Innehållsförteckning för Spring 2007 från Overland Journal

68° 18’N, 133o 29’W is a fitting place to write this column, the land of the midnight sun, which at this time of year sees more darkness than light. Dressed as I am, in the comfort of a cabin 120 miles north of the Arctic Circle, I would last but moments in the -22°F that is just beyond the window pane and my view of cloudless skyline. I arrived at this place after driving 4,000 miles in a specially prepared Toyota Tacoma, overland through the length of two of the world’s largest countries. It is our passion for exploration, the desire to discover the world beyond our own zip code, that drives us to load a 4WD or dual-sport motorcycle with gear and venture off to distant places. This same…

Dr. Ed Beggy Dr. Ed Beggy is a family physician from Tucson, Arizona. In 1995, Ed was able to realize a childhood dream by traveling to East Africa as a missionary doctor, treating people in the sprawling slums in and around Nairobi, Kenya. On his return, he was instrumental in the founding and development of a nonprofit humanitarian aid organization, Shoulder to Shoulder International. He subsequently organized and led seven mission teams to the rural areas of western Kenya to treat children, and develop orphanages for AIDS orphans. Ed enjoys exploring the back roads of the Southwest in his expedition-prepared 1982 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 and Adventure Trailer. Roseann Hanson For more than two decades, Roseann Hanson has worked throughout the American West, northern Mexico, and East Africa as a…

DIESEL TOYZ Want a 3.0L common rail diesel engine in your FJCruiser? Todd Herman started Diesel Toyz several years ago because of his interest in bio-diesel technology and high-efficiency expedition solutions. Todd has solved the integration issues with US-specification gas platforms, and can offer turnkey diesel conversions with Toyota computer-controlled motors from overseas markets. Conversions are available for Toyota trucks, Tacomas, 4Runners, FJCruisers, and all Land Cruisers (with particular emphasis on the 80 series). Diesel Toyz LLC. 9206 Converse Business Lane, Converse, TX 78109 Tel: 210-683-9663, www.dieseltoyz.com JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE COMMON RAIL DIESEL The availability of the 3.0L common rail diesel in the Jeep Grand Cherokee is exciting news for expedition travelers. A towing capacity of 7,500 lbs. and mid 20 mpg fuel economy is perfect for an overland platform.…

Requirements: Visa and vehicle entry The latest information can be gathered from the internet on country websites or the Central Intelligence Agency or Foreign and Commonwealth Office factbooks, and from travel books such as Lonely Planet. It’s also wise to look over travel reports from other people. Some border crossings are notorious for corrupt officials, while in other places not knowing how much fuel you can import or what safety equipment is required for the car can lead to trouble. You’d expect that visa requirements would be uniform, but in many places this is not the case. The details of your visa regarding number of entries and duration can change at the whim of the presiding official, and can differ from one group of travelers to the next. Thus, getting…

I IMAGINE yourself living your dream, on safari in Africa, when you begin to feel ill: fever, chills, aches and pains, headache. Is it “just a flu,” or something more ominous, like . . . malaria? Malaria is nothing to scoff at. Although eradicated from most developed countries, it infects 300 – 500 million people each year worldwide, and kills more than a million, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. About 12,000 American tourists contracted malaria between 1985 and 2002, two-thirds of them in Africa. Of the resulting 76 fatalities, three-quarters were caused by the most virulent strain, Plasmodium falciparum. Malaria was first described in China more than 4,000 years ago. The name originated in Medieval Italian, mala (bad) and aria (air) , reflecting the long-held belief that the disease was caused…

IT STARTED AFTER AN INVENTORY AT HER SUGGESTION TURNED UP 13 IN MY IMMEDIATE POSSESSION, plus a couple I knew were around somewhere. Thus the nickname, delivered affectionately but with a distinct hint of tease as well. Roseann has never been one to criticize toy purchases (she has her own weaknesses!), but the appearance of some new trick lighting device on my desk was always enough to elicit an incredulous “Another one?” My stock response, an archly delivered “You can never have too many flashlights,” would just bring a smirk and, “Whatever you say, Flashlight Man.” It got so I couldn’t produce a flashlight for the most mundane of reasons without hearing “Ooh, Flashlight Man strikes again.” Jeez. So why “used to?” Let me explain. Darkness had descended on northern…

COLORADO - THE BEGINNING In November of 2003, four of us loaded two expedition-equipped Land Rover Defenders into a 40-foot container in Colorado and watched it disappear on the long voyage to the port of Southampton, England. It was the end of five years of preparation and the start of a 30,000 mile overland adventure. Six weeks later we opened the container on the Southampton docks and the Land Rovers saw the light of day again. From there we turned them south, beginning a journey that ended nine months later in South Africa. Putting nine months of travel into a concise article is nearly impossible, so I decided to present one story from each of the countries we passed through. With luck this will give a taste of the highlights…

Clothes Washer (Home Depot drink cooler) Attached to the roof rack, the drink cooler can be filled with clothes, water, and soap and then as we drive down the road (the rougher the better) the clothes get a good wash. Light Covers (Land Rover) For headlight protection we installed Land Rover after-market headlight covers. Bull Bar & Skid Plate (Safari Gard) The Safari Gard bull bar allows a fantastic approach angle and allows mounts for tow points and the winch. The skid plate is integral to the bull bar and provides protection for the steering linkage. Winch (Superwinch) Superwinch gave us the X9, a 10,000- pound winch. We replaced the steel cable with a 3/8” x 80’ Viking Fire Line synthetic rope. Roof Top Tent (Technitop) Roof top tents originated…

