looking for high-quality products that serve multiple uses, reducing weight, cost, and complexity. One great example of this is the BigTent Claymore Ultra+2 light.

This heavily armored model is IP65 rated and constructed to be durable above all else—I have dropped it more times than I would care to admit. It is about 5 inches square and just over 2 inches thick. The LED array has 30 bulbs that can be adjusted

North St Weekender Luggage An ideal bag set for planes, trains, and overlanders.

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As travelers, our luggage is a constant companion. Several years ago, I made the goal of never checking bags, and other than a few times when I needed motorcycle gear, I have been able to achieve it. As a result, I am always on the lookout for great carry-on gear.

Enter the North St Weekender line of bags, made in Oregon by a small team of travelers and bikepackers.

The set can be purchased with a large duffel (limited stock), 28-liter backpack, a meeting bag, and dopp kit, along with several thoughtful travel pouches. The bags are lighter than expected because of the X-Pac X51 sailcloth material, which is both durable and water resistant. That all-weather approach continues to the #10 water-resistant

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zippers. The duffel is voluminous and stored all of the gear I needed for a few weeks in Morocco, after which I flew directly to Australia for a month in Oceania. I particularly liked the shoe garage, which I ended up using for dirty clothes, keeping everything separate. The backpack has multiple compartments that I was able to store all of my camera gear and electronics in. My only gripe is that the shoulder straps for both bags should have some grip to keep them from sliding off the shoulders. $300/BACKPACK, $270/DUFFEL, $140/MEETING BAG, ACCESSORIES EXTRA | NORTHSTBAGS.COM

to three color temperatures. Light output is variable from 50 lumens to a full 2,200, easily illuminating a campground or tent interior; it can even be used as a reading light.

The massive 23,200 mAh battery charges quickly, providing 15-150 hours of light. I use the available magnet and a RAM mount to attach the Ultra to the 1/4-20 UNC threaded holes on the frame, which permits connecting to a roof rack, roof tent rafter pole, and even my tripod. The light works for photo/video, too, and has the ability to charge your cell phone. $149/EXTRA LARGE, $123/MEDIUM | BIGTENTOUTDOORS.COM

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FIELD TESTED ROCKY DONATI

Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen Clean, skin-soothing protection that won’t ever cause a breakout.

I grew up on the beaches of California, and putting on sunscreen was about the most uncool thing a wanna-be cool kid could do. So naturally, I avoided it at all costs unless my mother personally put me in a headlock to slather it on. Flashforward, and I’m regretting every day I chose to burn with Hawaiian Tropic and baby oil. Now I religiously apply sunscreen. But given that I have dry, sensitive skin prone to breakouts, and I constantly seek that glorious outdoor sweat life, it took me forever to find the holy grail. But find it I did. This bad boy not-so-secret sauce is capable of matching my moisturizer, not throwing me back into puberty, and stays stuck on through all my activities. Almost 50 percent of suncare products

on the market fail to meet their SPF and waterresistance claims, but Supergoop lives up to what they put on the package and offer a full efficacy report for every product. I love the transparency of both with their efforts to educate and the literal invisibility of their award-winning, oil-free formula, which doesn’t leave a milky residue on anyone with more melanin than Snow White or that ugly greaseball shine. It feels silky after application, is weightless and scentless with SPF 40, and gives your face a slightly glowy effect. I feel like Bo Derek, and I think mama would be oh so proud. $34 | SUPERGOOP.COM

Goodr Og Sunglasses Color options include A Ginger’s Soul.

Need I say more?

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I’m always a “cry once, buy once” shopper, but when you’re on-the-move all the time, you tend to go through a bazillion sunglasses, and at $200+ a pop, you’re open to alternative (less gut-wrenching) options.

Thanks to a millennial friend of mine, I now proudly sport the cheapest sunglasses I’ve ever owned, and I miraculously dig them. These budget shades punch above their price and come in a rainbow of colors.

Designed with a classic shape that works for almost anyone and over 50 patterns/

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colors, these no-slip, no-bounce, supercomfortable, polarized performance goggles cost less than a lunch date, but look good and fit comfortably. Putting them on makes me think I look like Tom Cruise in Risky Business, but I feel more capable than Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible.

There are nine layers to each lens to ensure scratch and shatter resistance alongside UV protection and reflective capabilities; some even boast an anti-saltwater coating, which is music to my Florida bone-fishing

ears. I’ve sported them while drinking beers in Baja and while haulin’ tail down a trail, and they’re a solid choice every time. The Ogs are moderately sized to fit just about every head, but in case your dome is extra prideful, there’s a BFG model offering more side-to-side coverage and a wider frame. I don’t have a clue how they make them this cost-effective, but it makes me loathe dropping cash for anything else. $25 | GOODR.COM

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FIELD TESTED BRYON BASS AND ARDEN KYSELY

Step 22 Silent Jack Mount The silent treatment—a solution for securing loose, rattling Hi-Lift jacks.

Step 22 products lurk silently. Founder Adam Wood doesn’t make the flashiest equipment, but he does address problems that constantly plague expedition and overland vehicles. One of those dilemmas is a

rattling Hi-Lift; Wood’s gear fills those pesky small gaps on this device to minimize noise and wear and tear.

Attempting to quash my jack’s relentless clattering, I used two rubberized keepers intended for the Hi-Lift, one near the mechanism, another toward the handle’s end, and two long rubberized twist ties around the handle and jack bar. I rolled this way for years; it looked improvised because it was.

Step 22’s Silent Jack kit consists of a purpose-designed polyurethane rubber “handle grabber” and a compression fitting. The latter wedges between the handle and jack bar at the ratchet mechanism and hides underneath their longer jack cover.

The handle grabber fits completely snug around the handle and jack bar and can be positioned to accommodate your jack’s mounting arrangement. I have used it extensively on dirt fire roads and backcountry single tracks. It’s rock solid and eliminates rattles. In my experience, besides silencing the handle and jack bar, this combo also keeps the mechanism quiet. Hi-Lifts have some variations, so Step 22 developed two Silent Jack models. Both are available in red or black and made in the USA. (BB) $30 | STEP22GEAR.COM

Motion Pro BeadPro Easing the pain of motorcycle tire repair in the field.

Flats happen, often far from civilization, because that’s where adventurers point their motorcycles. Releasing a tire bead from the rim is the only way to access a punctured tube, or in the case of a sidewall cut, repairing the tire’s carcass and installing a tube.

There are various ways to break a tire bead, from fumbling with ill-suited tire irons to using your partner’s kickstand (providing you have a partner along)—none of them easy. Motion Pro’s BeadPro toolset is a compact, dual-use solution with tire spoons on one end of each lever. Together, the opop posite ends create a bead breaker. Slip the forked tool between tire and rim, insert the pronged piece between the forks, and press the levers together to release the bond be-

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tween tire and rim. On larger tires like the 150/70-17 on my BMW F 800 GS, you may have to repeat this a few times along the rim, but it remains an easy, low-effort operation.

BeadPro levers are forged from 7075T6 aluminum, weigh only 9 ounces per set, and are less than 10 inches long (a 16-inch forged steel version is available for shop use). Guards prevent your hands from sliding forward while you work, and the spoons are an efficient shape. I’ve used BeadPros numerous times on various tires and rims, and they show no signs of wear besides scuffing on the anodized finish. (AK) $65 | MOTIONPRO.COM

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OVERLAND NEWS

ADVENTURE READS

REVIEWED BY SCOTT BRADY

Inspiring Your Inner Chef Cookbooks that promote uncomplicated, happy eating in the great outdoors.

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The New Camp Cookbook: Gourmet Grub for Campers, Road Trippers, and Adventurers

Outlandish: Fuel Your Epic

Dirty Dining: An Adventurer’s Cookbook

By Linda Ly ISBN 978-0760352014

By Morgan Sjogren ISBN 978-1937715953

By Lisa Thomas ISBN 978-0692058312

This volume is both visually stunning and surprisingly practical. The first 40 pages are a treasure trove of tips and tricks to improve backcountry fare. Chapter 1 is a deep dive into setting up a camp kitchen, complete with lists of essential equipment and a well-stocked pantry. The hack for making an improvised whisk is clever, as is the suggestion to use cheap shower caps as reusable plastic wrap.

Morgan abandoned modernity for dirtbagging in her canary yellow Jeep, and Outlandish is as much travelogue and philosophical tome as cookbook. It’s honest and pragmatic while pulling the reader into an escape fueled by simplicity. Her food choices follow this ethos on life, and though she admits to eating cold burritos filled with pickles and ketchup, Morgan is far more interested in feeding her soul.

Gourmet cooking when traveling by motorcycle is certainly a challenge, yet Lisa manages to both inspire and inform throughout the book. Simon’s rich, vibrant photographs make it easy to turn the pages, and the images are as much about the recipes as they are overlanding the remote corners of the globe.

There are sections covering cooking over a fire and using a Dutch oven, while other pages dig into mains, desserts, and over a dozen drinks.

Overall, the recipes are beautiful page-turners, and several piqued my interest. Fortunately, many are truly camp-appropriate suggestions with minimalist ingredients and reasonable prep time. The French toast and bacon skewers are brilliant, and there are more than enough vegan, vegetarian, and pescatarian options, too.

The nuances of living and eating out of a small vehicle, including Morgan’s compact kitchen kit, are revealed. The book also meanders amongst her travels, each destination inspiring a wide berth of cuisine. Her time in Silverton, Colorado, resulted in foraged dandelion greens with wild raspberries, and Prescott, Arizona, gave rise to dumpster pasta sauce.

The pages on bacon packing are worth the purchase of admission.

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The volume stays true to minimalism throughout, utilizing lightweight and compact gear carried on the couple’s BMWs. The first few chapters include extensive tips and tricks for staying healthy and organized on the trail.

Their travels in West Africa resulted in a sardine spaghetti from locally sourced ingredients and tins of Russian fish. While it might not sound appetizing, I recreated the dish and found it to be thoroughly satisfying. From there, Lisa digs into how to prepare a pineapple, Australian bush tucker, and her famous Thai chicken curry.

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Protecting the Unprotected One woman’s unconventional motorcycle journey to document wildlife conservation in South America.

By Janelle Kaz

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hey held the parrots out on sticks as I rode by; we made eye contact, the parrots and I. Although I knew the situation would be upsetting, I turned around to see what there might be to learn.

The boys selling them were young. Some of the birds had been painted to be more colorful, to look like types of macaws that they were not. The false, acrylic-based hues would have been laughable were they not on voiceless victims of a dark, illicit trade.

I understand why people purchase them out of pity. Tethered to one of the sticks was a blue-headed parrot, the same species I had helped to rehabilitate at a rescue center located outside of Cali, Colombia. I had fed the timid but hungry orphan fledgling with a syringe. When I returned more than a month later, he remembered me and wanted to be near me. I fell in love with him and held back tears when it came time to leave again.

This bird for sale looked identical; I half expected him to recognize me. Ultimately, no matter what amount of pity you have, or how much OVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

you want to help the animal being sold, your money will only perpetuate the market. That seller will take your money and go get two more.

I wanted to save them all, to snatch those sticks away from the boys and offer a better life for the animals—back in the wild where they belong, or in a proper sanctuary if they could not be released. At the very least, I wanted to report the boys selling them, but the police in this province are notorious for their corruption and for not caring about the welfare of animals.

These exotic, feathered beings were not bred in captivity. Like so many, they were taken from nests in the jungle when they were young.

Millions of animals are stolen from their habitats to become pets every year. The conquest of the wild world, bringing it into our domestic homes is not only audacious, but cruel. The reality is that we could never replicate the space and freedom these creatures would have in their natural environments.

As if habitat loss and environmental degradation were not significant

enough threats already, wildlife also exists with a price looming over each of their heads. If you’ve traveled through equatorial landscapes, chances are you’ve seen them. Monkeys, birds, sloths, slow lorises, reptiles, and feline cubs are sold in local markets and on the side of the road, sometimes offered alongside people selling fruits and flowers. Captive wild animals are a common sight here in South America, where trading and the practice of keeping them as pets has been around much longer than I have.

MOTORCYCLE DIARIES

You may have an image in your mind of what riding through South America is like, and the truth is likely a compilation of all of those collective visions. The landscapes of South America are incredibly varied, including vast Martian-like vistas in the driest place on earth, the Atacama, where rain has never been recorded in history.

From there you can ascend high into the impressive Andes, and then

plunge down into the hot, humid Amazon basin, often voyaging between them in remarkably little time. With all of those ecosystems comes a staggering array of flora, fauna, and fungi. The countries in which both the Amazon Jungle and the Andes mountain range exist hold a treasure trove of biodiversity.

Perhaps one area of South America which feels the most diverse is in Colombia, where the ranges of the Andes split into three distinct cordilleras. Interestingly, separate from the Andes lies the tallest compact group of mountains closest to the sea in the world, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, a collective pyramid of granite and quartz.

Much older than the Andes mountains, this snow-capped collection A view from the peaks of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta looking toward the Caribbean. Opening spread: Crossing snow-covered mountains in the Peruvian Andes.

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Left column: Arriving at the Buenaventura Reserve, Ecuador, at dusk. This is a stately example of Spanish colonial architecture in Yucay, Peru. A rescued blueheaded parrot, being cared for at Casita del Bosque, Colombia. Middle: This small Kogi settlement sits nestled next to a waterfall. The Kogi led me into their territory.

A landslide near Pozuzo, Peru, had me take pause. Opposite: A birder’s canopy tree stand overlooks the jungle at La Isla Escondida, Colombia. A Kogi man carries palms used to construct a roof.

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of peaks reaches an elevation of 18,700 feet, a mere 26 miles from the coast; they are so near the Caribbean that you can gaze upon them from within its teal waters, your line of sight between mango trees, coconut palms, and tree fern fronds.

Photo by Isaiah Branch-Boyle

TAPIR

At the heights of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, live the Kogi. My objective was to place camera traps within their indigenous lands to document the rare and endangered tapir with the help of the Nativa Foundation. The Kogi are not welcoming to outsiders, because to them, white men are bringers of death, disease, and destruction. But the Kogi are not even open to visits from Colombians, a nationality that they do not assume. They know what we—their “younger brothers,” as they call us—have, and they want no part of it.

Their spiritual leaders, known as the Within this same river basin, two different Mamos, tied cotton around my wrists, perspecies of frogs were mitting me to enter into their lands. My found—one that motorcycle parked safely in a nearby village, secretes a substance we walked beyond all roads, the Kogi barethat counteracts foot. They do not desire to wear shoes as they yellow fever, and the would not want to break their connection to other, antibiotics. the earth. You see, the Kogi believe that they are the protectors of our Great Mother, that the earth is a living being, and it is their job to keep the balance and give thanks. To them, health is the most important aspect of life—with clean air to breathe, pure water to drink directly from their rivers, and nourishing soil for which to grow their food.

The tapir is highly endangered, and it plays a key role within the ecosystem, just as everything does. Prime prey for the jaguar, the tapir ventures down into a river basin that is not currently protected by the boundaries of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Natural Park. Within this same river basin, two different species of frogs were found—one that secretes a substance that counteracts yellow fever (a vaccine we currently do not have enough of ), and the other, antibiotics (something we desperately need more sources of due to resistance).

Being with the Kogi changed my life. I felt the desire to just continue walking with them deeper into their lands, understanding the earth as they do—a sentiment that resonates with me strongly.

It seems as though we are always taught that a people such as this exist only in the past, and yet here they are, a model for humanenvironment harmony.

Franz, the director of Nativa, mentioned that to him, the Kogi are just like the hobbits from The Lord of the Rings, and the Spaniards were the orcs. After our time together and with the Kogi, I assured him I would watch the film again holding this comparison in mind.

On our way back out of the Kogi’s territory, we saw two men illegally capturing songbirds from the wild, carrying the stressed animals out of the tropical forests.

QUIRQUINCHO

Riding into the north of Chile, through the windswept foothills of the Andean mountains, amidst rugged volcanoes on elevated plateaus, I searched for the habitat of the armadillo. The roads are long, OVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

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and the cold air whipped around me and my moto, sometimes completely slamming into my torso and knocking me back with impressive force. This is the altiplano, the high Andean plateau. It is here that the Andean hairy armadillo is found, an animal loved to death by the local people.

Known as quirquincho to the locals, they see these armadillos as signs of good luck and keep their carcasses as tokens of fortune within their homes. Their bodies are also used to make rattles and guitars for ceremonial instruments. In order to not mar their faces and bodies for these purposes, they are starved or suffocated.

While on the road, I met with a young Chilean woman who was the first in her country to study armadillos. When she set out to study the only animals from the xenarthran cohort in her country, armadillos, she found that there were almost no published papers on them in Chile. Thus, before the age of 30, she has become the country’s national expert. She now dedicates her life to protecting armadillos through conservation research, community involvement, and education outreach. Thanks to her work, armadillos are finally getting the attention and help they so badly need.

SHOCK

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Another small mammal in Chile brought to the brink of extinction due to the lucrative trade, in this case, for its highly sought-after fur, is the long-tailed chinchilla. Far reduced in population (by 90 percent in the last 15 years) and habitat from their once wide range, the now-endangered chinchilla has the most dense fur of any land mammal, with up to 60 hairs coming out of a single follicle.

Riding washboard, silty, dirt roads through the mountains toward the reserve where the last remaining population of wild long-tailed chinchillas reside, I saw what looked to The roads are long, and be a dead hawk in the middle of my lane. the cold air whipped Its beautifully feathered wing lifted uparound me and my moto, ward with a gust of wind. Out of respect, sometimes completely I turned around in order to move its body slamming into my torso to a more peaceful resting place. I parked and knocking me back the bike on the shoulder and ran over to with impressive force. the hawk. To my astonishment, its panicked eyes looked up at me. It wasn’t the wind that lofted its wing, it was very much alive.

I gently folded his wings close to his body and picked him up. He was very docile—strange behavior for a male juvenile Harris’s hawk.

His body was rigid, his legs were extended, and his head was cranked all the way back, as if he was trying to look above and behind him.

There was blood coming from his nostril and a bit on the rim of his eye. I lifted his head to see if his spine was broken, but it wasn’t. He was clearly in shock.

I thought about putting him somewhere safe to recover, but unable to move, or even sit, he would be extremely vulnerable. With no other option, I decided to wrap him in my scarf and bring him with me to the chinchilla reserve.

Riding a motorcycle with a large hawk on your back is a powerful experience. I arrived at the reserve just as the desert sun was setting.

The camp host, Mario, welcomed me and showed me to my accommodations, the small cabin where biologists stay. I began to tell him, in broken Spanish, that I had a bird in very bad shape with me. He seemed confused, so I showed him the hawk.

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Photo by Cécile VR

Clockwise from top right: Golden light greets me in the Sacred Valley near Cusco, Peru. A precious parcel—I wrapped the hawk in my scarf to be able to carry it with me. The Andean hairy armadillo’s appearance belies its tough exterior. The injured juvenile Harris hawk was rigid with shock. Opposite top to bottom: Traveling on a lonely road at high elevation in the Peruvian Andes brought solace.

Neotropical Primate Conservation rescued an illegally trafficked Peruvian night monkey. The rough roads and beautiful scenery are seemingly endless in Peru.

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Photo by Armadillos de Chile OVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

The hawk already looked better; his head and neck were no longer locked in the same position. Mario looked at me like I was crazy, but told me he knew where a cage was, and we placed the hawk inside.

I checked on the hawk throughout the night, making sure he was warm enough.

The next morning, the hawk was standing, with vibrant, alert eyes.

Mario told me where I might be able to find some raw meat, at a dusty roadside shop just outside of the reserve. The woman working there gave me the meat for free. The hawk was fed, given water, and allowed time to recuperate. Mario has agreed to release the hawk within the boundaries of the reserve as soon as his strength is fully recovered. He told me he saw a juvenile just like him not long ago, bathing in a small pond of water nearby.

I had to depart before the release of the hawk, but I was happy to know he’ll have protected lands to roam from now on.

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Biodiversity is truly our planet’s greatest wealth. The ability to problem-solve and innovate around perturbations in nature is our most precious resource. After all, nothing emerges in the ecosystem without an ecological function. Every bit of diversity on this earth helps safeguard our collective future— There are still undescribed humans included. Variation in our genet(to science) wonders deep ics protects us against disease, lest we be within the Amazon basin, like the monoculture of some currently and above the tree line, in profitable crop, wiped out with a single the high Alpine ecosystem illness, spread effortlessly through the of the Andes, the páramo. horde of self-similar clones.

