Overland Journal Spring 2010

Friendly Competition In a good-natured attempt to out-do my U.S. Army brethren pictured in the Fall 2009 “Where in the world has your Overland Journal been?” you will find my attached photos. The Fall 2009 issue I’m carrying has seen a good part of the world in the past few months (Europe, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and some other “Stans”). This issue is on loan from a good friend, as I am a soon-to-be subscriber and have yet to receive my own first copy. My “vehicle” of choice is a 1980 Fairchild Republic A-10C Warthog. Powered by two GE ALF-602 turbofans, it offers an excellent platform with which to explore rough terrain, deliver high explosives and, most importantly, provide assistance to Army MRAPs and M1A1s, USMC HumVees, and Brit Land Rovers in…

Mike Herbert Mike Herbert was born in England in 1956, but for the past 30 years has lived in Norway. Since 1995 he has been to Iceland numerous times with his modified arctic trucks, where he has gained much experience in driving on glaciers and in the harsh terrain of Iceland. Mikes loves the outdoors, especially if the journey is to anywhere there is snow and ice—thus his natural attraction to an expedition to Antarctica. When not dodging crevasses, he enjoys skiing, walking, dog sledging, and photography. Lois Pryce Weary of the daily grind in jargon-infested London media-land, Lois Pryce jacked in her job at the BBC to ride from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego astride her Yamaha XT225. Upon her return she wrote the book of this trip, Lois on the Loose,…

Sometimes it’s difficult to tell if my wife is pulling my leg without doing a Google search. The other day while she was in town, I got a call from her in which she described driving up next to a truck swathed in a marketing wrap advertising a product called TotTurf—apparently some sort of padded synthetic playground covering designed to make sure children playing in the dirt don’t have to play in . . . dirt. I said. “Oh, no. Nope. Not buying it. Nice try, though. How’d you think up the name?” She said, “Google it.” So I did. Sigh . . . Ten minutes and several disbelieving Tourette-like outbursts later, I had the whole scoop. TotTurf is a real product, designed to “provide the safest playground environment possible.” According to the company, this…

Overlanders instinctively recognize a hierarchy of style among modes of travel, graded naturally by the commitment needed to accomplish an equivalent route. Do Cairo to Cape Town in a Unicat with a full bathroom, kitchen, and flat-screen satellite TV and, while you’re certainly traveling in style, the overlanding style quotient is pretty low, if you get the difference. Do the same route in a Land Rover 110 or 70-Series Land Cruiser, and your style quotient jumps a good bit. Do it on a BMW GS and it jumps a bunch, and if you accomplish the same trip on something like a DR350, you’ll collect enough style points to earn raised eyebrows and raised glasses at any gathering of travelers. Obscure or fringe vehicles—Lada Nivas, Peugeot 504s, 60s VW Combis, old…

1 It all started with... The triple-tank-slapper approaching a sharp turn in a dirt road, while riding my little Suzuki DR200 during our soft-luggage test (Fall 2009). Cause: inappropriate tires for the conditions, and a rear drum brake that’s easy to lock up. The smooth tires slid effortlessly across the dirt, and the rider behind me thought for sure I would slide off the road and down the hill. 2 Fast-forward six months (and better tires)... To a junkyard in Cataviña, Baja California Norte, where I was having a broken luggage rack welded back together. Cause : overloading a small bike with too much weight, and bombing down miles of washboard roads trying to keep up with a Honda NS650. It was impressive to see a hand-cranked diesel-generator-powered welder in action. 3 Very soon thereafter... I discovered…

“[During OX09] one could feel the ‘buzz’ of something special that was on the verge of exploding and I think the growth over last year confirms it. We had a great time. The satisfied and excited attitudes of my students re-affirmed it.” - Tim Huber, Phoenix, AZ Driving south from Tucson, Arizona towardAmadoTerritoryRanch, the road signs on I-19 change from miles to kilometers, and many place names betray Latin origins. It was the perfect location for the 2010 Overland Expo, within 30 minutes of the Mexican border. Many of us felt drawn to continue south—and many attendees did after the show. The venue was a significant change from 2009, and had the feeling of a remote village, with bistros and a fantastic steakhouse. The property was surrounded by verdant Sonoran Desert…