Innehållsförteckning för Spring 2009 från Overland Journal

To our readers, You might have noticed this issue is a bit late. We decided to delay printing in order to include a special report on the first Overland Expo, produced by ConserVentures and held in Prescott April 24th to 26th. The event was an astounding and gratifying success, and proved that overland exploration has a bright future. Please see our coverage starting on page 22, and thanks for your patience. The Overland Journal team Keep it Coming I am in receipt of my charter subscriber renewal reminder and just subscribed for another two years. I’m sure you hear it all the time, but can one ever really partake of too much praise when it is rightfully due? I have benefited from reading each and every issue, and typically read…

Many lessons can be learned from the explorers who came before us, and no greater period of intense exploration occurred than in the period from 1910 to 1914, when humans struggled at great cost to reach the South Pole. These explorers included Norwegian Roald Amundsen (first to reach the pole) and, from England, Robert Scott (second to reach the pole), and finally the epic expedition of Ernest Shackleton, who never actually reached Antarctica, but survived, along with all of his men, one of the greatest exploration epics of all time. Richard Farr’s book, Emperors of the Ice, is a fascinating account of Scott’s tragic retreat from the pole—not from the perspective of Scott, as recorded in The Worst Journey in the World, but from the perspective of that book’s author,…

“And for reasons not entirely clear, though masochistic in nature, we also bring along our children, those former gleams in our bloodshot eyes.” -Vince Welch, Don’t Let Your Children Grow Up To Be Boatmen What can I tell you about my older brother? If you’re thinking wedgies and swirlies and my forehead compressed in a woodworking vise, banish that idea. I’m the one who attacked him with a hammer as a kid. However, 15 years ago we stood on our parent’s front lawn and had a bizarre conversation that went like this: “When we have kids, we need to have fun family gatherings. Let’s barbeque ribs on Thanksgiving. Go climbing on Fourth of July. Stuff like that.” “And you’ll be cool Uncle Greg. My kids will probably like your house…

Green Oil Green Earth Technologies (GET), a consumer goods manufacturer based in Connecticut, has just received the highly coveted American Petroleum Institute SM certification as suitable for full protection for gas engines for its G-Oil SAE 5W-30, the world’s first completely bio-based motor oil. GET makes products entirely from American-grown base oils using patent-pending nanotechnology (doing more with less) and dehydrogenation. G-oil is biodegradable (ranked by the American Society for Testing and Materials) and environmentally safe, and its bottles are made from recycled plastic (and are recyclable). getg.com, 877-438-4761 Reduce, Recycle, Recamp Don’t throw away that old tent—send it back to Sierra Designs for their Re-Purpose with a Purpose program. This spring Sierra Designs launched this first-of-its-kind program for the outdoor industry: consumers take their old tent to participating retailers…

What would a campfire be without s’mores? You know, the gooey treat created by sandwiching rich chocolate and toasted marshmallow between two graham crackers. Long synonymous with camping and summer fun, mention this time-honored confection and instantly faces light up with fond memories of long-ago camping trips and time spent around the fire with family and friends. The history of the s’more’s conception is a bit of a mystery, but a quick Google search will tell you that American food companies were combining chocolate, marshmallow, and graham crackers into sandwich cookies in the early 1900s, and the first published recipe for s’mores can be found in Girl Scout handbooks printed in 1927. I’m all for tradition, but at some point you have to ask yourself if an old favorite can…

If you ask me what was my favorite part of the Overland Expo, there are at least a dozen answers I could give. There was, of course, the astounding camaraderie of 800 people gathered together for one purpose—to celebrate overlanding and the exploration of our world. At no event of this size I’ve ever attended has this been the defining theme, and the result was a non-stop roar of convivial conversation from late Thursday to Monday morning, when the last of us reluctantly headed home. In fact, throughout the weekend, with the exception of a couple of trailer manufacturers who indulged in a somewhat lively debate as to the respective merits of their products (you know who you are), I don’t think I heard a cross word all weekend. Everyone…

I always know when I am in a groupofoverlanders, because the conversations in English are often inaudible among a sea of other languages, as travelers share their experiences from Tegucigalpa to Timbuktu. Overland Expo.2009 was no exception—the halls of Yavapai County Fairgrounds in central Arizona were abuzz April 24 - 26 in various languages, as Dutch, French, German, and Swiss travelers browsed the vendors with over 800 Americans in the single largest gathering of overland adventure travelers in North America. A production of ConserVentures, an Arizona-based adventure and conservation consultancy owned by Overland Journal contributing editor Roseann Hanson, Overland Expo.2009 exceeded its attendance and vendor goals, despite the rocky economy. ConserVentures teamed with Overland Training, working with director Graham Jackson and his team of 25 trainers and special presenters to…

