Innehållsförteckning för Fall 2008 från Overland Journal

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…

Overland Training debuts In response to increased global interest in overland travel, Expeditions West announced a new division in August 2008: Overland Training. A complete education and certification program, Overland Training offers modules including Vehicle Operations, Equipment Operations, Expedition Logistics, Cultures and Conservation, HAM Radio Technician License, and Wilderness First Aid. These skills together form the basis of the new Overland Certification. Staff, including director Graham Jackson, comprises some of the most qualified expedition and 4WD trainers in North America. Overland Training will also offer leadership courses for expedition team leaders and key support personnel. overlandtraining.com, admissions@overlandtraining.com Second Annual FJ Summit Every year Overland Journal sponsors over a dozen club events for enthusiasts of Land Rovers, Land Cruisers, Jeeps, and now FJ Cruisers. The second annual FJ Cruiser Summit was…

Christophe Noel OzTent RV-4 Going into this I thought my odds-on favorite was going to be the OzTent. I will spare the suspense—my favorite is still the OzTent. What I didn’t expect was such a tight contest amongst this diverse group of tents. The Reliable tent was the obvious classic in heavy canvas; the Snow Peak represented the latest in cutting-edge design. Perhaps I gravitate to the OzTent because it falls neatly between these extremes. The OzTent employs modern fabrics over an innovative frame design, while retaining the expedition-tent architecture I find very appealing. It certainly evokes a sense of adventure. In the end, the versatility of the OzTent won me over. For a quick night’s sleep, the tent can be pitched on its own in a few minutes. For…

I travel to Mexico to renew my faith in humanity. The country is full of fascinating people, rich culture, and endless opportunities for adventure. Inevitably, however, if you tell someone about your plan to ride a motorcycle south of the border, you’ll be met with, “Aren’t you scared?” followed by a second-hand story of someone’s sister’s uncle who was robbed or had to pay the dreaded “mordida” (literally, “bite”) to some unscrupulous official. Let me clear the air. Yes, it is possible to get robbed leaving a tourist town bar in Mexico at three in the morning; however, this is equally as applicable to your home town as it is to Hermosillo, Sonora. The vast majority of the Mexican people are kind, generous, and outgoing—just like the vast majority of…

I still remember the article about the 1991 Camel Trophy. The words and images are as visible in my mind today as the first time I saw them. I had casually picked up a 4WD publication from a newsstand. Thumbing through its pages, I stopped short at a photo of a sandglowcolored Land Rover Discovery, half-buried in the mud, listing heavily to one side, a half-dozen participants hanging from the roof rack, bumpers, and doors. That was the first article I ever read about vehicle-dependent expedition travel (or anything related to 4WDs), and it has shaped my vision of adventure to this day. There’s something about a half-buried Land Rover deep in some rainforest that connects with all of us, whether or not you would own a Land Rover. For…

“People crave adventure, the story. I’m trying to help provide that.” Take a look at any of the leather satchels, briefcases, or suitcases from Saddleback Leather Company and you’ll notice something: These aren’t mass-produced boutique leathergoods carefully patinaed to look adventurous for well-known lifestyle catalogues. Each bag is simple, practical, overbuilt, sourced from the best materials, and handmade by the finest craftsmen. It will remind you of a venerable old Land Cruiser. Which it should. Because each Saddleback bag has the soul of a 1971 FJ55 sewn into it. The story begins in 1999 with Dave Munson of Portland, a 28-year-old with a case of wanderlust and a strong Christian conviction to help others, who packed up for southern Mexico to teach English to poor children. It so happened near…

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…

 Nothing less than a terminal meltdown, with con-rods rupturing the block and cogs spitting out of the muffler. Many times during my decade of despatching in London I’d longed for the irritatingly reliable engine of some middleweight Honda I’d ridden day-in, day-out for years to explode into a thousand pieces. Now, a long way from the interminable Clerkenwell Road, I was faced with the inevitability of the Taro’s imminent demise. The engine might last for days with a crankshaft bearing knocking, but in reality I knew the sudden escalation meant it would not see another dawn. At least the dreaded dune crossing had turned out to be an anticlimax. It was all over before we realized it, and ahead of us the ridges subsided into a rolling sand sheet. We…

What overland enthusiast hasn’t dreamed of embarking on an epic adventure to some exotic locale such as Africa, South America, or the Australian Outback? A lucky few actually manage to pull off such trips; however, the cruel reality is that most of us have full-time jobs to keep, businesses to run, kids to raise, sports teams to coach, houses to maintain, and spouses to please. As such, a good compromise is to set one’s GPS on shorter, more local vehicle-dependent trips, or, in other words, weekend expeditions. Think of it as practice for that trans-Sahara trip . . . If you live in the western United States, there are thousands of 4WD routes ripe for weekend picking, but what about eastern states? Where, for example, in the heavily developed, highly…

If you follow the Land Rover G4 Challenge events, you might naturally assume it’s the competitors who are doing most of the work—and having all the fun. There are all those immaculately prepared LR3s, topped by shiny mountain bikes and kayaks. The fit and tanned competitors are handed this equipment to tackle vehicle challenges, navigation courses, bike races, and paddling sprints laid out through some of the most remote and lovely scenery on the globe. We rarely think about the huge amount of energy and manpower it takes to create such an exciting event. The seven Ps (Proper Prior Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance) always make the difference between a so-so competition and one that keeps you on the edge of your seat to the very end. Proper prior preparation for…

