Overland Journal :: Fall 2019

FALL 2019 $12

OVERLAND

PERU | SHELF-STABLE MEALS | AUSTRALIAN BIGHT | RUSSIA

JOURNAL

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CONTENTS SUMMER 2019

Feature s 32

The Long Way to the Airport: Touring Scenic and Deadly Roads in Peru, Emma Rogers

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Freeze-dried Feasts: Comparison of Seven Different Shelf-stable Meals, Scott Brady

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The Edge of Gondwana: A Traverse of the Great Australian Bight, Scott Brady

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Feature Vehicle: Basil Lynch’s Ford F-250 and Camper, Chris Cordes

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The Russian Tea Party: Riding Moscow to Magadan, Heather Lea

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A True Workhorse: The Evolution of Toyota Land Cruisers in Africa, John Gaisford

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Living Legends: Dale Schwamborn, Tena Overacker

Dep artments

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The Feed

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Field Tested

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Overland News

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Latitude, Alex Pflaum

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Giving Back: Magic Girl of the Pamirs, Gary and Monika Wescott

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The Collective: Another Day, Another Border, Steve Edwards

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Overland Conservation: Water for Life, Åsa Björklund

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Photography: Photographing People, Graeme Green

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Overland Chef: Tacos al Pastor, S.K. Davis

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Classic Kit: The Acheulean Hand Axe, Bryon Bass

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Tail Lamp: Expedition Earth, Bridget Thackwray and Topher Richwhite

On the cover: The southern edge of the Great Australian Bight felt like the edge of the world, and would make any “flat earther” feel vindicated. Photo by Scott Brady.

This photo: The search for remote waves and campsites is nothing less than spectacular on California's north coast. Photo by Basil Lynch Back cover: Karakul Lake, a frozen expanse high in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan. Photo by Alex Pflaum

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OVERLAND J O U R N A L

WE ARE ADVENTURERS

Constantly traveling.

Testing and using gear in real-world situations.

Gaining experience, which we readily share.

OUR RESUME

7 continents | 161 countries | 496 years combined experience

EXPERIENCE MATTERS

WE ONLY KNOW THINGS WHEN WE LIVE THEM

FALL 2019

PUBLISHER AND CHAIRMAN Scott Brady

PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR OF DESIGN Stephanie Brady CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER Christian Pelletier

CHIEF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT OFFICER Brian McVickers CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Andre Racine

DIRECTOR OF EUROPEAN OPERATIONS Michael Brailey MANAGING EDITOR Sarah Ramm SENIOR EDITOR Chris Cordes EDITOR Tena Overacker

CONSERVATION EDITOR Åsa Björklund

MEDICAL EDITOR Dr. Jon Solberg, MD, FAWM

ARCHAEOLOGY SENIOR EDITOR Bryon Bass, PhD

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS S.K. Davis, Steve Edwards, John Gaisford, Graeme Green, Heather Lea, Topher Richwhite, Emma Rogers, Chris Scott, Bridget Thackwray, Gary and Monika Wescott SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Bruce Dorn CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Julie Edwards, Basil Lynch, Alex Pflaum COPY EDITORS Arden Kysely, Jacques Laliberté TECHNICAL EDITOR Chris Ramm CARTOGRAPHER David Medeiros CUSTOMER SERVICE COORDINATOR Alexandra Christenson CONTACT

Overland Journal, 3035 N Tarra Ave, #1, Prescott, AZ 86301 service@overlandjournal.com, editor@overlandjournal.com, advertising@overlandjournal.com, 928-777-8567 MOVING?

Send address changes to service@overlandjournal.com.

Include complete old address as well as new address.

Allow two to four weeks for the change to become effective.

Overland Journal is not forwarded by the US Postal Service.

It is the subscriber’s responsibility to inform Overland Journal of an address change.

Overland Journal is a trademark of Overland International, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Overland Journal is a wholly owned subsidiary of Overland International.

NO COMPROMISE We carefully screen all contributors to ensure they are independent and impartial. We never have and never will accept advertorial, and we do not allow advertising to influence our product or destination reviews.

THE FEED ROW 1 @vertizonphoto One of the most fascinating and redeeming qualities of humans is the capacity to maintain and indulge in playful curiosity. Most of the best times in our lives are the result of dropping everything to answer a simple question that starts with, I wonder.

Ask it often; play hard. #PlayHard @gr4nola Lagunas Route, Bolivia @offthegrid.ae Throwback to adventures in Uganda. #GoLiveIt#Overland #OverlandAfrica

ROW 2 @overlandtheamericas The sort of things on top of Mount Roraima are like nothing I’ve seen before—endemic plants and animals that can only be found on these incredible mountain tops. You can also walk through canyons, rivers, caves, lakes, waterfalls, quartz valleys, and fluorescent yellow freshwater pools like this one.

A true otherworldly paradise, right here on our planet. @itchybootstravel Wandering through the ruins of this more than 1,000-yearold village all by myself was such an amazing experience.

To stand in the empty houses where people lived 1,000 years ago was unreal. Iran has such a rich history; it would take months to explore it all. @capturandokilometros De esos momentos que nunca olvidarás, creo que vivir se trata de eso: de coleccionar instantes. Of those moments that you will never forget, I believe that living is about that: to collect instants.

ROW 3 @experienciaoffroad #4x4#Offroad#Adventure#Trail#Mud#OffroadAdventure #OffroadLifestyle#Engesa

PRINT ISNʼT DEAD

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I just received my first issue of Overland Journal today, and while I haven’t dug into many stories yet, I must say this is an impressive magazine. The photos are amazing.

There are ads, but it doesn’t feel overrun with them, [and the] paper quality is great. It’s a compelling argument for print.

The far side (unseen) of the mountains at the back of the photo are in British Columbia. The ridge is the boundary. So you were close.

Chad Kirchner 2018 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro

FROM THE EDITOR Thank you for bringing this to

CLOSE, BUT WRONG PROVINCE

We love getting the Overland Journal; it’s a fight to see who gets it first in the house. I was thrilled to see Moraine Lake in there— it’s one of our favourite places to take a friend when they are in town. Disappointing to see you give the credit to British Columbia though, as Moraine Lake is in Alberta.

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JT Clark 2013 Ford F150 and Moby1 XTR our attention. We were quite disappointed to find that we corrected the province in the article caption but missed it in the table of contents.

@tucks_truck In over five years of full-time overlanding in Cuthbert, we’ve only come across two bridges that we were too scaredy-cat to take his 5,900 kilograms over. Both were in Malawi (2014) and both on the same day. This was the first. At first glance, it looks fine, but what’s not so obvious from the picture is how little structure there was under the bridge. You see that “health and safety” stick with the red tape on the right? Under it was a collapsing bank with nothing to support the bridge, plus a 12to 15-metre drop to a river below. The local guy in the photo assured us that if we drove fast enough over the weak bit, it would be fine. It was a 10-kilometre detour to a slightly stronger bridge over the river. #NoBrainer @travelbugsandborders Overland travel does not always mean vacation and good times—sometimes it is hard labor, like replacing a tire in the late afternoon while it is 40°C. But that’s all a part of the journey.

WHERE HAS YOUR OVERLAND JOURNAL BEEN? Send us a photo, along with your name, the location, make/year of your vehicle, and a brief description. editor@overlandjournal.com

OVERLANDER IN THE MAKING

Matthew is a huge fan of Overland Journal.

All day long, he brings me the journal and says, “car!” He prefers [it to] any children’s books that we have. Thanks for printing a magazine that even kids can look at.

Will and Katie Peterson

Matthew Peterson, enjoying his favorite “childrenʼs book.”

SHARE #overlandjournal on Instagram or Facebook.

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CONTRIBUTORS FALL 2019

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EMMA ROGERS

JOHN GAISFORD

ALEX PFLAUM

Emma is a freelance graphic designer and keen photographer who is most at home in the mountains. Any of her free moments are spent traveling, hiking, and adventuring. Emma and her partner, Ben, spent three years driving a Toyota 4Runner from Deadhorse, Alaska, to Ushuaia, Argentina. On the way, they collected Kaylee (a Guatemalan street dog) and a lot of road stories. Now all three are back in New Zealand, saving and preparing for the next big overland journey. In the meantime, there are plenty of wild places to explore close to home.

With a mixture of local alpine adventures and short overseas trips planned, the camera won’t have time to gather dust.

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 70Series 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.

Born in Hong Kong only to depart for New Zealand a few short weeks later, Alex Pflaum grew up on the move and never stopped.

Now a professional photographer, writer, and outdoor enthusiast, he set his sights on Central Asia two years ago with absolutely no plans on turning back. Alex recently published a large format photography book about the region and the historic Silk Road. His next step is to move into the area full time in order to uncover much of the unknown that still surrounds this land that was once at the very center of the world. You can find much of Alex’s work on his website or Instagram.

HEATHER LEA

GARY AND MONIKA WESCOTT

In the spring of 2014, Heather Lea thought her boyfriend’s suggestion to ride around the world together on motorcycles was a fantastic idea. Little did she know she was agreeing to nefarious activities such as blowing up her underwear and letting a dead toe touch her lips. Or the blood, sweat, and tears of breaking a bone, riding in sand, and mechanically trashing her G 650 GS so badly, she’d need to use most of her trip money to replace it with another bike more up to the task. Heather’s goal in life has always been to travel through 50 countries by age 50. Mongolia was her 51st country, and she is nowhere near 50 years old, though closer than she’d like to admit.

Gary and Monika Wescott have spent the last 45 years globetrotting around the world, from the arid desert of Turkmenistan, following the Silk Road, to the jungles of the Amazon, and across Siberia in the dead of winter. The couple’s travel adventures have been published in 10 countries and eight languages.

Their in-depth knowledge of the problems and joys of overland travel in remote areas is incomparable. Gary and Monika’s meticulously prepared travel/research trucks, from their original Land Rover to the current Ford F-550, The Turtle V, have been an inspiration for many.

Their experience and photography encompass what Overland Journal is all about. From the beginning, The Turtle Expedition’s motto has been, “Don’t take the trip. Let the trip take you.”

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Photo by Andrea Moreno

CONTRIBUTORS FALL 2019

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STEVE EDWARDS

GRAEME GREEN

Steve and Julie Edwards are from the Last Best Place—Missoula, Montana. They have been living and traveling overland in East and Southern Africa for the last two years from their current home base in Gaborone, Botswana. Tireless explorers, they have visited over two dozen countries on four continents, and are former Africa travel instructors at Overland Expo. The couple bought their Land Rover Defender sight unseen from strangers on the internet in Ethiopia, and with hundreds of remote campsites and thousands of miles of Africa already under their tires, they are always on the lookout for the next big adventure. Find them at @venturesomeoverland on Instagram and Facebook.

Graeme Green is a photographer, journalist, travel writer, and editor for international publications including BBC, the Guardian, the Sunday Times, the Sunday Telegraph, Wanderlust, South China Morning Post and others.

He has traveled the world for 15 years with his camera, notepad, and laptop, from Ethiopia to Japan to Haiti, working extensively in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. His photographic work encompasses local life and cultures, wildlife, landscapes, adventure travel and more, covering stories from human trafficking to endangered animals. Photographer Steve McCurry says of him, “Graeme Green has an eye for capturing cultures with a particular sensitivity. He gives a vibrant testimony of the world we live in.”

S.K. DAVIS

CHRIS SCOTT

Steven is a Utah native who, aside from riding motorbikes, runs a small business and raises a family just north of Salt Lake City. After living in the Middle East, Europe, Canada, and Colorado, he returned to Utah to put down roots. Both his fiction and nonfiction have been published in magazines as well as online, and he is currently finishing an adventure/crime novel. When asked about his magnetic sense of humor, he only replied, “I want to become the eccentric billionaire without all the money.” Currently, Steven rides a 2017 BMW R 1200 GS Rallye and spends most of his time exploring the West, including Baja California, Mexico.

Chris Scott is an award-winning, UK-based adventure travel writer who specializes in the Sahara; he’s visited over 40 times since 1982, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea using motorcycles, 4WDs, a jacked-up Mercedes sedan, local bush taxis, and camel caravans.

Chris’ desert films have been featured on the National Geographic channel, and for many years he updated the Outback regions of Australia for Rough Guides. His books include Sahara Overland, the Adventure Motorcycling Handbook, and Overlanders’ Handbook. He recently published a short guide on Sahara camel trekking as well as The Street Riding Years, an urban memoir describing his life as a motorcycle messenger in 1980’s London. An Amazon bestseller, it was Ride magazine’s “Book of the Year.”

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TOPHER RICHWHITE BRIDGET THACKWRAY Topher’s background is in music and entertainment. During his 20s, he was in a band signed to Universal Records and performed in the Glastonbury and iTunes festivals. He went to school in Switzerland before moving to London for 10 years. He then returned home to live in Queenstown, New Zealand. Bridget grew up in Fiji and New Zealand. Once she finished high school, she moved to London for five years.

Her background was in marketing and website development. Bridget and Topher only met one another a few months before they began their three-year global expedition known as Expedition Earth. Despite being in London at the same time, and Bridget even attending one of Topher’s gigs, they only met once they had moved back to New Zealand.

OVERLAND J O U R N A L

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E X P E D I T I O N P O R TA L . C O M

THE WORLDʼS LARGEST OVERLAND COMMUNITY

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FIELD TESTED CHRIS CORDES

Extreme Outback ExtremeAire Magnum Compressor Reliable and durable without sacrificing speed.

Red Wing Iron Ranger Casual, classic footwear to carry you throughout your day.

When it comes to boots, there are few names that garner as much nostalgia as Red Wing here in the United States. They’ve been outfitting our country’s workforce with quality footwear since 1905, but have expanded their line to be fashion forward as well, with heritage options like the Iron Ranger.

Just like the boots made over 100 years ago, the Ranger is made from oil-tanned leather, which is water, stain, and perspiration resistant. It’s extremely durable and forms a natural patina over time that’s stylish and attractive. The leather is triple-stitched for longevity, with double layers in the toe cap and heel pocket, and laces that tie through metal eyelets and hooks. The soles vary based on the model chosen and are available with smooth bottoms for the office or Vibram lugs for hiking through the woods.

These boots are not going to be your first choice for hiking the Appalachian Trail though. They don’t breathe as well as modern hiking boots and lack the support needed on extended journeys, but they’re ideal everyday shoes. Their classic style lets them pass at most restaurants and bars, while their durability and comfort enable you to wear them out in the backcountry or on camping trips. That’s why they have become the one pair of shoes I always bring to work events and media launches since I know that whatever is in store, they’ll be up for the task.

When I purchased my first air compressor, speed was all that mattered. The faster it was, the less time I had to spend on the side of the road. After it failed twice in the field though, my priorities took a hard left. I wanted simplicity and reliability in any conditions along with fierce durability—the Kalashnikov of compressors. Thorough research and countless recommendations pointed toward the ExtremeAire Magnum, and last summer I made the order.

The Magnum is Extreme Outback’s flagship compressor, a 12-volt beast designed for reliability and speed. It uses a replaceable air filter instead of flat wafers, stainless steel hardware to prevent corrosion, and a special coating around the cylinder which dissipates heat. Most importantly, the compressor runs on sealed bearings that prevent the breakdown or contamination of grease due to water and dust. This means you can reliably use it underneath a vehicle for years, and mount it sideways or upside down without issue.

This robustness didn’t come at the cost of speed though. The 1.5 horsepower continuous duty-cycle motor can pump out 6 cubic feet per minute, or 2.6 cubic feet per minute at 100 psi which is only a hair slower than ARB’s dual compressor. In my experience, that equated to an imperceptible difference in air-up time, a fact I am grateful for when inflating eight tires between my truck and trailer. $590 | EXTREMEOUTBACK.COM

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$320 | REDWINGHERITAGE.COM

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FIELD TESTED CHRIS CORDES

Primus Campfire Table Photo by Cory Luoma and Thor Tingey

A sturdy, useful option for those seeking compact solutions.

Alpacka Forager Raft Big boat capability in a small package.

Overlanders love 4WDs, but we also tend to explore the earth by other means. Though I’m a fan of the water, carrying a canoe is rarely an option, which is why I borrowed a Forager packraft from Alpacka Raft last year.

The Forager is a heavy-lifter, expedition-grade craft equipped to haul two people and 500-plus pounds of gear. Originally designed for big game hunting in the remote reaches of Alaska, it is ideal for a weekend paddle or a journey around Iceland’s coasts.

This packraft isn’t your kid’s Sevylor. Its standard hide is 420-denier nylon coated with a UV-resistant heavy polyurethane film; an optional 400-denier, five times stronger-than-steel Vectran fabric spun from liquid crystal polymers is an optional material. The Forager is self-bailing and includes ingenious features like the Cargo Fly, an airtight zipper that allows you to store dry bags of gear inside the raft. This keeps weight low and provides backup flotation if you do spring a leak.

Weighing just 13 pounds, the Forager is a breeze to paddle and collapses to the size of a large sleeping bag. While it is a bit spendy, Alpacka offers models starting at just $850.