I’d probably have a difficult time convincing you how grueling this test was, so how about I just skip that part? Even though the final decision was mine, I found it extremely valuable to have the input of six other people. Comfort, in particular, is a personal thing, and a couple of chairs rated very highly by some testers were found wanting by others. Nevertheless, some common threads arose in their comments, and I’ve summarized them on the previous page, as well as taken them into account in my own deliberations. For me, the chairs sorted themselves out pretty easily—up to a point. Then the choices became less clear. That’s a good thing, because it means there were several qualified candidates for Editor’s Choice. The Crazy Creek Leisure surprised me…

The Long Lunch Stop: I wouldn’t balk at a two-hour lunch stop just because it eats up driving time. The point of a trip like this is to enjoy the places the vehicle can take you. Little ones deserve it, bigger ones need it, and if you play your cards right, you’ll wear out the kids so that they crash for the whole afternoon. Coupled with The Long Lunch is Locating Camp Early. Benefits should be evident. Pools, Hot Tubs, and Solid Walls: For these summertime travels, it pays off to stay a night or two at a lodge with a pool or hot tub. More significantly, I remember well a one-night stay in Ouray, Colorado, at a small inn. Chloe fell asleep, and we snuck out for some time…

All that Glitters is Not Gold . . . and not all loose stool is traveler’s diarrhea. While it is true that infection causes about 85 percent of acute diarrheal illnesses, many other illnesses can include diarrhea as a symptom. As a world traveler or over-lander it is wise to understand just a bit more about these maladies. In the Winter 2009 Overland Journal we talked about traveler’s diarrhea (TD) and its most common causes: E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella, Campylobacter, Giardia, and the noroviruses. In addition to these organisms, diarrhea may be caused by toxins, food allergies, tumors, endocrine and autoimmune disorders, and medication side effects, as well as stress and emotional disorders. Toxins are chemical poisons or venoms produced by an organism. Ciguatera toxin is one such toxin, produced…

Back then: Farnborough, Hampshire, England. The Royal Aircraft Establishment, home to the Experimental Flying Department and the Empire Test Pilots School. Gleaming aircraft wait on the tarmac. I rise early, don my seasoned flight suit, walk out the door behind the accommodation block—and squeeze under the chassis of a Land Rover I’m working on. Along with two others, all recently-announced Series IIs (plus a Matchless 350cc trials bike), it’s being prepared for a trans-Sahara expedition. Two of the vehicles run on Michelin XY tyres, which look like ordinary light-truck tyres for road use: a simple zig-zag tread pattern with unbroken ridges always in contact with the ground. They have a reputation for durability, and a tread pattern not too savage for use on sand, albeit the outer edges are on…

That was the odd thing about long-distance bicycle touring; the nicest people were always telling me I was going to die. The wind was heaving fire the day I rolled into Newell, South Dakota. I crawled into a convenience store to find something icy to drink, and within minutes a farmer named Mel was telling me what would likely kill me. In this case, I was in danger of rapid immolation. That was the odd thing about long-distance bicycle touring; the nicest people were always telling me I was going to die. Seven weeks earlier I had departed Prescott, Arizona, on a solo, self-contained tour. I lacked experience but had bought all the trappings—tent, sleeping bag, Therm-a-Rest, Trek 520 touring bicycle, and Arkel panniers—figuring I’d work out the whole camping/touring…

Mark D. Stephens Mark Stephens has made a fistful of journeys into Mexico and a litany of others throughout the backcountry of the American Southwest because, as he says, “The cultures I’ve encountered while traveling dirt roads and empty spaces were fascinating and friendly. Like home. But elsewhere.” He brings his trademark narrative voice to this issue in a true tale of trying events while traveling with his wife and 11-month-old daughter. A writer living in the Sonoran Desert, he holds a degree in English from Arizona State University, and insists on driving a partuliar black Nissan Frontier. markdstephens.com 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…

“I love this vehicle—the retro-80s style, a new, efficient, conservation-friendly engine, and the enormous cargo capacity. Best of all, some subtle leopard spots mean my spouse is less inclined to ‘borrow’ my truck!” The first 10,000 or so miles on a new crate engine are critical. It’s then one generally discovers any serious manufacturing defects: out-of-spec or defective parts, or botched assembly procedures, any of which can result in premature catastrophic failure. The 3.0 NGD International engine in our FJ60 conservation project vehicle has successfully passed that milestone, and is settling in nicely. Fuel economy continues to climb (and amaze)—we’re now averaging 26 to 27 mpg on either standard diesel or B20 (20 percent biodiesel). Power is effortless, and a 65-70 mph cruising speed is very comfortable and reasonably quiet…

I think it’s safe to say I began working with winches at an earlier age than most people, when I got a job at age nine helping to cut trees for pulpwood. Taken under the wing of an old Maine woodsman, the lesson with a chainsaw over, we jumped in a 1935 6x6 truck and headed into the woods. The truck had a PTO (power take-off) winch that was as old as the truck, its wire rope blackened with age, pitch, dirt, and grease. After cutting, the tree butts all needed to point in the same direction so we could slip the rope’s choker cables over the butts, four to ten of them at a time. Once that was done, the winch was engaged—and we ran like hell as the…