Sticking to the tried-and-true technique for conquering extreme corrugations, I was blasting down Meshanani Road approaching Amboseli National Park in Kenya at about 50 mph when I hit a hidden crater—and the Garmin 276C, which had been holding reasonably stable in its bean-bag mount on the HiLux’s dash, bounced once and then launched out the open passenger window. Yikes. I pulled off the road and retrieved the unit, which was hanging by its power cord and had been merrily banging against the door. Aside from a further coating of ancient dust from Kilimanjaro, it was fine—and it has performed nearly flawlessly for an additional 1,500 miles, bringing the total test miles over the last year up to approximately 3,000, viturally all of it on backroads in the U.S. and East…

Beauty and function from trash Last issue we reported on the shocking volume of plastic water bottle trash. Happily there’s a silver lining: Tent maker Nemo, whose Morpho won the Value Award in our Summer 2008 tent test, is introducing a new tent whose materials—including fabric, cord, buckles, webbing, and stuff sack—comprise 90.2% (by weight) recycled plastic water bottles. The 36-square-foot, 4-pound 10-ounce Nano OZ is the perfect size for motorcycle or lightweight 4WD camping, with room for two, plus gear in the vestibule. And Nemo is working on a novel option for the Nano: beautiful handmade bamboo poles, using the same construction as a fine fly rod. Although it’s as strong as soft steel, structural bamboo is made from totally renewable material—a grass. Some companies may greenwash their product…

There are towns in the world that shine as frontiers for overland travel: Moab, Ulaanbaatar, Maun, Arusha, Perth. There are other examples, but they all have something in common: superb 4WD vehicles outfitted for true function. Walk down the streets and you see the the different makes—Toyota, Land Rover, UAZ, Jeep, Mercedes, many you didn,t know existed—and the local nuances of preparation: tire choice, roof racks or no, bull bars or no. Winches? Sand mats? All this you compare to your vision of the ideal overland vehicle. At least, when I hit a town like this, it,s what I do. And the one thing in my mind that always, always elevates one vehicle above another is a Hi-Lift jack. Where is it mounted? Is it well-used and well-oiled and clean?…

M ors Kochanski has never done a backflip out of a helicopter. He doesn’t gnaw on maggoty zebra carcasses, or chew large arthropods so their innards spurt down his chin. In fact, unlike that other “survival” expert, most people have never even heard of Mors Kochanski (pronounced Kohanski). But he probably knows more about staying alive in the boreal forests of the Northern Hemisphere than any human around today. Kochanski doesn’t usually refer to the skills he’s been teaching for 35 years as survival; he prefers the term bushcraft. Survival is about defying the wilderness, living through the first few days after a mishap until you are rescued. Bushcraft is about being comfortable in a survival situation. Think of it this way: With survival skills you’d be in good shape…

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…

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…

I’m typing these words on a notebook computer hooked up to a in a tent during a thunderstorm 12-volt deep-cycle battery, in Arizona’s Coconino National Forest. Sheltered by opalescent walls, I write accompanied by a concerto of fat raindrops popping off the nylon fabric. As the volume of rain changes, so does the tone of the music, creating an ebb and flow of sound. An occasional strobe lights the walls with a thunderclap for punctuation. Enjoying the open sky is a big attraction on overland trips, but when Mother Nature turns inhospitable we naturally seek shelter and comfort, often under canvas or nylon. Several of us did just that during an extensive test of six family tents this August. The weather cooperated fully: It was lousy. In our last issue…

Those of you who cook will appreciate that when you try a new recipe, it doesn’t always come out perfect the first time. Some skilled tinkering is often necessary to make it just right. Hence the phone call I received two days before departing for Los Angeles to pick up my 1984 FJ60 at TLC. “There’s a noise that might be the throwout bearing,” Joe said over the phone, “and the tachometer isn’t working correctly. We need more time, to make sure it’s perfect.” TLC is overseeing phase one of this transformation from a $2,500 grocery-getter into a capable yet ‘green’ overlanding vehicle: a brand-new International turbodiesel engine, a new 5-speed Toyota transmission, new suspension, a rear locker, upgraded brakes, wheels, and tires, and a snorkel. TLC is planning to…

“Snap, crackle, pop!” might be a good sound for a breakfast cereal, but it,s not what you want to hear after a fall. A popping sound doesn,t necessarily indicate a fracture, but it could. How can you tell? What do you do? First, let’s review some physiology. Although most people don’t think of them as such, your bones are an organ system—living tissue that protects the internal organs, stores calcium, produces blood cells of various types, and provides support for muscles to contract and produce locomotion. They are analagous to that fully-boxed frame on an expedition vehicle. Without bones we’d all be blobs of tissue writhing about on the ground, looking more like slugs than humans. Not a pretty sight. Bone is also not static. Healthy bone is constantly being…

With this inaugural Overland Chef column, let me make one thing clear: my mission is to free you from the tyranny of cream of mushroom soup. If overlanding is about the journey, then overland cooking should rise to the theme: our food need not be over-packaged, under-flavored, or un-imaginative. That’s not to say it need be overly complex, however. It’s surprisingly easy to outfit your overlanding kitchen to produce fresh, delicious, and nutritious meals either for a weekend or a year on the road. We start with a Chicken en Adobo recipe adapted for a pressure cooker, one of the most under-utilized kitchen tools for overlanding. Pressure cookers reduce cooking time by up to two-thirds—and that saves a lot of fuel. They are also perfect for fast, nutritious meals when…

Disaster is a relative term. To me, having one of my teeth explode in Mexico was a disaster. To my two traveling companions, it was merely an inconvenience—and fodder for comic relief. We were in Baja, south of Bahia Concepción, and had left Mexico 1 sometime before dark on Friday night. We had spent the day swimming and sleeping along the Sea of Cortez after our initial push south of the border, and our plan was to head west into the mountains to get some respite from the heat. The road was in great condition despite the recent hurricane that had wreaked havoc on the southern end of Baja, and we were making good time in the Excursion Ford had provided us, when the disaster struck: I broke open my…