The quest for the right camp table has always been a struggle for me and is ongoing. I want something compact to save space, but that doesn’t take forever to set up. Since I store it inside my vehicle, it can’t rattle like the roll-up aluminum models, but needs to be sturdy enough for practical use. It’s a delicate balance to strike, and last year I found my almost perfect match, the Primus Campfire.

This table is less than 3 inches thick when stored, but spans 22.8 x 29.5 inches when open. That’s an ideal amount of space for kitchen tasks like meal prep, cooking, and eventually eating, but things can get a bit tight with a large stove, pots, pans, and ingredients.

Setup is measured in seconds thanks to the tri-fold top and quick-deploy 7075 aluminum frame, making it easy to pop the table in and out for lunches and snacks. Once set up, the combo can support up to 55 pounds, despite weighing just under 4 pounds on its own. Heavy items do tend to bow the table top a little, but it has never been enough to become a problem.

The top is undeniably attractive, covered in a machine-washable, polyester-cotton blend which is surprisingly durable. It also keeps the table silent when stowed in the car, as there are no metal slats to bang together on corrugations.

If you’re looking for an attractive balance of form and function, the Primus Campfire is a well-rounded choice. $130 | PRIMUS.US

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$1,700 AND UP | ALPACKARAFT.COM

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FIELD TESTED CHRIS CORDES

The Modern Mud-terrain Tire Cooper’s Discoverer STT Pro is packed with new technology, but how does it affect performance?

I doubt many of us stop to appreciate our tires on a daily basis, but there’s nothing like the Australian Outback to give you some perspective. Out there, hundreds of miles from nothing, and even further from something, you begin to cherish the precious rubber standing between you and a very long, miserable walk. It was in this unforgiving environment that the Cooper Discoverer STT Pro proved its worth and convinced me to test a set upon my return to the States.

The STT Pro is Cooper’s most advanced mud terrain to date. Their engineers spent an enormous amount of time honing the acoustic engineering, shape, and balance to deliver the off-pavement performance we expect from an M/T but with road manners closer to an A/T. It utilizes a hybrid of technology from their road-oriented products like a silicainfused rubber compound, relatively low tread void ratio, and an alternating 3/2 inner block pattern to improve stability while reducing noise. The STT Pros even funnel turbulent air caused by rotation through specially sculpted channels that alter the tire’s harmonics, resulting in the quietest M/T I have tested to date.

Weight was kept low at just 69 pounds for our 315/75/ R16 in load range E, which is lighter than many A/Ts on the market in the same size, and meant that I only saw a 1.5- to 2-mpg drop from my previous KO2s. Wet weather performance was excellent thanks to the silica-infused rubber, and traction felt strong while cornering.

Alternating shoulder lugs on the top edge of the tire bite into the terrain at different angles, giving the Pro plenty of traction as it rolls down the trail. Side-biting lugs improve grip on the shoulder and side of the tire, while also increasing resistance to punctures or tears. Not that the STT Pro needs

much more reinforcement, as it already carries Cooper’s Armor-Tek3 technology, which utilizes a cross-hatch pattern of internal plies instead of the traditional straight-layered construction. The company claims this increases strength by 66 percent while making the tires 2.5 times more tear resistant in the The STT Pros even funnel turbulent air caused by sidewall than the previous generrotation through specially ation. As an added bonus, lateral sculpted channels that stability is also increased, counalter the tire’s harmonics, teracting the natural tendency of resulting in the quietest M/Ts to wander.

M/T I have tested to date.

The anti-stone retention feature worked great and cleared out small pebbles easily, but I was more impressed by the effectiveness of the mud-release dimples, which kept the tread voids open and ready to claw their way forward through any soft surface. The offset 3/2 tread pattern eliminated the sideslip often produced by traditional M/Ts when off camber in the mud, and impressed us with its grip on rock obstacles.

Even under the slippery conditions encountered in Colorado’s high mountains, the STT Pros helped my Excursion tackle ledges where more nimble vehicles fell short.

After 15,000 miles, the factory 21/32 tread depth had been reduced to 16/32, or about 75 percent of the tire’s life.

They showed minimal signs of cupping or feathering and no chipping. The tires I tested in Australia had seen 30,000 miles of hard use, and while they had more chips and noise had increased, they were still going strong.

US.COOPERTIRE.COM

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FIELD TESTED CHRIS SCOTT AND BRYON BASS

Ubco is the world’s first production 2x2 electric motorcycle, a lightweight, go-anywhere mule aimed at ranchers and rangers, but just as suited to urban duties and trail wrangling. Conceived and developed in New Zealand, the road-legal export model features LED lighting, smartphone connectivity, a 75-mile range, and a top speed of 30 mph—anyone with a licence can ride it. With a weight of just 144 pounds, it’ll easily perch on a truck’s fender rack.

I was guided round a North Island MTB trail by Ubco’s CEO, Tim Allan, and found the two-wheel ute’s learning curve no steeper than a loading ramp. The oversized MX footrests, low saddle, 5 inches of welldamped travel, and a 48-ampere-hour battery set low in the step-through trellis frame made whizzing through the tangled undergrowth easy and fun. Unlike more powerful electric motorcycles, Ubco’s two 1-kilowatt hub motors are in the wheels, eliminating messy chains or drive belts while lending themselves to AWD. With smooth, near-silent, twist-andgo propulsion coupled with regenerative braking, you’re free to focus on the trail where the trials-block Kenda tires ensure secure traction. On loose dirt, initially incongruous front-wheel spins are the only time you’ll notice the 2x2. The Ubco may have the top speed of a moped, but it delivers 90 Newton meters of torque as soon as power is applied making for a lively ride—whether to town for provisions or off the beaten path. (CS)

Ubco 2x2 Electro glide in white—a noiseless and efficient way to travel, both on and off the pavement.

$6,999 | UBCOBIKES.COM

Triple Aught Design Fast Pack Scout The art of less.

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Triple Aught Design’s development team definitely ponders backpack nuances and heeds input. Lacking most of the external webbing on the larger models, the Scout runs lean with compression straps.

TAD’s usual Hypalon rubber reinforceOVERLAND JOURNAL FALL 2019

ments, svelte yet padded shoulder straps, and superior tailoring are present. Top shelf ITW GhillieTEX hardware, MIL–SPEC Cordura 1000D fabric, and YKK zippers keep it up to any task. With all its built-in quality, I still felt the 15-liter-capacity Scout appeared under-equipped.

Some continents and many field hours later, and I find it refreshingly Spartan. The administrative compartment provides slots for pens, a small flashlight, and a Rite-inthe-Rain, with the remainder open all the way down. The main compartment zipper circumnavigates the pack, save the bottom, instantly revealing all contents—superb for airport security and field. Two internal mesh pockets organize loose items, and there is a hydration bladder sleeve. The unpadded waist belt can be secured or removed. An in-

verted, Velcro-secured gear stash is accessed from the pack’s base. If two compression straps can’t hold your kit, the detachable Transporter Tail (not shown) will. Shoulder and waist straps have ample length for winter gear or motorcycle jackets.

The über-minimalist Scout presents a subtle rucksack paradigm shift. It necessitates contemplation of bare essentials, promoting systematic less-is-more efficiency.

Wool beanie, 13-inch laptop, water, extra Merino layer, bag of gorp, small camera, field notebook, maps, binoculars, survival tin, compass, copy of Overland Journal— no problem. Various colors (foliage green shown). (BB) $195 | TRIPLEAUGHTDESIGN.COM

FIELD TESTED SARAH RAMM

APP REVIEW

Audible

Listen to fiction, learn a new language, or improve your skills.

Originally recorded as an aid for the sight-impaired, audiobooks have been around since 1932. The technology available at that time made long recordings near impossible, but as equipment and digital storage space continued to advance, so did the audiobook.

Anyone who has spent long hours in the seat of a car will agree that auditory stimulation is one of the requisites to staying awake, so it seems only a natural fit to listen to books while on the road. When it comes to audiobooks, Audible is such a clear leader in this space that I had to look to see if there were even competitors.

Audible is straightforward, easy to navigate, and downloading content for offline listening is as simple as it should be. You can

bookmark sections of the book that you’d like to revisit, and quickly replay parts you missed with the 30-second replay button. Narration speed can be adjusted between 0.5 and 3.5 times the original speed—a very helpful feature. Audible integrates with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and driving mode simplifies the interface to just three buttons: play, create a bookmark, and 30-second playback.

While the app is free, content requires purchasing. Since the narration can make or break an audiobook, I would highly recommend listening to a sample before making a selection.

FREE | AUDIBLE.COM

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OVERLAND NEWS SCOTT BRADY

The 2020 Range Rover Evoque Land Rover has made its most popular vehicle better.

The Evoque has always been a compact crossover utility vehicle (CUV) with an emphasis on design and performance, while still delivering respectable fuel economy and the Land Rover promise of all-road capability. For 2020, Land Rover is launching the MKII model, which is almost 100 percent new, yet remains visually familiar.

ON THE ROAD Any Range Rover should be a pleasure to pilot on

pavement, consuming miles with brand-honoring aplomb, and the new Evoque is no exception. Road noise was noticeably lower, and steering feel was excellent—a major improvement in tuning and weighting, particularly on center. The 2.0-liter, turbocharged I4 is eager under heavy acceleration, and the turbo spools quickly, producing a 7-second, 0-60 run with the nonhybrid variant, and a 6.3 time for the mild hybrid. It feels faster than these numbers indicate, particularly when gear holding with the paddles. I found the Evoque to exhibit excellent grip on twisting roads with only mild understeer. The vehicle (like most performance-oriented CUVs) benefited from late braking and late apex to take advantage of setting the front end and the AWD drivetrain. The detail and clarity of the new Clearview rearview mirror is something to behold and one of the most impressive new technologies I have experienced as a test driver.

AS AN OVERLANDER I am not going to pretend that the Evoque is a

Defender on the trail or the best choice to load with gear for a trip around the world, but it does do a better job of backcountry travel than most CUVs. In particular, the vehicle can be specified with 18-inch wheels and taller profile tires, which increase puncture resistance and allow for some airing down. This new model also comes standard with Terrain Response 2 with five driving modes: General, ECO, Sand, Grass-Gravel-Snow, and Mud and Ruts and an electronically controlled torque-on-demand rear axle. This is complemented by hill descent control, hill hold control, and now crawl control. I tested all of these systems on mixed terrain

and with a wide range of traction surfaces from sand and mud to loamy soil and gravel. Ground clearance is a respectable 8.3 inches, and approach and departure angles are 25 and 30.6 degrees respectively, which will cause more than a few stalwart models to blush (a 200-Series Land Cruiser has 8.9 inches of ground clearance and a 24-degree departure angle). Suspension articulation is limited, so traction control works overtime to maintain forward progress in cross-axle terrain. Slow speed control was better than expected because of the 4.7:1 first gear and final drive (axle) ratio of PROS 4.54:1. The maximum torque of 269 Excellent off-highway performance for a crossover pound-feet is also available as low Fun to drive at speed on as 1,300 rpm—this is not a dirt and pavement replacement for proper low range 20 percent more payload capacity than a Tacoma gearing but is impressive for a CUV. More payload and towing The fording depth is nearly 2 feet. capacity than a Jeep Overall, the Evoque is a stylWrangler (gasp) ish crossover with far better dirt CONS performance than most CUVs. Limited interior space It will be popular with those who aft of the driver commute in the cities or want the Passenger-rated tires economy, value, and performance easily punctured Limited ground clearance of a crossover but enjoy occasional at the quarter panels dirt forays and winter trips to the ski slopes. It is also entirely suitable for loading up with camping gear and driving the Mojave Road on the weekend—just pack a good compressor and tire repair kit. It is easy for overlanders to dismiss crossovers out of hand, but they often meet the needs of some travelers and at a lower overall purchase price and cost of operation. I still remember being in the middle of Mongolia hundreds of miles from the nearest city, with a traditional SUV, only to be passed on the grassy steppes by a local in a crossover.

LANDROVERUSA.COM

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OVERLAND NEWS SCOTT BRADY

Photography by Moto Guzzi

The Classic Enduro Moto Guzzi reveals their ultimate adventure motorcycle with the V85 TT.

There is something beautiful about the sound of a V-twin engine sparking to life, settling into a low exhaust rumble—the same engine configuration designed by Giulio Cesare Carcano nearly 60 years ago. I find that almost everything about a Moto Guzzi sparks emotion, which is why I purchased a V7 Special years ago for the in-town back and forth.

In mid-March, I flew to Sardinia to test the newest Guzzi, their V85 TT, a motorcycle that Piaggio Group has positioned as the first classic enduro. The concept has massive appeal to me as a rider, as it not only brings in the nostalgic visuals of early scramblers but includes a proper dose of simplicity and durability. I find this new category of motorcycles to be a reminder of what these machines are supposed to be: our magic carpet rides to adventure.

FOR THE TRAVELER Traveling by motorcycle is one of the great joys

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of the overlander—the freedom that comes with ease of movement and minimalist equipment. The V85 TT was designed from the ground up for travel with a low maintenance shaft drive, an aircooled motor, a wide, comfortable PROS seat, and a 6-gallon fuel tank. The Classic, yet modernized rider position is very upright but Shaft drive also allows for transitioning into Effective traction control and ABS a more aggressive stance for 6-gallon fuel tank and a carving mountain roads. The 500-pound wet weight cylinder heads are in a perfect spot to hold the rider in place during CONS Exhaust low and unprotected heavy braking, and the ABSBelow average fuel economy controlled brakes are excellent at 48 mpg with twin 320-millimeter discs Suspension travel below with four-piston Brembo calipers. average at 6.7 inches Behind the classically styled twin headlamps with daytime running lamps is a 4.3-inch, highluminosity TFT display. It is smaller than others on the market, but far better protected, and clearly displays critical information OVERLAND JOURNAL FALL 2019

like riding mode, air temperature, fuel level, and cruise control operation.

ON THE TRAIL During this test ride, the dirt section was admittedly

short, but I was able to negotiate to the front of the pack and push the limits a bit on the mixed-surface course. Immediately apparent were the ease of riding in the standing position and how well balanced the motorcycle felt. It is surprisingly stable and surefooted, which speaks to the overall package design and suspension tuning. The V85 TT uses a dual rate spring and firm shock damping, so it does work better on the dirt than the 6.7 inches of travel would indicate.

The off-road riding mode minimizes traction control and turns off the well-tuned ABS on the rear brake completely. As I bounced over rocks and ruts with the Moto Guzzi, I remember thinking how perfect the idea of a classic enduro really is: not a dirt bike pretender, but at home on any road in the world.

MOTOGUZZI.COM

Clockwise from top: The V85 TT is comfortable to stand on, even without bar risers, and the overall balance encourages generous throttle on the dirt. With the tubular frame, high fender, and overall minimalist architecture, Moto Guzzi nailed the aesthetic. A first for the brand, the model is equipped with a bright and readable color TFT display.

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The Long Way to the Airport Peru’s most unlikely tour guides wind through some of the world’s most scenic and deadly alpine roads.

By Emma Rogers

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Clockwise from top left: We found ourselves in the sleepy mountain town of Pallasca. The rolling Andean highlands near Cajamarca are quite stunning.

We found fuel (and cheese) for sale in Pallasca. This unrelenting hairpin road descends the steep Tablachaca Canyon. The high alpine passes of the Peruvian Andes seem to stretch endlessly into the distance. Opening spread: The highway along the crumbling Tablachaca Canyon in Ancash, Peru, has you hemmed in at times.

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ridlock, choking fumes, a clamor of horns. Motos, taxis, buses, and trucks vie for space, trading paint and insults without mercy. Battered lane markings intended to impose order, now useless, are lost beneath the chaos. Pedestrians clamber between the vehicles latching on to slow-moving buses, abandoning taxis.

Not exactly the wilderness adventure one pictures when planning an overlanding journey. The only way to move forward was to become a part of this chaotic steel ballet. Like teeth in a turning cog, we lumbered in unison toward our destination. A glance at the clock told us we should have been there already.

That Ben and I were even this close was a testament to our good fortune. Or the fact that we were now stuck in traffic could be seen as the result of a complete lack of planning. It depends on how you look at it.

Six months earlier, we were 18 months into our trip overlanding through the Americas. Reflecting that we hadn’t seen our families in a while, we had an idea. Why not invite Ben’s parents to meet us for a holiday? They took us up on the offer, the deal no doubt sweetened by our offer to act as unpaid tour guides and an airport taxi service.

From Antigua, Guatemala, we began a lengthy journey to pick the folks up from the airport. Lengthy, as they were flying into Lima, Peru. Six months after departing Guatemala, we were now in the final stages, crossing the border into Peru from Ecuador, with a little over a week remaining to arrive in Lima. There were a mere 1,113 kilometers left down the Coastal Route 1, also known as the Pan-American Highway, some 17 hours’ drive according to Google—easy.

Too easy, actually. A whole week, that’s plenty of time for an adventure, right? Sensible choices don’t tend to make for the best trips. So, we left the reliable coastal highway and struck inland.

We’re mountain people through and through.

The winding switchbacks of the Andean highlands had been calling our names. It would have been rude not to respond. Like its coastal counterpart, Highway 3N will lead you on a north–south journey through Peru. The difference is that it winds its way haphazardly amongst the jagged contours of the country’s northern highlands.

