Innehållsförteckning för Fall 2022 från Overland Journal

SHOW SOME ELECTRIC LOVE Great job all the way round—print, online, podcast. I have six LandCruisers (FJ40, 80s, and 100s), a Tacoma, and an air-cooled VW bus. I overland in all of them (pros and cons to each). How about some discussion of the new EV and full-size cutting-edge vehicles versus the older and more traditional vehicles? [Or] to rethink builds of older generations of Tacomas (lighter/minimalist) and Jeeps? Matt Powelson START THEM YOUNG Thank you for [your] publication; it’s been an inspiration to me in many ways. We just completed our first “real” overland trip as a family where we explored Joshua Tree National Park. Here are our boys (below), on Berdoo Canyon Road, perusing the most recent issue. Please keep up the amazing work on the magazine, website,…

There’s something undeniably alluring about mud-terrain tires. It could be their aggressive looks or their reputation for trail performance, but the romantic in me says it’s something more. Like your grandfather’s ax or an old Willys Jeep, there’s an honesty to them—a rugged quality found only in purpose-built tools designed for one reason: to get stuff done. I’m a sucker for that sort of simplicity but also understand it’s rarely practical. Waxed canvas jackets leak, a chainsaw is quicker than an ax, and a mud-terrain tire isn’t a good all-around option for a daily driver. Or is it? Toyo Tires claims that their Open Country mud-terrain is “designed to help trucks work hard on pavement and … work just as hard when roads are muddy, snowy, and rocky.” That sounds…

The rivalry for the best big-bore adventure bike has been going on much longer than the name “adventure bike” has been used. Manufacturers vie like hungry children after cupcakes for a morsel of the limelight aimed at BMW’s R 1250 GS. Each has made their play, but the big Bavarian beast still stands, proudly wearing the belt of victory, at least if sales numbers are any indication. THE COMPETITION WITH THE STIFF UPPER LIP Triumph, as a brand, seemed to die in the 1980s until it was resurrected by a visionary named John Bloor; by the early ’90s, a new, more reliable, more powerful breed of British bikes had emerged. In 2006, Triumph eased back into the dirt with the Scrambler, sporting an 865cc parallel-twin based loosely on the TR-6…

Yakutsk was on my one-day-I’ll-go-there list, triggered by books I read as a child at my grandmother’s home. I no longer remembered the titles or exact stories, but vague memories remained of brave Tartars or Cossacks—heroic men on horses conquering vast, remote lands ruled by extreme temperatures. Siberia is spun as a tough place to live and travel in and easily speaks to the imagination. After traveling for three months through eastern Siberia, we encountered its vast, remote features in spades. But tough to travel in? Not really. Yakutsk, up in the northeast, was still calling out to us. We were parked in Ulan-Ude, south of Lake Baikal, which gave us two options to answer that call. The obvious one would be to follow Google Maps, head east of Lake…

A flash of insight can be triggered by A nearly anything. A conversation with a stranger, a blog post, photograph, or film comes to mind. But sometimes, inspiration strikes when you least expect it. For Brazilian overlanders Sergio Medeiros and Eleni Alvejan, an object in an unexpected location changed their lives forever, leading to nearly a decade of travel in a 2000 Land Rover Defender 110. Back in 2013, the couple was viewing a showcase apartment in São Paulo, going through the usual process of purchasing their next home. The unit was decorated to entice potential buyers, including one personal touch that caught Sergio’s eye—a book. “On the cover was a Brazilian couple standing in front of a Land Rover Defender,” Medeiros says. They had completed a round-the-world trip, and…

Quick cuts of rocks tumbling, water splashing, and dirt flying meld together as actress Brie Larson navigates a 2022 Nissan Frontier pickup over rough, off-pavement terrain. A fast, aggressive electric guitar riff screams in the background as the truck enters a brown-hued stream, waves rippling beneath the tires and chassis, windshield wipers on high as water moves over the hood. The shot goes wide, revealing a river surrounded by evergreen trees and a bright blue sky. The Nissan trundles upriver, the 3.8-liter V6 engine growling as waves roll over the truck tires. “The hero prevails,” Larson says, glancing at the camera confidently. Rock music and blood pressure rage. Man (or, in this case, woman) and machine continue to dominate the natural world. Driving this truck is exciting, cool—a thrill. “There’s…

I’ve traveled many miles in many countries, but when exploring a new place, I find I don’t always recognize the inherent risks. As they say, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Around six years ago, I was down in Belize doing a recce for Land Rover. With me were two good friends and colleagues and a couple of friends who live in the country and know it well. It quickly became apparent that we would need to redesign the Land Rover program entirely since many of the areas, roads, and hotels had changed hands, were worn down, or just gone from development. With change comes the opportunity to create something new and exciting, and I was happy not to have a notion of what a travel program in Belize…

JOHN GAISFORD John spoke his first words while squashed between his parents in a 1948 CJ2A Willys Jeep and spent much of his formative years on family trips, camping on beaches in Mozambique, and learning life lessons from breakdowns in the Botswana bush. After completing a geology degree, he spent several years working as a remote exploration geologist in Africa. During these years, John practically lived out of a Land Cruiser 70-Series pickup and developed a strong love affair with them. He has spent time hitchhiking in the USA and building aquaponic farms in Vietnam but is always inevitably pulled back to the yard of Willys Jeeps at his family home in Eshowe, South Africa. RICHARD GIORDANO Richard Giordano completed a 48,800-kilometer overland journey from Vancouver, Canada, to Ushuaia, Argentina,…