Represented by all of the life forms that exist on Earth, in all their embodiments and interactions, biodiversity is the knowledge gained through the evolution of species over the years about how to survive Earth’s constantly changing environments.

Even as some experts warn that we are “burning the library of life,” there are still undescribed (to science) wonders deep within the Amazon basin, and above the tree line, in the high Alpine ecosystem of the Andes, the páramo. Just last year, a new species of hummingbird was found in exactly this type of habitat, in the southwestern highlands of Ecuador. The blue-throated hillstar, as it was named, adds yet another species to Ecuador’s official count of 135 hummingbird species, nearly half of the global count of 300.

Clearly, biodiversity is valuable economically, as well, most often to the detriment of the ecosystem it is torn from. This aspect is damaging to all who depend on said ecosystem in the long run. It is therefore essential to provide alternative incomes to those who currently sell off their resources in an unsustainable manner. Sustainability has become a bit of a catchy term, but in its purest sense, it denotes living in harmony with our environment. Rather than parasitizing it, ravaging it, taking from it to the point of degradation, we must harvest, utilize, and prosper while nurturing that same land in return.

The illegal wildlife trade is therefore a complex problem to solve, as we must learn to see the value of the forest and all its inhabitants as they are. Is it possible, then, for humanity to live in harmony with their surroundings, taking only what they need and giving back? I certainly hope so.

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Photo by Cécile VR

ENVISION BALANCE

The hawk looked much better the following morning. Sunset nears in the Sacred Valley of the Incas.

RESOURCES/WILDLIFE PROJECTS Raptor Rehabilitation Center: aveschile.cl/crar/ Chinchimén: chinchimén.org/ Armadillos de Chile: armadilloschile.cl/ Andean Cat Alliance: gatoandino.org/index.php/en/ Neotropical Primate Conservation: neoprimate.org

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Photo by Will from LR Workshop

Overland Medical Kits Being Prepared in the Middle of Nowhere

By Andrew Moore Photography by Scott Brady

Accidents can happen in a moment, as shown

by Will Mather in Belize, who took this image after a fellow traveler rolled this Defender off a muddy track.

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nyone who has traveled to outof-the-way locales has pondered a litany of emergency scenarios, from breakdowns to becoming lost. One of the top concerns is always medical care. Dealing with medical issues—whether an emergency should arise or something less urgent— can be made easier with an appropriate and well-designed medical kit.

There is a significant caveat to this: the best medical supplies in the world are not much use without training in how to use them. While a general first aid course is better than nothing, overlanding lends itself, by its very nature of being further afield, to a “wilderness medicine” basis. Generally, this is defined as being one or more hours from definitive medical treatment. Think about it: in an urban environment, most first re-

sponders (police or fire) arrive within four to five minutes. Rescue response in the backcountry can be hours or even days away.

This means that an appropriate aid response, and stabilization of a patient, is up to those on the scene. In addition to focusing on the stabilization of patients for extended periods, wilderness medicine adds skills in the improvisation of treatment items from materials at hand, as there is not a fire engine or ambulance full of goodies for us to choose from.

So what does that mean for the average overlander? I recommend, for any person who is going to recreate outdoors, a 16hour wilderness first aid course. Relatively inexpensive, and able to be completed over a weekend, it will provide the foundation for emergency response in an area where you may be the best-equipped “clinic” for miles.

To complement this level of training, we have taken a look at a few of the multitudes of medical kits available, which represent a good overall look at prepackaged first aid kits. These kits must be able to deal with acute trauma and medical issues to dayto-day bumps, bruises, and illnesses while providing a compact and easily deployed platform.

Keep in mind, with the exception of very large, well-stocked kits, it is almost always necessary to add nitrile gloves. One or two pairs will generally not suffice (ask anyone in emergency services); add more and make them the first thing visible when the medical kit is opened.

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MOTORCYCLE KIT

RESCUE ESSENTIALS | MOTORCYCLE OPERATOR KIT

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ne of the best experiences is traveling by motorcycle (I do admit I’m biased). Paring down to just the necessities takes planning and is honed to one’s specific personal style and preferences over many days and miles in the saddle. The components of a motorcycle first aid kit (FAK) need to fit these parameters too. It must contain the basics to not only deal with daily travel but also have the ability to stabilize and treat injuries likely to be sustained in the event of an unplanned dismount from the bike.

Few manufacturers have attempted to meet this need in a prepackaged FAK. Rescue Essentials, with its motorcycle operator’s kit (MOK), has begun to fill that gap. At approximately 8 x 9 x 3 inches, and just over 1 pound, the MOK can easily fit within a pannier or duffel without adding much noticeable weight. The packaging is clear resealable plastic which appears to be strong enough to weather some abuse and allows for quick identification of the internal contents. However, one may wish to find a kit-specific bag to complement the MOK. A contents list is included, and in a pinch, could be used for notes on the unprinted side.

This kit is geared for trauma, dealing with the potential injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash: fractures, abrasions, and bleeding. While many kits provide a minimal two or maybe three small absorbent pads, the MOK shines as it is particularly well-stocked with enough gauze and compression dressings to handle a serious bleed—or to bandage that road rash or burn from a hot exhaust pipe hitting a calf. In the event compression fails to stop bleeding, a SWATPROS T tourniquet is provided as well. An Compact 18-inch SAM splint is included, and Lightweight while I find them to be of limited use Excellent trauma supplies and application (preferring to manuCost facture splints from available materials specific to the injury), it can be CONS useful for some smaller joint injuries.

Needs more gloves Trauma-based, requires Or as a stove windscreen, as long as additions for general one doesn’t melt the padded exterior. travel use Removing the splint would allow for SAM splint use limited more room for personal additions.

No bag Personal additions, in order to round out the MOK, would include some over-the-counter medications such as pain meds, antihistamines, gastrointestinal aids, insect bite wipes, etc., as well as several more pairs of gloves. Kudos to Rescue Essentials for providing motorcyclists with a quick, go-to kit for our needs.

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$50 | RESCUE-ESSENTIALS.COM

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BASIC FIRST AID KIT

RESCUE ESSENTIALS | WILDERNESS KIT

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or many people, diving into wilderness medicine can be daunting. Maybe someone has grown up hiking, mountain biking, or hunting, and is now interested in expanding the exploration factor. A FAK that can function in a vehicle, backpack, or for a multitude of other activities becomes important, without being overwhelming or breaking the bank.

The low cost of this kit is impressive, given what it includes.

At 8 x 6 x 4.5 inches, and just shy of 1 pound, it easily stores in a glove box, center console, or daypack. And while a major bleed or catastrophic injury would blow through its supplies quickly, this FAK will easily handle 90 percent of the more minor dayto-day issues that occur. Cuts and scrapes, a sprained ankle, allergies, and basic pain management can all be achieved, at least on a short-term basis.

Supplies are stored within an outer nylon bag, with gloves and other personal protective items in a separate exterior zipped pocket; it’s a definite plus to know exPROS actly where those essentials are. InCost side, three clear plastic resealable bags Excellent contents are labeled with the general supplies for value therein: wound treatment, bandaging Limited experience or training needed materials, and essential tools. Medifor use cations are in a fourth bag. The exteGreat IFAK rior nylon bag is big enough for the addition of more gloves (again, place CONS Not for major injuries them strategically to find them first), Lacks more than one medications, a tourniquet, or other pair of gloves small items. Between the 5- x 9-inch Longer trips may tax ABD combine pad, gauze sponges, supplies small non-adherent pads, and wraps, I feel confident I could stop a serious bleed. And, of course, there are multiple smaller bandages, too. Included medications are ibuprofen and acetaminophen for pain and diphenhydramine for an antihistamine. All are packaged in standard over-thecounter dosages.

At this price point, several of these kits can be strategically placed in a vehicle, or even used by every member of a group as their personal individual first aid kit (IFAK). Longer trips may use up the limited supplies in this kit. But if we are honest, when an injury occurs on a journey that reduces the fun meter below a certain point for one or more participants, and yet does not arise to the level of requiring outside emergency medical services intervention, it is likely going to cause a detour to the closest urban area to resupply. A couple of these kits will have what is most necessary; keep them at hand. $25 | RESCUE-ESSENTIALS.COM

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OVERLAND KIT, LESS EXPERIENCED

ADVENTURE MEDICAL KITS | ULTRALIGHT/WATERTIGHT PRO MEDICAL KIT

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dventure Medical Kits have been a part of my gear for rescue work and personal use for many years. This Pro kit is well-thought-out, especially for a vehicle, and for those with a basic level of medical training. Well-balanced between minor trauma and the typical medical issues which can occur outdoors, its size and weight (10.25 x 7.5 x 5.5 inches/1 pound, 12 ounces), can easily go from vehicle to daypack.

Contents are kept water-resistant and separate inside the main ripstop nylon pouch with proprietary DryFlex resealable bags, and does include another smaller interior nylon ripstop bag. These internal bags are not labeled, making immediate access to their contents a bit of a search through the clear material.

This could be easily remedied with tape or permanent marker if desired. The resealable bags can be somewhat finicky to close, especially if the bag itself is full of supplies, and the proprietary DryFlex becomes stiffer when subject to cold.

Adventure Medical Kits advertises this kit (as well as others) as designed for 1-10 people for up to seven days. While this may merely be marketing, the general idea is sound, in that it gives a good reference as to the number of supplies in each kit.

Here, bleeding control, CPR, personal protective equipment, and medications/instruments are separated. Instruments include a 10-millimeter irrigation syringe and a small set of EMT shears. A small pencil and preprinted patient assessment form is welcome, presented in a format that is easily recognizable by those who have taken any wilderness medicine courses. For monitoring and stabilizing more seriously ill or injured patients, tracking trends, and updating treatPROS ment, this form can be a lifesaver in Quality kit and of itself and helps the user to be Lightweight thorough when under stress.

Limited training needed Also included, outside of any to utilize contents fully water-resistant containers, other CONS than the main bag, are a 36-inch Interior packaging could SAM splint (the efficacy of which be labeled I discussed earlier), and a 200+ page Additional medications are necessary printed wilderness and travel medicine booklet. Generally, the guide is compact and suitable for a review of signs, symptoms, and treatment of backcountry injuries. Medications, which are tucked in with the instruments and irrigation syringe, are minimal— pain management in the way of ibuprofen and acetaminophen, antidiarrheals, and antihistamines round out the basics. Additional medications would have been nice given the type of kit, but are easily added.

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$120 | ADVENTUREMEDICALKITS.COM

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OVERLAND KIT, MORE EXPERIENCED

ADVENTURE MEDICAL KITS | PROFESSIONAL SERIES, GUIDE

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oving into the realm of the active professional medic or guide with advanced training (wilderness first responder, wilderness emergency medical technician or above) is this AMK kit. While remaining relatively light (4 pounds, 9 ounces) and compact (11 x 8 x 7.5 inches), this unit provides a broader array of supplies, medication, and equipment. It will definitely be advantageous to carry for those going farther afield, without access to definitive medical care for extended periods.

The heavyweight nylon case with water-resistant zippers is made to endure the rigors of overland travel. I feel comfortable moving it between several vehicles, and packing miscellaneous gear on top of it or the occasional rolling out onto the ground will not phase it. Two zippers open the bag into easily identified and well-labeled compartments, making access easy. I usually put a ziplock bag full of gloves in between the compartments so that they are the first thing I see. The Guide has the supplies to act as a general vehicle-based PROS travel kit for multiple trucks or moGood supplies for torcycles. longer trips Both trauma and medical issues Excellent general vehicle kit can be well addressed with this kit, Lightweight/compact although the included 5- x 9-inch and 8- x 10-inch trauma pads, in the CONS event of a major bleed, would be used Could use more trauma/ bleed dressings quickly. No specific tourniquet is No dedicated tourniquet included; however, the standard triLacks laceration closure angular bandage could be employed. strips The bleeding and bandaging materials would work very well if supplemented by IFAKs deployed by other group members. Basic medicines are included, with no real additions required unless it’s a personal preference. A minimal dental kit is a nice feature to the Guide (often overlooked in FAKs) and something that I add to my own kits for longer trips.

The Guide also begins to incorporate suture/syringe supplies, although it only includes a needle holder and scalpels with no actual suture materials. While I prefer to use Steri-Strips for field laceration closure, these are oddly absent from the Guide.

To round out the kit for use in non-first-world countries, I add AMK’s optional $80 suture/syringe/IV kit, which ensures sterile supplies are close at hand, even if they are handed to a poorlyequipped clinic physician for use on a team member. Also, while the Guide does include a stethoscope among its instruments, a pulse-oximeter and blood glucose tester have found their way into my kit as well. $300 | ADVENTUREMEDICALKITS.COM

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ULTIMATE EXPEDITION KIT

ADVENTURE MEDICAL KITS | MARINE 3000

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t about the size of a 20-liter jerry can, and weighing in at 16 pounds, the Marine 3000 is a serious medical kit for those far from definitive medical care. In other than a firstworld location, the Marine 3000 will likely make the carrier the best medical clinic for many miles. While built as part of AMK’s Marine line, tailored to ocean-based travel, whether at sea or on land, being able to treat the most severe illnesses or injuries in the middle of nowhere is something any expedition should aspire to.

The size of this kit would likely preclude its use in a single, smaller vehicle, where space can quickly be filled with a multitude of gear. But it would work very well in a group of several, with the carrier being designated as a primary medical rig. Combined with a skilled team member, (think EMT/paramedic or higher), and perhaps with access to telemedicine services, this is an around-the-world kit. A heavy nylon case with comfortable, rubberized carry handles, rings for shoulder strap placement, reflective piping throughout, and water-resistant zippers opens to reveal very well-labeled components in separate nylon and canvas organizers. Most organizers have their own gloves included, so there is no searching around for those.

Included medications are basic, but very well-rounded, covering just about every need that could be dealt with by an over-the-counter option. The user could easily add prescription medications per their specific trip, area of travel, or team member’s individual needs (Adventure PROS Medical Kits does include a separate Serious kit for serious list of recommended prescription travel medications). Instruments are likeWell-stocked for both trauma and medical wise similar in overall effectiveness, issues although like the AMK Guide, I Serves multiple or larger would personally add a pulse oxvehicles imeter and glucose meter. Suturing Well organized with easily accessed components and IV supplies are included, but the user would be responsible for CONS providing their own fluids, which, High level of training of course, would add to the overall required to fully use weight of the kit. You’ll also find a clearly labeled dental kit in the Marine; it is limited in scope, but enough to treat that issue you may have overlooked before leaving home.

Trauma and bleeding control supplies are numerous—plenty to handle a major incident. However, multiple major events without resupply would become problematic. No specific tourniquet is included, so definitely have members carry one in their IFAKs. Transparent dressings, beneficial for wound monitoring without the necessity of removing and exposing the injury, are part of all of AMK’s Marine line of kits, too.

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$795 | ADVENTUREMEDICALKITS.COM OVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

BLOW-OUT KIT (STOP THE BLEED)

WHAT IF SURVIVAL | FIRST AID RESPONSE KIT, PREMIUM

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his kit provides quick, easy access to supplies, and is suitable for those with an EMT background, as well as less-experienced individuals. The case has both MOLLE and D-ring attachments and the ability to quickly be released from those attachments with a Velcro panel in an emergency. Attach it to the rear of a vehicle’s seat headrest, and it is out of the way of the driver and passengers until needed.

Basic, yet well-thought-out supplies include a quick access tourniquet, QuikClot gauze, nasopharyngeal airway, chest seal, and numerous smaller bandages and dressings, meant to provide the user with all the supplies to stop a major bleeding injury quickly and effectively. It also includes sterile saline (2 x 30 milliliters) for wound debridement or use as an eyewash.

Medical over-the-counter items are fundamental but well rounded. Standard pain management and gastrointestinal meds can be complemented by inPROS sect bite wipes, (bees always seem Packaging allows easy to find a way into my motorcycle attachment and access jackets), and multi-symptom cold Well-stocked, enough so relief for that 24- to 48-hour bug to please an EMT/WEMT Includes often used or head cold. but rarely enclosed The tourniquet, a glass break/ medications belt cutter hammer, and EMT shears are attached to the exterior CONS Hammer/tourniquet of the kit, with the shears tucked attachment could be into MOLLE straps, and the other finicky in an emergency items held on with rubber bands.

Compass not useful for While having the tourniquet and actual navigation Bag is hard to repack rescue hammer within easy reach is an excellent idea, I would revise this rubber attachment system, as the last thing I would like to contend with when I needed either would be untangling the bands.

Finally, attached to the kit is a paracord “survival” bracelet, sized to fit up to a relatively large wrist, with several tools incorporated into the buckle: a whistle, steel/ferro rod, and compass.

The whistle, a paramount idea and often forgotten survival tool, as well as the ferro rod worked as expected. The compass, however, was inoperable on our test kit, effectively useless for any navigational purpose, although I have never actually seen these small plastic models work well. Despite this minor criticism, this premium kit would be great solo, as an IFAK for each group member (especially if trained at an EMT level or higher), or as a stand-alone motorcycle kit. $170 | WHATIFSURVIVAL.COM

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Lati tude

Portfolio by Greg Mills and Michelle Romeo

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Montana by Land Rover Bridging the gap between expectation and reality at the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument.

By Paul J. Driscoll Photography by Chris McGowan

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ven by the standards of Montana Land Rover clubs, this idea seemed like a pipe dream under the paired influences of Scottish ale and mid-winter cabin fever. The proposal was such: a weeklong overland foray in early May into some of the most remote country in Montana—the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. We were to be powered by 50-year-old, originally equipped, 4-cylinder Series Land Rovers.

Oh, hell yes, we said. We’ll see it all, the whole 3.5 million acres. We’ll chase buffalo over cliffs with those old rigs, plunder dinosaur fossils. And cross the Missouri in log rafts if we have to.

The expectations were unrealistic, but with a little deferred maintenance on the trucks, we might pull this off. Still, we knew there would be obstacles. There’s a reason the natural east–west overland route, known as the Hi-Line, skirts well north of the Missouri Breaks, close up against the Canadian border. Indigenous people used that route over thousands of years, and the first wheeled vehicles to enter present-day Montana were the Red River carts of mixed ancestry Métis traders out of the Dakotas, possibly in the 1820s. Later, Great Northern Railroad and US Highway 2 surveyors would select this route as well.

A bit south of the Hi-Line, the Breaks country is deep, braided canyonland, much of it unpenetrated by roads of even the loosest definition. Tributary rivers and streams cut in from north and south, creating an inhospitable landscape that greatly hinders overland travel anywhere near the river.

All the bottomland and most of the tributary side canyons are protected under provisions of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and later national monument status. Several national wildlife refuges and huge blocks of Bureau of Land Management public properties make the Breaks one of the largest, most remote, and forbidding overland destinations in the Lower 48. Like the fur traders from two centuries past, most visitors today see this country from the river.

A late spring trip two years earlier with club member Jason Swant left us both in awe of the Breaks. That modest trip in Series trucks offered up a share of technical driving over rain-slickened ranch roads, raw beauty, and adventure in a new setting. Our appetites were whetted for another bite, and we found the small group of Montana-based Land Rover enthusiasts willing to take it on, possibly because of the restriction to 4-cylinder Series Rovers. “Wherever they are,” one member said, “those old Land Rovers just look like they belong there.”

The Upper Missouri River is hugely influential in Montana—historically, culturally, and, for our purposes, geographically. Along Montana’s north–central tier, the river generally runs west to east from Fort Benton, the uppermost navigable port for 19th-century riverboats, to the sprawling Fort Peck Reservoir 150 river miles downstream.

For many decades, the crossing at the earthen Fort Peck Dam and a drawbridge at Fort Benton were the only spans across the Missouri River along Montana’s Hi-Line. Plains Indians also had few places to ford the big river, and notable battles occurred here during the riverboat era. The Badlands

of the northeast side became a famous hideout for outlaws such as Kid Curry of Wild Bunch fame. The only other crossings of the Missouri were by seasonal ferries, which may have numbered six or more over the years—three remain in operation today.

A major goal of our group is to cross the Missouri River on at least one of these remote historic ferries. Another is to simply survive the elements, the logistics, and the vagaries offered up by these vintage Land Rovers when dropped into a forward gear.

Our to-do list is daunting.

We’d already pulled an engine and transmission to change out seals—one appears to be original leather, and smells vaguely of beef jerky. We perform clutch replacements, bearings and brakes, and, sweetest of all, suspension and frame bushings all around in Kern Kemmerer’s 1970 late IIA 88.