From the city of Cajamarca, we were putting our faith entirely in this road. Our GPS, Javier, was simply along for the ride. As usual, we had not prepared with respectable maps or a plan of any sort, opting to follow our noses south.

In these mountains, roads are a thin ribbon of civilization reaching out through a lonely wilderness, connecting a chain of towns and villages with the occasional larger city. Some days we passed through dozens of small, rural communities with a handful of homes and not much more. Other times, we found ourselves following the meandering trail over breathtaking mountain passes (anything over 4,000 meters counts as breathtaking, regardless of scenery; the lack of oxygen will ensure this) before cascading into peaceful valleys or returning to kilometers of barren alpine scrubland.

Many of the towns were eerily quiet, the few inhabitants off working for the day. Empty plazas and closed doorways greeted us. But in some towns, people would shout “gringo” and wave as we passed by. These places offered a view into a peaceful way of life, and

we lamented not having the time to enjoy it as we rushed south.

As the last glimpse of the charming, aging, colonial-style buildings of Mollebamba shrank from the mirrors, we realized we ought to have stopped for gas. But the next populated area of Pallasca didn’t look too far away on the very vague GPS map.

Distances as the crow flies are meaningless in the Andean highlands. Ten kilometers separate the two towns, both situated at approximately 3,000 meters. But the most direct road takes a serpentine 40-kilometer detour plunging into the Tablachaca Valley 1,500 meters below, before clawing its way back skyward via an unrelenting series of hairpins.

Decaying towers of rock The fuel light emitted a forlorn loomed above as we glow by the time we arrived in Paldescended to the floor lasca, and we could only hope there of the Tablachaca River was some fuel for sale. We had come Valley. Here, the canyon to expect roadside carts full of various floor consisted of barren containers of questionable gasoline, desert and loose rock—an but now that we needed it, we real- eerie moonscape made all ized that we hadn’t seen any. “Go back the more dramatic by the down that street; it’s the house with late afternoon glow. the barrel outside.” At least I’m reasonably certain that is what the friendly cajeta vendor said to me since I was too busy enjoying my sample of sweet caramel and counting out loose change to buy my own supply of the treat.

We rolled back down the narrow street and there it was. Upon closer inspection, the barrel even had an old Mobil logo on it.

Scrawled on the wall in rough hand lettering was a sign, Se Vende Queso. Well, at least we might be able to get some cheese.

The dull thud at first went unanswered. Ben tentatively nudged the creaking door ajar to call out ¿Hola? before a raucous cacophony of barking broke the silence—at least someone knew we were there.

The owner of the service station and resident cheesemonger emerged from behind the antique wooden door, accompanied by her assistant Frijol, a blind dalmatian. He stood guard while the cheerful woman disappeared back inside to retrieve various containers to quench our 4Runner’s thirst.

With a supply of snacks and plenty of fuel, we departed the tranquil town, continuing to follow the narrow highway. There appeared to be a shortcut, at least according to our maps. If you can’t trust wildly inaccurate, outdated GPS maps (maps which you bought on eBay for the bargain price of $20), what can you trust?

This particular shortcut soon had us following a narrowing road: a single lane, clinging to the crumbling mountainside. Decaying towers of rock loomed above as we descended to the floor of the Tablachaca River Valley once more. Here, the canyon floor consisted of barren desert and loose rock—an eerie moonscape made all the more dramatic by the late afternoon glow.

We passed through roughly hewn tunnels, reminding us that we needed to return inland to rejoin the main road if we wanted to experience the famous Cañón del Pato. Sure, time was ticking, but what was the harm in going a few hundred kilometers out of our way on another winding mountain road? With a combined lack of maps and research, we regularly asked one another, “Do you think this is the Cañón del Pato?”

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The Tablachaca River Canyon road continued to impress us at every turn. One of the many tunnels of the Cañon del Pato. Opposite: We followed the road back inland through to the Cañon del Pato.

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Perhaps this was it? We passed through ruggedly carved rocky tunnels and under towering rock faces, and soon found ourselves in a narrow canyon with only a few meters gap between sheer cliffs.

There was no mistaking it. This was the famous canyon road, and we could see why it had such a reputation. It seemed more solidly built and welltraveled than the other roads we had been driving.

The sheer audacity of building a way through such unforgiving country impressed us most.

The Cañón del Pato is at the northern end of the famous Callejón de las Huaylas, and passes between the Cordillera Blanca and the Cordillera Negra, with towering 6,000-meter peaks above.

Dozens of hand-cut, rough-hewn tunnels link sections carved into the narrow cliffs, and signs remind you to honk your horn to prevent collisions in the pitch black, one-lane tunnels.

By the time we had shaken the road dust out of our belongings and caught up on work in Caraz, no time remained to explore the famous Huascarán National Park. Back on main highways again, the going was rapid. We followed the Callejón de las Huaylas south to Lake Conococha and began our final descent back to the coast. Here, Highway 16 drops steadily from 4,000 meters to sea level over approximately 120 kilometers and is popular with cyclists who enjoy uphill suffering, and overlanders who love saving gas on the downhill journey.

Crystal, bright blue skies above and crops laid out to dry colored the arid landscape. The canary yellow of drying maize and vibrant red of chilies carpeted the roadsides. Caught up in the magic of the road trip, we felt excited at the idea of sharing this journey with family.

Several years earlier we had taken a trip to the south of Peru and Bolivia. It was during this previous escapade that we first discussed the idea of driving from Alaska to Argentina. Lima had been our first stop, and we were looking forward to returning as a homecoming of sorts. We were about to arrive at our first familiar place in over two years, and Ben’s family would be arriving soon, so there would be familiar faces too.

The sun dipped below the horizon, the last rays strangled a dusty, muted purple by the thick sea fog mixed with desert dust. Through this hazy glow, we caught our first glimpse of the scraggly outer “suburbs” of Lima; these makeshift pueblos jóvenes grow almost organically, the newest neighborhoods in a city of millions. A silence fell in the front seats as we took it all in. The broad highway swept us past these dusty outer barrios into the early evening chaos of Lima proper.

It was a contrast to the peaceful, empty streets of the small alpine towns, but our travels had conditioned us to the traffic, noise, and random lane changing. Ben barely batted an eyelid in the manic rush-hour traffic.

As we drove out to the airport, we found ourselves hemmed in by traffic on all sides. We were so close to our destination, but everything had ground to a halt. It took both of us to navigate this stretch, leaning out windows, waving, swooping into seeming non-existent gaps. It was all we could do to avoid being squeezed out of the flow of traffic. Success—we arrived about an hour late and found our jet-lagged passengers patiently waiting at the terminal.

This wasn’t quite the end of the journey. It’s unreasonable to pick people up from the airport without offering to drop them off again later—that’s simply good manners. Did I mention we were dropping them to catch their next flight from La Paz, Bolivia?

So began the second half of our Peruvian journey. Relishing our role as the world’s most unprepared tour guides, we treated Ben’s parents to an adventure to remember. Or perhaps one that they would prefer to forget.

Not wanting to throw his unsuspecting family in the deep end, we thought it wise to refrain from immediately embarking on one

of our poorly planned driving routes. It seemed a safer bet to start within the confines of the city of Lima.

Our idea of easing into an excursion did not include time for recovering from jet lag. With so much to see in this sprawling metropolis, we made good use of our Dozens of hand-cut, brief stay: ancient ruins, a creepy unrough-hewn tunnels derground crypt, a park full of stray link sections carved into felines, and some musical fountains. the narrow cliffs, and History, food, culture, and cats, our signs remind you to honk Lima tour had it all. your horn to prevent From Lima, we followed the collisions in the pitch smooth tarmac of the Pan American black, one-lane tunnels.

Highway south, a journey we remembered well from our earlier visit to Peru. It had all felt so strange then, almost surreal, and our passengers were experiencing these places with the same wonder. This time, for us, it really did feel like returning home.

The deep emerald waters of the oasis at Huacachina pooled at the feet of towering dunes now felt familiar rather than exotic.

Palm fronds waved gently, greeting us like old friends. It would be impossible not to feel a little nostalgic.

We climbed the rickety roadside Nazca Lines Observation

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Clockwise from top left: Ruins seem to be everywhere in Peru, even in downtown Lima (Huaca Pucllana). The Pisac ruins are in a more pastoral setting near Cusco. Protected tombs at Chauchilla near Nazca offer a glimpse of sacred traditions. The precise Incan stonework at Qorikancha in Cusco is impressive in stature. Signs of looted graves were present near Cahuachi, a significant ceremonial center in Nazca. Huacachina, a true oasis in the desert.

Tower, and Ben’s parents marveled at the ancient geoglyphs. Instead, I found my eyes drifting to the narrow strand of black tarmac, reaching out across the dusty plains.

I remembered standing in this very spot years before. We had eagerly chatted about how one day we could drive the length of the Pan American Highway. Back then, we spoke of it as a distant, unachievable dream. Now we were back and over two years into doing exactly that. Well, I say exactly that. It wasn’t exactly that.

We hadn’t actually spent much of our travels following the Pan American Highway. We had been more inclined to head inland and follow those winding mountain roads. It felt fitting that when we did rejoin the main highway, it was somewhere that evoked such powerful memories.

Our tour guests weren’t here to marvel at sealed highways. We have those at home in abundance. What we don’t have in New Zealand are many ancient ruins. We had heard mention of a temple at Cahuachi located nearby. Traveling dusty roads to find this lonesome spot proved to be an even more interesting trip than a flight over the Nazca Lines. Excavation and preservation work are still in progress here. This means Cahuachi doesn’t have the polish and touristic feel of some of the more frequented locations.

Sadly, we could also see a lot more “excavation” had been going on along the roadside leading to the temple complex. The sand was littered with skulls, bones, and shards of pottery left over from looted graves.

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The Maras Salt Ponds almost appear to be painted onto the landscape.

To reach La Paz, we would have to leave the desert behind and return to the breathtaking heights of the Andean mountains. Climbing high above Cerro Blanco (a more than 1000-meter-tall sand dune) we were heading for the heart of the Inca civilization— Cusco. We broke up the journey with stops in small towns to enjoy festivals or meander through markets, sampling food at busy eateries as we went.

A visit to the mysterious Sayhuite Monolith near Abancay sparked a whirlwind tour of ancient sites in the Cusco area: SaqsayFamilies work their wamán, Chinchero, Pisac, allotted ponds harvestOllantaytambo, Moray, ing salt. The combined Pikillacta. And, of course, appearance of these no whistle-stop tour is individual ponds forms a complete without a visit to surreal patchwork; Machu Picchu. squares of white to redAfter a while though, dish brown are terraced no matter how spectacualong the hillside, bringing an alien quality lar, amazing, historical, or to the landscape. fascinating each ruin was in its own right, it all began to meld into one hazy memory of perfect Incan stonework and neatly aligned terraces. We wanted to wow the folks and visit somewhere that would stand out among these ancient temples and farms.

The Maras Salt Ponds were just the ticket. In use since pre-Incan times, the evaporation ponds are still functioning today. Families work their allotted ponds harvesting salt. The combined appearance of these individual ponds forms a surreal patchwork; squares of white to reddish brown are terraced along the hillside, bringing an alien quality to the landscape—as well as flavor to papas fritas.

Our journey to La Paz for the final airport dropoff was nearing its end. We rounded out our time in Peru with a visit to Lake Titicaca. The enormous lake straddles the border between Peru and Bolivia at an elevation of almost 4,000 meters. It is the perfect spot to cross the border while simultaneously impressing your visitors.

By the time we arrived in Bolivia, Ben’s parents were well aware that we were taking the most scenic route to the airport. No eyebrows were raised when we mentioned a brief side trip down El Camino de la Muerte. Well maybe some eyebrows raised—the name Road of Death doesn’t typically evoke calm when on a road trip.

The old North Yungas Road is most famous for the number of lives it has taken over the years. Estimates suggest that at its worst, this road was claiming up to 300 souls a year. This was a harrowing thought to contemplate while gazing over the edge to treetops hundreds of meters below. It is far safer today. From time to time, travelers still fall victim to this sinisterly sinuous alpine road, but these days it is a tourist attraction, not a main highway.

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From La Cumbre Pass near La Paz, we took the main highway toward Coroico. There is no shortage of beauty in Peru.

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Descending from over 4,500 meters at La Cumbre, above La Paz down to 1,200 meters at Coroico is popular with mountain bikers who don’t want to pedal uphill, which is probably the most fun way to enjoy this road. The numbers sounded impressive, and the road certainly was.

However, after the narrow, winding switchbacks and tunnels of Peru, this lazy jungle road seemed charming rather than terrifying.

The views were, of course, spectacular; a perfect, scenic end to the journey before a hasty retreat to La Paz for an early-morning flight.

We’re pleased to report that Ben’s parents not only survived their whirlwind tour but enjoyed it. They took the dodgy street

food, jet lag, budget accommodation, cold showers, night driving, poor planning, and general lack of professionalism from their guides completely in stride.

Even better, we managed to get them to La Paz in time for their onward flight. Our first outing as an international overland airport shuttle and tour guiding service was a resounding success.

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Cartography by David Medeiros (mapbliss.com)

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Freeze-dried Feasts This is not your grandpa’s backpacking food—the evolution of the shelf-stable meal for the backcountry traveler.

By Scott Brady Chart by Sarah Ramm

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can still remember the smell of the horse shashlik, a tub of meat and indecipherable seasonings that we pulled from a freezer in the remote Russian village of Kosh-Agach.

The only way I knew it was horse meat was from the line-art drawing of an equine on the lid, and the confirming nod and smirk from the storekeeper when I pointed and whinnied.

Food was scarce in this extremely remote area of southern Russia, and this was the only meat available for sale at the outpost. We stocked up as best we could in anticipation of several weeks of travel on the formidable northern road across Mongolia. The border proved brutal with a combination of entry delays and an incident with the local military where a drunk driver crashed the ambulance he was driving into the border fence. We were almost out of food and had resorted to eating goat skull bartered from a local. The next night, camped on the Mongol steppes, we found ourselves officially out of fresh food. Fortunately, I had packed 72 hours of backpacking meals in the Jimny for just such an occasion, and the taste of that freeze-dried spaghetti with meatballs still lingers. For this comprehensive test, we evaluated the best shelf-stable food on the market and employed the taste buds of five members of the Overland Journal team to help choose a winner.

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WHY PACK SHELF-STABLE MEALS? As with anything we pack in our vehicles or motorcycles, even food requires justification. Simplicity should always remain the mantra, leaving any grand aspirations of meal prepper nirvana at the altar of payload. However, that makes a case for having 72 hours of shelf-stable meals in the vehicle. They are often designed for backpacking; the packaging is compact and lightweight, and the food requires minimal cooking complexity to prepare. The newest meals are also quite delicious and notably healthy, so it is the perfect excuse to turn a day trip into an overnighter—everything is already on hand.

I keep a combination of backpacking meals and dry goods with me, along with a simple BEFORE YOU COMMIT Primus Lite+ all-in-one stove, and a few bowls and sporks. I The best piece of advice have used these meals many I can give is to try the meals before making a times on the road or during imbulk investment and read promptu camps. They are essenthe reviews on popular tial to have for backup when the outdoor retailer sites. The fridge stops working, or even to flavor and quality of these help someone else in need. products vary wildly, with Backpacking meals can also some tasting worse than be a necessity in certain condian MRE and others being tions where it is impossible to hardly distinguishable from keep fresh food for extended something served at your periods of time, such as during local diner. long desert crossings or polar expeditions. I survived on freeze-dried and dehydrated meals for months during my Antarctic and Greenland crossings, and they never failed to warm the belly and feed the spirit when it was -40°. These meals are also a key consideration OVERLAND JOURNAL FALL 2019

for remote motorcycle travel, where weight and space are at a premium. With that, the motorcyclist should also be looking for maximum calorie load from the meal, as riding adventure bikes in the dirt is a serious energy expense.

SELECTING THE BEST MEALS The best piece of advice I can give is to try the meals before making a bulk investment and read the reviews on popular outdoor retailer sites. The flavor and quality of these products vary wildly, with some tasting worse than an MRE and others being hardly distinguishable from something served at your local diner.

STORAGE LIFE It was surprising how much the storage life

varied in the brands we chose, from as little as eight months from the date of purchase (Patagonia) to nearly 30 years for the longest lasting (Mountain House). This wide variation is due to the difference between freeze-drying, dehydrating, and in the case of Tasty Bite, the use of retort pouches and a process similar to canning. Freeze-drying is the most modern and technical of the processes, perfected during World War II as a method of preserving plasma, food, and medications. There are several advantages to freeze-drying, including lighter weight, a much longer shelf life, and higher retention of nutrients because of the lack of heat used in the process.

Dehydrated meals take much longer to prepare and cook.

Curiously, almost all of the available backpacking meals are dehydrated, not freeze-dried.

WEIGHT AND PACKABILITY This consideration is primarily

for the motorcyclist, but the packaging of these meals varies widely, particularly when you compare the calorie density.

Mountain House is the bulkiest in the test and has one of the lower caloric loads. It is also important to calculate how much water is needed for rehydrating and plan accordingly. In areas where fresh water is plentiful (and can be filtered), then rehydration is not a problem. However, in areas where hauling water is a factor, there is no downside to bringing shelf-stable meals such as Tasty Bite.