I sat on my Bullet at the bottom of the steep slope, eyeing out a potential route. Huge rocks dotted both wheel I spoors, and the deep layer of fine, flour-like dust was surely doing a good job of hiding holes beneath it. The overhang on the narrow track made it look like it had been hacked out of the cliff, and it had. The rock wall above and below was purely vertical. A wrong move would mean a manic free-fall through the thin Himalayan air and a quick end in the rushing icy waters far below. It wasn’t called the Cliffhanger for nothing, and it was exactly what I had come back for. HAPPY’S WORKSHOP I had first heard of the Cliffhanger track and the famed Sach Pass, which…

Through the open driver-side window, I catch a glimpse of the sun falling towards the Salish Sea. If the venerable 22RE four-cylinder wasn’t making such a racket, I’m sure I’d hear waves crashing and sea lions barking. Dense deer fern, cedar, fir, and spruce trees encroach on the right. I breathe in the thick coastal air—it smells like home. The winding two-lane blacktop of Highway 101 requires all forward gears but fifth as we follow ferry traffic north into town. The closer I get, the harder the throttle is pressed, the bigger my smile gets, and that crunch of gravel brings a wave of nostalgia when finally pulling into my dad’s driveway. I spent my first 17 years in Powell River, British Columbia, population 12,690. Although not exactly an island…

My first clue to the crisis was panicked voices permeating the wind raking our camp. Perched on the other side of the rocky outcropping in my tent, I was tempted to ignore them. These gusts couldn’t be more than 50 mph, a velocity I’d slept through many times before. Then it clicked: the dome was attempting to take flight across the fjord. I wrenched on my traffic-cone-orange logging boots, donned my Gore-Tex jacket, and stumbled over the nunatak’s jagged boulders to join the melee. A handful of shouting figures grappled with our enormous dome tent as it battled to rip free of its tethers like an enraged zeppelin and sail across the glacier to the iceberg-choked water of Køge Bay. Greenland is a place of extremes: extreme latitude, extreme cold,…

Arizona may be known for saguaro cactus, but it is also 26 percent timberland, and Humphreys Peak rises 12,633 feet into the southwest skyline. From the precipitous enclave of Jerome, and the start of this Overland Route, Humphreys Peak looms in the distance. This region of Arizona has a rich mining history, with Yavapai County being home to over 6,700 active claims and 1,270 mines. With prospecting comes a patchwork of remote and challenging overland tracks that meander through the mountains of Central Arizona, including our chosen route for this adventure, the Trail of Kings, from the Gold King Mine outside of Jerome to the mountain hamlet of Crown King. This particular route is special for Overland Journal, the track passing by our offices in Prescott before continuing south through…

I was one of those guys who never thought an air compressor was an essential piece of kit until long after I I started backcountry travel. The people I went out with always seemed so annoying to me because we had to stop and wait for tire deflation at the beginning of the day, followed by relentless banter about what the correct tire pressure should be and why. We then would have a lively day off-pavement, followed by another long session of filling the tires back up and more conversation about correct pressures. At the time, it just felt like less time exploring and more time wasted. Today, I almost always have an air compressor in the car, and always when I’m in off-road situations. I use it often, and…

MY EYES BARELY ADJUST TO THE GLARE OF THE SUN AS the dry wind ruffles my hair, and I deeply inhale the ancient desert air. It almost makes me cough. Far in the distance, I can see the ethereal shape of crumbling pyramids rising out of the shimmering heat of the desert. Like a mirage, they seem to float above the shifting sands. Over and over again, I try to focus on them, but it makes my eyes water. I turn my head away from the wind, and even farther in the distance, I can just make out the green, life-giving vein that is one of the longest rivers in the world: the mighty Nile. Here, in Sudan, the White and Blue Nile merge into the famous river that has…

I knelt to match the height of my four-year-old as enthusiastic revelers jostled us from behind. Costumed dancers I limped into view as the crowd separated to create an impromptu dance floor in front of the municipal palace. With masks simultaneously macabre and comical, the dancers performed La Danza de los Viejitos (Dance of the Old Men). The accompanying band played a folk tune so engaging it was difficult to remain a spectator. The baroque façade of San Luis Potosí Cathedral loomed above us, poised for the vibrant light projection show to follow. As the only discernibly non-Mexican woman in sight, I was conscious of the gift of seeing behind a woven tapestry—an expression of diverse people groups and their accompanying beliefs: Mesoamerican and Spanish, folk religion and Roman Catholicism,…

SERVES 4-6 PREP TIME 15 minutes COOK TIME 20 minutes EQUIPMENT soup pot, wooden spoon, large knife, spoon, immersion blender (optional) 1 small pumpkin (any will do: Hokkaido, Cinderella, sugar—they all work)1 small onion (I prefer red)1 can of coconut milk or cream (8 ounces or 250 milliliters)1-2 cubes stock (optional)Pinch of flourOilSaltPepperVarious spicesOld, hard bread (optional) Pumpkins started out as small and bitter balls, thought to have originated in Mexico or North America some 7,500 years ago, with the oldest seeds found in the Oaxacan Highlands. The people of Central and South America, therefore, knew pumpkins long before Christopher Columbus transported them back to Europe with the rest of his spoils, after which they soon spread all over the world. Their value to indigenous cultures in the Americas was primarily…