Standing over a transA goal of our group is to simply mission and transfer case on survive the elements, the logistics, the Swant’s garage floor two and the vagaries offered up by weeks before departure, we are these vintage Land Rovers when resigned to allow a support vedropped into a forward gear. hicle to tag along. Two “modern” Rovers are volunteered: a Defender 90 and a Discovery I, which we load to the roof racks with jerry cans, water, firewood, emergency spare parts out of Rovers North, and miscellaneous provisions, including plenty of Harvest Moon beer.

We depart Helena just as Wayne and Kathy Phelps pull in from the Portland area in an enviable 1963 88 under a full canvas top. Eighty miles later, we rendezvous with Matt McCune out of Bozeman, also in a 1963 IIA 88. The contingent is five of these short Series trucks with Josh Kemmerer driving his father’s Defender. Kyle Stugill-Simon later joins us in a Disco I. We throw snowballs around at Kings Hill Summit while the rigs cool and overflow coolant from the pull to 7,300 feet. The descent carries us through a limestone canyon that coughs us out onto the plains.

Central Montana unfolds as we drive a dirt road north, ascending the flanks of the Highwood Mountains, an island range with a view straight across to Round Butte and Square Butte to the east. These are iconic geologic features for a hundred miles around, standing as backdrops to generations of snapshots, tintype images, and the landscape paintings that preceded them. Rising almost 3,000 feet above the surrounding plains, these buttes are igneous formations known The Land Rover seems a natural fit to Big Sky Country’s landscape.

Opposite: The Missouri River Breaks feature deep, unnamed canyons cut by seasonal streams from the north and south. Opening spread: Montana’s wettest spring in decades leaves bench roads flooded on approaches to the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument.

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Clockwise from top left: Former waterfalls from glacial eras formed today’s Lost Lake. We roll like dust specks over the American Prairie Reserve’s historic PN Ranch. The group departs the tiny town of Geraldine, Montana, population 265.

Falling in line, we approached the famous White Cliffs of the Missouri Breaks. Calculating miles between scarce gasoline stops. In a former time, the Missouri carved channeled canyons amidst hard igneous rock. Wayne Phelps demonstrates proper configuration of a working capstan winch.

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as shonkinite, found in only a few locations worldwide.

Eons ago, molten rock, rich in iron, was forced up from the mantle and into overlying layers of sedimentary rock where it spread out horizontally. As the softer rock weathered away, these impressive formations emerged.

Elk and mule deer were abundant here as we dropped down into the federally protected Waterfowl Production Area at Kingsbury Lake, a part of the National Wildlife Refuge System. This is our entry into the “sag” country of the Breaks just outside of the tiny town of Geraldine.

The shallow lake is an important migratory bird stopover place, but spring is late this year, and snowdrifts persist in the gullies and along ridgelines. We see mostly owls.

In Montana, sags are the former river beds of the Missouri. The repeated advances and retreats of Pleistocene ice sheets shoved around the Big Muddy, forming giant lakes behind fragile ice dams. These glacial lakes burst numerous times over the ages, flooding and scouring today’s Missouri River Breaks. The course of the Missouri River along the Hi-Line roughly follows the leading edge of these repeated glacial advances. Grain farmers in Montana and North Dakota regularly thank these ice sheets for bulldozing Canada’s rich topsoil onto the US side of the border.

We wake to an inch of snow at our camp in Geraldine and adjust our plans. Instead of undertaking a likely one-way trip down into the Breaks, we choose to push north through the Shonkin Sag toward the long-defunct Missouri waterfalls at Lost Lake. Crossing the Highwoods, we encounter fresh snow.

Landowners at Lost Lake are generous and allow visitors to walk out (at your own risk) and view one of Montana’s great natural features: the 300-foot cliffs of the dry waterfalls, almost a mile across, and the sink of saline water that pools at the base. These columnar cliffs are also comprised of hard shonkinite rock.

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lect Kyle Sturgill-Simon in his 1997 Disco. In the morning, we strike out for the White Cliffs of the Missouri, oftentimes fording spring-flooded roadways, raising up long-billed curlews and American avocets as we splash through.

Later, we approach Slaughter River, another private inholding on the Missouri. The Lewis and Clark Expedition camped here twice, once in the spring of 1805, and again on the downstream run a year later. The pair named a significant tributary coming in from the south Slaughter, although the incredibly winding drainage is now ironically called Arrow Creek.

The drop from the bench to Slaughter is dicey. The landowner had told me over the phone, “There’s only one way in and out. If it rains, you might be there awhile.” The two-track is greasy as hell on the steep low-range descent.

The abandoned old homestead at the bottom is a marvel of dashed dreams and gargantuan rusted farm equipment, some of which could only have arrived by river barge. We make a delightful camp and grill salmon with wild rice, and toast our luck with Islay Scotch whisky.

Although Slaughter River is only about 10 air miles from our next planned camp at the confluence of the Judith and That gap between Missouri rivers, record ice jams wild expectation and raw a few weeks earlier have taken experience is a certainty. out the only bridge crossing You can plan an adventure, but you get what the country Arrow Creek. We backtrack and the conditions yield. and ride a bit of highway to push north again to the Judith River, named by William Clark for his future wife. Weather closes in on us as we seek permission to camp on private ranch land along the Judith River bottomlands. The dense cottonwood galleries along the water stand in stark contrast to the Missouri, whose banks are void of young trees. Hydroelectric dam releases from upstream and the relentless spring ice jams prevent young cottonwood trees from taking hold.

We are quite sheltered on the Judith, and the evening air is filled with the breeding calls of plains spadefoot toads, wild turkey, and pheasant. As we climb switchbacks onto the bench the next morning, we find ourselves in the teeth of another Montana spring snowstorm.

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friendly and informative. We are told the ice jams have taken out the Stafford–McClelland Ferry north of town. This is a disappointment as we wait out the storm, fussing over plan revisions. We take the opportunity to make minor repairs and check the boxes on the hardworking trucks. A Series 2.25-liter engine can build 74 horses on a good day. All five have known better days, yet each rig performs perfectly, particularly given the loads and grades.

As the road dries, we approach Judith Landing and the American Prairie Reserve’s (APR) 50,000-acre PN Ranch.

Managers of the reserve welcome self-contained overlanders at this and several other large additions to the east. The APR also offers accommodations in yurts at the various properties, as well as a developed campground at Antelope Creek. The APR works to restore native shortgrass prairie ecosystems and currently wants to convert some of its cattle leases on BLM lands to bison. It’s not without controversy, and we see occasional signs that read: “Save the American cowboy. Stop the APR.” The APR’s ranch manager suggests an informal campsite in the Judith River cottonwood bottoms. We hurriedly set camp and make for an evening foray, once again along a former Missouri River channel known as Big Sag. Our photographer, Chris McGowan, hikes to several high points for shots as the old trucks spread out in the gloaming and sage.

The next day we work our way upstream to a ferry crossing at historic Virgelle. The Missouri River ferries are operated and maintained by the respective counties, and there is no charge. Just ring the bell at the water’s edge, and the ferry master will eventually arrive to board the vehicles. Ferry operator Jimmy Griffin walks a couple hundred yards from the Virgelle Mercantile and antique store. At other crossings, the operator might be hailed from a farm tractor. The ferries offer a dramatic river crossing of the Missouri, although perhaps somewhat less so than a cottonwood raft.

That gap between wild expectation and raw experience is a certainty. You can plan an adventure, but you get what the country and the conditions yield. As we worked around broken bridges, blown-out passages, and morphed plans, those faithful old Land Rovers just kept plugging away and seemed to maintain an appetite for more.

The geology, history, and full expanse of the Missouri River Breaks can be overwhelming, particularly under Montana’s famous Big Sky. We move like rolling dust specks across this untamed setting, with one eye cast toward the past, and a light foot on the throttle to whatever the world serves up next.

Jason Swant disembarks from one of three remaining ferry crossings that serve the Missouri Breaks country. Cottonwood galleries along the Judith River offer a sheltered campsite. Opposite: Miles from the nearest rural light pollution, a remnant of Montana’s homestead era at Slaughter River.

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Nitro Gear’s restored Trakka Troop Carrier A Second Chance at Adventure.

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By Chris Cordes

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The Trakka is to Australia what the VW Westy is to the US: a travel legend. Opening page: Nitro Gear’s Troopy boasts classic looks with a modern flare.

ll too often, the vehicles we love are eventually lost. Old muscle cars are traded in for more practical sedans or wind up in a ditch, road trip vans succumb to high miles and blown motors, and our trusty camping trucks begin to rust after years of faithful service. Eventually, the automotive works of art that were once our pride and joy end up in a junkyard, scrap pile, or rotting away in someone’s backyard, doomed to deterioration. Yet, every now and then, the story doesn’t end that way. With immense dedication and often significant financial investment, an enthusiast will occasionally pluck a vehicle from the brink of extinction to give it a second chance at life—to once again carve coastal highways, wander lonely back roads, and keep a little bit of history alive. We live for these fairy-tale endings, and thanks to a man named Carl Montoya, the 1987 Land Cruiser shown here will live happily ever after.

Carl is many things: an outdoorsman, entrepreneur, and the owner of Nitro Gears and Just Differentials. But if you ask most people who know him, they’d probably just tell you he’s a gearhead. That’s because Carl loves anything mechanical, especially if it happens to be a Land Cruiser. When I first met him, the Washington native was wrapping up a painstaking conversion from a factory appearance 200 Series to a “TRD Pro” package. That trim was never offered on a Land Cruiser, but you wouldn’t know it based on Carl’s final product, which

undoubtedly looked more the part than if Toyota themselves had produced it. Even so, it was only when discussing the gearing and nuances of the suspension that Carl really came to life, so I wasn’t the least bit surprised when he told me he had recently picked up a new Toyota project. What did surprise me was that it was a 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser HJ75. Not any HJ75 mind you, but a factory Trakka.

For those who aren’t familiar with Trakka, think of them as the Australian Westfalia. The founder, Dave Berry, started converting VWs in the mid-1970s but soon realized that the Australian market needed something more rugged to tackle the Outback. His solution was a VW-style pop-top on the Land Cruiser Troop Carrier, and it would prove to be a smashing success. Fastforward about 40 years, and there’s now a cult following for Trakkas around the globe.

Unfortunately, the Outback has taken its toll on their population, and the number of them in drivable condition is dwindling. I was all the more surprised then to learn that Carl’s Land Cruiser was sitting right here in the USA. It was far from perfect, of course. Like many of the Trakkas, this one had probably seen time on Australia’s coasts and was rusting badly throughout the roof and several sections of the body. The canvas top was aged well past its prime, the paintwork needed therapy, and to top it all off, the factory 2H diesel was blown. By most counts, this old Land Cruiser was rapidly approaching a parts yard, but Carl saw the potential and decided it was worth saving.

Had he known what he was getting into, he may have felt differently.

RESTORATION AND AXLES Once he had the truck, he began what he believed would be a quick job to strip out and repair the rust. What followed was more than six months of in-depth bodywork. As it turned out, the light rust around the roof was deep corrosion, and in many places, the structure had deteriorated beOVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

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that of a modern Land Cruiser. While he was there, he threw in front and rear ARB air lockers and an ARB twin compressor for taking the Troopy as far off the beaten path as possible.

THE NEW MOTOR NEEDED MORE AIR THAN THE SNORKEL WOULD PROVIDE, SO TORFAB PRODUCED A CUSTOM INTAKE BOX THAT HAS A SWITCH TO LET IT BREATHE NORMALLY FOR HIGHWAY AND CITY DRIVING OR CHANGE TO THE SNORKEL FOR DUSTY OR WET CONDITIONS. IT’S BRILLIANT.

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yond repair. The whole thing needed to be gutted and replaced with brand-new metal.

Several other problem spots were uncovered and repaired during the process, and all new window gaskets and seals had to be installed along with a fresh coat of factory white paint. After the body was complete, they ditched the rotting canvas for a custom replacement made by a local shop from Sunbrella Fabrics. Carl mentioned that this initial process seemed to drag out for an eternity, but eventually, the truck was clean, and the mechanical revival could begin.

First up were the blown motor and aging transmission. To help the more than 30-year-old truck keep up with current speed limits, Carl had Torfab drop in a 4.2L 1HD-FT diesel engine with an upgraded OVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

G-turbo and PDI aluminum intercooler and radiator. Carl says this combination produces 450 pound-feet of torque, which is truly impressive. As with most modifications, though, solving one problem often creates another. The new motor needed more air than the snorkel would provide, so Torfab produced a custom intake box that has a switch to let it breathe normally for highway and city driving or change to the snorkel for dusty or wet conditions. It’s brilliant.

With the increased power, Carl also decided it would be prudent to revamp the transmission, so the Trakka received a fresh OEM Toyota H55 transmission with an appropriate input shaft for the new combination. With more power and weight comes a greater need for brakes, so the Trakka received a conversion to a modern braking system shared with the FJ Cruiser.

Of course, as the owner of Nitro Gears, most of his magic was worked in the axle and differential department. At the Just Differentials shop in Washington, Carl built axles with upgraded Nitro Pro Series chromoly 32 spline axle shafts, Nitro chromoly birfields, and Nitro HD 4.10 ring and pinions to give the Land Cruiser a differential and axle setup equivalent to or better than

INTERIOR At this point, it was safe to say that this old Land Cruiser was running and looking better than new. But it still needed some upgrades to turn it into the overland vehicle of Carl’s dreams—the largest of which was a complete overhaul of the interior. As any seasoned overlander will tell you, the interior living space can make all the difference in the enjoyment of your trip. That’s why Carl decided to turn to the experts at Goose Gear to create his ideal living quarters. From their new S-Series of products, the California-based team crafted a spaceefficient design with all the comforts of home, that somehow manages to function even better than it looks.

Lightweight cabinets with marine-grade hardware sit atop bed-lined floors with integrated aircraft track tie-downs. Taller cabinets line the driver’s side of the vehicle for standing-height countertops with draw-

Nitro Gear knows how to build four-wheel drives, and this truck leaves nothing on the table.

Opposite: 1. The color-matched Scheel-Mann seats give this interior a like-new look.

2. This truck is all about adventures, both in the vehicle and getting you out on the biking trail.

3. A Dometic sink is perfect for cooking, cleaning, or just grabbing a drink of water.

4. A Goose Gear custom bed platform is lighter and stronger than the original.

5. The pop-top provides plenty of living space to stand or stretch in.

6. Aircraft track is integrated into the floor for securing cargo on the road.

7. Pop the top and camp is set in less than a minute.

8. The Expedition One bumper looks right at home on the back of the Land Cruiser.

9. Goose Gear incorporated hidden storage wherever possible—no space went to waste.

10. You wouldn’t want to travel the world on this bench seat, but there is seating for four.

11. Locking metal latches prevent drawers and doors from swinging open on the trail.

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ers, an integrated sink, and a stainless steel Dometic fridge. The passenger side is lower for a seating area and packs additional storage under the cushions. Carl opted to retain one of the factory bench seats in the rear for extra passengers, but a cleverly hidden storage box is still incorporated underneath, perfect for securing valuables.

Goose Gear’s handiwork extends beyond the cabinetry and floor. They also made the custom upper sleeping platform that integrates into the new roof. Their setup keeps the top of the vehicle light and uses gas struts to raise and lower the bed. My favorite feature is the 70/30 split in the platform, which enables the owner to drop the 30 portion of the panel down to the lower MY FAVORITE FEATURE IS THE 70/30 SPLIT IN THE SLEEPING PLATFORM, WHICH ENABLES THE OWNER TO DROP THE 30 PORTION OF THE PANEL DOWN TO THE LOWER PART OF THE VEHICLE TO MAKE A SECOND BED.

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part of the vehicle to make a second bed.

This setup is not only useful for kids and guests but also stealth camping with the top down in cities or foul weather. Both the bed and lower bench are covered in matching custom fabric with memory foam cushions.

They’re quite comfortable, but not nearly as much so as the two Scheel-Mann Vario seats Carl put in the front of the Trakka.

The Vario orthopedic seats are made in Germany and feature a range of adjustments to form a support structure perfectly tailored to your body. They’re available in a variety of colors and materials with options like heated backs and bottoms. “Even with all of the other upgrades, the Scheel-Mann’s are the only things that make driving an old vehicle like this across the country enjoyable,” Carl noted. Two years into my own Scheel-Mann ownership, I’d have to agree with him.

The finishing touch inside the Goose Gear cabinets was an Espar diesel heater, which burns fuel from the factory tank to create forced-air heating in the cabin. When running full blast, this unit consumes just 0.2 gallons per hour, which is hardly worth mentioning with this Land Cruiser’s factory dual tanks, especially given the massive benOVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

efit of a warm camper in almost any type of conditions.

EXTERIOR AND SUSPENSION With the interior complete, Carl’s Trakka was ready for travel, but he wanted to go all out on his dream truck, so he lined up a few aftermarket modifications as well. He started with the suspension system and chose an Australian classic, Old Man Emu. As seems appropriate for this build, he gave it a contemporary twist, opting for the BP-51 internal bypass shocks instead of the standard monotubes. This gave the truck clearance for 35/11.50R17 Nitto Ridge Grapplers on TRD Pro OEM Wheels, which once again echoes the modern factory vibe.

In the rear of the vehicle, a custom Expedition One bumper provides protection and some handy storage space. The swingouts pivot with the door so that you don’t have to open four handles, and the passenger side has an integrated high-clearance bike rack for hauling Carl’s mountain bikes to the trail. The other swingout houses the spare tire, and an Expedition Essentials stove mount for the rear door. DC Customs Fab sliders protect the sizable investment made in restoring this Land Cruiser’s body, while a custom frame-mounted rear skid plate shields the undercarriage. And what Australian classic would be complete without an ARB bull bar? Carl’s is even paired with a set of ARB intensity LED lights and a Warn winch.

WHERE TO NEXT? I was very keen to learn where Carl planned to take his rig once it was completed. He told me it had already been all over the Western US and Baja, but that any grander-scale adventures would have to wait. Although travel is the ultimate goal, Carl, like so many of us, has other priorities in life these days. Things like family, friends, and his business comprise the bulk of his plans for the immediate future. Don’t worry, though, this beautiful vehicle will certainly not be wasted.

Carl plans to explore North America as much as possible over the coming years, For two people, the Trakka is a nearly perfect travel platform.

and on any given day, you’re likely to see his Land Cruiser driving up a Washington mountain with skis, snowboards, or mountain bikes in tow. For now, enjoying his home continent is exactly the adventure he is looking for, and with the Trakka, he’s doing precisely that.

SPECIFICATIONS

1987 Toyota HJ75 Land Cruiser Trakka, Factory Dual Fuel Tanks POWER 1HD-FT turbo-diesel engine with an upgraded G-turbo Toyota H55 manual transmission SUSPENSION AND DRIVE 4.10:1 axle gearing Nitro Pro Series chromoly 32 spline axle shafts Nitro chromoly birfields ARB front and rear air locking differential Old Man Emu BP-51 suspension WHEELS AND TIRES 17-inch factory Toyota TRD Pro wheels 35/11.50R17 Nitto Ridge Grapplers RECOVERY AND ARMOR ARB bull bar front bumper Warn 9.5XP-S winch Safari snorkel Custom rear skid plate DC Customs Fab sliders Expedition One rear bumper Custom high-clearance bike rack ACCESSORIES Scheel-Mann heated seats Goose Gear custom S-Series interior Espar diesel heater Dometic fridge Dometic sink 12-volt water pump and tank ARB Intensity LED lights ARB dual compressor

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The Pacific Divide A family journeys to the center of their universe and finds bliss.

By Olivier de Vaulx

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Road trips have always been our favorite kind of vacation. Yet, with our daughter ready to go to college and

willing to enjoy a last summer with her parents and brother, we had to raise the bar. After deciding to follow the Pacific Divide across the USA from Canada to Mexico, we spent the last weeks of June in a constant state of euphoria, preparing our vehicles and camping gear with febrility.

Our dreams of adventure fell short of the real experience, though, which was so much better than we could have anticipated. After driving off pavement everyday for 30 days straight, we became so used to the bumps and slippery conditions of the fire roads, that driving on pavement felt strange.

Bouncing in our seats, we let our muscles do the job, obliviously steering the truck on the best lines to gain traction and preserve the tires. Mud, dust, rocky sections, and falling logs that we needed to cut with our chainsaw presented no shortage of challenges.