HEALTH, NUTRITION, AND CALORIE DENSITY Travelers can

have a wide range of nutritional and dietary restrictions or preferences. Fortunately, it is easy to find vegan, vegetarian, or pescetarian meals that are gluten free, dairy free, etcetera.

Those with nut allergies will have a more difficult time as the Backpacker’s Pantry was the only option that did not have a nut warning. It is also possible to find meals with higher protein content, but it is far more challenging to purchase ketoand paleo-friendly options. I was impressed by the number of meals that were organic or non-GMO, with Patagonia Provisions having the strongest overall environmental stance.

FLAVOR AND PALATABILITY In my experience, nearly every backpacking meal tastes amazing at the end of a long day of hiking, so we tested this lineup from the comfort of our offic-

es and in a controlled environment. The spicier offerings did better, but texture and smell were both still factors. The Thai and Indian dishes were loved, while any attempt at sounding fancy (e.g., chicken piccata) was generally confronted with scrunched noses and unfinished samples.

EASE OF PREPARATION For preparation, we evaluated how

easy it was to open the package and how much water was needed for rehydration. The dehydrated meals took the longest to make, with some taking as long as 20 minutes. As the Good To-Go instructions suggest, “Stir and reseal. Hang out for 20 minutes. Think about how big the universe is.” That resulted in some wonderful conversation among our team— good advice.

TESTING CRITERIA We emphasized a combination of objective and subjective criteria, with a weighting toward taste as determined by our panel of judges. We selected brands based upon their reputation in the industry and chose a broad range of options for travelers with diverse food needs. For the individual meal choices, we used both REI and Amazon consumer feedback rankings to determine the recipes that had the highest overall ratings for the manufacturer. There are certainly more options out there, but it is our job to thin the herd down to a manageable few.

On testing day, we gathered five team members and one dog to our editorial suite for a long lunch of tasting, banter, and judging. Fortunately, our team represents a wide range of foodies, with some being more interested in texture, others being more excited about taste, and a few being most interested in the nutrition of the meals. Atlas, the malamute, was an enthusiastic participant as well, and he did like some more than others (beef stroganoff for the win). We purchased three of each selection and prepared two for the trial. The first was used for sampling, and the second was used to validate cook time and to assess plating, overall smell, and palatability.

Managing Editor Sarah Ramm boiled water in an electric pot to ensure repeatability and ease, then measured the liquid precisely to the manufacturer’s recommendation. The meal was then stirred as directed and left to cook for the prescribed time in our 74°F office. Any variations to cook time were recorded, with most requiring additional time due to our locale’s 5,164-feet elevation. The meal was served in 12-ounce paper cups (new cups with each option), and the evaluators made notes and ratings on texture, flavor, appeal, temperature, salt level, accuracy of hydration, and closeness to actual food.

Additional comments were noted, and all of the scores were aggregated into separate overall ratings, weighted ratings, and then an overall combined scoring. The evaluation was certainly dynamic but filled with critical commentary and impressions. I believe it would be impossible to accurately and appropriately evaluate these meals without a quorum of overlanders to balance individual biases.

49 Top four photos clockwise: Sarah pours purified water into the electric kettle to establish a boil. Not surprisingly, the food that looked good dried tasted better, too. Some test participants were more eager than others. The Good To-Go meals had informative and humorous labeling. Bottom left: Precise measurements were critical to the evaluation and proper rehydrating. Bottom right: Some meals required rehydrating or cooking in a pot, which does add to cleanup and water usage. Opening page: The options for shelf-stable meals are better than ever, and some are now even worth eating.

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ALPINEAIRE | SPICY CHICKEN CURRY A company with a 40-year history of making quality, easy-to-prepare goodness.

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lpineAire is a subsidiary of the Katadyn Group, well known for brands like Optimus and SteriPen. In business since 1979, the company is celebrating 40 years of producing high-quality, healthy freeze-dried and dehydrated meals for the outdoors and emergency use. Their products are known for their variety, preparation convenience, and purity of ingredients with no artificial preservatives, flavorings, colorings, MSG, or white sugar. The packaging is durable and easy to open, and has a ziplock seal for cooking. The package size is large enough for water, but not too big to complicate storage. The base of the bag is wide and stable, permitting freestanding while cooking or eating.

The cooking process was straightforward and efficient with a 12-minute cook time, the upper end of their recommendation, but consistent with the test elevation.

Once finished, the consistency was notably wet, more like a stew or soup than a typical curry with rice. It would benefit from less water. A delicious smell permeated the room on opening the bag, but the compliOVERLAND JOURNAL FALL 2019

ments slowed from there. Overall, evaluators found the dish to be far too light on spice and flavor with a gritty or grainy consistency. These tasting notes are often unnoticed or easily forgivable after a 10-mile hike, but relevant for car camping. I appreciated the clarity of labeling on the packaging and the relatively healthy ingredients list, the only additive being maltodextrin.

600 CALORIES | 28G PROTEIN | $8, TWO SERVINGS | ALPINEAIRE.COM

PROS Long shelf life for a dehydrated meal Quality, recognizable ingredients, and no preservatives Many gluten-free options “It smells great; I like the raisins— looks okay, not spicy.” -Scott CONS Lower overall calorie load Needs more spice “It’s not spicy, pretty bland, the curry wasn’t really there, gritty—looked more like curry than it tasted. ” -Alex

BACKPACKERʼS PANTRY | CHICKEN PICCATA WITH TAGLIATELLE PASTA This is a better option for emergencies than camping.

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or over 60 years, Backpacker’s Pantry has been producing camping meals, their first efforts inspired by a Girl Scout trip gone awry. As a company, it is still a privately held, family-owned brand that makes the meals in Boulder, Colorado.

Their recipes are made from both freezedried and dehydrated ingredients with an estimated shelf life of up to 10 years for the packaged options, and 25 years for their #10 cans. We found it somewhat curious that the lot we received had already sat unsold for nearly four years. The package itself is durable and sturdy, arguably the most robust (but also the largest) of the test. This ruggedness made opening the package difficult, but closure for cooking was simple.

Cooking requires 2 cups of boiling water and 15 minutes of dwell time after stirring. When served, it looks appealing and home cooked. The pasta kept its shape, and the dish splashed with the color of the capers. Chunks of chicken were present throughout, which resulted in a high protein content, complemented by the fat from the olive oil. A few people noted a chemical smell, but everyone was excited about the

capers. However, flavor reports were either listed as mediocre, or in the case of Sarah, amazing. She expressed her love for chicken piccata and found the lemon flavoring and capers to be perfect, but she did comment after having leftovers the next day that the meal upset her stomach. Another evaluator found it inedible, while I found the taste as being middle of the range. It is important to note that this product does use several additives and preservatives.

560 CALORIES | 36G PROTEIN | $11, TWO SERVINGS | BACKPACKERSPANTRY.COM

PROS 10-year shelf life (freeze-dried) High protein Sturdy packaging “I loved the flavor, nice and lemony.

The capers are almost as good as the normal canned ones.” -Sarah CONS Chemical smell Preservatives and artificial additives Higher than average retail price “No, thank you, it smells really bad, like chemicals, and I don’t want to eat this.

The capers are not helpful—strange flavor.” -Stephanie

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GOOD TO-GO | THAI CURRY BAM! This tastes so good.

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he story of Good To-Go warms the heart; the business was started

by Jennifer Scism, who also serves as head chef for the dehydrated recipes. Her résumé includes running a New York Times fourstar restaurant and being a graduate of the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan.

She traveled the world for a year, visiting over 20 countries and discovering foods that would influence her future creations.

In 2005, she won the Iron Chef (as part of the first all-women team), and in 2008 was awarded the Golden Fork Award. She now runs Good To-Go with her husband, cofounder David Koorits, and they have focused entirely on making healthy, greattasting meals for adventurers.

Preparation is straightforward and calls for 2.5 cups of boiling water. The coconut milk powder package is added, and then everything stirred thoroughly. From there, some patience is required, as the Thai Curry has the longest rehydrating time of the test, a reflection of the lack of additives and that all of the contents are dehydrated, not

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freeze-dried. The quality and flavor of the entrée can best be described as delicious, and won our test for overall flavor, with everyone finishing their sample. I even ate the leftover bag the next day, and several evaluators said they would eat the meal at home.

770 CALORIES | 20G PROTEIN | $13, TWO SERVINGS/$7, ONE SERVING | GOODTO-GO.COM

PROS Highest evaluator taste rating Calorie dense Zero preservatives or artificial additives “Yes! It actually looks, smells, and tastes like real food, like I got it from a Thai restaurant. It’s spicy, as curry should be— tastes like more.” -Stephanie CONS Long cook time (20 minutes) High sodium Low protein “It could be improved by cooking on the stove rather than in the bag because of the time it took.” -Sarah

MOUNTAIN HOUSE | BEEF STROGANOFF This will last as long as a Land Cruiser and is nearly as appetizing.

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he oldest brand in our test, Mountain House, was started in 1969 during the Vietnam War when the US military put out a request for long-lasting, better-tasting, and lighter rations for longrange patrols with the Special Forces teams.

They continue to make military rations, but also specialize in backpacking, camping, and emergency preparedness. For 50 years, they have produced freeze-dried meals that last up to 30 years in storage, and have been to the moon and back. We selected beef stroganoff, a popular offering, and one rated highly among consumers.

The package is one of the bulkiest in the test, and unnecessarily so. It is also difficult to open and leaves a massive (nearly 3-inch) and unusable top strip that ends up in a landfill. By comparison, the Good ToGo top tear is 1/3 the size. On the positive end, the freeze-dried meal cooks in only nine minutes. Once plated, it scored lower on overall appeal and was generally described as smelling bad. Three of our evaluators rated the taste as slightly above average, while the other two scored the meal as below average to awful. It is extremely salty

on the palate, which may not be ideal if the meal is used after endurance activities. This brand is perfect for leaving in the vehicle for emergency preparedness but will disappoint most campers in regular use. Additives are included, and it is worth noting that modified corn starch, maltodextrin, carrageenan, and others all hit the ingredients list.

650 CALORIES | 27.5G PROTEIN | $9, TWO AND A HALF SERVINGS | MOUNTAINHOUSE.COM

PROS 30-year shelf life Quick cook time “Not bad; Atlas likes it.”

-Stephanie and Atlas CONS Performed poorly in taste test Strong artificial and chemical flavor Monster sodium load “It has a chemical and artificial flavor, salty. The beef bits are crunchy.” -Scott

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OUTDOOR HERBIVORE | CHICKPEA SESAME PENNE A healthy option for you and the planet, but it may not please all palates.

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utdoor Herbivore is a charming company with a genuine story of entrepreneurial dreams, ethical goals, and ingredients that are good for us and the planet. While not every overlander will want vegetarian or vegan meals, there is no arguing the healthy contents of the penne dish we selected. The company was founded by Kim Safdy, with a focus on locally sourced, renewable, and sustainable foods that include no flavor enhancers, preservatives, MSG, fillers, sulfites, nitrates, GMOs, textured vegetable protein, or artificial ingredients. The plant ingredients are certified organic, and everything is packaged in minimalist recyclable bags that are both space efficient and resealable.

Preparing the meal requires a pot and 1.5 cups of water. After bringing the water to a boil, the pasta mix and enclosed olive oil package are stirred in and continue to boil for one minute. Then the heat is turned off, and the contents cook covered for 10 minutes. Additional water will be needed to clean the pot. Once plated, the meal looks good with plump rice and quinoa flour pasta with a smattering of color and texture from OVERLAND JOURNAL FALL 2019

bell peppers, parsley, and sesame seeds. The flavor is admittedly bland without using the supplied salt and pepper packets, and the pasta texture will be foreign to anyone that has not experimented with gluten-free options. But the nutrition and overall healthiness of the dish stand out, even if the taste fell short. If the goal is to eat to live, not live to eat, then this is one of the best options available. The overall protein is the lowest in the test; consider adding beans or smoked fish to the dish.

640 CALORIES | 17G PROTEIN | $12, TWO SERVINGS/ $7, ONE SERVING | OUTDOORHERBIVORE.COM

PROS Vegan, gluten free, non-GMO, and certified organic Low sodium Compact packaging “The noodles were very grainy but had a lot of flavor.” -Alex CONS Requires cooking in a pot Low protein Bland flavor, may need salt and pepper “The dish needed salt as it was bland.” -Scott

PATAGONIA PROVISIONS | ORGANIC GREEN LENTIL SOUP AND WILD PINK SALMON This pairing is both filling and nutritious, made for protein and planet lovers.

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ne of the oldest, largest, and most respected brands in the test, Patagonia has only recently started producing shelf-stable food. Founder Yvon Chouinard has a passion for food and sustainable and organic standards. As a result, they have developed a high-quality offering that is non-GMO, organic, and produced with no chemicals, additives, or preservatives. Their range of products includes everything from vegan soups to smoked salmon, buffalo jerky, and mussels. We selected a serving of their organic green lentil soup and complemented it with a serving of their wildcaught, lightly smoked pink salmon fillets, making a complete meal.

For preparation, the soup requires a pot (cannot be cooked in the bag) and it is recommended to bring the 2 cups of water to a boil before simmering the contents for 10 minutes. To save fuel, it is also possible to boil for one minute and then cover and let sit for 9 minutes. Once plated, we added 4 ounces of the wild pink salmon to the dish, increasing the protein by 24 grams and adding a bump in overall flavor and nutrition.

For taste, the meal received better than average scores, with evaluators noting the overall balance of flavor and heartiness. It

is worth noting that there are no complete entrées available at this time, and pairings are made à la carte. The availability of jerky, salmon, and mussels are a win for the overland traveler, and the fish keeps for four years.

PROS Certified organic, non-GMO, sustainably caught Compact packaging Real smoked salmon fillets High protein “This is a healthy and hearty option.” -Scott

610 CALORIES | 49G PROTEIN | $14 SALMON, FOUR

CONS Requires cooking in a pot Needs to be paired with the salmon for flavor and protein Low spice “These are good if you like lentils, but are no different than regular ones with added seasoning.” -Sarah

SERVINGS/$7 SOUP, TWO SERVINGS | PATAGONIAPROVISIONS.COM

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TASTY BITE | INDIAN TIKKA MASALA AND BASMATI RICE These are all-natural meals that make every bite tasty.

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hen I first heard of Tasty Bite years ago, I was driving around Southern California with fellow adventurer Sinuhe Xavier going from store to store looking for these elusive delicacies—highly recommended by him as the perfect camp meal. We finally found them, and Sinuhe was right.

As a company, Tasty Bite has been around for 25 years making easy-to-prepare, flavorful, and all-natural Indian food made in India. Their entrées range from coconut vegetables in yogurt to bags of brown rice and lentils. We chose the vegetable tikka masala and basmati rice, a perfect pairing of gluten-free, vegetarian, kosher, non-GMO goodness.

These are shelf-stable meals, not dehydrated or freeze-dried so they can store for approximately 18 months in moderate temperatures. They do not have to be refrigerated because they are prepared similar to canning in retort pouches, and the contents do not need to be cooked, only reheated for palatability—they can even be eaten right out of the package without heating in a pinch. For this process, we submerged the OVERLAND JOURNAL FALL 2019

two bags in a pot of boiling water and heated them for about five minutes, the fastest preparation time of the test. Once plated, there were lots of oohs and aahs from the evaluators, commenting on the smell and its favorable appearance. The meal received high scores on texture, flavor, and appeal; Alex gave it perfect marks and the comment of “absolutely delicious.” There are few complaints with these meals, so long as you love Indian food.

700 CALORIES | 16G PROTEIN |$3/TIKKA MASALA, $2/RICE, TWO SERVINGS | TASTYBITE.COM

PROS Looks and tastes authentic Serious value and easy to find Requires no added water “Absolutely delicious, it even had some good spice to it.” -Alex CONS Low protein Requires pot for submersion cooking “I would like more sauce, so I would use a two tikka masala to one rice ratio. It’s low protein so you might consider adding more from another source.” -Sarah

CONCLUSIONS

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s evaluators, we often come into a test with preconceived notions as to how the evaluations might go, and for this one, I was convinced it would be clinical, and honestly, quite boring. Fortunately, learning about dehydrating, freeze-drying, and the history of these interesting companies proved to be time well spent. The taste testing with the team was also an exercise in hilarity, with much laughter; Atlas is looking forward to the next one. This combination of structured, objective testing and charting was nearly perfectly balanced by the broad sample of five subjective judges. There was only one meal (chicken piccata) where the group deviated markedly. For the most part, it was obvious which meals were really good, and which were just tolerable. As overlanders, we certainly get remote, but the food doesn’t need to be awful or even okay. Fortunately, there are clear winners.

For the Value Award, there is only one contender, and that is Tasty Bite’s tikka masala, which is delicious and can be purchased in bulk for as little as $3 per package. The price is even more impressive when the quality of the ingredients are considered, although most are not organic. The entrées can also be chosen for nutrition goals: higher protein from their Madras lentils or the richness of mushroom masala with garlic brown rice. These meals have been a staple of mine for nearly a decade and have never disappointed.

