Overland Journal Fall 2008

Perfect Application On a family vacation to Albuquerque last December, I happened across your publication at the Land Rover dealership and instantly fell in love with it. I ranted about it so much that my wife ordered a surprise subscription, along with all the back issues, for my birthday in January. After receiving several issues, I must admit that I am still as enthralled with your publication now as I was after reading the first issue. This journal fits my application of 4WD to a tee—something the other major 4WD magazines don,t even touch. I appreciate your attention to 4WD travel, not to the ridiculous application of high-horsepower, over-built mud boggers and rock climbers. I first experienced the joys of overland travel on a month-long trip to Kenya in 1993. We traveled…

Fractal (frak’-tl): an extremely irregular curve or shape, for which any suitably chosen part is similar in shape to a given larger or smaller part when magnified or reduced to the same size. Fractals are useful for modeling structures in which similar patterns recur at progressively smaller scales, such as snowflakes, and for describing partly chaotic phenomena such as galaxy formation. How can one adequately praise the elegance of a word—a humble scientific term—that can be applied to both a snowflake and a galaxy? I certainly can’t—but I have adopted it to a use I hope will at least pay it homage. There are those who say the great age of exploration is over, that even real adventure travel is dead. The continents have been mapped, they say, the oceans crossed, the…

Overland Journal is now a year and a half old, and thanks to the dedication of our staff, readers, and advertisers, has grown by 32 pages since the premier issue. This has allowed us to significantly expand the number of adventure stories and new departments. I am especially happy with two new departments: the publisher’s column you are now reading, and the Overland Chef column on page 118. More cool gear and food; it cannot get much better than that. Having my own column will allow me to write about whatever vehicle or interesting piece of equipment I am currently using or modifying, much like the editor’s project. Even though Jonathan and I have disturbingly similar tastes in everything from vehicles to shotguns, we do vary in more than a few…

Chris Scott Over the last 25 years Chris has undertaken nearly 30 expeditions through the Sahara by motorcycle, 4WD, saloon car, or bush taxi. This has given him an unparalleled knowledge of the practicalities of desert travel across the entire Sahara, both as a tourist, a driver/rider, and as a tour leader. In 2000 and 2001 he led the first U.K. escorted tours to return to Algeria and Libya, in 2006 he led an exclusive tour to view the total solar eclipse in Niger, and he continues to offer tours to little-known parts of the Sahara. Tom Collins Tom is a consultant for Land Rover and a professional off-highway driver and trainer, with experience driving and navigating on the world’s most challenging tracks. Tom was the team director for the U.S. Camel Trophy…

Image problems This summer has been a tough one for the public image of diesels in the U.S., as they fought a popularity battle with Hybrids and EVs (electric vehicles). The term “green cars” has been rolling off the collective tongue of the press at every turn of the page, the Olympics were a showcase for hybrid technologies, and EVs are gaining massive celebrity support, but the diesel option has been mostly ignored. Much of this can be attributed to the record high pump prices, but there is also an underlying deterioration of the perceved environmental benefits associated with biofuels, and the diesels that can run them. At the beginning of the summer, the popular image of biodiesel took a hit when the U.N. and the Grocery Manufacturers Association publicly blamed biofuels…

A few of the best new products we found at the Outdoor Retailer show Surefire SAINT$185 Resistance might be futile. For years I’ve shunned headlamps because, a) they’re dorky, and, b) headlamp wearers always shine them in your eyes when they talk to you, then say, “Oh, sorry!” after destroying your night vision. But the Surefire SAINT might change my mind. Why? First, its black anodized aluminum housing is minimally dorky—perhaps even vaguely SWAT-esque—as well as shockproof and waterproof. The head-strap is by far the most comfortable I’ve tried. The lens produces an even, dead-spot-free beam in the same wide pattern as your field of vision, and it’s adjustable with a twist from 1 to a conversation-partner-dazzling 100 lumens. Plus, it can run on one, two, or three 123a lithium batteries or…