Camping in the wild proved to be an extraordinary sensory experience that we renewed every night. Even with no one else around, we often found ourselves whispering, as if doing so would preserve the purity of the place. Cooking over the red ashes of campfires, we stayed outside as long as we could, enjoying the Milky Way as it glittered spectacularly. In these moments, we felt like we were in the center of the universe, the last inhabitants of a lost world. Early mornings often brought stunning sunrises, with delicate colors reflecting in the calm water of lakes. These enchanted visions, mixed with the smell of fresh coffee, put us in an optimistic mood before starting each promising day.

Scrolling in front of our eyes, the trip unfolded like a nature documentary as we explored dark forests and alpine trails in Washington, burned areas and the Three Sisters mountains in Oregon, golden hills and high desert in California. Several times, we felt so at peace that we wondered if we shouldn’t just stop and stay forever. Yet, we kept moving, finally arriving at the Mexican border one month later. Happiness became bliss, not only because we reached the destination, but because we knew that this time spent together as a family in the backcountry was priceless.

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FOLLOWING THE PACIFIC DIVIDE REQUIRES MEANDERING ON NARROW DOUBLE-TRACKS ON THE RIDGES OF WASHINGTON’S MOUNTAINS, A FEW THOUSAND FEET OVER LAKE CHELAN. (OPENING SPREAD)

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DRIVING THROUGH THE WOODS, WE ENTERED A MAGICAL WORLD REMINISCENT OF THE FAIRY TALES OF CHILDHOOD.

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ROLLER-COASTER TRAILS WERE A STIMULATING BREAKAWAY FROM THE ROUTINE OF LARGE FIRE ROADS.

THESE GHOSTLY SILHOUETTES WAS A SURREAL POST-APOCALYPTIC EXPERIENCE.

WAKING UP EARLY, WE WERE OFTEN REWARDED BY THE STUNNING LIGHT OF THE RISING SUN REFLECTING ON STILL WATERS.

THE SENSE OF SOLIDARITY IS VERY STRONG IN THE OVERLANDING COMMUNITY, AND WE NEVER HESITATED TO FALL BEHIND SCHEDULE TO HELP A FELLOW TRAVELER SUCH AS THIS ONE, STRANDED WITH A DEAD BATTERY.

IN THE OPEN RANGE, YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO BE PATIENT IN CATTLEINDUCED TRAFFIC JAMS—REALLY PATIENT. THE WILDFIRES BURNED THOUSANDS OF TREES IN THE OKANOGAN-WENATCHEE NATIONAL FOREST. CRUISING THROUGH

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DRIVING WITH PRECISION DESPITE THE FEAR OF A DEADLY ROLL INTO THE STEEP SLOPES OF THE ROCKY TABLE MOUNTAIN REQUIRES MENTAL STRENGTH TO STAY FOCUSED AND AVOID MISTAKES.

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HEADING TOWARD MOUNT RAINIER, THE DANGLING VEGETATION GIVES THE WOODS A SWAMPLIKE ATMOSPHERE. WALKING UNDER THE NATURAL BRIDGES NEAR CARSON IS A GREAT WAY TO REVISIT LOCAL HISTORY AND EXERCISE. EVEN AT A REASONABLE PACE, CRUISING ON NARROW AND WET TRAILS OFTEN GAVE THE ILLUSION OF EXHILARATINGLY HIGH SPEEDS.

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EXPLORING INFINITE NATURAL PLAYGROUNDS DEEP INTO THE FOREST, OUR TEENAGERS PLAYED FOR HOURS, LIKE KIDS USED TO A CENTURY AGO, LONG BEFORE EVERYTHING WENT DIGITAL. CAREFULLY DESCENDING STEEP DOWNHILLS IN THE DUSTY FORESTS OF OREGON, WE SOMETIMES FELT LIKE ANTS, PROTECTED UNDER THE CANOPY OF THESE GIGANTIC TREES.

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ESTABLISHING CAMP AFTER LONG DAYS ON DUSTY TRAILS BRINGS A FEELING OF PEACE AND ACCOMPLISHMENT; WE GATHERED AROUND A HEARTY MEAL TO DISCUSS OUR NEXT STEPS. NEARING CALIFORNIA, COLORS WARMED, AND WOODS OPENED AS THE TEMPERATURE ROSE MARKEDLY. TRINITY LAKE WAS THE PERFECT PLACE TO COOL DOWN, AWAY FROM THE HARSH OFF-ROAD-DRIVING CONDITIONS OF CALIFORNIA’S RUGGED FIRE ROADS. EVERY STOP PROVIDED AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPLORE SURROUNDING AREAS AND ADMIRE LOCAL PLANTS, SUCH AS THIS STUNNING RED THISTLE. THE COMPACTNESS OF THE OREGON WOODS WAS SOMEWHAT OPPRESSING, BUT THE EVER-SURPRISING COLORS OF THE TRUNKS KEPT US LOOKING AROUND THE NEXT BEND. CROSSING THE HILLS NEAR ASHLAND, CALIFORNIA, WAS CHALLENGING AT TIMES BUT MOSTLY FUN, WITH PLENTY OF SWITCHBACKS TO DRIFT IN. AS WE CONTEMPLATED MOUNT SHASTA EMERGING FROM THE HAZE A FEW MILES AWAY, WE STARTED TO REALIZE THE OVERWHELMING SCALE OF OUR FAMILY TRIP.

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THOUSANDS OF TREES FALL EVERY WINTER, BUT LUCKILY FOR US, THE FOREST SERVICE KEEPS THE TRAILS OPEN BY CUTTING THE FALLEN MAMMOTHS CLEAR. THE GRANDIOSE LANDSCAPES OF YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK ARE FAMOUS FOR A REASON, BUT ADMIRING THE ICONIC VIEWS OF THE HALF DOME IN PERSON IS DEFINITIVELY WORTH THE DETOUR. THE ABUNDANT WILDLIFE IS NOT TOO SHY IF YOU STAY QUIET, WHICH MADE FOR AMAZING ENCOUNTERS TO DELIGHT US ALL.

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ROOF TENTS ARE SO COMFORTABLE THAT OUR TEENAGERS DON’T MIND SPENDING HOURS RELAXING ON THE MATTRESSES, READING BOOKS STORED ON THEIR PHONES OTHERWISE MADE USELESS

BY LACK OF SERVICE. CUTTING FALLING LOGS WITH OUR CHAINSAW PREVENTED LONG DETOURS AND MADE US FEEL MORE IN CONTROL OF OUR FATE. EVENTUALLY, OUR PATH CROSSED THE MOJAVE DESERT WITH ITS MAGNIFICENT AND CHROMATIC MOUNTAINS, WITH A MUCH-WELCOMED SMOOTH RIDE IN SANDY FIRE ROADS.

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AS WE HEADED TOWARD SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, THE FOREST ABRUPTLY DISAPPEARED, AND THE VIEW WIDENED DRAMATICALLY. THE GIANT SEQUOIA TREES GIVE A LESSON OF HUMILITY AND RESILIENCE: THEIR RED BARK SHOWS SCARS INHERITED IN FIGHTS AGAINST FREEZING-COLD WINTERS AND DEADLY WILDFIRES.

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OUR LAST NIGHT OF CAMPING OUTDOORS, AFTER 3,000 MILES ON THE TRAILS, COULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED AT A BETTER PLACE. A 360-DEGREE VIEW OF THE MOJAVE’S PURE LANDSCAPE AND THE QUIETUDE OF OUR SURROUNDINGS ALLOWED US TO BREATHE IN THE DEEP SATISFACTION OF REACHING THE END OF THE ADVENTURE.

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MODERN EXPLORERS INTERVIEW BY TENA OVERACKER

MAC MACKENNEY Meet the man with the plan—an overland adventurer who loves to beat the odds.

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A Mattrack-equipped Defender on its Land Rover-powered catamaran in the Bering Strait. Opening page: Siberia at -60°C—of all the extreme environments, I prefer cold.

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ll men dream, but not all equally. Those that dream by the dusty recesses of the night, awake to find it was all vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous, for they may act their dreams with open eyes and make things happen. –T. E. Lawrence The above quote is one of Mac Mackenney’s favorites. Driven to accomplish great things, his dreams are constantly evolving, coexisting with the rigors of life. He has a propensity to land on his feet, despite significant struggle, and see those dreams manifest.

Mac’s instinct to persevere is always present, a drive that motivates his own objectives but also makes him a logistics planner extraordinaire, sought out by the world’s great explorers and novices alike.

You may know of Mac from his participation in the Discovery Channel’s Driven to Extremes or from his not-for-profit organization of the same name. Or perhaps you are a follower of Sir Ranulph Fiennes; if so, Mac’s name is sure to have come up.

When prompted, Mac Mackenney described himself to me as “a professional adventurer, having planned and led expeditions to the most extreme locations on the planet. From the -60°C freezing wastes of Siberia to the 50°C+ dense heat of the Sahara Desert, through stifling jungles and over precipitous Himalayan mountains, I have set world firsts, broken world records, and operated vehicles in the most challenging environments on earth.”

Mac’s confidence is awe-inspiring, and with large-scale projects such as Everest and a slew of extreme environments under his belt, he truly fits our definition of a Modern Explorer.

From the age of 6, you dreamed of being a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot. What was your motivation?

My father had always wanted to be a pilot in the RAF, but he didn’t gain the necessary qualifications, so enlisted in the army before joining the Metropolitan Police in London. The police had their own flying club; thus, he obtained his private pilot’s license and occasionally took me with him when he had a lesson—I loved it.

There were aircraft books all over the house and trips to airshows and museums.

What were you like before you joined the British military?

Did you always find yourself thinking of faraway locales, or maybe drawing up logistics in the schoolyard?

I was a huge daydreamer, always planning adventures—be that climbing mountains, trekking over hills, cycling across the country, or kayaking down rivers. I used to build military-style underground bunkers and rafts made of wood and plastic sheeting.

I even drew up plans for a hang glider made of bits and pieces I found lying around.

What was it like growing up in Banstead, England, and how did it shape you?

To be brutally honest, not good. Domestic violence, both physical and psychological, was rife in my family. My parents would mock my daydreaming and plans, referring to me as Walter Mitty, a fictional character invented by James Thurber, who dreamed a lot but didn’t actually achieve anything with his life. From an early age, I was driven to proving them both wrong. My driving force still seems to be to show people I am indeed capable of great things.

I was awarded a flying scholarship at the age of 16, where the RAF pays for you to get your private pilot’s license, but my final selection medical suddenly picked up that I had suspected heart disease. Even though the doctors didn’t find anything serious, the RAF told me that I would never join their ranks. My whole future was in tatters. I managed to pick myself up and finally left home at the age of 18 to join the British Army as a helicopter technician, helped by my army career officer who falsified my medical papers.

How did you find yourself in the RAF then?

After just 18 months in the army, I was told that there was nothing wrong with my heart, and I was fit to join the RAF as a pilot. It took me a few years to get out of the army, but eventually, I made it, becoming an officer and a trainee fighter pilot.

You were soon on the fast track in the British military, only to see your life fall apart while helping a friend through a devastating trauma, which in turn affected you. After suffering a severe panic attack while flying (yet safely landing) a jet, you ended your military career. What led you to create your expedition company, Max Adventure?

Yes, it all went wrong when I lost focus on my flying career while trying to stop a friend who had been date-raped from committing suicide. I was dropped from flying training. Having excelled as an officer, I was offered any ground job that I wanted. But I didn’t feel worthy of continuing to hold the Queen’s Commission, so I resigned.

95 Typical antics during my British Army helicopter tech training prior to deployment to an Arctic unit. Testing our tracked Defenders near Wales; it was Alaska for the land expedition. This Lada Riva was one of 13 bangers on our north–south traverse of the Sahara Desert.

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Clockwise from top left: Celebrating a new world record: London to Cape Town in 11 days, 14 hours. All hands on deck for another bush mechanic repair in the Sahara, Southern Algeria. Over 1,000 containers of equipment sit patiently in Kathmandu, bound for Everest Base Camp. Traversing the Jordan Desert, en route to Saudi Arabia to recce the Red Sea crossing. Testing our capabilities in the Camel Trophy international selections in Southern Spain.

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I was 27 years old with no plan B and no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I took a job driving backpackers around Africa to give me some thinking time. On a daily rate of just £6.00 per day, it wasn’t a career move. I returned from Africa uninspired as every option seemed so boring compared to flying a military jet at 500 mph just 250 feet off the ground. Adventure and travel had started to spark something inside, though, so I sought out greater challenges.

It wasn’t until I entered the Camel Trophy in 1996, and from 10,000 applicants made it down to the final four and the UK team, that I suddenly found something that I could get my teeth into: extreme vehicle adventures.

Your military background probably helped hone your tactical and planning skills, though I suspect they were innate. What experience do you bring to Max Adventure?

The military provided me with a lot of leadership training. But as a mechanic and pilot, detailed planning and tactical elements were not part of my remit, so I guess those elements have come naturally. My main job within Max Adventure is planning and logistics, thinking of every possible scenario on an expedition, and having all of the equipment required in order to complete it successfully. I am able to clearly visualize every step of an expedition before undertaking it, walking through each stage, looking at what’s needed, and building in a backup of contingencies as required.

In 1997, you became Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ right-hand man. Working with the “World’s Greatest Living Explorer” had to feel pretty good after enduring some tumultuous years. Was this when you felt like you had finally “hit the big time”?

I didn’t realize it straight away, but to go from nothing in the expedition world to Ran’s right-hand man in the space of just one year was a pretty rapid promotion. The Land Rover Global Expedition with him was my first major gig. The problem was that Ran took great pride in never actually having paid anyone to be on one of his expeditions during his [then] 35-year career. I treated the experience as an apprenticeship, although I did manage to eke out £500 per month from him on the North Pole Expedition.

What have you learned from working with Ran?

The guy is incredible; his self-focus and dogged determination are probably unmatched by anyone I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. Once he’s set his mind on something, there is no question of success—not one thread of doubt. It’s that self-belief that has made him the most successful living explorer. When things get tough for me and aren’t going as planned, I draw upon this inspiration.

There are always unknowns in an overland expedition, but do you find the planning aspect reassuring?

There is a very good saying in the military that can be transferred across to expeditions: “Fail to plan, plan to fail.” And there are the Seven P’s as well: “Prior Preparation and Planning Prevent Piss-Poor Performance.”

Some of my planning spreadsheets stretch to several thousand lines, with everything subdivided into three sections, colorcoded accordingly: Pre-expedition, Expedition, Post-expedition. If you go through line by line, visualizing as best you can what you’ll encounter on the road, there shouldn’t be too many surprises.

What type of vehicle modifications do you address before an expedition?

I try to keep vehicle modifications to the absolute minimum, leaving as much as I can standard. My expeditions are for work, not pleasure—who needs holidays with a job like mine?—so there is no time for sightseeing or relaxing by an open fire, which means no roof tents, no chairs, no fridges, no awnings, no kitchen equipment, and definitely no heavy internal drawer systems.

Modifications are only done if they enhance the capability or reliability of the vehicle, with genuine parts being favored over aftermarket.

Weight is the key with a vehicle-based expedition. Just in the same way you would analyze every single item being carried on your back during a mountaineering expedition, you should do exactly the same even though it’s going to be carried by a vehicle.

For every 20 kilograms of unnecessary weight, that’s 20 liters of fuel or water that you cannot carry—and they are some of the vital items that will make the expedition a success or failure.

What should be the most important planning factor?

It is the Survival Rule of Three: three minutes, three hours, three days, and three weeks.

PRIORITY 1/SAFETY Don’t stuff it up and have an accident that

could result in a catastrophic bleed. Otherwise, it’s game over in as little as three minutes.

PRIORITY 2/SHELTER If your naked body isn’t protected from the elements and you’re in an extreme environment, you could be dead in as little as three hours. Vehicle accidents do happen, and vehicles do catch fire. Where’s your shelter if your roof tent is on the underside of your truck or going up in flames because you can’t remove it quickly enough? Plus, when it’s blowing an absolute gale, where would you rather be? In a ground tent sheltered by your 3-ton truck, or perched 6 feet up in the air, exposed to the full force of Mother Nature?

PRIORITY 3/WATER The average person can survive three days without water.

PRIORITY 4/FOOD The average person can survive three weeks without food.

What suggestions do you have for navigating the paperwork jungle that precedes most significant journeys?

Paperwork isn’t as daunting as it may seem and can be broken down into two definitive areas: vehicles and people. Once you’re on the road, it becomes very logical. Customs officers will want to see all of the car documents, and immigration officers everything connected with you. There will be fees to pay at the border when you enter a country for a range of things such as vehicle insurance, road tax, environmental tax, customs fees, etc. Make sure you have plenty of cash on you, with US dollars being the OVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

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main global currency, closely followed by euros. I just take a bucket load of money and distribute it amongst the team, hiding it in personal kit bags and throughout the vehicles. Never have all of your cash together in the same place. Take plenty of copies of your vehicle registration document and international certificate for motor vehicles. If an unscrupulous officer holds onto either as a form of soliciting a bribe, you can just drive off knowing you have a whole folder of them.

Your not-for-profit organization, Driven to Extremes, supports veterans suffering from PTSD. What types of missions have you set up?

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Military veterans combating PTSD pursue the road to recovery during a Driven to Extremes adventure.

All part of the job—recovering Hollywood actor Adrien Brody and Formula One’s Mika Salo in the Malaysian jungle for the Discovery Channel project.

Crossing Mongolia in 2WD vans was always going to be a physical challenge. Opposite: Military veterans take on the original Dakar Rally route in $300 cars.

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I came up with the idea for Driven to Extremes when Vauxhall/Opel, part of General Motors at the time, contracted my company to create and deliver a marketing project that would demonstrate how tough their new Vivaro van was. With only a 1.6-liter turbo-diesel engine, they were concerned that your average builder wouldn’t have much faith in its ability to do a hard day’s work. Their internal marketing team hadn’t got very far with ideas, thinking that the van might be able to drive a track in Scotland or maybe get to Norway. I came in and told them that we could do a lot better by driving from Europe’s most westerly road in southwest Ireland to Asia’s most easterly in far-eastern Siberia—basically Ewan McGregor’s Long Way Round.

Keen to support injured military veterans, I suggested that we take some with us. There was no time to modify the vans [and make them accessible], so we chose three guys suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The 12,000-mile adventure through 21 countries and across two continents during the 60-day expedition totally turned their lives around. This gave me the inspiration to help more veterans; since I had been through it myself, it gave me the understanding and motivation to help others.

The key to the Driven to Extremes adventures is to make missions fast-paced, in a locale completely different from their home environment. New experiences are key, and variety in everything from accommodation to food is sought out. The challenge has to be sufficient to make teamwork essential, similar to their experiences in the military. And there is no talk of therapy or even mental health; it’s our job to get them back out there in the real world, reversing withdrawal and isolation.

It was a very emotional moment when I finally found what felt like my purpose on this planet, and I committed 100 percent of my time to helping other veterans. When we returned from the Sahara Desert back in 2018, our primary financial sponsor announced that my volunteer efforts were to become a paid fulltime job, with vehicle and legal support, new investors, and the means to make the organization a full-fledged charity. Unfortunately, I shared the good news with one of the Royal Marine veterans we had taken into the desert, and he set up a rival organization and poached the businessman.

The 2020 Sahara Bug Rally rekindled my desire to help, but with a lack of participants and little interest from sponsors, I’ve had to put it on the back burner for now. Hopefully, I’ll be able to rekindle Driven to Extremes, but my current priorities are my family and Max Adventure.

Do you find that planning for potential novices rather than experts is different? Or do you just adjust the curve for everyone?

I must admit, I prefer dealing with projects that will challenge me personally, rather than acting in a tour guide capacity, but both types have their merits. Tough expeditions in extreme environments are my main passion—the harder, the better. Selecting a hand-picked team that you know you can trust and working as a cohesive unit is a great feeling that brings back fond memories from my military days.

Taking those that are new to adventure can bring great rewards when you introduce people to what life on the road can bring. This was especially so when we took a team of military veterans suffering from PTSD to the Sahara Desert. They’d all been to deserts before and part of vehicle convoys, but you don’t really get to interact with the locals in a social way when you’re in the military—having a drink and sharing stories about life from opposing sides of the world is a fantastic way to bring people together.

Where do your ideas come from? For example, what made you decide to try to break the London to Cape Town record (shortest amount of time) in 2010?