The next most value-oriented option is the Outdoor Herbivore, which is worth mentioning as a dehydrated and extremely healthy alternative. I used these meals on a multi-day backpacking trip in Comb Ridge in Southern Utah, and appreciated the quality of the ingredients.

The Editor’s Choice Award came down to Good To-Go and Patagonia, with some consideration toward Tasty Bite, but it was ultimately eliminated due to the shorter (and more temperature sensitive) shelf life. For Patagonia’s first effort in shelf-stable meals, the results are impressive, particularly the availability of packaged proteins, all organic ingredients, and the lack of additives and preservatives. For the traveler that demands organic ingredients, this is your champion. Even with all of these positives, the overall taste rating was well behind the winner, Good To-Go. Good To-Go creates a perfect balance of exceptional flavor, quality ingredients, kitschy and thoughtful packaging, and sufficient calorie load. The overall rating of the Thai Curry was 8.9 out of 10, with only one evaluator giving a 7 and three giving 9.5 or higher. It was the only dish that every evaluator finished, with a few going back for seconds. My only complaint is the lower protein content and the longer cook time, but in the end, it did encourage us all to contemplate how big the universe is, a great campfire conversation at the end of a dusty trail.

Clockwise from top: Sarah created the comprehensive testing scoresheets and compiled the data into the chart. Altas was particularly fond of Patagonia’s salmon. How food looks on the plate influences our impressions as eaters.

EDITOR’S NOTE Anytime we encounter an anomaly in our testing, we try to validate the results through additional evaluation. Due to Backpacker’s Pantry high score in online reviews, in contrast to our in-house testing, we decided to order a different flavor, chicken vindaloo. This meal was notably better in spice and overall palatability, but the chicken bits were overly chewy and with limited taste. The curry was strong, and the rice nicely cooked. At least with the Backpacker’s Pantry brand, the edibility of the meals varies widely.

While somewhat better than the chicken piccata, the additional testing would not have influenced the overall scoring.

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SHELF-STABLE MEAL COMPARISON MANUFACTURER

ALPINEAIRE

BACKPACKERʼS PANTRY

GOOD TO-GO

MOUNTAIN HOUSE

OUTDOOR HERBIVORE

PATAGONIA PROVISIONS

PATAGONIA PROVISIONS

TASTY BITE

Meal

Spicy Chicken Curry

Chicken Piccata with Tagliatelle Pasta

Thai Curry

Beef Stroganoff

Chickpea Sesame Penne

Green Lentil Soup

Wild Pink Salmon

Vegetable Tikka Masala and Basmati Rice

MSRP

$8

$11

$13

$9

$7

$7

$14

$5

Cook time (minutes)

10-12

15-20

20

8-9

10

10

n/a

5

Weight (grams)

170

138

190

136

150

124

113

535

Servings

2

2

2

2.5

1+

2

4

2

Overall rating from taste test (out of 10)

5.8

5.7

9.0

4.7

3.7

5.6

7.8

8.9

Approximate shelf life (years)

4.8

6.3

4.2

30

1.2

0.7

4

1.2

Calories

600

560

770

650

640

430

180

350

Protein (grams)

28

36

20

28

17

25

24

8

Carbohydrates (grams)

104

66

112

73

83

80

0

64

Sodium (milligrams)

740

2,840

1,010

2,275

570

840

800

450

PER PACKAGE

Patagonia Provisions nutritional information is based on one 4-ounce pouch of salmon and one packet of lentil soup.

Tasty Bite information is based on one package each of tikka masala and basmati rice.

Shelf life was calculated from our purchase date to the product's expiration date.

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Lati tude Portfolio by Alex Pflaum

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The Edge of Gondwana Traversing the Great Australian Bight offers an invitation to the unknown.

By Scott Brady

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The wind from the Southern Ocean clawed against my skin, and the mist from crashing waves of Cape Carnot speck-

led my sunglasses. I was standing on some of the oldest rock in Australia, with nothing between me and the coast of Antarctica. I stood in awe of my surroundings, humbled by the scale of the place, by the immensity and age of the continent behind me, and the reality that it was once connected at this very spot to Antarctica. Between the early Permian and late Jurassic periods, the supercontinent of Gondwana began to tear apart as Australia moved north, the rift creating the Great Australian Bight. This area is not only famous for its remoteness but the stark beauty of the world’s largest limestone plain, the Nullarbor.

Any good adventure starts with a table full of maps and a team of willing (and equally daft) participants to embark on the journey.

For this trip, Rob Bogheim, a great friend and arguably one of the most experienced overlanders in Australia, called me with a proposal: “Hey, mate! What do you think about following in the footsteps of John Eyre and Matthew Flinders and crossing the Bight?”

My response was more of an autonomic yes than a considered agreement, but that is often how most good answers come in life—from our gut. I was not only humbled by the invitation but from awareness of the accomplishments of those explorers that had come before. For example, Captain Flinders (1774-1814) had conducted three major expeditions to Terra Australis by his 40th birthday, including the first coastal circumnavigation of the continent he would ultimately name. He died at the age of 40 having achieved more than I could ever envision in a full lifetime. Edward John Eyre lived to the ripe age of 86 and also led three major expeditions, including the first land crossing of the Great Australian Bight with John Baxter, his longtime companion, Wylie, and Joey and Yarry, two other Aborigines. As with most quests of that era, the hardship was extreme, including Baxter’s death at the hands of Joey and Yarry, who stole most of the company’s supplies and left Eyre and Wylie destitute. Near death, the pair encountered a French whaling vessel, the Mississippi, and were saved. After resting in the ship and obtaining additional supplies, they completed the journey across the Nullarbor Plain to Cape Carnot.

Eyre died in 1901, having explored much of Australia, and having served as a lieutenant governor in New Zealand and as the governor of Jamaica. His later years were bogged down by controversy and ultimately, a trial for murder. Such are the stories of early Terra Australis.

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While our goal was to cross the Bight, my journey started much farther east in the city of Brisbane, where we needed to collect the Land Cruisers and start driving to Adelaide. Just the transport segment of the trip required over 2,500 kilometers of driving, most of it on the dirt of the Adventure Way road and the eastern Flinders Ranges. We passed the remote burial site of Robert O’Hara Burke, the leader of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition—Australia is not kind to the weak or underprepared. Once in Adelaide, our full team was complete, along with a cadre of interesting vehicles, including a pair of 70 Series, a 6WD 200 Series, and a well-loved Hilux. We spent some time at the RedArc facility finalizing provisions and then set out to Cape Carnot, the tip of the Eyre Peninsula, and the easternmost point of the Bight (as

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defined by the Australian Hydrographic Service). While beautiful, this region was certainly more populated and busy, the campsite full of grey nomads, the towns bustling with tourists in sunnies and thongs. These places are ideal for having a tasty meal, but our goal was to find remote camps and bush tucker, so after filling the fridges in Port Lincoln, we headed off to the Nullarbor Plain and into the heart of the Australian Bight.

Australia is a fascinating place to me, mainly because of my love for the great deserts of the world, and the happiness that comes from being able to drive for days along the beach, the nights a chorus of crashing waves. I have always been intrigued by the South Coast of Australia and was fortunate in recent years to explore much of it, including Tasmania. The Great Australian Bight had eluded me thus far though—particularly crossing it in such a credible manner, sticking to the coast as much as possible, offhighway, and self-supported. The challenges also came quickly and often, especially in the coastal dunes. Within an hour of being in the sand, one Land Cruiser had already departed terra firma in a dramatic display of air (with the trailer attached), and another had been stuck to the frame. As a team, we became very efficient at pulling shovels and traction boards off the racks and working in concert to extract the heavy 79 Series. I cannot remember how many times the 76-, 79-, and 200-Series vehicles were mired in the sand; one bogging seemed to blend into another over the week of travel.

I also experienced my first flat on a 4WD in all my decades of overlanding. My long streak without a puncture (even after a few circumnavigations) is due more to luck and good tires than anything I can claim credit to. That reign ended in a moment when I took my gaze from the trail to the GPS and started fiddling with the errant device—the lesson being that there are usually consequences from distracted driving.

The farther west we went, the more technical and remote the route became, and the bigger toll the encroaching trees, brush, and sand caused to the vehicles and team members. Punctures became more frequent, and both of the trailers endured significant abuse to the awnings, but somehow, structurally they remained intact. Fatigue was also fraying nerves, and patience wore thin with a few of the team members; days of driving and lack of communication with the outside world tested their mettle. It is perhaps one of the most interesting parts of travel—how remote locations and the environment can make some people stronger, while others start to slowly (or rapidly) deconstruct. Much like reliable vehicles and sound equipment, the team we choose for any given trip needs to have the same durability.

The Great Australian Bight also reminded me of the joys that come from experiencing the unknown, the pleasure that comes from a campfire with friends, a hot meal, and a cold drink at the end of a dusty day. I stood at Point Malcolm and considered where we had been and what was next. That is the contemplation of all who love to explore—remembering the last adventure, and dreaming of the next horizon.

THE EDGE OF THE CONTINENT ENDS ABRUPTLY AT THE BIGHT AND IS RELENTLESSLY POUNDED

BY THE INDIAN OCEAN. THE COAST WAS OUR CONSTANT COMPANION AS WE NAVIGATED THIS FRACTURE OF GONDWANA, THE WAVES AND COOL EVENING TEMPERATURES LULLING US INTO SLEEP EACH NIGHT. HOWEVER, WE REMAINED VIGILANT OF THE CHALLENGES ALONG OUR PATH, FROM DEEP SAND TO TIRE-SLASHING ROCKS, AND THE REALITY THAT WE WERE SO FAR FROM HELP.

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(OPENING SPREAD) THE CLIFFS ROSE ABOVE US LIKE A RAMPART, FORTIFYING AUSTRALIA’S SOUTHERN COAST FROM ALL WHO DARE ENTER. IT CHALLENGES THE MIND TO CONSIDER THAT THIS COASTLINE WAS ONCE CONNECTED TO ANTARCTICA.

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WE DROVE FOR HUNDREDS OF KILOMETERS ALONG THE BEACH, THE SAND AN EVERCHANGING OBSTACLE OF DUNES, DEEP RUTS, AND VEHICLE-SWALLOWING KELP BEDS. THE BEAUTY OF THE ROCKY HEADLANDS WAS A MESMERIZING COMBINATION OF GRANITE TIDAL POOLS AND CONGLOMERATE SHELVES. CALAMITY COMES IN MANY FORMS, AND CAN QUICKLY COMPOUND TO SPICE THE INGREDIENTS OF ADVENTURE. KIDS, DON’T DO THIS AT HOME, BUT THE ACCIDENTAL AIR DID MAKE FOR AN EXCITING IMAGE. THE REDARC HILUX WAS UNSTOPPABLE IN EVERY CONDITION ENCOUNTERED, A COMBINATION OF LIGHT WEIGHT, GOOD TIRES, AND EXPERT PILOTING.

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BRAD MCCARTHY IS A LEGEND IN AUSTRALIA AND NEVER STOPPED ENJOYING EVERY MOMENT.

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DURING OUR TRANSIT ACROSS THE CONTINENT, WE CAMPED AT NOCCUNDRA WATERHOLE, THE SETTING SUN SKIPPING ITS RAYS ACROSS THE TREETOPS. FOR THIS TRIP, WE ATTEMPTED TO PULL SEVERAL MASSIVE TRAILERS ACROSS THE ROUTE, WHICH IS NOT SOMETHING I WOULD TYPICALLY RECOMMEND OR EVEN ENTERTAIN. DESPITE THIS, THEY WERE ALONG FOR THE RIDE, AND MIRACULOUSLY SURVIVED THE EXERCISE (WITH ONLY A FEW AWNINGS MISSING). AND I WILL ADMIT THAT THE QUEEN-SIZE BED AND FULL GALLEY WAS A WELCOME RESPITE AT THE END OF EACH DUSTY DAY. FEW VEHICLES EVOKE THE LOVE OF AN OVERLANDER LIKE THE 70-SERIES LAND CRUISER, AND THEY PERFORMED AS EXPECTED, WHICH IS TO SAY—FLAWLESSLY. THERE WAS AN EXTENDED WHEELBASE VDJ79 CREW CAB, AND THE 5-DOOR VDJ76 ALONG FOR THE TRIP, BOTH PREPARED FOR REMOTE NAVIGATION EXPEDITION.

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AUSTRALIANS LOVE OBSCURE AND OFTEN HUMOROUS NAMES FOR THEIR GEOLOGIC WONDERS—THIS PILE OF ROCKS IS KNOWN AS MURPHY’S HAYSTACKS.

MARSUPIAL PREDATORS TO BRILLIANT WHITE COCKATOOS, THE LIST OF CREATURES THAT CAN ASTOUND YOU AND SEND YOU TO THE HOSPITAL IS LENGTHY.

WEATHER IN THE OUTBACK SHOULD NOT BE UNDERESTIMATED AS A TORRENT CAN OCCUR ON A MOMENT’S NOTICE, THE HEAVENS RELEASING INCHES OF RAIN PER HOUR AND MASSIVE FLOODING. IT IS NOT UNCOMMON FOR TRAVELERS TO BE STRANDED FOR DAYS BEFORE THE ROADS ARE SOLID ENOUGH TO NAVIGATE. IF YOU RUT UP AN OUTBACK ROAD, THE FINE IS $1,000 AU FOR EACH TIRE, INCLUDING THE ONES ON THE TRAILER.

OUR JOURNEY ENDED AT CAPE ARID, THE VEHICLES AND ADVENTURERS SPENT FROM THE WEEKS ON THE ROAD. UPON REFLECTION, THIS JOURNEY CHANGED ME IN THE WAY SO MANY OTHERS HAVE, LEAVING ME WITH AN OVERWHELMING SENSE OF GRATITUDE FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO EXPLORE AND THE REMINDER THAT EACH DAY IS A GIFT.

LOOK OUT FOR THE HARMLESS STUMPY-TAILED LIZARD (TILIQUA RUGOSA).

THE FLINDERS RANGES IS ONE OF THE RARE MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS IN THE INTERIOR, HOME TO NUMEROUS EXCELLENT 4WD TRACKS AND REMOTE CAMPING OPPORTUNITIES. AUSTRALIAN WILDLIFE NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE IN BOTH ITS DIVERSITY AND UNIQUENESS. FROM FEROCIOUS

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AUSTRALIA IS DEFINED BY ITS COASTLINE, AND IT IS TEAMING WITH LIFE AT THE CONFLUENCE OF LAND AND SEA. NEARLY EVERY NIGHT, WE PITCHED OUR CAMP WITH THE INDIAN OCEAN TO THE SOUTH. WITH OVER 25,000 KILOMETERS OF COASTLINE, THE COUNTRY PLACES AT NUMBER SEVEN WHEN COMPARED WITH OTHERS—TWO SPOTS AHEAD OF THE UNITED STATES, BUT CURIOUSLY, ONE POSITION BEHIND JAPAN, AND WITH ONLY ONEEIGHTH OF CANADA’S COASTAL MIGHT.

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Cartography by David Medeiros (mapbliss.com)

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Apex Predator We dive into the details on Bruce, the great white camper.

By Chris Cordes Photography by Basil Lynch

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of the time anyway. I couldn’t help but wonder why I wasn’t doing this same job from the road.” This question would continue to haunt him as his career took off, and the time spent away from his apartment increased until eventually, the reality was inescapable, he needed a bigger truck. “I realized that the FJ Cruiser was a perfect platform for month-long trips and daily driving, but I wanted a home on wheels, something I could comfortably spend time in while traveling.”

It needed to be more than just a home, though. Basil’s love of surfing and his passion for the remote regions of the world meant that it also needed to be capable, reliable, and able to serve as an off-pavement bungalow for extended periods. It would need to run on less-than-perfect fuel, not cost a fortune, and support the weight of his living quarters on the back. His answer was a 2000 Ford F-250 with a homemade camper on the back. The truck was stock, with a short bed access cab, four-wheel drive, and a 7.3L turbo-diesel motor. When paired with the camper, it was the perfect combination from which to build. He purchased the truck and before long took to calling it Bruce. “It just reminded me of the great white shark in Finding Nemo, big and aggressive on the outside, but kind of nice on the inside.”

Over the next year and a half, Basil poured his heart and soul into modifying this truck. Whether it was in a friend’s driveway, beach-side parking lot, or distant campsite, you could find him wrenching on the Ford while performing maintenance or installing accessories. I suspect few vehicles have been assembled in a greater variety of places than Bruce, which seems fitting for a camper destined for a life on the road.

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ou hear it time and time again, the story of people setting off on some grand adventure to leave behind the grind of their daily lives. “That’s the dream,” we tell ourselves, “to save every penny until you can finally afford to quit your job and drive off into the sunset.” It certainly seems romantic, but what if we’re looking at it all wrong? What if you weren’t trying to escape your 9-5 altogether, but simply change where you worked it? It’s a thought that has transformed an ever-growing number of people into digital nomads and changed the way we look at the work/life balance. Careers can vary from web developers and accountants to project managers and doctors, but today we’re taking a look at a photographer named Basil Lynch and his Ford F-250 camper.