GO TO MOST EMBASSIES and you’ll find at least a few pamphlets and a poster of a couple frolicking by a fountain. No such noncing about at the Libya Section in London’s Harley Street. Down in the grubby basement mean-looking guys snuff out cigarette butts on Brit passports and ignore you purposefully. Tourist literature is limited to a defiant newsletter commemorating the “drawing of the line of death” against imperial aggressors. Charming. Just the spot to enjoy a spring biking break. “Visa?” I asked meekly. “Hello, visa?” IT HAD TAKEN ME MONTHS TO GET TO THIS POINT. In early 1998, with a new edition of the Adventure Motorcycling Handbook completed, I decided it was time to practice what I preached. Libya sounded interesting and BMW’s F650 Funduro trailie would make…

Ingredients: 3 bottles of red wine (2-3 liters total)2 cinnamon sticks1 cardamom2-3 allspice1-2 oranges1-2 lemons5 cloves1 German sugar cone/loaf (Zackerhut)1 bottle of rum Instructions: 1. In a large pot or kettle filled with red wine, add cinnamon sticks, cardamom, and allspice. Cut up the oranges and lemons (optional: make peel spirals), crush fruit to release the juice, and add to the punch along with the cloves. Warm to a steaming mixture. Do not boil! 2. Place a German sugar cone (Zuckerhut, sugar loaf) on a metal rack/screen or clamped in metal tongs above the warm punch. (Substitute sugar cubes if you can’t get a Zuckerhut.) Slowly pour high-proof rum over the Zuckerhut or sugar cubes and let soak for a minute. Carefully light the Zuckerhut or sugar cubes and let…

19 JULY 2005 - Hiker Jason Jacks of San Dimas, California, became lost near the region of Southern California’s Mt. Baldy. Beyond mobile phone range, Jacks used his handheld radio to make contact with another radio user, Burton Brink, who contacted and collaborated with emergency personnel. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department dispatched it’s Rescue Air-5 helicopter for rescue. Brink directed the helicopter pilot to Jacks’ location. Within two hours of the initial call for help, Jacks was airlifted to safety. RADIO COMMUNICATION FULFILLS MANY VITAL NEEDS FOR US. Broadcast television, mobile phones, GPS, wirless Internet connections, and satellite-delivered music are just a few of the technologies carried by radio waves, besides the obvious talk and music radio on our AM/FM dials. Imagine for one minute the world, life, and…

IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU DRIVE—if someone asks you to name the all-time classic expedition vehicle, odds are high you’ll mention the Series Land Rover. And with good reason. Throughout the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, the Land Rover defined the expedition vehicle in every corner of the globe. A few preceded it, and some very fine pretenders have come along since, indisputably improving the breed (and spurring development of the Defender), but nothing will ever replace the 88 and 109 as the paradigm of vehicle-dependent adventure travel. The Land Rover certainly has my vote, despite my flawless 25-year relationship with an FJ40 Land Cruiser. The African books I read as a kid, the movies, the National Geographicmagazines and films, all included at some point a battered Land Rover, the back…

CONCERNED BY RUMORS of impassable roads and un-crossable rivers, we were weighing our options for passage into the Congo. Our consensus was to avoid the main route on the Michelin map, and head for a border crossing at a small place called Bakoumba. We arrived there on Easter Sunday, and were surprised to find Immigration open for business. Proceedings were quick and painless, and we bypassed Customs as that office was not open. Bakoumba is 26 miles from the physical border, so we started down the road hoping to cross before nightfall. That was not to be. Ten miles down the road we came to a military checkpoint, and the officer there told us flatly that the border was closed. We didn’t argue. His men had AK-47s and there was…

HISTORIAN DANIEL BOORSTIN SAID that humans are “discoverers, with a need to know . . . what is out there.” That is why readers of Overland Journal are engaged in, or interested in, overlanding; why we’ve taken that critical step from four-wheel-drive owner to overland explorer. Overlanding is about discovery of new landscapes, different cultures, fascinating wildlife: from pingos in the Arctic to shifting sands in the Sahara, from Chang pa nomads in the Himalayas to gauchos in Argentina, from a million migrating wildebeests in the Serengeti to a lone wolf crossing the Upper Peninsula. But with every passing year, more special places are lost to unregulated development, unique cultures are destroyed by poverty, and wildlife further endangered by habitat loss. So for many of us, overlanding is also about…

THE SOLUTION WAS A CUNNING DEVICE whose various iterations have been known as the volcano kettle, Kelley Kettle, bush kettle, Thermette, and Benghazi Boiler. The volcano kettle, to use the generic term, comprises a cylinder with a water jacket surrounding a hollow chimney. The device comes nested in a small fire pan, which one inverts and primes with a small fire made from twigs, paper, or anything flammable. Set the kettle on the pan, and feed the fire by dropping more twigs straight down the chimney. Due to the tapering design of the flue and the vent holes in the fire pan, a vortex is created that produces an absolutely blazing flame, which shoots out the top and leaves little doubt as to the origin of the term “volcano” kettle.…