I read about the London to Cape Town record in the Guinness Book of World Records back in the early 1980s and knew even then that one day I would have a go at breaking it. As for the others [European Cape to Cape record, a recreation of Stirling Moss’ 1952 visit to 15 countries in less than five days, etc.], I guess it’s just my interest in historical motoring adventures, although I do

feel that I was born 50 years too late. I would have loved to have been around in the interwar days when the motor car was capable and reliable enough to travel the world but hadn’t yet been explored by automobiles.

Is this your mantra for life on the road?: drive, navigate, sleep.

If not, what else comes into play?

That was certainly the case with our London to Cape Town record when three of us became the sixth team in history to set a new fastest time: 10,000 miles, 21 countries, and three continents in 11 days, 14 hours.

For slower trips, I would say that the other mantra is immerse.

Soak in the history, landscape, cuisine, and people of the country that you’re traveling through. This is why we prefer to stay in local hostels and budget hotels, eat in cafés, and employ the services of a local guide. Our camping equipment is therefore extremely minimal to the point that a small survival shelter, a few standby military rations, and self-heating food packs are all that we will take. This not only saves a shed load of money, it also saves weight, allowing better fuel economy, better handling, and room to move in the vehicles.

You assemble huge teams for the majority of your expeditions.

Where do you source your people?

Everest was by far the biggest expedition I was responsible for, and the logistics and numbers were indeed huge: 150,000 items of equipment in 1,000 containers to be delivered to seven medical laboratories that we built from Kathmandu to the Summit.

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The team consisted of 60 intensive care doctors, 60 sherpas, 208 volunteers trekking to Everest Base Camp, 300 porters, 300 yaks, and one Russian helicopter.

The Driven to Extremes Discovery Channel expeditions were therefore quite tame in comparison, with the largest one of the three being the Jungle program where a team of 29 in 11 4WD vehicles tackled a route through the Malaysian rainforest.

We have a pool of very experienced expedition mechanics, medics, safety and survival experts, photographers, and a film crew. All are freelance, and we select them depending on their experience of the environment that we will be traveling through and the type of expedition being planned.

You are known for your expeditions in extreme environments.

Where has the most challenging locale been so far?

Siberia, definitely, for the Driven to Extremes Discovery Channel show. NATO forces stop Arctic training at -30°C due to the greatly increased risk of frostbite. At -60°C, we were way beyond that point and operating at temperatures where even basic materials stop acting in the normal way, let alone the human body’s ability to survive. Drive belts, bungees, shock absorbers, and tent materials all act in a totally unusual way that requires you to pick the very best products that are known to cope with such extremes.

Human survival in these conditions is measured in hours, not days, and frostbite can be brought on in a matter of a few minutes. Stuff it up in even the slightest way, and what would be a minor problem anywhere else on the planet becomes lifethreatening in Siberia.

How did you modify the vehicles for Siberia?

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Clockwise from top: Mental recovery from PTSD is all about challenges and teamwork. Superhuman porters were employed to carry tons of medical kit to Everest Base Camp. Another first: an amphibious crossing of the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska. As an expedition leader, you need to detach yourself from the action and delegate.

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We had to pick the right vehicles in the first place, and then modify them to cope with the conditions—nothing more. This meant no winches, snorkels, underbody protection, diff lockers, banks of spotlights, or anything else one would normally associate with a vehicle exped. What it did involve were such things as fitting the right tires, studded Nokians, that wouldn’t blow out at -60°C; Michelin inner tubes that would prevent the tires from deflating at night when the water buildup on the bead turns into ice, expanding and breaking the seal; double glazing on the windscreen and side windows so we could see out; Webasto engine heaters so that the system wouldn’t freeze; Koni insulated shock absorbers so that that they wouldn’t go rock-solid in the cold; neoprene covers over the radiator grill and fuel filler flap; a roll cage for protection; and an engine buzzer that would set off an alarm if the engine stopped. Filling the engine and transmission with the best oil on the market, Shell Helix, took top priority.

What (day)dreams are currently in the queue?

The desire to pursue challenging and extreme driving adventures is what truly makes me come alive on a personal level. I’ve got a load of world firsts and records lined up, and one, in particular, is in the early planning stages, so keep watch. I’d also jump at the chance of exploring North Korea—it would be fascinating.

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HISTORIC OVERLAND JOURNEYS TOM SHEPPARD

FROM THE DESK OF TOM SHEPPARD—RAW AND UNABRIDGED

Velar to Timbuktu Dakar to Timbuktu? Quite a trek. Pre-GPS, the 900-mile off-tracks desert leg north to Reggan, solo, was something else. Tom Sheppard explains.

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h, no, not one of Mr. Land Rover Stylist McGovern’s current iterations of Evoque-alike clones, blinged-up, TTT-ed, and sometimes hard to tell apart in the car parks. (TTT? Trembling, tentative, touchscreen—you know how it is when you’re trying to drive as well.) This was the original Velar, 40+ years ago; that was 1978, as I recall.

Spoof-registered from build as a Velar for security reasons, what we now know as the Range Rover Classic emerged with the name on the bonnet changed just in time for me to buy it direct from Land Rover as an ex-development-fleet vehicle—used

by A.B. Smith himself and spawned by the one and only Tom Barton. A YVB173H, no less, until, fearing H-reg would date it, I surrendered to vanity and picked up a THS-8 for an irresistible price. Remember the days when agile articulation was good for a smile and amazing off-road capability, not something to be muzzled by an anti-roll bar? And there were sensible hose-out interiors? Indications are that the new Defender has resurrected this to a degree.

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good idea, so runs received wisdom. But on the 1975 Atlantic–Red Sea, west–east Sahara expedition, we had power-axle trailers behind the forward-control military 1-tonne Land Rover 101s, accepted as the fuel-carrier solution for the 1,000-mile Mauritanian Empty Quarter crossing. When these early trailer-drive systems failed, fat, underinflated Michelin XS 9.00/16 tyres showed me the dividing line between the off-road benefit (or burden) of having a towed, extra load-carrying axle. My eyes were opened, as was the potential for long-range projects in the Sahara.

Timbuktu? It’s in Northeast Mali, north bank of the River Niger, top end of the Sahel region—where there’s been a lot of terrorist activity in recent years. Thence departed René Caillié, the French explorer, who, in 1828, became the first European to return alive from the fabled settlement. And then there is Englishman Major Alexander Gordon Laing, the first European to reach it two years earlier, killed by his Morocco-bound guides on his way home.

For me, the route north from Timbuktu, 900 miles, all off-tracks, would cross

our 1975 west–east traverse at the Tadhak outcrop around latitude 20°N. Then, after another 300 miles or so of weaving and white-knuckled tight-roping between soft sand, dunes, rocky hills, and escarpments, the seemingly infinite horizon of the Sahara’s flat Tanezrouft. Next, a slightly eastof-north heading would close on Reggan in Algeria, the northern end of the established direct south–north/north–south Sahara crossing, way off to the east that I had travelled five years earlier navigating a droughtaid convoy—three Mercedes trucks and 20 Land Rovers, courtesy of Christian Aid. Why solo, and to do what? Solo, as a choice in a vast desert, is hardest of all to explain to those who need it explained. If you have to ask, you probably wouldn’t understand. Solo, as a pragmatic imperative, though, is easier to justify when serious logistic challenges present, a paramount consideration on all my desert wanderings.

Weight alone—a crew member plus kit, double the food and water for the period— on a project such as this rules out the option.

Though partly a ‘because-it’s-there’ adventure after the 1975 lateral crossing, my

contacts at the Natural History Museum in London were interested in the route, and I was soon learning what addax hoof prints and the likely variety of grasses would look like. A mercifully light but bigger-thanexpected box of collecting kit became part of the cargo.

THE RANGE ROVER MODS A handsome vehicle side-on, I couldn’t resist carrying out some cosmetic but still functional ‘improvements’ to the bland frontal aspect of the wagon when I got it.

For the trip, though, the roof panel was removed, and a laminated ash peripheral strengthening surround fitted to enable installation and use of a specially made see-through version of the Cole sun compass on the header rail. Onboard magnetic compasses for serious off-tracks deadreckoning navigation are a waste of time.

A fabric tonneau cover was devised for wet weather. A 43-gallon truck fuel tank replaced the rear seats, backed up by 17 jerry cans in the trailer. Eight cans of water reserves were split between the Range Rover and trailer. A lot? How long would it take, and what hazards present north of Timbuktu? A rear-mounted pair of shovels and 5-foot aluminium sand ladders with 5-inch-spaced rungs made soft sand recovery kit easy to access.

This being a decade or two before satellites or GPS, navigation in the open desert would be by aero-/nautical-type headingand-distance dead reckoning (DR)—so many kilometres on this heading, so many kilometres on that—up to 100 legs recorded every day and laboriously plotted on graph paper.

At the end of each day, I would thus have a pretty accurate shape for my track and theoretical resultant position relative to the previous night’s camp. Inevitably, subject to small errors, the true position at each evening’s halt was painstakingly established by a four- or five-star astro-fix, with the aid of a precious, loaned Wild T2 theodolite (astro-fixes are usually accurate to around a quarter of a mile).

One of those days—an under-specced track rod (see page 107) and a rickety Bendix electric fuel pump tested both ingenuity and the tool kit. Opposite: Long-range key: a trailer full of jerry cans—on fat tyres. Opening page: Airborne, seaborne, and then what lay ahead for the Velar Mk 1?

The theodolite needed an hour or so on the tripod in the early evening to acquire external ambient temperature before it could be trusted to give the minutely accurate angle of elevation of the selected stars at an equally accurate GMT time (±1 second, ideally). Rolex, with whom I had struck up a friendship some years before, lent a prototype Oysterquartz watch, and the BBC World Service, then available on shortwave, monitored the watch.

With maintenance, oil leaks, nav plotting, and fixes, the list of evening chores was thus both full and demanding at the end of a long hot day—plus accurately updating the fuel and water state, daily estimating as best I could how long each would last me on my assumed-to-be-feasible planned route.

DAKAR AND EASTWARD The Range Rover and trailer were on the ship’s aft well deck, clear of the salt spray, but frighteningly craned off at Dakar, and were soon braving the track corrugations and dips eastward towards Bamako, Mali’s capital, 930 miles away to the east. I camped in the bush, on the ground, waking one morning to the sight of an enormous, yard-high, snorting tusked warthog trotting round the unfamiliar vehicle with an obvious air of disapproval. It was hot, in the 40s(°C), with that part-humid bush feel about it—not crisp and oven-dry as in the real desert.

Even Michelin’s heroic mapping of Africa found the skeins of dusty tracks supposedly leading to Bamako hard to nail. Accurate distance measurement was important enough here; it would be not less than vital out in the desert on DR navigation. But at 1200 hours on this seemingly special Friday, my log records laconically, and the speedometer cable broke.

In retrospect, I can’t imagine how I came to have a spare, but I did, and a couple of anxious hours later, the old one tortuously extracted, I was again on my way.

Like my Velar/Range Rover, the trailer had seen service, most obviously evidenced in snatchy overrun brakes, hopelessly dysfunctional shock absorbers, and manifested on the rudimentary tracks in frightening angles of roll glimpsed in the mirrors. Not to be outdone, the wagon further grabbed my attention that same Friday by gasping to a halt, just as way out in the somewhere else, I had passed through a rather feeble surface bush fire. Land Rover, at least, had

warned me about the intermittently clicking Bendix electric fuel pump and provided a spare. Thumping the fitted one having now failed to resuscitate it, after an hour or so spannering, soldering, and shuffling on my back in the dust, I was nervously on my way again. I wondered how long this pump

I stared in disbelief. The front wheels were both pointing about 20 degrees inward towards each other. The track rod connecting them was broken. I was around 300 kilometres from the nearest workshop.

would last? Further indications of the stillnascent Range Rover’s state of development, though, would emerge.

I thought the deep ruts made by trucks on these outback dusty bush roads were the cause of an odd feel to the steering. I stopped to check, expecting to see a branch caught underneath. I stared in disbelief. The front wheels were both pointing about 20 degrees inward towards each other: a pigeon-toed Velar/Rover. The track rod connecting them was broken. I was around 300 kilometres from the nearest workshop.

I resist making sweeping generic assessments of whole nations, but I found the Malian people were near 10/10 on the scale of nice—smiling, kind, empathetic, welcoming in these pre-extremist days. As I crouched, looking despondently at the revised steering geometry of the Range Rover, the distant rattling of metal and the roar of an engine announced the approach of a truck, and OVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

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with it, sympathy and offers of help. And a return later, after dark, with chains to tow, left me humbled by the generosity of spirit.

But the bottom line was I had to fix it somehow. My ‘this is a Land Rover’ (plus trailer) tool kit included a collection of what I called botching tools—hacksaw, files, spare bolts, drills, and a small clamp-on vice. The track rod break left a 4-inch stub at one end, and a long ex-track rod at the other. By late the following morning, I had hacksawed off part of the trailer’s superfluous ironmongery to provide a sandwich of metal bars to splint the break. With a small hand-brace drill (first a pilot 1/8 inch, then bigger, Timbuktu has been then bigger again), there so long it is not clear if it was built in about four hours, on the edge of the I had drilled through Sahara, or the spread the sandwich; my of the Sahara just hands were very sore, stopped when it got and my collection of there out of respect. spare bolts and nuts clamped the result.

Children from the nearby village arrived earlier, squatting politely in a small ring round me to watch my activity.

Bidding them all farewell with small gifts and holding my breath, I set off again with extreme caution. I’d assumed the height of the ridge between the deep ruts had caused the track rod break, but only years later, it occurred to me that there had been no bend in the track rod. It was fatigue, simple under-speccing. I drove on through the monotonous bush with my fingers crossed. Years later, I regarded the sturdy track rod on my G-Wagen 461 and had to smile.

Kidding myself earlier that it was perhaps just imagination, the vehicle’s slow forward creep in gear, even with the clutch fully down, could no longer be ignored. UK Ambassador Powell-Jones in Dakar, an archetypal FCO diplomat, to whom I had an introduction, had thoughtfully mentioned Daryl Barker, a Brit working out of Bamako, as a good man to contact when I got there. Bless them both forever. Daryl’s contacts in the capital were legion, and his local fixers resourceful.

The Land Rover agent’s stock miraculously included a brand-new track rod but not seals for a clutch master cylinder. Renault equivalents, incredibly, fitted the Land Rover part. A redrill-and-tap job on the slave cylinder mount was needed, as were

another few hours to borrow tools to do the job. Bleeding the circuit solo was impossible, but help was at hand. Daryl was a one-off, no less for his unstinting hospitality than his propensity for belting out Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ at something like 100 watts across his section of Mali’s Bamako night.

The whirlwind of Bamako activity settling, and with Vivaldi still ringing in my ears, I took on 652 litres of petrol and five cans of water. I was off to Timbuktu, 896 miles, as it would turn out, on iffy Bundu tracks northeast.

A deeply mud-bogged, heavily laden Range Rover and trailer on a Sahara trip is both a disappointment and a surprise. They were still bogged as night fell on Easter Monday, 1978. To the accompaniment of a thousand bullfrogs in the nearby ditches, I attempted to sleep, perched on top of the trailer, chuckling at the bizarre circumstances in which I found myself.

Winches in the desert are rarely a good investment due to cost and weight, there seldom being anything to winch onto, but this ‘Strange-Rover-ex-Velar’ that I bought from the factory already had a Fairey mechanical capstan winch on the front. Separated, debogged, and turned, the wagon winched the trailer free. Ankle deep in mud, I reloaded, cursed the 42°C heat, and tried to fathom a route that Michelin, local advice, and what was there failed to agree on.

Timbuktu has been there so long it is not clear if it was built on the edge of the Sahara, or the spread of the Sahara just stopped when it got there out of respect. The place looks like many other small settlements in northern Mali, the treasures of ancient Koranic manuscripts and sacred tombs hidden to the visitor at first. There was a market like any other, with mosques and the inevitable rattling 4x2 Peugeot 404 pickups with their ‘onboard recovery systems’ seated, squatting, or clinging on in the back.

INTO THE SANDS It was only when I came to write the journal that I realised I was leaving Timbuktu on 1 April, April Fools’ Day, sneaking out before dawn so no one would see the direction of my departure. To tell the kindly commandant de cercle my route would have devolved upon him a degree of responsibility for my safety on a risky route, and, with the problems he already had, that did not seem right. But I had no radio, no

A broken track rod demanded selective butchery, much patient trilling by hand, and crossed fingers.

The repair lasted the 300 kilometres to Bamako.

Opposite, top and middle right: Sub-Sahara surprise: add capstan winch, sand ladders, and a certain amount of sweat. Bottom right, clockwise: The underdamped trailer, scared, with wild angles of roll. Refreshments are served at the Tin Boukri well, 45 miles north of Timbuktu. Alexander Gordon Laing, the first European visitor to Timbuktu, lived here.

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Clockwise from left: A rock and a hard place with no way round. Would there be enough fuel?

Michelin XS 7.50/16 versus Michelin XC 205/80R16 = no contest. Were 17 jerry cans enough? Time would tell. Bottom right and middle: Pre-GPS, a Cole sun compass, and theodolite for star shots yielded positions.

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rescue beacon, and satellite phones were still 20 years in the future. In addition, he would have probably bidden me leave east on the Bourem track, not what I had come all this way to hear.

With Timbuktu behind me, I had severed the umbilical: it would be off-tracks for the next 860 miles. The straws to which I now clutched were the precious theodolite for astro-fixes, and two map sheets—scale 1:1m (about 16 miles to the inch) devotedly put together and published under the auspices of the French Institut Géographique National (IGN) in 1963, sheets NE30 Timbuktu and NF30 Taoudenni.

One of the results of France’s tenure in Algeria, and likely related to the oft-mooted Trans-Saharan Railway, was the herculean task of mapping the region, the result of countless painstaking hours of specially equipped B17 aerial photographic traverses high over the Sahara and the essential subsequent on-the-ground work by meticulous surveyors. Away from modern settlements, the results are a good match for today’s Google Earth and, in my recent experience, startlingly accurate when so compared. Plus invaluably, unlike Google, they have local

names for geographical features—names used by the Touareg.

Often reducing my speed to 10 kph, vast areas of hard grass tumps a foot high (onomatopoeically termed ‘touffe-touffe’ in Mauritania for the sound the shock absorbers made) resulted in laborious driving, the trailer woggle-banging behind me on the loose-fitting NATO tow hook. The occasional open stretch allowed 40 kph; being at last into third gear was a weight off my mind regarding fuel consumption, a constant worry in view of the unknown ahead. The astro-fixes were working and anchored the manually plotted DR graph paper zigzag of dozens of heading-and-distance legs recorded on tape to give not only a final camp position but the shape of my track over the ground.

Nearing the Tadhak outcrop, the 1975 west–east expedition landmark, I climbed a low rise, and there, around 30 kilometres to the north, very faint, was the prominent group of rocky hills. A while later, I crossed our 1975 wheel marks, still visible as old tracks so often are in the desert, and drove up on to the low saddle just to the east of the main rocks.

The air was clear, and here and there, small clumps of desert grasses bent to the wind; the peace and beauty of the place assuaged a tiredness that had been increasing over the recent days. The tension, the worry about fuel, and the terrain to come were beginning to tell. The latest consumption figure was 11.3 mpg, a whisker higher than the planning calculations assumed. Three thousand kilometres since Dakar and, did I but know it at the time, ‘the terrain to come’ amounting to 865 kilometres was waiting for me, only the last 80 kilometres or so on a known track into Reggan.

If you have any ‘mechanical sympathy’ (and A while later, I if you haven’t, it’s best crossed our 1975 you don’t go on trips like wheel marks, still this), you’ll know the visible as old tracks so often are in the tight-gut cringe feeling desert, and drove up for your wagon’s wellon to the low saddle being. The picture here just to the east of (opposite, upper left) the main rocks. says it all: a huge field of steel-hard, knife-edged rocks too close to each other to drive between.

I could only imagine four flat tyres; no, six.

Just as bad was the look around for alternative routes and finding none. Whatever their other failings on the Range Rover—too narrow, wrong tread (XC 205/80 R16)—all the Michelins survived the rocks as I tippy-toed cautiously over.

Fesh-fesh is high on the list of perverse types of going in the Sahara, a 9-inch deep layer of fine, almost chalky substance, dust blown over with deceptive sand grains to appear like normal flat going. Second gear and a wide-open throttle were mustering the appropriate torque from the 3.5-litre, twin-carb V8, but eventually, the tyres let me down—literally. After extended shoveland-sand-ladder activity, incidentally proving the benefits of the larger under-inflated Michelin XS 7.50/16s on the trailer against the puny 205 OEM Range Rover tyres, I was able to break free.