BEHIND THE BUILD When I met Basil several years ago, he was living in San Diego and driving a well-used and even more well-loved FJ Cruiser. He had built it to the nines with a lift, armor, rooftop tent, drawer system, and all the goodies you’d want for extended camping trips, but something wasn’t quite right. “I was tired of living the 9-5 lifestyle in Southern California. Rent was a fortune, traffic was a bear, and as a photographer, I was working remotely most

THE TRUCK The first order of business was getting Bruce off his belly and away from the rocks. Seems simple enough, but this Ford was carrying a heavy payload, and would need to endure thousands of miles of dirt roads without shaking its contents to death. In other words, Basil couldn’t just slap on some factory springs and call it a day. Instead, he opted for a custom leaf pack with Hellwig Big Wig airbags in the rear, and Ford F-550 springs and 2-inch drop brackets in the front. Bilstein 5160 shocks with heavy valving were installed all around, along with front and rear Hellwig sway bars and an Icon extended track bar. This setup managed the truck’s weight, while also giving it a smooth ride and the ability to articulate on the trail. With all the additional clearance, Basil added the new 35/12.50/R18 F-rated Yokohama Geolandar XATs wrapped around 18-inch Method Race Wheels, which would be up to tackling any terrain he encountered.

Since this truck would be seeing a lot of roads far from mechanics, it was upgraded with quite a few systems to improve performance and reliability. The mods began with a RedHead steering box, which ensured the truck could turn all that new rubber like it was meant to do so from the factory. This made a big difference Bruce was built for exploring easier trails but can tackle rugged tracks when necessary. Opening page: Bruce and Basil, enjoying their favorite place, Baja California, on a surf trip this past winter.

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SPECIFICATIONS

2000 Ford F-250 short bed access cab POWER 7.3L turbo-diesel John Wood Towmaster transmission 4-inch, turbo-back exhaust S&B cold air intake Diesel site coolant filtration Gearhead automotive Hydra programmer Edge Insight CTS2 digital gauges SUSPENSION AND DRIVE 3.73:1 gears Open front differential Limited slip rear differential Custom rear leaf pack Hellwig Big Wig airbags Hellwig sway bars, front and rear Ford F-550 front leaf springs and 2-inch drop brackets Icon extended track bar Bilstein 5160 shocks RedHead steering box WHEELS AND TIRES 35/12.50/R18 F-rated Yokohama Geolandar X-ATs 18-inch Method Race Wheels RECOVERY AND ARMOR Buckstop Outback front bumper Warn Zeon 16.5Ti-S Factor 55 FlatLink and fairlead Master Pull synthetic winch line and recovery gear MaxTrax

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ACCESSORIES AND UPGRADES Rigid Industries lighting (3 Q-series, 4 Dseries amber wide, rear dual function lights) Kenwood TM-D710G dual band radio iPad mini on Ram Mount running GPS Switch-Pro 9100 system Goal Zero Boulder 100 panel Full Throttle batteries MaxxAir Deluxe fan CampLux water heater Acuva water purification system 20-gallon water tank Outdoor shower Dometic CFX 95L dual zone fridge/freezer Dometic 9500E electric case awning Propex HS2211 heater Tiny Wood Stove 3kw Dwarf stove Flexible solar panels, 360 watts RedArc Manager30 battery system LED interior/exterior lighting 2920 custom mattress Goal Zero Yeti 1400 lithium power pack Outer Limit Supply Expedition first aid kit Custom, live-edge wood table on a Lagun mount WeBoost cell phone booster 225-amp-hour bank of 6-volt FullRiver batteries

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on the trail, where the old power steering system didn’t have the grunt to turn the tires against rocks and ruts. Then there was the small issue of acceleration, as in practically none. Although the 7.3L produced 500 pound-feet of torque when new, which I’ll remind you was 19 years ago, it only produced 200 horsepower. To help open things up a bit, a 4-inch, turbo-back exhaust, S&B cold air intake, and Hydra programmer were installed, along with an Edge Insight CT2 digital gauge cluster to keep a sharp eye on all the major systems. Finally, a John Wood Towmaster transmission and upgraded 6.0 cooler were added, addressing the traditional weak points of the 4R100 transmissions in the 7.3L Fords.

Then things got fun with all sorts of armor and accessories.

Starting from the front, Bruce received a Buckstop Outback bumper, featuring 2-inch steel tubing loops around the headlights with 2.5-inch tubing across the center, as well as special slots cut for diesel cooling. It looked to me like it wouldn’t just survive an impact with a deer but even a Mack truck. Inside the Buckstop is a Warn Zeon 16.5Ti-S winch, which packs Master Pull’s synthetic winch line, a Factor 55 FlatLink and fairlead, as well as enough grunt to recover Bruce from most sticky situations. Three Rigid Industries Q-series lights and four D-series amber wides are installed on and in the bumper, giving Basil plenty of visibility on the late-night pushes to his next camp. These are seamlessly controlled by a Switch-Pro 9100 system, which can be used for a variety of other accessories in the vehicle. The finishing touch was a set of Full Throttle batteries, which are constantly topped off by a Goal Zero 100-watt panel hard-mounted to Bruce’s hood for reliable power wherever the sun shines.

THE CAMPER When Basil purchased Bruce, the camper was basic but had the right bones for the job. The steel-framed box uses galvanized aluminum exterior paneling backed by foam insulation with wood ribs on studs for the interior framing. It had a bed and cabinets inside, though it needed some updates to serve as a full-time home.

Basil started with the basics: water, food, and electricity. An existing 20-gallon fresh tank was improved with an Acuva purification system to ensure healthy potable water no matter what part of the world he was exploring. A CampLux water heater was also added along with an outdoor shower and pump to keep clean and rinse off after a day on the waves. Dry foods are kept in custom cabinets, while perishables are contained in a Dometic CFX 95L dual-zone fridge/freezer. This fridge, along with the rest of the lights, water pumps, and other integrated electronics are powered by a 225-amp-hour bank of 6-volt FullRiver batteries and 360 watts of flexible solar panels. There’s also a Goal Zero Yeti 1400 lithium power pack for charging larger electronics like cameras and computers. All of this is controlled and regulated by a RedArc Manager30 system, which maximizes the efficiency of the charging system while preventing the batteries from reaching a critically low level.

Although Basil is usually chasing good weather, sometimes he likes to switch things up with some snow or heat, so he integrated provisions to keep him comfortable. For example, a MaxxAir Deluxe fan is installed in the roof to force air through the camper

85 Top row, left to right: Exterior compartments hold tools, spare parts, fluids, and water to aid self-sufficient travel. Custom surfboard racks and dual spare tires were added before plunging south into Mexico.

On cloudy days, extra solar is good to have. An awning allows for clean entry and exit during storms. Bottom row, left to right: Bruce is a tiny house on wheels that can go anywhere. A comfortable interior space is important to facilitate working while on the road. The kitchen’s design is simple and can be easily moved outside when the weather allows.

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LIVING OUT OF YOUR TRUCK FOR A YEAR HAS A WAY OF CHANGING YOUR PERSPECTIVE. THINGS THAT ONCE SEEMED SO IMPORTANT BECOME LESS SO, AND SMALL FACETS OF YOUR LIFE YOU TOOK FOR GRANTED ALL OF A SUDDEN BECOME CENTRAL TO YOUR HAPPINESS.

to cool things down, but if the weather gets cold, he can choose between a Propex HS2211 heater or a Tiny Wood Stove 3kw Dwarf stove. I love the wood stove, because what’s cozier than camping with a wood fire burning during a snowstorm? I’d say, not much.

Since Bruce serves double-duty as Basil’s office and home, there needed to be a comfortable space for work but with a unique and personal flair. Basil found it in the form of a Lagun table mount with a custom, live-edge wood top, which swivels around to give him more living space or workspace depending on his needs. He then added a WeBoost Drive 4-GX cell phone booster with a larger antenna, which pulls down any cell service in the area and amplifies it inside the camper. This provides the ability to send or receive emails, and often browse the web in places where he couldn’t have even gotten a call out previously. It’s a good thing, too, because Basil and Bruce see plenty of remote destinations.

“In the last year and a half, I’ve explored over 35,000 miles of North America. I’ve been to the Pacific Northwest, Baja twice, Eastern Canada, the Desert Southwest, the Northeast, and spent a few months back in San Diego. Next, I plan to make a trek back up to Alaska, then drive south into Central and hopefully, South America.”

The best part of traveling full time is that I always have my home with me, even in the most isolated areas.

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LIFE ON THE ROAD Living out of your truck for a year has a way of changing your perspective. Things that once seemed so important become less so, and small facets of your life you took for granted all of a sudden become central to your happiness. I experienced this during my first year of travel, and so with a year and a half of life on the road under his belt, I was curious if Basil’s day to day in the camper was living up to his expectations.

“It’s funny, my life used to feel like it revolved around the mundane things I didn’t really care about. In San Diego, you can get into an endless cycle of work and traffic just to squeeze in a little bit of the things you love, but now my life mostly revolves around those passions. I still have to put in the hours to pay the bills, but when 5 o’clock rolls around, I’m opening my door to surfing, photography, and travel. Living in the camper allows me to chase waves and warmer weather in nearly limitless locations. I can reach remote waves that few people will ever experience, and see sights in a year that many people won’t witness in a lifetime.

I have the freedom to work and live life on my terms, and that’s what traveling in Bruce is all about.”

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The Russian Tea Party Friends, strangers, and a motorcycle gang help pave the way from Moscow to Magadan.

By Heather Lea

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f someone had told my now-husband, Dave, and me that we would get crabs from a rusty bathtub in Russia, then ask if we’d still want to go, the answer would be yes, in retrospect. Definitely, yes. Because it turns out that this story, along with our tea party and other Russian shenanigans are anecdotes we tell often; it’s often the trials and tribulations of an adventure that lead you to the very thing that defines the word itself.

When we planned a two-year motorcycle journey through 40 countries, Russia was a destination that needed little discussion before joining the itinerary. It was home to two intriguingly dangerous off-road routes: the BAM (Baikal–Amur Mainline), an unmaintained service track for a railway built as an alternative to the Trans-Siberian Highway; and the Road of Bones, the name of which comes from a sad history of Gulag road builders overworked to the point of death and buried under its surface.

That part was Dave’s quest, however, and although he hoped I’d feel differently once we got there, I wanted nothing to do with this extreme level of two-wheeled off-pavement riding. Both “roads” are in poor condition with motorcycle-swallowing bogs, abandoned, collapsed bridges, and harrowing river crossings.

For me, Russia held curiosity. My youth had been filled with angry bedtime stories from my Polish grandfather about how the Russians ruined his country; he’d decided to escape Poland by foot, OVERLAND JOURNAL FALL 2019

literally walking from the front door of his house in Bolekhiv (now in Ukraine), fetching up some time later in England where he met my grandmother. Were Russians as heartless as he’d described?

Looking back on our trip, Russia might have held the most bang for our buck out of all the other countries we traveled through. This could very well be because we had low expectations of their hospitality. But in the end, nothing could have been further from the truth.

To travel into Russia, visitors need a visa and an invitation letter from a local. Ten months earlier, I’d begun the process of filling out applications for our visas. After speaking with an agent at the Russian consulate in Montréal about how to get an invitation, I was advised to contact a non-profit company, well-known in politics and with a soft spot for motorcycles. They gave me an email address for a motorcycle club called the Night Wolves.

I hung up and hastily typed an email to the Wolves requesting help with the invite. I included our travel website and gushed about long-lived dreams of visiting Russia, and my career as a journalist looking to write a book in which I would cover their country.

It occurred to me only after I’d pressed send to Google the club.

Not so much a club as a gang, the Night Wolves’ leader, known as the Surgeon, has pledged to die for Putin, who’s practically his best friend. The nickname comes from his past occupation as a den-

tist; he used to stay out all evening partying in his leathers, then sneak in through the clinic window to change into professional attire. A photo online of his Herculean stature emerging from a dark, smoky background astride a murdered-out motorcycle like some heraldic czar made it hard to imagine those hands inside people’s mouths—unless he was pulling out teeth for torturous purposes.

Most worrying to me was his loathing for journalists, something I’d just called myself in my hurried email to the club. “I don’t want to meet any foreigners,” he is quoted as saying in a Rolling Stone article from 2015, “[they] won’t write anything good.” He also hates “America, Europe, homosexuals, liberals, and traitorous fifthcolumnists,” and is known to praise Stalin.

I thought about all the personal information we would need to hand over for the invitation letter—passport copies, date of birth, next of kin—and that by including our website, I’d essentially given the Night Wolves 24-hour access to our The country’s most very whereabouts via a live GPS link notorious motorcycle honing in off our InReach device. Had I gang became our go-to just walked us into something newsworfor everything from thy? “Two Naive Travelers Offer Themwhere to find parts to selves To Putin’s Angels!” where to stay in places Within minutes of sending the that had no hotels. email, however, my inbox pinged with a “failure to send” message. I breathed a sigh of relief knowing the Night Wolves would never know anything about us.

Ironically, within two days of arriving in Moscow in early July 2017, Dave and I sat at a large, last-supper-style table at Sexton— a Night Wolves’ clubhouse in Moscow. Our invitation letters had been sorted through BMW Russia, as we were riding two F 800 GS bikes, so how did we find ourselves voluntarily within the gang’s confines now?

I’d met Alexandra, or Al, as she prefers, after joining a Facebook group for BMW riders in Russia, and she had been a wealth of information. When Dave and I arrived in Moscow, she offered to meet us at the city’s outskirts with her S 1000 RR BMW sport bike and ride us in. Al thought we might find the city overwhelming and wanted to help us find our way around.

It was Al who arranged the meeting with the Night Wolves after Dave told her we were riding to Magadan, 6,000 kilometres east of Moscow. She thought we were crazy, worried like an old friend, and wanted us to have as much information as possible before we ventured off—even though we were nearly two months away from that goal with much of Russia still on the horizon.

Al and her husband, Eugene, introduced us to the table as two Canadians looking for route information about riding to Magadan.

The Wolves were friendly, except for an unsmiling leather-clad woman at the head of the table who reminded me of Gemma, an evil character in Sons of Anarchy. Only one member drank beer. Another drank zavarka, a traditional Russian tea. They were happy to share their knowledge and gave us the names and numbers of other members we could call along the way. “Any trouble in Russia,” said one silver-haired man, rolling his Rs with a voice as strong as the muscles busting out of his T-shirt, “call dees peoples. You can trust.”

I looked over at Al. Before our arrival, she had prebooked and paid for two nights for us to stay at a hotel. “I wanted it to be safe,”

she’d said, “the mafia runs a lot of the hotels here.” The Night Wolf ’s words echoed in my mind.

Al and Eugene seemed well connected themselves. Maybe not to the mafia, and they weren’t members of the Night Wolves, but something allowed them a certain air of confidence. We were instructed to call Al if we had any questions, concerns, or trouble in Moscow or anywhere else in Russia. Standing well under 5 feet tall with a face like a porcelain doll and dreadlocks down to her shoulders, Al was a tough little firecracker and a force to be reckoned with. “I have guys,” she told us, “My guys will help anywhere you are in Russia.”

After that meeting at Sexton, Dave and I found ourselves with connections we could never have known would become so valuable to us on our travels across Russia. The country’s most notorious motorcycle gang became our go-to for everything from where to find parts (which was difficult enough, even knowing the right Oskars, a member of Adventure Team Latvia, keeps his bike afloat during a downpour in the Altai region. You’re never too old or too young to become part of the Night Wolves’ family. Opposite: We were rewarded with a supreme vista over the Altai region after riding a series of gravel switchbacks to the top. Opening page: A woman at the Night Wolves’ patching-in party sips home-brewed vodka.

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Clockwise from top left: Dave, riding with Adventure Team Latvia. A series of gravel switchbacks took us high into the hills of the Altai region. I enjoyed a toast with members of Russia’s not-so-scaryafter-all motorcycle gang, the Night Wolves. There are many ups and downs while riding a motorcycle around the world; this decidedly wasn’t an up for me. A long-ago landslide covered in colour in the stunning Altai. The forks on my round-the-world steed, a BMW F 800 GS, were due for inspection.

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people) to where to stay in places that had no hotels. Destinations outside of Moscow or St. Petersburg see very little in the way of tourists, so hotels are uncommon. Often the only place to stay overnight in smaller villages and towns are in apartment buildings that locals rent out. We camped when we could, but also stayed in surprisingly pleasant cell-block-type apartment rentals or dorm-style hostels, where I was often the only female in a room with Dave and a few snoring male truckers.

In Yakutsk, we were invited to a patching-in party at the Night Wolves’ clubhouse, which turned into an unforgettable evening, intensified by esophagus-burning, gang-made vodka. If the neck-tattooed shot distributor wasn’t encouraging enough, the vodka’s toxic vapours would wrap around you like a cobra, squeezing you into surrender. We acquiesced to its spell while listening awestruck to a throat singer performing live, manipulating the air traveling through his lungs, vocal chords, and mouth to create an outstanding melody. It was beautifully creepy and melted the stress from our shoulders.

