Overland Journal Summer 2015

Road Trip I’m sending you some photos of our trusty Nissan Patrol K260 SWB for your “Where has your Overland Journal been” segment. It is a 1992 with a 2.8-liter turbo-diesel 6-cylinder engine, and we have equipped it ourselves to travel overland through Africa. We have done four separate trips that covered a total of 191,000 kilometers during 616 days on the road. The attached photos are from our recent travels through Southern Africa. Rene and Andrea Bauer 1992 Nissan Patrol K260 Overland Obsession Over the last five years my husband Doug has managed to bring our family along on his newest obsession…overlanding. We have spent these years traveling the United States and Canada by way of the “scenic route” in our truck Lumpy. In 2014 our family traveled 15,000 miles, which included part…

Barry and Cathy Beck Barry and Cathy Beck are often referred to as the “first couple of fly fishing.” As professional photographers and writers, and guides for Frontiers International, they have spent the past 25 years exploring and fishing everywhere from New Zealand and the Seychelles to Russia and Christmas Island. Their work can regularly be found in Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, AFAR, and American Angler, and they have authored a number of books, including Fly Waters Near & Far and the Outdoor Photographer’s Handbook. They are regular celebrity instructors and lecturers at international outdoor shows and are inductees to the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum’s Hall of Fame and Pennsylvania Fly Fishing Museum. Lois Pryce Lois Pryce is a British travel author, journalist, broadcaster, and co-founder of the Adventure Travel…

A few months ago we teamed up with Hema Maps and put a plan in motion to identify and document classic overland trails across North America. If you’ve been reading my yarns for long, you probably know that Baja, Mexico, holds a soft spot in my heart. I’ve been traversing its backroads and camping on its sandy beaches since I was a kid. A number of years ago I wrote a series of stories in 4Wheel Drive & Sport Utility magazine on Mexico’s frontier state. In one article I described a wonderfully tranquil campsite on a hidden playa at the end of a lonely dirt road. It was a place I had “discovered” some years earlier and I’d yet to find anyone there when I arrived each year—I considered it mine…

I’ve long been a fan of LED lighting for low-output applications such as running lights and dash illumination, but early examples of driving lights were laughable at best; dangerously lacking would be a more accurate statement. However, when I heard Lightforce was going to put their name on a set my curiosity spiked. The LED 180’s clean, subdued looks and sturdy 7-inch aluminum chassis immediately impressed me. Like most of Lightforce’s products, the LED 180 is ruggedized against dust and water (IP68 rated), as well as impact and vibration. Its seven 10-watt Cree diodes have a combined output of 5,180 raw lumens and a service life of 50,000-plus hours. The pedestal-style brackets mount vertically or horizontally and support a wide range of mounting angles. Additional holes on either side of the…

Carbon monoxide (CO) is an odorless, tasteless, invisible, and poisonous gas formed during the combustion of carbon-based materials such as petroleum products, wood, or charcoal. Small exposures mimic the flu, but large exposures cause seizure, brain damage, dangerous heart rhythms, and even death (especially in the elderly and unborn). Anyone who sleeps in his or her vehicle or runs a tent heater is at risk for carbon monoxide poisoning. Understanding these risks, KWJ Engineering developed a keychain-sized solution, the Pocket CO carbon monoxide detector. This handy little unit, which fits in the palm of your hand, alerts users to the presence of CO and can be programmed to sound the alarm based on gas concentration or cumulative dose. I’ve carried mine for two years now, both on overland trips and…

Based in Vierkirchen, Germany, just north of the Bavarian Alps, Hanwag takes pride in crafting the finest handmade mountaineering and hunting boots for the wanderlust cognoscenti. The agile Mountain Light GTX is constructed with an innovative combination of nylon-backed ballistic Cordura, high-grade European leather, a full-length nylon shank, Vibram Fuora sole, and Gore-Tex liner. The result is an extremely stout yet lightweight field boot. It features their low-profile Ghilly lacing for the mid-foot and toe (loops of webbing reinforced with, and overlain by, sewn leather rather than steel eyelets) and a rugged rubber rand that encompasses the entire boot to mitigate abrasions. A Swiss colleague introduced me to Hanwag several years ago and I’ve since worn these boots in desert, alpine, and tropical environments. I consider them to be a three-season,…