I noticed, too, the width of the trailer axle was less than that of the Range Rover, further enabling the tyres to roll (and float) on partially unbroken sand.

I was obliquely crossing an old military route from Tessalit northwest to Taoudenni.

On it, the French map showed the well of Taguenout Haggueret at 21º 22’N, 0º 42’W. Seldom trusting such apparent gifts, I was

nevertheless gratefully in luck and found Tag-Hagg was a hole in the ground. From farther than 20 yards, you would probably have missed it, as the 4-inch rim of a barrel that had been cemented into its mouth, doubtless by the French decades before, was its only identification.

That I didn’t miss it was because camelborne clients had erected a single skinny branch from which to sling a can, pulley, and rope. At the bottom of the well, there is now a 10-inch Mole grip wrench that unclipped itself maliciously from the side of my bucket. But there was also some cool, clear water. (Keep-a-movin’ Dan...he’s a devil, not a man.)

I drank, I topped up my jerry cans, I washed my hair (bliss), and marvelled at who had first discovered and dug this well, thoughtfully edged with flat stones to prevent collapse from above.

An overcast sky confirmed that I would not be getting any star shots that night. Not that I would need any, now that I was positioned at Tag-Hagg. I didn’t bargain, however, for the howling sandstorm that was to follow. Politely holding off till I had finished my evening meal, the gritty gale later forced me to tie my ‘sleeping mat’ to the top of the trailer and perch on it for the rest of the night, trying not to laugh at the ludicrous situation—wackier, even, than the mud bogging before Timbuktu. Just to prove it hadn’t forgotten how, a sprinkling of enormous raindrops fell during the night and left the hitherto dusty Range Rover with a leopard-spotted bonnet in the morning where the huge blobs of water had spread and fixed the coating of dust.

My problems were not over, and in a day that got me no more than 50 kilometres northeast of Tag-Hagg following a number of boggings, sand-ladder recoveries, and an alarming, no-results circuit of what I termed a dune Coliseum (a gladiatorial between me and the terrain), I finally escaped, shaken but not stirred, as the saying goes.

Something had to be done, and I considered reducing the vehicle payload.

The creeping feeling of the trip, having now become more survival-oriented than merely a challenging expedition, was starting to take over. I kept hitting the edges of the combination’s performance envelope.

No one knew I was here; I had no rescue aids. Would I make it to the open hori-

‘Tagg Hagg’ well: a 4-inch high landmark in the wilderness. I lightened my load of empty cans when things got serious. The Tanezrouft at last— optimism at breakfast time.

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In case anyone else passes this way. The major, and unknown, logistics were north from Timbuktu.

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zons of the real Tanezrouft, renowned for its seemingly infinite flat, firm going?

I escaped past the western edge of the dunes just discernible on the Taoudenni map.

God bless those French B17 crews and cartographers. I ditched empty jerry cans [considered acceptable behaviour at the time], the grasses collecting gear and anything else I could do without to lighten the wagon and trailer and keep them working on the inadequate tyres the Range Rover wore.

The next day, in mental turmoil alternating worry, relief, and sheer bone-deep fatigue, I finally broke out onto the Tanezrouft. Weaving through, and once free of the parallel dune bands just beyond, I was on the Algerian national border, a long straight line on the map heading 305°-125°. In the absence of anything more formal to base it on, I joyously marked the frontier with appropriate names and a shovel-scratched line in the sand, safe, I reckoned, in the knowledge that only distance rather than seriously hostile terrain now lay ahead. Here, at 22° 35’N, 1° 07’W, I was roughly 225 kilometres due west

of Bidon V (Bidon Cinque/five drums) one of the old fuel stores, now derelict, established in the days of the French on the main north–south Tanezrouft truck route to which I was closing from the southwest.

I held an unvarying heading of 022° for 300 kilometres. The mirage triggered strange waving shapes that could have been a squadron of tanks but turned out to be desert shrubs 18 inches high. Then one, very far off to my right, was moving—a truck. On a track? Then some wrecked vehicle carcasses, a total of nine in the next 120 kilometres, all pointing south: each one someone’s Sahara project, plan and journey in ruins. And who knew the story behind each?

It was the Tanezrouft track to Reggan, now less than a hundred miles to the north.

To all intents and purposes, I was home.

For the first time in a long while, I used fourth gear.

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LIFE ON THE ROAD SCOTT BRADY

MOTO PROVEN Quintessential motorcycle kit and hacks for the remote rider.

NOTABLE HACKS

1. Store your passport and wallet in the first layers of clothing, all in waterproof LokSaks.

2. Mobile phones can be stored in the tank bag while on the bike, and in the first layer of clothing if not.

3. Keep a satellite tracker stored in the moto jacket, should the rider be separated from the bike.

4. An extra driver’s license and credit card should be stored in the tank bag.

5. Split cash between the rider and the tank bag.

6. Keep copies of all docs in the tank bag and rider’s jacket, along with digital copies in the cloud.

7. Hard cases are ideally removed easily with a key (like Touratech Zega Evo).

8. Avoid a hard-top case if traveling off-road; I prefer a waterproof duffel.

9. Avoid single-use items, or “just in case” products other than medical/emergency.

10. Work on your bike at home with your travel tools to determine what is needed.

11. Use packing cubes for everything, labeled or colored to save frustration.

12. Keep the cooking system extremely minimalist and enjoy local foods instead.

13. Use your layers and rider gear to augment a light sleeping bag.

14. No matter the camping intentions, always have a tarp—always.

15. Have all manuals as PDFs on your phone/tablet.

16. Avoid a backpack as it forces the rear jacket vents closed and fatigues the rider.

O

ne of the wonderful things about adventure motorcycle travel is the simplicity, eschewing the complexities and excesses of daily life. As a rider, we can only bring so much, and the more we travel, the more we tend to leave behind. The less we take, the better the bike corners, and that is kind of the point.

While preparing this comprehensive rider, bike, and equipment list, I pored through my notes, paring it down to essentials. It is most important to address the critical pieces, starting with riding gear (which also protects us from the environment), survival basics, tools, navigation, and communications. Although it is tempting to bring the kitchen sink stove, I really only cook food off the bike when I am in North America. Otherwise, local offerings are a much better choice and give us a chance to mingle with people and stretch our legs. If off the grid internationally for a few days, I am happy to eat meal bars or MREs. As a result, there are only a few small items I bring for food prep, which leaves room for camera gear.

113 The foundation of a memorable motorcycle trip is a quality motorcycle that facilitates access to the areas you want to explore. I prefer a deeper well of capability to allow for remote exploration, like with this Honda Africa Twin.

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LIFE ON THE ROAD SCOTT BRADY

THE ADVENTURE MOTORCYCLISTʼS CHECKLIST THE RIDER □ Touratech carbon helmet with SENA communicator □ American Optical Aviators sunglasses □ Aether Expedition Suite w/D3O moto jacket and pant □ Garmin inReach with GPS maps □ Leatherman multi-tool □ Tire gauge, lighter, EarPro, sunscreen □ White’s leather boots with D3O shin/knee guards □ Bison leather gloves, coated in beeswax □ Large Prometheus Design Werx scarf (can be used for EMS needs too) AETHER WATERPROOF WELDED DUFFLE □ Triple Aught Design Alchemy wool base layer □ Beyond Clothing Celeris mid-layer hoodie □ Aether Fall Line hard shell (can layer under moto gear) □ Triple Aught Design Intercept jeans, one pair □ Beyond Ventum pants, one pair (can be a mid-layer or for exercising) □ Two Triple Aught Design Traverse Tech T-shirts (only in black) □ Pearly’s and SealSkinz socks, three pairs (water/windproof) □ Underwear, three pairs, synthetic □ Triple Aught Highland wool collared shirt □ Prometheus Design Werx wool beanie □ Boyne Valley Knitwear wool newsboy cap □ Rolex GMT analog watch □ Dopp kit □ Personal first aid kit with medications □ Merrell barefoot trail runners □ Microsoft Surface Go □ International plug converter Note: To be placed on the back rack, lashed with RollerCam straps which can also be used to tow or lash down a bike.

ENDURISTAN TANK BAG □ Anker USB-C charging block □ Charging and data cables □ Sandisk 2TB SSDs, two □ Hasselblad X1D medium format camera

□ Hasselblad XCD 45mm f/3.5 lens □ Hasselblad XCD 90mm f/3.2 lens □ Headspin headlamp/light □ iPhone 11 Pro Max with mapping apps preloaded □ Paper maps, small compass PANNIER #1 □ Nemo Hornet 2p tent □ Sea to Summit Comfort Light pad □ Sea to Summit Spark sleeping bag (add liner for comfort) □ Sea to Summit inflatable pillow (can be used as a splint) □ Tarp/poncho (critical piece of kit) □ Tool kit (minimal) □ Basic wrenches (dual-sized ends) □ Vice grip □ Crescent wrench □ Multi-bit set with grip □ Plugs and hand pump (assuming tubeless) □ Hub wrenches □ Duct tape □ Wire and zip ties □ Electrical wire pair (for jumping) and fuses □ QuickSteel metal repair □ Antigravity lithium jumper pack PANNIER #2 □ Medical kit □ Israeli bandage □ Tourniquet □ Nitrile gloves □ EMT shears □ Quick Clot □ MSR dromedary bag for water storage, 6 liters (with shower hose) □ Grayl GeoPress water filter □ Ready to eat food, 72 hours worth □ Lighter

I separate the camping gear from other equipment, but it is also essential to keep the bike as balanced as possible. Modern camping equipment is both lightweight and extremely durable. This can come at a cost, since these products are often expensive.

My food preparation is as minimalist as possible, since I prefer to eat where the locals eat. There is nothing I can make in camp that will rival that Baja beach taco. However, water filtering and heating is an important capability that I always maintain.

OPTIONAL COOKING KIT □ Primus Lite+ stove □ Snow Peak Titanium bowl/cup/utensils □ Starbucks Via coffee

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DESTINATIONS GRAEME GREEN PHOTOGRAPHY BY GRAEME GREEN AND ANDREA MORENO

LAOS

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A

silver ball hit the ground with a thud. As it rolled and found its final resting position next to a little red target ball, there were groans and cheers from the players. The winners had been decided.

Pétanque’s a national pastime in Laos. Similar to French boules, it’s taken seriously on the backstreets of Luang Prabang, where losers often have to pay for a round of beers. After work most evenings, local men play against each other on dimly lit courts that feel like the Lao equivalent of a pool hall. Cigarettes are smoked, and beer is consumed, while teams throw silver balls down a gravel court, aiming as close as they can to the target, knocking their opponents’ balls out of the way.

Pétanque’s one of several French influences in Laos, the game introduced to the city during the French colonial period.

Laos was a French protectorate between 1893 and 1953. In the compact, walkable old quarter at the centre of Luang Prabang, which has been a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995, you find elegant architecture preserved from the colonial era alongside Buddhist temples, monasteries, and royal palaces. This combination of national and foreign influences is a big part of why the city is now one of the most popular in Asia with travellers, with diverse art, architecture, and food. Across the city, which sits at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers, there are Scandinavian bakeries, Italian pizzerias, and laidback cafés among Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Lao restaurants. Street food stalls sell fried fish, chicken skewers, and French baguettes.

Luang Prabang is the heart of Laos. There’s plenty more to see across the country, but Laos isn’t a destination you can cover in just a few days. Many of the highlights and areas to explore are spaced out, requiring long journeys on winding country roads. For example, the Plain of Jars—famous for ancient burial urns—is 285 kilometres and seven hours from Luang Prabang.

There is also challenging hiking to be found in Nam Et-Phou Louey National Park, and caves, waterfalls, and rivers to explore in central Vang Vieng, along with fishing, biking, and kayaking in the 4,000 Islands region. You could, at a push, do Luang Prabang and then fly to Vientiane, the country’s capital, to fit two cities into a trip. But ideally, you’d want at least one or two weeks to cover Laos’ most interesting places beyond Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang has changed significantly in the last decade, with new luxury hotels (a Rosewood and an Avani+ opened in the past year), more tourists, and a bigger, still-growing population. The UNESCO-protected centre has retained its laid-back feel, though. Early each morning, you’ll see lines of monks in saffron robes walking streets filled with colonial-era buildings, collecting alms (rice and other food donated by local people who receive blessings). Locals and tourists still get around the centre on foot, by bicycle, or tuk-tuk.

Your first stop is likely to be the Royal Palace, built in 1904, combining French and Lao architecture, and former home to King Sisavang Vong. It’s now a museum with glass cabinets filled with Buddha statues and gifts from foreign governments, from teapots to paintings. One of those gifts is a piece of moon

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rock donated by the US, taken during one of the Apollo missions. A garage next door showcases the Royal Palace’s Car Collection, including two Lincoln Continentals from the 1960s. Also within the palace’s grounds is Wat Ho Pha Bang, one of the city’s most important temples, which contains Phra Bang, the 83-centimeter-tall-gold Buddha statue that gave Luang Prabang its name. The statue, dating from between the first and ninth centuries, is a central icon in the country’s Theravada Buddhism, which is the main religion. However, many people in Laos are also animists, believing in spirits, especially in rural areas.

It’s said that you haven’t really been to Laos if you haven’t visited Wat Phou Si, the golden stupa of Wat Chom Si up on the summit of Mount Phou Si, with views over the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers. There are many other temples across the city, too; my favourites include Wat Xieng Thong, Wat Mai Suwannaphumaham, Wat Visoun, and Wat Mahathat.

You could use a map and tick off sites, but it’s more enjoyable to wander the streets, detouring as your instincts dictate to discover temples where novice monks play football or sweep the courtyards, and to visit bakeries, shops, and art galler-

Wat Ho Pha Bang is in the heart of Luang Prabang, a royal temple built to contain the sacred image of the Phra Bang Buddha. Opening page: A fishing boat floats lazily on the Mekong River beyond the city limits of Luang Prabang.

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TRAVEL TIPS VISAS Many travelers, Americans included, can get a 30-day tourist visa on arrival at Laos’ international airports or ports of entry. A tourist visa costs $35.

You should bring a passport photo and the name of the hotel or guesthouse you’re staying at.

WHEN TO GO Laos is warm-to-hot throughout the year. November to March is the most popular period to visit Luang Prabang, with blue skies and pleasant temperatures. But that’s also the busiest time of year. July to October is a good time to go, and you can find hotel deals. You might get afternoon rain showers, but days are still dry and sunny, and the temples, waterfalls, and other tourist spots are at their quietest. April is generally a month to avoid, when temperatures are at their highest.

ACCOMMODATION Options range from backpacker hostels to 5-star hotels. For a 3-star hotel room with pool access, expect to pay around $60 a night. Prices vary according to the time of year, topping out around the Christmas and New Year holidays.

MONEY Currency is the Lao kip. At the time of writing, $1= 8,900 Lao kip. A local draft beer in Luang Prabang costs around $1.20. Taxis will cost around $1.20 per kilometre, though they might try to charge more, as will tuk-tuks; barter and set a price before setting off for a destination.

On top of flights and accommodation, around $30 to $50 per person per day is a reasonable amount of money for meals, drinks, local transport, and entrance fees. You can find ATMs in Luang Prabang, but they’re harder to come by outside the city.

DRIVING Vehicles and motorbikes can be rented to explore Laos. It's also relatively cheap to arrange taxis or vans to various parts of the country, with tourist minibuses serving many areas such as the Plain of Jars, Vang Viang, or Nong Khiaw. Consider renting bicycles where appropriate, a convenient way to explore.

CULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS A traditional Buddhist country, Lao people prefer modest types of clothing.

At temples and other religious sites, shoulders and knees should be covered, especially for women. You might be barred from entering buildings if not dressed appropriately. Shoes should also be removed when entering temples or people’s homes. Monks are to be treated with respect—if you go to watch the collecting of alms in the mornings, don’t make a lot of noise, and avoid using a camera with a flash.

Clockwise from opposite top left: A rice farmer and his water buffalo, hard at work at Lee 7 Farm in Ban Thinsom. The Wat Xieng Thong temple has gorgeous ornatecolored-glass mosaics incorporated into the building’s facade. Men playing pétanque on backstreet courts in Luang Prabang. A ranger walks the forest of Nam Et-Phou Louey National Park around Forever Mountain. An elaborate golden doorway graces Luang Prabang’s Wat Xieng Thong temple. A chef prepares rice noodles at Lee 7 Farm.

FOOD An international mélange awaits you. You can get street food for around $3, with a meal in a travellerfriendly restaurant likely to cost approximately $8-15.

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ies. The Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre (TAEC) is worth seeking out; Laos has 49 ethnic groups, and the museum displays some of their traditional textiles and clothing.

One of the newest additions to the city is Pha Tad Ke Botanical Garden, which opened in November 2016. The gardens contain a cross-section of Laos’ plants—many used in medicine, spiritual ceremonies, and food. You reach the gardens via a 15-minute longtail boat ride up the Mekong River. There’s a peaceful twohour trail around the gardens, where you can walk paths through bamboo forests, gardens of ginger, ferns, There’s a peaceful and orchids, ending at a café by a lily two-hour trail around pond. Dishes here are served in the the gardens, where traditional Lao sharing style, including you can walk paths sticky rice and lap tofu with ferns, herbs, through bamboo forests, and lemongrass from the gardens. The gardens of ginger, ferns, longtails can also carry you downriver, and orchids, ending at where it is possible to jump onshore and a café by a lily pond. hike along the quiet riverbank to the ancient Royal temple of Wat Long Khoun, used previously by kings and queens for meditation.

In the evening, stroll around the night markets at the end of Sisavangvong Street, where stalls sell T-shirts and souvenirs.

Nearby street food stands offer everything from baguette sandwiches, pastries, and cakes to Asian fare, including noodle soups and skewers loaded with fish, chicken, and pork.

Lao cuisine has been overshadowed by internationally famous Thai and Vietnamese food, but there’s more to Lao food than most people expect. Not far from the Royal Palace, there’s Khaiphaen restaurant (its name means seaweed), where you can order some of the crispy, salty, black Mekong River weed with spicy tomato and Hmong mushroom sauces. Or a bowl of coconut laksa, a spicy noodle soup with Mekong River fish and banana blossoms. The restaurant’s philosophy is as impressive as the food; Khaiphaen opened in 2014 as a way to give job opportunities to those in need, sometimes to the homeless, but mostly young people from rural areas with no education. Volunteers at the restaurant get accommodation, meals, and training, usually going on to work at hotels or restaurants in the city. “This place helps people to get independent,” explained Anousin Phanthachit Coyoy, who started as a trainee and now teaches other students. “It’s the best place I’ve ever worked.”

Rice is at the heart of Lao cuisine. Just outside the city, you can find Lee 7 Farm in Ban Thinsom village on the road towards the popular Kuang Si (Xi) waterfalls. Seventy-five percent of Laotians are farmers, with rice being the country’s staple, usually eaten with jeow bong, a fiery chili paste. Lee 7 Farm is owned by Laut Lee and his large family, which includes 13 brothers and sisters. “We have many, many people in the family,” Laut laughed as he showed me around. “We eat 3 to 4 tonnes of rice every six months.”

Over the course of a morning, we learned about the process that turns rice into noodles, joining Laut, his brother Sia, and their water buffalo Pleng to plough muddy rice paddies and embed nursery-grown plants. Laut threshed the rice to remove the husks, then pounded grains with a wooden seesaw-like machine.

Traditional hand-powered stone wheels were used to grind the OVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

rice into a fine powder, with water added to produce a soft white paste, which was then squeezed through a tool to form noodles.

The thin noodles solidified and cooked quickly in boiling water.

Afterwards, we sat cross-legged on the ground to enjoy the rewards of our work: bowls of fresh noodles, flavoured with farm ingredients, including beetroot, spring onion, coriander, and morning glory. “Food’s part of the culture,” Laut explained, as we ate.

“Hmong people, like us, for example, eat particular types of food, often very simple. We can sometimes tell where people are from by what they eat.”

On our final afternoon back in the city, we took a cruise on the Mekong River in a colourfully converted transport boat, chugging upriver, leaving behind the shining golden stupa on top of Mount Phousi and the city limits. Reaching a peaceful, uncrowded stretch of water, the captain switched off the engine. We drifted silently with the current, as the sky turned gold and then pink over the mountains, reflecting in the water of the mighty Mekong River. No matter how much the city changes, there are moments like this that still feel timeless.

Novice monks, walking near the ancient royal temple of Wat Long Khoun on the banks of the Mekong River. I came across these tasty vegetarian dishes at Pha Tad Ke Botanical Garden, just outside Luang Prabang.