Dave and I’d had a few rough weeks. I arrived in Yakutsk with no front brakes and a destroyed instrument cluster after crashing on gravel at roughly 90 kph. My crash bars were bent, the head mount was cracked, and my brake reservoir shattered. Thanks to full protective gear, I was unhurt, but my bike needed a couple of thousand dollars worth of work.

One Night Wolves member, Victor, set about finding parts for my brake reservoir, which was no easy task. It wasn’t like there was a BMW parts store in town; there wasn’t even an official motorcycle store. We were able to work on the bikes in Russian garages—small, unkempt shacks in alleyways that locals rented away from home, not having the space on their own properties. An ex-member named Anatoli seemed to feel the need to put me at ease in his garage. He offered me a muffin, which I finished just before he handed me an ice cream. I ate this as well, noting Anatoli didn’t feel Dave was deserving of any treats, then watched while he showed Dave photos of his 6-year-old daughter atop various motorcycles. When we left, Anatoli gave me his belt buckle—a heavy, steel rite of passage that is still one of the best souvenirs I have from our trip.

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While I battled with bike trouble, Dave was dealing with a disappointing turn of events. A week earlier, he’d lost out on riding both the BAM and the Road of Bones after breaking his rear shock. Since it was due to lack of proper maintenance, Dave couldn’t forgive himself for ruining one of his most important and anticipated parts of the entire trip. What made it even harder, since I had never planned to be his partner on these two routes, was that he’d found the perfect crew to ride with.

We had met Adventure Team Latvia—three strapping, burly dudes all riding KTMs—at the Kazakhstan/Russia border after leaving Moscow. They were sponsored by a Latvian gas company for an 11,500-mile adventure from Riga to Magadan. We rode with them from that point on to Magadan. During our travels, which included a multi-day trip into a marvellously scenic and secluded region in the Altai Mountains, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan meet, Dave arranged to join the Latvians on the BAM and Road of Bones. He couldn’t have been happier and became more excited the closer we came to the starting line in Irkutsk.

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But four days after I waved the four of them off and continued on with another rider from Australia on a different road skirting around Lake Baikal, I got a Skype call from Dave telling me the news about his broken shock.

The Latvians, who spoke fluent Russian, tried to help Dave find a solution, but in the end, the team was on a timeline and had to leave him behind. In a small town called Severobaykal’sk, Dave put his bike on a train to Tynda where I would meet him. He’d ordered a replacement shock to be sent to Yakutsk. From his seat on the train, Dave stared at the BAM trail running parallel to the track all the way into Tynda—it was like a juicy bone placed just out of reach for a dog at the end of its rope.

It’s often the trials While riding along the new Summer and tribulations of Road after leaving Yakutsk, Dave and I an adventure that took photos of ourselves and the bikes unlead you to the very der a mileage sign telling us we were 1,838 thing that defines kilometres from Magadan. It was the third the word itself. week in August and the highway, although the main route, was mostly gravel. I rode cautiously, fearing another wipeout in the loose ball bearings. The region hadn’t seen rain in weeks. It took ages for the dust to settle behind the bikes, so we rode spaced out about a half-mile from each other. The route was busy with long-haul trucks going to and from Magadan.

It was getting late in the afternoon as we passed a parked semitruck in a roadside pullout. While Dave waited for me to catch up, the driver came over to him and invited us for tea. We didn’t want to stop because of the late hour and still wanted to cover several more miles before camping for the night. But the man’s face was friendly and inviting, his mammoth hands gesturing jovially to us, and so we joined him.

Another trucker pulled in for the night. He was tall and skinny and came over to stand with us. Already drunk and chain-smoking, he squinted with smiling eyes through the smoke circling his face.

The sober driver unfolded a small table for the tea and fed everyone miniature chocolate bars before deciding to make us all soup. The tea party took on a new mission as we tried to learn more about one another in different languages. When Dave and I explained through a translation app that we would camp that night, the sober driver got a worried look on his face. He brought his hands to the top of his head, cupping them to form ears, then growled, but his bear impersonation only made us laugh. Seeing we were not taking him seriously, he pulled out his phone and showed us a video of a grizzly rummaging through garbage on the side of the road, then pointed behind him as if to say, “Just over there.”

Despite often being built like they could wrestle anything into submission, many Russians are terrified of bears. Even our stout Latvian friends wouldn’t camp with us after a night of bear storytelling. But we never saw a single sign of bears in Russia. It was sad.

In fact, during our entire ride across the world’s largest country, we never saw anything in the way of wildlife, even in remote areas.

Dave and I found the end of Russia—and subsequently our trip—on August 26, 2017. We arrived in Magadan, a port town of roughly 95,000 people along the Sea of Okhotsk, after 708 days and 58,000-plus miles of riding through 40 countries. And we were about to have one of the best experiences of our trip yet.

Dave and I had trusted the advice of a Night Wolves member to store our flashy-looking BMW adventure bikes behind the falling-down fence of a sketchy-looking scrapyard. We might have doubted its security were it not for a rabid-looking dog that snarled and lunged at passersby, snapping the chain so tightly it was sure to break one day. The yard workers had the faces of men I’d steer clear of on a dark street. They beckoned us over to a hidden corner behind the yard’s office. Dave and I followed hesitantly.

One of the men gestured to an old, rusty tub. Inside were what must have been hundreds of pink, healthy crab, some of them twice the size of my head. It took us a moment to realize the men were inviting us to a feast that would cost big money in fine dining restaurants back home. We had a lot to do that day to get ready to ship our bikes over the Pacific, but all of that could wait.

Dave and I sat in the August sun, watching a younger man with the eyes and skin colour of a native Mongolian scoop crabs with a pitchfork from the bathtub, dropping them a half-dozen at a time into a huge cast-iron cauldron of boiling water that looked straight out of a witch’s tale.

Within a few short minutes, the crabs were ready; no timer, recipe, or special sauce—just Russian know-how. One old sailor passed us the largest of the catch and helped us break the legs and arms while a cigarette hung from his mouth, peppering the crab with ash.

The meat was better than perfect. I thought back to all the events over the past two years that had brought us to that very moment in Magadan and almost sank to my knees with emotion.

We went out with the Latvians that night for a celebratory dinner at a restaurant called the Alaska Bar with placemats that said, “Make Alaska Russian again.” The Latvians ordered crab. When it came to the table, they exclaimed over its taste and demanded we try some. The meat was very good but not near as fresh and succulent as our rusty bathtub crabs. “Isn’t this feast amazing?” one of the Latvians yelled at the table. Dave and I didn’t have the heart to tell them what they’d missed and that they’d be paying a few hundred dollars for their crabs while we’d paid nothing, simply because we met some resourceful people in the right place at the right time— which is really what Russia is all about.

Young boys play on the beaches of Lake Baikal. Dave received a lesson in how to break crab limbs during the largest and best crab feast of our lives.

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A True Workhorse The evolution of Toyota Land Cruisers in Africa and why they became geologists’ best friends.

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n the early 1970s, Toyota began production of the Land Cruiser in South Africa. At the time, my father was living in tents in Botswana and Zululand, working as a geologist’s assistant. He used many of those early model Cruisers before buying one from his employer, which we used for years on family trips. Forty years later, I got my first job as a geologist and soon found myself in Zambia behind the wheel of a 79-Series Cruiser pickup—the progeny of the earlier models my dad had used in the same work. I spent several years working all over Southern Africa driving Cruisers from swamp to desert, living a life I could never have imagined during my early days in the geology lecture hall at Rhodes University.

Around the time my dad was driving around Botswana in his early FJ-Cruiser, Southern Africa was a wondrous place. Thousands of square miles of diverse landscape, from parched desert to lush river deltas lay untouched at one’s feet. Big game roamed as freely as they had for millennia, and nobody told you where you could or could not put your tent. From those who had ventured into these lands from the relatively developed South Africa, stories began to drift in of river banks filled with alluvial gold in Mozambique, and diamonds as big as golf balls being picked up by herd boys in the Kalahari. These were not easy places to travel to—roads were just a bearing through the bush dodging trees and anthills. For 20 years, Britain’s Land Rover had been OVERLAND JOURNAL FALL 2019

the most common vehicle seen in these conditions, and arguably remains the romantic traveller of Africa to this day. But when local production of the Land Cruiser began in 1972, it quickly began developing a reputation for more serious trips. Keeping the mechanics basic and reliable over time, Toyota ensured that from the early FJ45 to the current 79 Series, the Cruiser found itself a comfortable niche as the working 4WD of Africa.

The Land Cruiser took root in farming, forestry, and civil service. It also gained popularity in mineral exploration, as the remote nature of the work lent itself to a vehicle that performed well with a full load and did not break down easily. Mineral exploration companies search far and wide for new deposits of Africa’s renowned hidden treasures: gold, copper, and diamonds to name a few. With the right combination of research, acumen, and luck, they might find a deposit big enough and suitable enough to become a mine.

For those not familiar with this work, it entails an odd assortment of exploration geologists and field assistants, their vehicles laden with specialized prospecting and camping equipment, and months’ worth of canned tuna and beans. They set off on those remarkable roads only to turn off at some point marked with a beer can in a tree, following a bearing through the bush until they reach their target area. Here, geologists and fieldies live in tents for months on end, conducting their work and slowly los-

ing their sanity and manners. They traverse the land, mapping the rocks and collecting samples, spending their nights shrouded in smoke from their cooking fires discussing the day’s discoveries. More often than not, for various reasons, a seemingly promising mineral deposit will subsequently remain untouched by mine developers, leaving the baobab trees and termite mounds to breathe a sigh of relief.

The explorers return home with wild scribblings, even wilder theories, and meticulously labelled bags of rock and soil to be analysed for metals or diamonds. Upon arrival in civilisation, they are sporting uneven driver’s tans and patchy beards, and are overcome by an unquenchable desire for a cold beer and fresh boerewors, or farmer’s sausage. But after a couple of weeks, the confinement of the city becomes too much. They pack their bags and wait impatiently to be sent off to a new corner of Africa, where the wind in their hair and the reassuring purr of a Cruiser diesel engine promises peace to the soul. These geologists visit some of the most remote and rugged places on the African continent, having unique experiences in areas very few people have the privilege of visiting. For nearly 50 years now, these explorers have come to loyally rely on the Land Cruiser, just as a cowboy relies on his chosen horse. The Cruiser’s infallible reliability became pivotal in the success of many projects and the subsequent discovery of many mines, some of which are still a major slice of Southern Africa’s economies.

HISTORY When production of the long-wheelbase FJ45 began in South Africa in 1972, mineral exploration work was already being carried out by Series II Land Rovers, along with Ford 250s, and slow, heavy trucks like the Bedford J5. In the thick sand, these trucks left a wide track that the narrow Land Rovers could not settle in, but rather slid all over the unmatched spoor like an ice cube on a tiled floor.

The Land Cruisers entered the fray with a 3.8-litre petrol motor and 3-speed gearbox. They offered a bit more speed and pulling power than the Land Rover’s 2.25-litre motor, and on main roads, they could hum along comfortably at 90-100 kph.

The Cruisers’ wheelbase was slightly wider, wide enough in fact, to spoor in the deep sand tracks left by the bigger trucks. This proved a massive advantage because the soft sand of the Kalahari covers most of Botswana and a lot of Namibia, areas well known for copper and particularly diamonds. A reliable vehicle that could handle the sand was therefore crucial to the success of those companies.

These early FJ45 Cruisers were by no means perfect. They were real donkeys with a load, and sometimes required low range first gear to pull off on a hill when fully loaded. The body was made of heavy steel which made just lifting the bonnet a challenge. They had unboosted brakes and no power steering, but they were as trusty as they came.

In late 1973, a 4-speed box was introduced, and two years later the 3.8-litre F engine was replaced by the 4.2-litre 2F version. The new gearbox had a lower first gear for crawling in those dry riverbeds, but the same final drive ratio to overtake Land Rovers on the highways. The body as a whole kept the same basic

shape, though the new models now had high-lift door handles to replace the old toilet-flusher-style handles, and the wiper motors were relocated under the windscreen.

It was in the mid-1980s that the Cruiser got a makeover— the classic FJ45 shape was replaced by the 70 Series, starting with the 75 Series, accompanied by a 4.0-litre 3F petrol engine or 2H pushrod diesel engine. Then in 1990, Toyota released the stuff of legends: the overhead camshaft 1HZ 4.2-litre diesel engine which still comes standard in South African base models.

With this new, potent and never-say-die engine, the 75 Series and subsequent 79 Series began to solidify their reputation in mineral exploration even more as a simple, solid, and powerful machine that could be depended upon.

70-SERIES CRUISERS By the 1990s, several vehicles besides the diesel Cruiser were still being used, such as the Land Rover Defender, the Toyota Hilux, and the gasoline version of The 4.5-litre EFI gasoline the Cruiser. The Defender was solLand Cruisers, while faster id but did not have as much power and more powerful than or load capacity as the Cruiser. The their diesel siblings, drank Toyota Hilux and other pickups like sailors and had to carry so much gasoline into the were lighter in the sand but could field that it was like travelnot handle the heavy load required ling in a ticking time bomb. either. The 4.5-litre EFI gasoline Land Cruisers, while faster and more powerful than their diesel siblings, drank like sailors and had to carry so much gasoline into the field that it was like travelling in a ticking time bomb. The popularity of the practical 70-Series diesel Land Cruisers, therefore, continued into the mid-1990s, as investment in mineral exploration grew thanks to booming economies. By this time, most geologists realised that this was the preferred vehicle for the work at hand.

And work they did—impressive results are read from the documented history of our group of 30 Land Cruiser 70-Series vehicles spanning 20 years of mineral exploration work. This particular squad of vehicles was put through the most extensive mileage and extreme conditions in sand and mud, and on rocks and potholed highways, travelling by road from South Africa as far afield as Kenya and the Congo.

70-SERIES 1HZ ENGINES The release of the 70-Series Cruisers in the early 1990s came at the same time a new exploration technology allowed for subsurface exploration of the Kalahari Basin. Tens of millions of years of erosion of the surrounding highlands filled this bowl with a thick blanket of soft sand, in doing so covering diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes. These pipes were proven Opposite: A late-model FJ45 long wheelbase pickup at an exploration camp in Zululand during a soil sample program for base metals, circa 1979. Opening page: An early-model FJ45 long wheelbase pickup with a ladder on the back for climbing down ancient mine adits in Zululand to sample for gold, circa 1976. This vehicle was known as Green Mamba, named after one of Africa’s most venomous snakes. It is still in use to this day as a safari truck at a game lodge.

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100 Clockwise from top right: Rain clouds loom behind camp on the edge of a wetland in Zambia. Camping is basic since bulky sampling equipment and provisions take priority—meaning there is no space for big tents or soft mattresses. Two Cruisers meet at the crest of a dune while trying to sniff out uranium in the Namibian desert. In these towering dunes, the thirsty 4.5-litre petrol version of the Cruiser performed better than the more economical diesels. Note the high flotation tires and recovery equipment to deal with the soft sand. The mighty 1HZ engine pull starts the monster amphibian. A fleet of 70-Series Cruisers, waiting for directions while setting up a copper sampling project in Northwest Zambia. Aboard the military amphibian, crossing flooded plains in Northwest Zambia.

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to be the source of those golf-ball-sized stones that had geologists licking their lips in their sleep. Hence, it wasn’t long before many a Cruiser was being prepped to join the search. This soft dry sand makes engines howl and gearboxes groan, as such both have to be treated carefully in these conditions. In those days, before beeping warning systems, drivers were trained to pick up a fluctuating temperature needle as if it were a compass leading them to King Solomon’s Mines, but there was also the nightmare threat of an acacia branch going through the radiator. Stop Leak offered some comfort, but a spare radiator, just in case, helped everyone sweat a bit less when branches scraped the undercarriage.

The only time these 1HZ engines failed was in cases where a punctured radiator or blocked hose went unnoticed and the engine overheated to the point of seizing. But not once did this result in a damaged cylinder head or blown head gasket. After some time to cool off and the blockage or leak being fixed, the 1HZ would run smoothly as if nothing had happened.

Emissions regulations have resulted in the new, more economical, more powerful common-rail-injected V8 diesel slowly replacing the 1HZ in some countries. Sadly, this new engine is covered in superfluous plastic covers, and assisted by a labyrinth of electrical wires and chips—hardly the stuff for exploration in Africa. They are fussy drinkers too, and demand 50 ppm premium diesel which becomes difficult to find north of the Zambezi River. Thankfully, South Africans still have the option of buying a brand-new Cruiser with the tried and trusted 1HZ engine, and many are still rolling off the factory floor right into the bush.

GEARBOX, SUSPENSION, AND TYRES In the early 2000s, the 75-Series pickup was replaced by the 79 Series. Besides minor cosmetic changes, it came with a lighter shifting R151F gearbox, and a new clutch which eased the legwork. In all those years, there was never a clutch burnt, despite the laborious gear changes in thick sand. However, the new gearboxes did not perform as well and sometimes broke oil seals.

Without maintenance, this could result in the gear oil draining into the transfer case and burning up the gearbox. Needless to say, the older box was much preferred for heavy work, but with attentive driving and oil changes every 20,000 kilometres, the newer boxes proved to be sound.