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Perspectives We hear from exuberant novices, seasoned pros in the thick of it, and a family who found melancholy at the end of the overland journey rainbow.

By Graham Naismith, Chris Simon, and Lisa Thomas Intro by Scott Brady

hen I consider my adventures while circumnavigating the globe, they have been formative to my character and views on life. As travelers, these journeys can soften our edges, increase our awareness of disparate cultures, and show us how little we really know about the world around us.

As Mark Twain famously said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice,” and I couldn’t agree more.

Ignorance and bigotry are often the foundation of those who have not truly experienced places and people different from themselves.

Travel is a gift and shapes who we are, but it can also create distance and discomfort with the relationships and routines back home.

After completing Expeditions 7, where I spent over three years of my life planning and leading a team of people overlanding in dozens of countries on seven continents, I was irremediably changed. The positive outcomes included all of the experience I gained in the disciplines of overlanding, the beautiful images and memories, and a newfound appreciation for minimalism and simplicity. Living in a Land Cruiser with only a few bags of essentials distills down what is most important, and has stuck with me in the years since. My eyes were opened to the plight of the underprivileged and the wholesale damage to the planet. After returning, I found my network of acquaintances dwindling as my tolerance for idle banter about TV shows and the latest fad diets waned.

However, the friendships I held most dear deepened, particularly with those that were well-traveled—because they understood. Since the trip, many of my relationships have been radically changed. But I have also experienced a clarity of perspective and purpose that only such a formative undertaking can create.

My advice for the realities of coming home would start well before someone ever leaves. It is important not to use phrases like “trip of a lifetime,” as it implies that travel in life is finite. The reality is that life, to me, is one large volume of adventure, and a big trip is just one of the juicy chapters. I have also found that breaking big trips up into manageable segments is easiest, with a few months on the road followed by a plane trip home (or anywhere) to reconnect and download, to work, and to ground oneself. For family members you are closest with, bring them along for bits of the excursion, so that they can experience their version of change too. This is particularly important for couples and families, as that time apart can radically change the relationship—so travel together if you can. Life is the experiences we have with the ones we love, and in the end, coming home is really about finding yourself.

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THE BEGINNING TAKING A LEAP OF FAITH ON AN UNPREDICTABLE JOURNEY.

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y wife, Phoebe, and I are Generation-X working parents on the cusp of a very exciting but nerve-rattling move: quitting our jobs, renting our house (maybe eventually selling it), and taking our family overlanding for a year. Or maybe two years—maybe longer.

Our reasons include the usual ones people have who go overlanding for an extended period. To break free from the monotony and disconnectedness of nine-to-five commuter bondage. To spend positive, enjoyable time with each other and the kids, and not just a few nagging evenings or weekend hours. To see and experience the world firsthand, instead of via the representations of others.

To reap these rewards, we have to sacrifice and take risks.

Phoebe will be quitting her job, and I will be taking a leave of absence from my university post. Phoebe may not be able to pick up her career where she left off; gender and age (she is almost 50) may prevent this. And universities routinely look to cut faculty positions like mine or replace their incumbents with younger, more productive guns. And once back on the academic job market, good luck landing a full-time faculty job.

It is quite possible, then, that a year bonding under the silky northern lights, hiking slot canyons out West, and carrying sloths to safety in Panama may cost us our jobs and our careers, and with them, our way of life for roughly 25 years.

All overlanders choose to make sacrifices, even the wealthiest.

They see friends and family less often. They give up jacuzzis, haute cuisine, and harmony of the gut. Those of us with fewer resources may need to opt for bigger sacrifices: giving up jobs and retirement contributions, selling homes, losing comprehensive health insurance. Seasoned travelers tend to be fatalistic and matter of fact about such losses. Some even view them as good and necessary in the passage to a leaner, simpler, spiritually richer life. As a result, they have little to say about the upfront moral crisis we newbies face. No overlander I’ve met has gripped me by the shoulder and said, “Are you crazy? Think about your family. You can’t do this.”

They have faith in something we beginners do not, namely, that the sacrifices are worth it and ultimately nothing to fret about.

They may be right. At the same time, I cannot help but worry.

What if our hiatus on the road adversely impacts our children’s futures, including a chance at a decent college education? Our financial reserves will last only so long. Maybe longer if we kickstart new, part-time, careers. Many do. But what? Host a YouTube channel? The last time Phoebe and I picked up a video camera, it was the size of a toaster. A drone, in our books, is an aunt who talks too much. What about teaching English, running ecotours in Costa Rica, harvesting grapes in Sonoma? Resourceful and tenacious, overlanders usually find a way to make ends meet. If we commit to the road for several years, we will have to find and tap that vein of resourcefulness.

But it won’t bring back the assets and opportunities that our sedentary lives are currently providing. It may pay for some of our diesel or homework supplies for the kids, but it’s not going to OVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

By Chris Simon

allow reentry into society through the same door, fund a college education, or cover my daughter’s wedding. These things will have to go into the bucket of disposables, that invisible sacrificial pyre that will grow larger and heavier as our plans move forward and become real.

What is helpful in this time of unease and doubt? For me, a check on my obsessive, single-minded personality is not a bad thing. I could use several well-caffeinated conversations with a friend—someone relatively neutral, but caring—on the costs and sacrifices of longer-term overlanding.

There are times we need to listen to and learn from others’ judgment and righteousness. Sometimes we don’t heed our moral compass until someone has bumped loose the needle. But will a little admonishment change our minds about our journey? Most likely not. It will, however, remind us of It’s important not to our responsibilities, of the enormity of the get upset when changes we are profoundly engineering for friends and family our children and ourselves. It’s important question or obliquely not to get upset when friends and family criticize our plans. question or obliquely criticize our plans.

We should welcome these critiques, unpack and repack them, and finally stow them with our jerry cans, yoga mats, and recovery gear to reflect on and revisit later.

If close friends and family grab us by the shoulder and caution restraint, as they should, we can allow the overlanding community to winch us forward with its strength of reasoning: adventure and challenge, connecting and educating ourselves and our kids, outward exploration and inner growth.

That’s not to say long-term overlanders provide only glossy commercials for their chosen lifestyle, far from it. The literature is full of hardship, licked wounds, and woe, and, as a result, compelling and essential guidance for the uninitiated. But these are not the accounts I turn to right now, that I need when the seeds of doubt and uncertainty sprout. Nor do I grab the nearest travel magazine and feast my eyes on spectacular coastlines, mysterious cenotes, and smoky volcanoes—all of which I will have the potential to see up close. Instead, to slash my fears, I turn to those posts in online groups where the fledgling excitedly crows, “We quit our jobs, sold the house, bought a van, and leave next week!” And the response typically goes, “Well done; I wish I could do the same.

Safe, happy travels.”

I love these kinds of posts. They make me realize that our family is to be envied for what we have already done—given notice, called the rental agency, prepared the kids mentally. With almost a year to go before we roll out, our journey is already underway. It’s been primarily a logistic and moral one, but just as tough as shoveling sand, fighting infections, and warding off frustration and fatigue from long hours on the road. In this short time, we have already grown closer as a family. Together we have struggled with our sense of responsibility and virtue. From all I’ve heard and read, it’s challenges like this that overlanders most seek and celebrate.

THE MIDDLE EMBRACING THE UNKNOWN—A WAY OF LIFE.

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ever in a million years did I think that my husband, Simon, and I were going to still be on the road after 16 years. When we left our home in 2003 for a short career break, we didn’t plan on not returning. However, today our continuing travels have become a way of life, one that suits my character and one I am truly content with.

Before setting out in 2003, I hated the drudge of everyday predictability that was my life. Fast-forward to today, and I love the contradictions that fill our days—the unpredictability and the rigors. It’s not all about riding off into beautiful sunsets and camping by glittering lakes, although, of course, that does happen.

Being in full travel mode for so long has allowed me to get to grips with and really enjoy the logistical elements of our journey. I am a control freak, and the intricacies in planning that parts of our journey demand are when I am in my element.

Luckily, Simon trusts my judgement completely, as I trust him with his responsibilities.

Looking back on our travels and how they have impacted our relationship, I can see that we’ve taken on certain roles, rather than had them forced upon us by the other. We slipped into them easily, by virtue of our strengths and weaknesses. This is why our partnership works so well and we have been able to travel together for so long. As our journey has grown, so have we.

There is a strange juxtaposition that’s developed in me over the course of 500,000 miles. Pre-departure, I remember the nail-biting stress of planning our trip and the ensuing panic that kept me up at night. Today, I feel calm and self-assured when presented with the wrangling of paperwork, unpronounceable documents, visas, and embassies. Far from being stressors, they’ve become a sort of personal meditation (bloody hell, I need therapy). Writing up our travel logs, scouring over the maps in the evening, sorting through the documentation for the next border crossing, and the endless research required have all become empowering facets of the journey.

Our plan is often not to have a plan, rather, a direction: a hopeful endpoint to head towards each day. But we’ve learnt not to be upset if that goal is not met. This is freedom, and being on the road has calmed me and given me a better focus on what is and isn’t important in life. I’m less fraught, less uptight, and way more able to control my somewhat fiery temper.

Traveling through so many different countries and experiencing so many different cultures and languages has given both Simon and me a very unique perspective on humanity and our part in it. Today, I’m more forgiving. What’s the expression?

“Don’t sweat the small stuff.” Seeing firsthand the often extreme and unkind way the inhabitants of the world treat each other has made me realize just how lucky we are. I now appreciate the world we live in. A world that, if I’m honest, I took for granted prior to our travels.

By Lisa Thomas

In the midst of a journey, your mindset has to shift, and if you’re lucky, you flip a mental switch so that problems become opportunities. As you pull away from the familiar and head into countries with unfamiliar cultures, communication becomes challenging, languages unfathomable, and even societal rules can be difficult to follow or comprehend. Immersing ourselves in other cultures has opened our minds.

There have been awkward and trying times, when, as a woman, I appear to have been regarded as a second-class citizen—one not to be spoken to directly, especially with a husband accompanying me. As an outspoken and direct person, this is a hard pill to swallow. However, swallow it I have. If you decide to travel through a country, you should also accept its religious and social rules. You may not understand them, but acceptance whilst in that country is a must. OthThere is a sense of erwise, don’t go. growth and reward in Learning acceptance rather than overcoming what you railing against that which I do not previously thought were immediately like or understand has insurmountable odds. made me more tolerant of others. Intolerance and impatience have always been issues of mine, and I like to think that our travels have—if not eradicated—lessened these rather unsavory character traits.

I love the wind in my face—the challenges, rewards, and sheer freedom that life on the road offers. This is why I keep going. The need to reach the next country is almost like a drug; to see the next stunning landscape and be in the world, exposed to its elements, is my ‘fix.’ It’s what makes the dirty, sweaty, grueling part of travel worthwhile. However, quite perversely, I enjoy that, too; okay, maybe not always at the time it’s happening, but more often upon reflection. There is a sense of growth and reward in overcoming what you previously thought were insurmountable odds.

Having conquered that mountain, seemingly impossible river crossing, sea of sand, and the associated highs that come alongside surmounting and overcoming these obstacles, is a huge part of why I keep going. I may complain and swear at the time, but it’s this continued sense of achievement that keeps me searching and striving for more.

I’m not sure if we will be able to be on the road for another 2, 8, or 16 years. But my love of riding, the open road, and the effect these things have had upon me, Simon, and jointly as a couple has been so impactive that I’m sure it will continue to shape our lives, even after we decide to call it a day.

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THE END COMING TO TERMS WITH THE FINISH LINE.

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ur family of five (my wife, and three daughters, aged 2, 5, and 7) arrived back at Heathrow early on a cold, bleak February morning, the end of a 30,000-mile, 10-month overland drive from the UK to and around Australia. It was a magnificent trip that had made us a tight, mutually reliant unit that fearlessly embraced every day as a challenge. Everyone said it would be a life-changing experience. Regrettably, it was.

Our father-in-law collected us, and as we drove to his home, listening to the news and looking out the window, we realised everything and nothing had changed. There was a 6:00 a.m. welcome home party, complete with a Scottish piper, further enhancing the surreality of the situation.

We were still riding the wave of elation as we rapidly sorted out some rented accommodation, and I began a bit of work for a lawyer friend who had a great idea for a mutual business. Pieces covering our journey in the national papers and radio interviews followed, temporarily placating the impending feeling of despair. And then it came, and it came in waves—gigantic, crushing waves.

The kids returned to school, and the intensity of modern life swallowed us up. Bills, paperwork, pick-ups, drop-offs—a life regulated by a busy calendar and commitments to friends and extended family dominated. The simplicity of travelling (route, food, and shelter) was replaced by the intensity of modern living. There was a shift from all of us being together, 100 percent involved in each of our daily lives, to the shadow we were left clinging onto.

We did what we could to help ease the transition, taking a few domestic trips in the summer in our now-returned Land Cruiser. But the work with the lawyer crashed, and I found myself sitting on the same packed and sweaty train where I’d first dreamed of the trip. Faintly familiar faces were submerged in their papers and phones as I headed into London for an interview for an office-based IT job. If I was lucky and the meeting went well, this would be the first day of a long sentence.

When our family was driving through the Stans, into the mountains of Southern China and across the Nullarbor Plain, we thought it was just the beginning, and we chattered excitedly about future trips. But, of course, it was actually the end. As the kids got older, we became more hesitant to pluck them out of school again.

The holidays that had previously satiated us were dismally ineffective now. Instead, we sought out alternative travel and grabbed a precious month where we could—a drive from the UK to Syria and Jordan at the start of the Arab Spring, a road trip up the west coast of America from Los Angeles to Canada, and chartered a yacht a couple of times round the Mediterranean. We had a week in North Korea and, this past summer, a road trip around Ecuador and Peru served as the latest sticking plaster. With friends, I’ve managed forays to Israel, Sierra Leone, Morocco, and remote regions in the States. As the children, OVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

By Graham Naismith

now 13, 16, and 18 start to look forward to life away from home, so do my wife, Eirene, and I as we look to scratch the itch that just won’t go away.

The time away from school didn’t affect our children’s education; our eldest, Hannah, is now studying English at the University of Edinburgh. Emily, the middle one, had outstanding GCSE results and is set on being a doctor. Abigail, too, is doing very well. They have a broader outlook on life that they otherwise would not have had and, as the years roll on, more of an appreciation of our past wanderings. The abnormal is normal for them; they only know the life they’ve had. But Eirene and I have struggled with the complexity of life after having what now seems to be a fleeting glimpse of a much better existence in every way.

Workwise, since my return, despite an initial period of being anchored to a desk, I’ve managed to maintain a lifestyle that didn’t compel me to commute on a I underprepared for the daily basis. I work from home a lot return. The journey is and miss very little of the children’s glorious, but it’s just lives. that—a journey. Prepare I have no regrets about the trip, yourself if your destination but I think I might have been hapis going to be the place pier if I hadn’t gone. I’ve never taken where you began. heroin or crack, but analogies could be drawn. Hannah was diagnosed with a tumour at the base of her brain last year. It proved benign, but the medicine to treat it brought on bouts of severe depression. On my wall, I have a collage of photos covering her life thus far, and it was a great source of comfort to turn to that for memories of better times during the darker ones. She’s much better now, thank God. Looking back on our journey, I definitely over-prepared. You don’t need a vehicle like we had or the equipment that we took.

With wheels, passport, credit card, inoculations, and a couple of visas, you can set off. Everything you need is available on the road. But moreover, I underprepared for the return. The journey is glorious, but it’s just that—a journey. Prepare yourself if your destination is going to be the place where you began.

I sometimes have a dream where I’m at an airport, and I see an expectant family shuffling through the arrivals gate— dad with the trolley, and mum holding a toddler with another two small pairs of hands pulling at her jumper. The dad settles the family down at some seats and, tickets in hand, nips off to check the nearby departures board. I take the opportunity and approach him as he looks up and narrows his eyes in faint recognition. “Stop, turn around, drive back,” I say. “And drive on— to Africa and America. You can budget. The kids will flourish.

Nothing is going to be better than this.” And then I walk off.

I turn and see him returning to his family, crouching down as he whispers conspiratorially to them all. Their mouths drop and quickly turn into wide smiles as they turn and leave.

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SKILLS

CHRIS CORDES

Wheels 101 Weeding through the marketing jargon jungle to help you understand modern wheels.

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ew things will make you appreciate the importance of choosing the right wheel like one cracking on you in the Australian Outback. There is something unsettling about being hundreds of miles from the nearest parts store, not knowing when the next wheel will fail. Yet most enthusiasts know very little about aftermarket wheels, and who can blame them? Between the number of choices out there and the marketing hype flooding the industry, things are a bit murky. Our goal is to clear the air by going over the basics of wheel manufacturing, the strengths and weaknesses of different materials and construction methods, and, most importantly, when you should choose certain types of wheels and when you shouldn’t. We’ll even recommend a few of our favorites along the way. So, grab a cup of coffee, sharpen your pencil, and take a seat, because we’re taking you to school on wheels.

Fifteen52’s cast aluminum wheel brings classic looks with modern performance to this FJ55 Land Cruiser.

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WHAT MAKES A WHEEL It’s safe to say that few inventions have had a bigger impact on the world than the wheel, but a lot has changed since the days they were made of stone and wood. Modern versions have components, and despite popular belief, only one of them can be considered a rim. Let’s begin with a quick look at the parts of a wheel and the proper terminology for addressing each.

BOLT PATTERN EXPLAINED IF A VEHICLE HAS AN 8X170 BOLT PATTERN, YOU KNOW THAT IT HAS EIGHT LUG HOLES, AND THEY FORM A CIRCLE WITH A DIAMETER OF 170 MILLIMETERS.

BARREL This is the outer section that forms the main structure for the other components and consists of a drop center, a bead on the exterior and interior edge, and a flange on the outside. The bead is the flat part where the bead of the tire sits, and the flange is the lip that holds the tire on the wheel. It’s worth noting that the outside edge of the flange is where the term “rim” comes from.

CENTER DISC Inside the barrel, you’ll find

the center disc, comprised of the spokes and center bore.

CENTER BORE This is the hole in the center

of the wheel where your hub meets or passes through the wheel.

BEAD

BARREL

FLANGE

LUG HOLES are the smaller holes surrounding the center bore through which the wheel studs pass. Lug holes on steel wheels are generally flat, while alloy wheels may be conical or tapered in shape.

SPOKES connect the center bore and hub-

mounting surface to the interior edge of the barrel.

VALVE STEM This is the mechanism that al-

lows air to flow through the wheel and into the tire.

UNDERSTANDING SIZING Now that you have a grasp of the components of a wheel, let’s move on to the terminology used to describe the sizing and characteristics of them.

BOLT PATTERN The bolt pattern of a wheel

indicates the number of lug holes and the diameter of the circle through which the lug holes are spaced. So, if a vehicle has an 8x170 bolt pattern, you know that it has eight lug holes, and they form a circle with a diameter of 170 millimeters. This can also be represented in inches: 5x5 representing five bolt holes in a circle with a diameter of 5 inches.

SIZE commonly consists of two main dimensions: diameter and width. If a wheel has a diameter of 17 inches, and a width from flange to flange of 8.5 inches, the size will be represented as 17x8.5.

BEADLOCK

SPOKE LUG HOLES

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WHEEL TERMINOLOGY CENTER DISC

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choice for heavy off-roading, it’s usually the least practical for daily driving or overland travel. Next, research what size wheels can fit on your vehicle. This includes checking the offset and backspacing to ensure the wheel won’t cause the tire to rub on the vehicle’s components.

Generally speaking, a smaller wheel with a bigger tire yields the best performance for off-road purposes. In comparison, a larger wheel can provide more lateral stability for towing or road performance. Finally, and this is key, match your vehicle’s fully loaded weight with the wheel’s load rating. Like tires, wheels carry a weight rating, and exceeding that limit may lead to a failure in the field.

This New Legend Scout sports steel wheels more for looks rather than just durability.

OFFSET is the distance from the true center of the barrel to the position of the mounting surface, i.e., where your wheel meets the hub. If you have a zero offset wheel, it means the mounting surface is in the exact center of the wheel. A negative offset means the mounting surface is closer to the inside of the wheel, while a positive one is closer to the outside.

BACKSPACING refers to the distance from

TIP YOU WANT TO AVOID GRAVITY CASTING AND INSTEAD LOOK FOR WHEELS PRODUCED THROUGH PRESSURE OR COUNTERPRESSURE CASTING, WHICH USE AIR OR VACUUM PRESSURE TO

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FORCE THE MOLTEN MATERIALS INTO THE PROPER SHAPE AND COMPRESS IT FOR ADDITIONAL STRENGTH.

the mounting surface to the outermost edge on the back of the wheel. The greater the backspacing, the more a wheel is generally tucked in toward the vehicle.

HUB CENTRIC AND LUG CENTRIC If your wheel is hub centric, the center bore hole in the middle aligns everything with the hub.

This is generally the favorable method and what OEMs use. However, many aftermarket wheels are lug centric to reduce cost.

Lug-centric wheels feature a large center bore to accommodate a variety of vehicles, and then use tapered lug nuts on the studs to center the wheel.

WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN BUYING Like any upgrade or change you make to your vehicle, it’s imperative to be honest with yourself about your needs first. While a race-ready beadlock wheel may be a good OVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

GAIN SOME TRACTION ON TIRE TECH The market is more diverse today than ever before, and with each passing year, the boundaries of what is possible are pushed forward. Consumers can now purchase wheels made from materials as exotic as carbon fiber, and the military is working on reconfigurable wheels that shift into tracks on the fly. But for this article, we’re going to stick to two broad categories of wheels: steel and alloy.

STEEL WHEELS Steelies are about as old school as it gets for automotive wheels. Generally speaking, they consist of two parts, the barrel and the center disc which can be stamped or pressed from individual pieces of steel and welded together. This has traditionally made them one of the cheapest and easiest types of wheels to produce, but they have other benefits as well. Their steel construction makes it possible to hammer them back into shape if bent. And the strength of steel construction allows them to have a thinner barrel than many cast wheels, permitting the fitment of a smaller diameter wheel over larger brakes.

Unsurprisingly, this high-strength, lowcost, field-repairable option has remained attractive for off-roaders and overlanders alike. But steelies aren’t without drawbacks, the biggest of those being weight.

Naturally, a block of steel pressed into any shape is going to be heavy, and that has a negative impact on the vehicle. Similar to

tires, an increase in wheel weight equates to a higher unsprung and rotational mass which increases braking distance and decreases acceleration. Fuel efficiency and total range can also be expected to suffer, but those are only the obvious factors. Since every action has an equal and opposite reaction, the increase in unsprung mass imparting force to the road will result in the road imparting an equal force back into the suspension. This makes handling less predictable and decreases the contact patch of the tire on the ground over imperfections in the road.

The other downside to steelies is a limitation in sizing. Due to the popularity of alloys these days, there aren’t as many steel options available, unless, of course, you check out Stockton Wheels.

It’s safe to say that when it comes to producing custom wheels, Stockton has more experience than any other manufacturer in the game. Their business was founded almost 140 years ago, back when wooden wheels were still in production, which means they’ve spent more than a century perfecting their craft. That’s probably why they’ve been repeatedly trusted to produce custom steelies for vehicles designed to go around the world, and even wheels for those designed to leave it entirely (on NASA’s space shuttle). Basically, if you need a quality steel wheel and they don’t already have it, there’s no doubt they can make it.

ALLOY WHEELS Alloy wheels are made by heating a mixture of aluminum or magnesium with other metals to a molten state and then pouring them into a pre-shaped mold. The specifics of how it is poured, pressurized, or pressed into a wheel, as well as the combination of metals used, will impact the strength and weight of the final product. In the past, alloy wheels were reserved for high-end performance cars. But thanks to improvements in production techniques that have lowered cost, most new vehicles have an alloy wheel option if they don’t come standard. More importantly, for off-roaders, these modern production techniques have also made alloy wheels stronger than ever before. In fact, many rival or exceed the durability of their

steel counterparts. The big choice for consumers isn’t steel or alloy, but rather what type of alloy wheel to buy: cast or forged.

CAST WHEELS

Most aftermarket wheels are now cast aluminum with similar heat treatments.

While that should make shopping simple, it has ironically made things more confusing than ever by forcing manufactures to turn to hype and buzzwords to differentiate themselves. There are, however, some production processes that do improve strength and decrease weight, as well as some that aren’t up to par—it’s critical to recognize which is which.

The simplest method to produce alloy wheels is through gravity casting, using the natural pressure of gravity to allow the metal to settle into the mold. This method is cheap, but often produces wheels with weak points and low load ratings that can lead to catastrophic failures. You want to avoid gravity casting and instead look for wheels produced through pressure or counterpressure casting, which use air or vacuum pressure to force the molten materials into the proper shape and compress it for additional strength. These wheels are then subjected to a heat treatment, further strengthening the metal. Countless manufacturers produce wheels this way, but one of our top choices is Fifteen52.

Fifteen52 was founded nearly 25 years ago with a mission to produce race-inspired wheels with the durability to survive daily driving. What they wound up creating was a brilliant blend of minimalist design language and practicality that earned the brand a following the world over.

Don’t let their good looks fool you, though, because the company focuses on engineering as much as aesthetics.

Look at their barrel design, for example. Many modern vehicles like the 200 Series Land Cruiser have been forced to run 18-inch wheels due to the size of their brakes, so Fifteen52 designed a massive inner bell housing on their 17s to clear the larger calipers. That means owners can run less wheel and more rubber between them and the road.

Another creative solution came in the form of their Analog HD, a wheel that offers the classic looks of a steelie in an alloy package. It reduces unsprung weight over its steel counterpart, features a reinforced flange design, and a center disc sculpted to channel air through slotted pockets to the brake system.

This lighter alternative is especially helpful for folks with classic four-wheel drives that are already low on power. Ask co-owner Matt Crooke what their best feature is, though, and he won’t mention any of those things. “We’re proud of the wheels we produce, but what sets us apart is our #52family of customers."

Their wheels are popular because of the bal-

Aluminum alloy casting enables manufacturers to produce more complex and attractive designs than steel previously allowed.

Bottom: Fifteen52’s rock ring protects the valve stem while still draining mud and water when rotating.

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For the ultimate combination of strength and performance, forged wheels like this set from Method are the way to go.

ance between weight and strength, and for their "steelie" look, exalted by vintage vehicle owners and consumers that prefer a minimalist appearance.

FORGED WHEEL

FOR THE OVERLANDER: THE BENEFIT OF BEADLOCK WHEELS THESE MULTI-PART WHEELS ALLOW DRIVERS TO RUN EXTREMELY LOW AIR PRESSURES WITHOUT WORRYING ABOUT ROLLING THE BEAD OFF THE WHEEL, MAKING THEM IDEAL FOR EXTREME CONDITIONS.

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While cast wheels are a perfect fit for the majority of buyers out there, people looking to drive at high speeds or compete in race events may want something stronger and lighter, and that’s when forged wheels enter the scene. Unlike cast wheels that are made from molten metal poured into a mold, a forged wheel is made from a single billet of metal; it is superheated and then crushed under immense pressure to forge it into the desired shape. During this process, the material becomes extremely dense, which allows it to be thinner and lighter without compromising strength.

There are additional processes like rotary forging that can improve this method further, but we will let you dive into those options yourself online. Unfortunately, forged wheels often come at a high cost when compared to their cast counterparts.

For a select few, the cost may be worth it, especially if that wheel comes from one of the top names in the industry, Method Race Wheels.

Method was founded just 11 years ago but has quickly catapulted into fame through off-road racing. Their motto, “Lighter Stronger Faster” tells you everything you need to know—they’re all about performance. Over the years, they’ve proved their mettle through relentless testing in all kinds of conditions, including during the Baja 1000 and King of the Hammers races. Just this year, drivers running Method wheels swept the podium at King of the Hammers, taking the top three spots. That’s a big statement to their quality, but not as big as the industry-leading lifetime warranty that every Method wheel carries.

When a manufacturer stands behind their product, we’re inclined to stand behind them.

BEADLOCK WHEELS For those looking for the ultimate off-road-biased wheel, bead-

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locks are the way to go. These multi-part wheels allow drivers to run extremely low air pressures without worrying about rolling the bead off the wheel, making them ideal for extreme conditions. In relation to overlanding, though, beadlocks are often unnecessary for most forms of backcountry travel, adding extra weight and complexity where it may not be worthwhile. Often used for specialized vehicles or specific environments, they do improve performance where maximum flotation or deformation is required. Beadlocks can also improve field serviceability by allowing the inside of the tire to be more easily accessed for patching and stitching. Recent innovations are making beadlock wheels more practical than ever before, and there’s no better example of that than the dual-sport line of wheels from American Expedition Vehicles.

AEV’s dual-sport wheels can be equipped with or without a beadlock ring, offering owners greater flexibility than ever before.

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AEV’s dual-sport wheels are notable because they give drivers the option to run them as a plain lightweight alloy or as a real beadlock by adding an additional ring when low air pressure is needed. You are no longer stuck with the inconvenience and weight of a beadlock for daily driving, but rather only when you want to run a particularly difficult trail. Installing the wheels with the beadlock ring is estimated at three to four hours for a set of four wheels, so it’s not something you’re going to want to swap on the trail or do every weekend. But it’s a lot cheaper than owning two sets of wheels and tires, and easier than dealing with beadlocks on a daily basis. If you’re not sure you want to spend the money on the beadlocks quite yet but still want the look, AEV offers a protection ring that shields your wheels from curb rash in the city. Like Method, AEV provides a lifetime structural warranty to its buyers.

BEAD GRIP WHEEL Although the beadlock wheel is undoubtedly more effective, Method Race Wheels recently unveiled their Bead Grip technology, offering part of the benefit of beadlocks without all of the drawbacks. According to statistics gathered in a Tubeless Tire Bead Unseat Resistance Test by the US Department of Transportation and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, this Bead Grip enabled Method’s wheels to withstand up to 40 percent more force at 10 psi than a standard wheel before losing pressure.

On the inside edge of the wheel, Method uses an aggressive safety hump derived from their proven race wheels. As you move farther out on the barrel, angled steps engage the bead of the tire and keep it under pressure against the reinforced flange. The result is the ability to run lower air pressures with significantly less risk of rolling the bead. This feature is available on their Trail Series wheels like the 701, 702, and 704 which are cast from A356 aluminum with T6 heat treatment construction.

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CONCLUSIONS Cutting through the marketing hype and mass of internet noise to determine a OVERLAND JOURNAL SUMMER 2020

RAISE THE RIDGES Manufacturers have been adding knurled edges on their wheels for years. The goal is to increase resistance on the rubber, like a skateboard’s grip tape on a shoe, but Method took things a step further with their Bead Grip. Unlike other knurled edges, Method used raised directional ridges that dig into the rubber when air pressure is added, naturally resisting the bead’s ability to shift. This is further secured by an aggressive inner safety hump, which acts as a backstop to the existing pressure of the Bead Grip.

superior wheel can be tough. While a cast wheel is probably the best option for the wide majority of people, your love of steel or forged wheels might make them the right choice for you instead. The type of wheel you end up with doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that you have the knowledge and tools to make an educated choice, and we hope the information presented here will put you on the right track to do just that.

Right top: An up-close look at Method’s Bead Grip. Right bottom: This is a cutaway image of the Bead Grip engaging the bead of the tire. Left: Method’s cast aluminum wheels come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors.

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OVERLAND CHEF JENNIE KOPF

Basil Butter Chicken A quick and simple crowd-pleaser that is sure to become a regular in your recipe repertoire.

SERVES 6

PREP TIME 30 minutes

COOK TIME 20 minutes

EQUIPMENT Campfire grate or charcoal/gas grill,

tongs, meat thermometer, spoon

B

asil Butter Chicken is one of my family’s favorites. We came across this Paula Deen recipe years ago, changing a few things to make it our own, and it always delivers. I’m a caterer, and given that I cook for a living, when overland trail riding and camping, I don’t want to be a slave in the “kitchen.”

I want to be out playing with everyone else. Using techniques from my catering business, I apply the same time-saving tips and do what I can ahead of time. In most cases, the majority of work can be done at home before you leave for the backcountry.

That way, after a long day of riding, everyone can chip in and produce a gourmet meal without much effort.

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts 1/2 cup butter, room temperature 1/2 cup fresh basil, cut chiffonade 1/2 cup parmesan cheese 2 tablespoons fresh garlic, finely diced 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon pepper BEFORE YOU LEAVE

Pound the chicken breasts down to the same thickness to ensure that they will cook evenly. If they are large breasts, cut them in half. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap, placing them in a square four-sided-closure plastic container with a snap lid.

Mark the contents on the lid with a dry-erase marker and indicate which planned meal they are for. Store cold until ready to cook. Chicken only lasts a couple of days, so make this meal one of the first served on your excursion.

In a bowl, combine the butter, basil, cheese, garlic, salt, pepper, and mix until combined. Place in another square four-sided-closure plastic container to ensure easy stacking, again marking the contents and dish on the lid. Store cold until 1 hour before cooking.

AT CAMP

Get your fire going, and put the grate over it. Our grate has collapsible legs and sits perfectly over the campfire. Once hot, place the chicken on the grate and cook until halfway done on the first side, then flip to finish off the other side. The center of the meat should register 165° when fully cooked. Remove from the grill, adding a tablespoon of basil butter on top of each chicken breast. Plate and serve with a Caesar salad or a side of your choice.

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Our guide introduced himself as Tor. He was Swedish. It didn’t occur to me to question what a Scandinavian was doing guiding wildlife safaris in the Kalahari. Tor was a lot like his Land Rover: old-fashioned, temperamental, and minimalist.

His lanky frame moved with the easy grace of one unburdened by the complications of modern life. Like his Landy, Tor was a basic model from an analog era. Most of the time, he strode barefoot through the bush (snakes, thorns, and all), clad only in a miniature pair of shorts that would have made Magnum, P.I. look like a Los Angeles Laker. His sinewy muscles were taut under a roughened layer of deeply tanned skin. The sustained intensity of the African sun lingered on his body, his clothing, and his paint job.

Tor was alternately gruff and taciturn. After a few days of bouncing through the dust on squeaky leaf springs with him, I wondered what made Tor tick. I think he was a misanthrope.

He didn’t seem to like people, and he had little patience for a young American ignorant in the ways of the bush. My theory was that he had grown frustrated with structured first-world European society and had sought a life of solitude in one of the emptiest, most beautiful places on the planet. Out here in the desert, he had found a home in the company of his Land Rover and the elephants, perhaps finding the closest thing he might call to happiness.

I, too, found the company of elephants. One night, a lone bull walked through our campsite. In itself, this was not unusual. This particular elephant, however, took an interest in a tree on the edge of our camp and decided to stay. He huffed, snorted, and shuffled around in a delicate waltz that looked impossibly graceful for an 11,000-pound creature, and he made a meal of the tree—which happened to be right next to my tent. Not only was I once again in imminent danger of being crushed by an enormous wild animal, but I also slept through the entire visit. My parents were gravely concerned in the morning. Were it not for the worried looks, broken branches, and the disturbed ground, I wouldn’t have believed their story. All they could do was watch from a safe distance and hope the elephant wouldn’t pirouette over my tent.

The journey took us deeper into the Kalahari. Days would pass without us seeing another person. The few vehicles we came across always stopped for the drivers to exchange information about route conditions and wildlife sightings. More than once, we drew incredulous stares and comments along the lines of “You’re brave to be out here in that thing. What year is it—1969?” Tor retorted, “1971.” Off we went along the sandy track.

One afternoon in the penetrating heat and hypnotic drone of insects, we took a foray on foot to track some buffalo. They were huge as well. This time I was awake, and they didn’t try to stampede over my tent, so I considered the encounter a success. Back at the Land Rover, the engine wouldn’t start.

Tor fiddled around a bit, turning the key a few times, operating primitive controls protruding from the stamped metal dash whose functions I did not understand.

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Upon further investigation, Tor announced that we had run out of petrol. Unfazed, he explained that the vehicle had a second tank for exactly this situation. Tor fiddled around again, flipped more switches, and a cloud of consternation descended over his brow like the first storm of the rainy season sweeping across the veldt. As best he could tell, the fuel pump in the auxiliary tank wasn’t working. Now what? We waited, presuming that someone would come along—eventually.

By this point in the trip, our food supplies had dwindled. Rummaging around in the metal pantry box, the most readily edible nourishment we could find was a tin of Vienna sausages. My dad opened the can and drew out a long, slender, Pepto-Bismol-pink sort of hot dog. Impaling it with a knife, he reluctantly took a bite and passed it around. “Baboon pricks” was how he described them before we had finished chewing. Finally, another vehicle did pass by, and Tor was able to siphon fuel from the second tank to the first. The Landy sputtered to life, and we made for Maun, the main outpost between the central Kalahari and the Chobe. I was done with Tor but had fallen in love with his rickety Land Rover and the places it took us.

A month earlier, I had no idea what lay ahead. My parents told me about their plans and laid out the options. “We’re going to take a trip into the desert in Botswana,” they said. “If you want to come, you can. Before you make up your mind, you must understand that it will be hot, uncomfortable, dusty, bumpy, and difficult. You won’t like the food. But it will be an experience that you always remember. If you don’t want to go, that’s fine. You can stay in Harare with your grandparents, and they will spoil you rotten. What do you say?”

I answered without hesitation. The choice was always going to be the desert. Not only would my third-grade classmates be livid with envy, but ultimately my parents were right—yet only in part. It was a memorable journey to be sure, but none of us could have anticipated down what path that creaky Series IIA would point me. From that first taste of the wilderness, a lifelong obsession sprang. Thirty-six years later, I’m still driving across the bush in a Land Rover. As for the tent, I hope I have that part figured out now.

• HOSTED BY SCOTT BRADY AND MATT SCOTT. • COVER TOPICS LIKE PAYLOAD, TRAVELING IN AUSTRALIA, AND THE BEST USED VEHICLES.

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• INTERVIEWS WITH INDUSTRY STALWARTS LIKE CLAY CROFT AND DAN GREC.

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Illustration by Michele Dallorso

TAIL LAMP NICHOLAS BRATTON

Maiden Voyage A Scandinavian in hot pants and a hippo brigade inaugurate a young man into a lifelong pursuit of adventure.

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woke up to find my tent in my face. Why had my shelter collapsed, leaving me wrapped up in a lasagna of damp nylon? I lay motionless, listening for any clues that might suggest the cause of my predicament. It was early and quiet, but not too still for the competing solos of birdsong. The clear notes faded into the bush, giving a sense of space, vastness, and emptiness. There was nothing for the sound to reverberate off of, just the enormity of the sky above.

I wriggled out of the tent after finding my clothes and locating the zipper to the door. Standing next to the crumpled pile of green fabric, slowly waking up, I surveyed the situation. The guylines had been ripped from the ground. Some tent stakes were still in the dirt; others had broken free with their cords. This was a deliberate act.

Walking around the crime scene, it suddenly dawned on me, just as the sun glinted through the acacia and mopane trees. All around my tent were dinner-plate-sized depressions in the ground, many overlapping. They extended a few meters on either side, a broad swath of footprints leading to the bank of the Chobe River. I had pitched my tent in the center lane of the hippo highway leading to the water. During the night, a herd had taken their usual route and finding a new obstruction in their path, simply trampled over it. Somehow I had slept through the whole episode.

We all have to start somewhere. For everyone, there is a pioneering trip, the introductory taste of gravel travel that reveals a new world of wheeled exploration and leaves us want-

ing more. For many of us, it’s a weekend camping outing or even a road trip with civilized accommodation. I was lucky and took my plunge headfirst into the deep end: two weeks in Botswana. Only I had zero preparation. I had gone camping a few times previously, but my command of bushcraft and grasp of wilderness travel skills were essentially nil.

I was living in Zimbabwe at the time, and my parents wanted to see the Kalahari Desert and the immense, pristine game parks of Botswana. Not being experts either, they booked a trip with what, looking back, might have been called a pirate guide service. Permits? Indemnification forms? Proof of vaccinations? Who needs them? This was just the start of the adventure.

My first clue should have been the vehicle for the trip, but being the rookie, I didn’t know any better. Now, I know. It was a Land Rover Series IIA long wheelbase, its faded limestone paint blending into the pale Our guide introduced sand. It was pretty close to stock: himself as Tor. He was no slide-out fridge, no awning, no Swedish. It didn’t occur slick drawer systems, no dual batto me to question what tery setup, no solar array, or multia Scandinavian was outlet USB chargers. In fact, it had doing guiding wildlife none of the accessories and accousafaris in the Kalahari. trements whose accumulation has seemingly come to represent the purpose of overlanding. The only modifications were a flimsy roof rack and an auxiliary fuel tank.

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authentic