While the Kalahari sand tested the engine and gearbox, rocky areas like southern Zambia or northwestern Mozambique were much harder on the suspension, especially when carrying thousands of bags of rock and soil samples. The earlier 75-Series models of the mid-1990s were still leaf-sprung all around which made for a bumpy ride, but they compensated for this with superb controlled chassis twist on rocky tracks and dry river beds.

Later, front coil springs and longer spring leaves on the back axle were added to the 79 Series, affording more wheel travel and comfort too.

Eight-ply skinny tyres were standard on earlier operations.

There were better tyres for mud and sand, but the hard side walls of these skinnies protected against the Kalahari’s thorn bushes and sharp rocks hidden in mud. Later on, thanks to tyre repair shops springing up in the farthest corners, the skinnies were re-

placed with comfortable 235/85/R16s that were better in the sand and could be fixed with plugs too.

Naturally, for continuous performance, any vehicle needs to be well-maintained. In the field, a daily vehicle check was done as routinely as taking a walk with a shovel after the morning coffee, and services were done in the bush every 5,000 kilometres by the geologists themselves. Back home between projects, shocks and springs were checked, engines had their major services done, and electrics were thoroughly cleaned. According to a wellknown mechanic in Cape Town, a Land Cruiser can last forever if loving care is shown, and if not, well then replacing the engine head of the 1HZ at about 600,000 kilometres can offer you another 600,000 kilometres. Examples of 79-Series Cruisers with a million kilometres on the clock are not unheard of either.

MODIFICATIONS AND ACCESSORIES The diesel 79 Series as they came were mechanically reliable, but a few extra touches enhanced the Cruiser from a plain, reliable pickup to a personalised member of mineral exploration teams, full of handy tricks and surprises.

Starting with the basic pickup body, goat rails on the bin were the first necessity, to secure a large load and shelter passengers from thorn bushes. The rails also add extra weight on the back suspension when driving empty. For a nifty move in emergency situations, the back gate of the goat rails serves as a hard stretcher, and can be strapped down on top of the spare tyre in the pickup bin to secure a patient being transported to a hospital or airlift evacuation. Over the goat rail frame went a heavy canvas tie-down canopy to protect expensive equipment from dust, rain, and prying eyes at border crossings. A Hi-Lift jack, shovel, and extra spare wheel were mounted to the sides of the goat rail. The Hi-Lift became mandatory after three vehicles got bogged down in mud several kilometres apart near the Liuwa Plain in Zambia, with only one jack between them. The young fieldie who picked the short straw had to hike with the jack several miles in long grass between the A Land Cruiser can last vehicles, haunted by recent memoforever if loving care is ries of lions calling nearby just a few shown, and if not, well nights before. then replacing the engine A bull bar, KC spotlights, Safari head of the 1HZ at about 600,000 kilometres can snorkel, and seed grill covers were offer you another 600,000 also useful additions. When negokilometres. Examples of tiating flooded rivers in the rainy 79-Series Cruisers with a season in the Congo, an ARB winch million kilometres on the clock are not unheard of. was a valuable friend to have, so every second Cruiser was fitted with one. VHF radios were essential to keep in touch on long hauls and to arrange rendezvous points with teams on foot.

The standard 90-litre fuel capacity was increased to 270 litres by adding a 180-litre tank at the front of the bin, with a manual valve under the driver’s seat to drain into the main tank to provide longer range. This generally allowed for a round trip into a project area from the nearest fuel supply, and around 10 days of work in the field. Often, 44-gallon drums of diesel were strapped to the back to increase fuel capacity for even more remote areas or erratic regional fuel supplies. Behind the long-range tank OVERLAND JOURNAL FALL 2019

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came the essential bakkie box, which carried anything and everything you might need. A lockable iron chest spanning the width of the pickup bin, it contained a well-kept inventory of spare parts and tools needed for light to medium repairs, such as hoses, filters, replacement nuts and bolts, and all the oils and fluids. A testament to the Cruisers’ reliability is how few spares carried actually got used except for during regular services. The rest of the box constituted tools, tow ropes, jacking plates, puncture plug kits, pangas, geopicks, and, of course, secret stashes of biltong (beef jerky’s tasty African cousin).

A breakdown for someone on holiday is just a delay. When your vehicle is a crucial cog in your business, and you are in the middle of nowhere covered in buzzing mopane flies, an avoidable breakdown means getting on the satellite phone to the office in South Africa and having your ear chewed off by the boss for being negligent. The idea is that one may only need one of those spares or tools once in your career, but not having it that one time would mean you were not going anywhere, and help is a long time away.

reliable safety line should anything go wrong far away from help.

Their popularity in mineral exploration has usurped other vehicles, through decades of dogged reliability capped with many legendary performances.

By not conforming to the number of electronics and gadgetry that we see on other 4WDs today, Toyota has set themselves aside by keeping the modern Land Cruiser perfectly suited to the rugged work it was designed for decades ago. Safety and emissions regulations are tightening in mineral exploration and other industries though, and the demand for civilian use is increasing too. It will be interesting to see how much longer the Land Cruiser will remain the vehicle we know and love, or whether Toyota will be forced to keep up with the Joneses and modernize the electronics and emissions. What happens here remains to be seen, but the Cruiser has already made a name for itself in the history books. For many a soul, searching for Africa’s treasures just would not have been the same without that comforting low growl of a 1HZ engine, and a view over that long white nose and bull bar, steering into another red African sunset.

CONCLUSION The debate over which 4WD is the best of the best will rage on forever; as far as working models go, a chorus of voices from the Sub-Saharan plains and valleys echo the opinion that the Land Cruiser is the one to get the job done effectively. These vehicles are durable workhorses in tough terrain, and also the

An early-model 70-Series pickup with a 4.2-litre 1HZ engine, crossing a river during the rainy season in Northern Botswana. Snorkels were a must in these conditions.

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LIVING LEGENDS INTERVIEW BY TENA OVERACKER PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF DALE SCHWAMBORN, THE ESTATE OF HELEN BYAM SCHWAMBORN, AIRSTREAM ARCHIVES, AND PETE TURNER

DALE SCHWAMBORN

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An extraordinary way of life—on the road with Wally Byam, Airstream’s founder.

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ravel can be considered a blessing no matter what your age when the opportunity strikes, but when we are young, the benefits shape who we become, with the capacity to alter how we perceive the world at large. Dale “Pee-Wee” Schwamborn was just 13 years old when he was given the chance to accompany Airstream Founder Wally Byam on the trip of a lifetime: the company’s first caravan to Mexico and Central America.

Officially dubbed the First Annual InterAmerican Trailercoach Caravan Tour, 165 people, 55 cars, and 51 trailers set out in December 1951 for four months, described by Wally as being “just like a circus moving into town” with each new destination along the route. The outfit was selfsustaining, with their “own light plant, cafeteria car, loud speaking system and tow truck,” with “a big fiesta and fandango every night.” Each new morning brought opportunity for adventure, an appealing proposition for Pee-Wee. Dale is Wally’s first cousin once removed. His mother, Helen Byam Schwamborn, and Wally reconnected and became great friends after the Schwamborns moved to California in 1931. After taking Dale for a brief endurance test in the Sierra Nevada one weekend, Wally decided that he would be a fitting and welcome companion, and offered to help Dale see the world.

Almost 70 years later, Dale is a celebrity in the Airstream circle. He is the last person to be able to share intimate memories of Wally Byam with Airstream converts, new and old, and was with Wally on Byam’s first and last caravans. Dale is in the process of turning his immense catalogue of memories, his legacy, over to Airstream, box by box; just recently, 112 additional cartons were moved from his home to their archives department. As caretaker for various remembrances and belongings that belonged to Helen and Wally, Dale jokes that he could have made a half a million dollars on eBay (at least) with everything he was entrusted with, but there was never a temptation to do so—these items needed to find their way home. “I’m not sure if it is a blessing or a curse, but I do the best I can to share the things that have been put in my care.”

Many personal artifacts reside in the heritage museum in Baker City, Oregon, where the Byam clan is from, but the rest are finding their way back to the company. Dale told me he felt fortunate to have been born into the right family, and that though he never owned stock in the company, “venues and doors opened [for me] that no one else had.”

Since his retirement and the death of his mother in 2004, the Airstream world has become Dale’s family, and it is one that he cherishes.

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Why do you think Wally took a special interest in you? He thought the caravan experience would be an excellent educational opportunity for you, but you were singled out to an extent.

It is possible that Wally wanted to provide me with certain things that my parents couldn’t.

There is no doubt that my adventures provided

by Wally were academic in nature, and looking back, so much appears as training. I’m not completely sure of the end objective. I also don’t discount that without children himself, he wanted to be a surrogate father.

Photo by Pat Terry

You’ve said many times that your mother, Helen Byam Schwamborn, is the unsung hero of Airstream. She sold the idea of caravans, building future sales, and was on the board of directors. How would you describe her contribution to Airstream?

Mother and son, Helen and Dale. Dale was 10 years old in this photo, taken in 1948. This shot accompanied a story in Look Magazine covering the 1954 Mexico/Central America Caravan.

Taken during the 1964 New York World’s Fair and the WBCCI International Rally, Dale is joined by Sally Sue Traylor who was crowned Teen Queen at the rally. Dale was stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey, at the time. Opposite: Eugene, Oregon, 1962 Opening page: Dale, in front of the scout truck in Nairobi, Kenya.

She is unsung in that she was working in a man’s world. In 1953, Wally wrote a postcard to my mother and told her that he hoped to take care of her “itchy foot,” but it wasn’t until 1955 that he hired her to lead the Eastern Canada Caravan. He had an uncanny sense for the values within his employees. Wally respected one intangible asset my mother had above all others—confidentiality.

Airstream had two divisions: Airstream Trailers, Inc., the manufacturing entity; and Airstream Sales, Inc. that managed the Wally Byam Caravan Club, Inc. (WBCCI).

Wally made it clear that my mother would be the pivot point for all caravans and in charge of preparations. Her office also managed and supported the club, and provided sales and marketing tools. WBCCI’s first headquarters was in our home.

My mother made frequent trips to Washington D.C. to visit the State Department, and to meet with ambassadors and attachés in the various embassies whose countries were on the itinerary. She was at her best dealing with people. From her office came two of the most successful and visible caravans: Africa and Around-the-World.

The Caravan Club grew to 30,000 families, an amazing enticement for dealers to sell Airstreams.

What commonality brought the caravan groups together? They came from all walks of life.

The background for the groups was varied— doctors, retired teachers, small business owners, former hotel owners, manufactur-

ing, oil lessees and more. The most common thread was to do something that no one else had ever done. The more experienced members had traveled on several caravans and had an established camaraderie with each other—they enjoyed the challenge and being with their friends.

The return caravanners’ admiration for Wally’s leadership and his vision was also important when times got tough, as they did in Ethiopia. We were plagued by rain, mud, and the remnants of roads with gullies running down the middle. Wally reassured everyone that things would turn out alright, it would just take a little longer. And they did.

Beginning at age 12 through your early 20s, you went on a total of five caravans and visited 52 countries, including the regions of Mexico/Central America, Eastern Canada, and Africa (Capetown to Cairo).

Did you ever have a desire to keep traveling in the way of the caravan?

The thirst for traveling is never satisfied or quenched without more travel. When on a road and confronted by a mountain you must find what is on the other side. I dearly wanted to go on the Around-the-World Caravan, but I was drafted for two years. My wife, Sue, and I later traveled to Italy, Eastern Canada, Guatemala, the Soviet Union, and Red China.

As part of a caravan though, you enjoy certain hospitalities that individuals don’t have. Likewise, in a larger group, the local people come out to see you and you make great friends. When you travel by plane, train, or bus, and stay in a hotel and frequently unpack your suitcase, you don’t see the countryside, meet the people, or connect with like-minded friends.

How did the trailers perform on these extended journeys?

The caravans were a fantastic way to evaluate shortcomings of Airstream models and to make corrections. Guatemalan roads gave the 1948 European Airstream model a run for its money, and won. The tubular chassis cracked and the trailer became untowable.

The collapse of the frame led to the introduction of a ladder-style, channel constructed frame. When dust started pouring in from the windows, where seals and sealant had failed, and in through the door, Wally identified appropriate corrections, and these trials aided the quest for product perfection.

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After your first caravan, you wrote in an English paper that one needed to “First have a dream, then a plan, and if you work hard enough it will come true, but only you can make it come true.” Those are pretty lofty words for a 13-year-old boy. Did you make this a lifelong credo?

108 FIRST HAVE A DREAM, THEN A PLAN, AND IF YOU WORK HARD ENOUGH IT WILL COME TRUE, BUT ONLY YOU CAN MAKE IT COME TRUE.

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Complex life philosophies elude you when you are young. You grow into them with experience, and I had the environment to put plans in place.

There is no doubt that this was advice from Wally Byam. In traveling as his guest, sitting in the front seat with him, I received guidance and information.

When Wally graduated from high school in 1916, he wrote a set of affirmations that set him on a course for success based on knowing who he was and what his capabilities were. I did the same thing in 1962 before going into the army. Several years ago, I looked at them and was surprised at my follow-through and how they really did provide a guideline for my life. One of them rings particularly true: my leisure time brings happiness and understanding.

Do you remember what it felt like to meet VIPs as a young man? Were you too young to care? Señora Pancho Villa, President Somoza of Nicaragua, and President Alemán of Mexico are some pretty big names.

After meeting Haile Selassie, the Emperor and Lion of Judah, descended from the Queen of Sheba, the meeting of important persons became more meaningful to me. In high school, part of our text covered Haile Selassie’s appeal to the League of Nations when Italy invaded and took over Ethiopia. To meet and shake his hand was amazing. For many years, when I shook hands, I would say that I hadn’t washed my hand since 1959 when it shook Hailie Selassie’s; I thought it was important to allow others to shake the hand that shook the hand.

What are some of your favorite caravan memories?

During the first caravan in 1951, we spent time at President Somoza’s sugar plantation in Nicaragua. He seemed very much a family man, and had his grandson with him as

Heavy rains plagued the African Caravan in Southern Ethiopia, requiring every man, woman, and child to assist in making the route passable. Dale is in the foreground, with Nick Charles behind him. A pause for a lunch break in a small village in Southern Ethiopia. A campsite in the Belgian Congo during the African Caravan. The man with the bull horn is Jean Pierre Hallet. He arranged for members of the Watusi tribe to come to camp and later set up interactions for us with the Pygmies in the Ituri Forest.

Opposite: A water crossing during the first Mexico/ Central America caravan. Wally Byam, enjoying a ride in a Zulu rickshaw, in Durban, South Africa, 1959.

he gave us a tour. We met him that day as a person and not a politician.

I was also dropped off near the Zócalo in Mexico City by some caravanners on Christmas Eve. I ended up walking the streets by myself and lost track of time buying trinkets and playing with bottle rockets, barely finding a taxi cab to take me back to camp at 11 p.m. Wally considered sending me home for that—his sense of responsibility for me was great.

In 1955, the Eastern Canadian Caravan crossed the United States via the Mother Road, Route 66. Most of my time in the States until then was spent in California.

Looking back on it, wow, what a wonderful way to see the country. I had my first steak for breakfast in Amarillo, Texas, and loved seeing the changes from state to state.

For the 1956 European Caravan, I flew on a propeller-driven TWA Constellation to Los Angeles, New York, Gander, Shannon, Orly, and finally Zurich to be greeted by my mother and the Byams. After leaving Ireland and before arriving in Paris, engine number two burned out. I was 17 years old, and a couple of glasses of wine had been served to me. A priest was sitting next to me on my right, and on my left the flames swirled by me outside the window in a 40to 50-foot trail. The engine was changed out in Paris.

Not long after arriving in Europe, Wally purchased a BMW Isetta that I drove through the continent for him. Upon arrival back in the United States, I drove it coast to coast—up hills at 25 mph, downhill at 55 mph, on the level at 45 mph. My mother followed me with her Chevrolet and Airstream to protect me from becoming a hood ornament for an eighteen-wheeler.

The 1959 African Caravan was an enormous venture. How much planning went into it?

It was apparent in 1953 that Wally was considering an African caravan across North Africa, through the Middle East to Europe.

One of his department managers had traveled through North Africa, and their discussions were the foundation for the trip. Wally then had a vision to traverse the length of Africa from Capetown to Cairo. Like a jigsaw puzzle the possibilities came together.

In 1956, while the European Caravan was going I on, I missed two months in vis-

iting certain cities, including Paris. My initial desire to go to Africa was to revisit Europe and see the areas I had missed in 1956.

When the plans were formalized, I asked Wally if I could go. He told me it would be a working position as the advance scout and required 35-plus Airstream families to justify my going. In April 1959 I received word that Africa was on.

As a scout for the African trip, how did you communicate with the rest of the group without comms? What were your most important tasks?

The basic tasks were checking the roads, finding campsites, and meeting with government officials. In a new place, the first thing to do was to go to the equivalent of city hall and meet the mayor or prominent figurehead to introduce the caravan and its needs. An escort was often provided, usually the police department, to take you back to the entrance to town. A series of signs were put up to guide the caravan to the campsite.

The signs were necessary, since not all rigs arrived at the same time.

Communication was a problem and was person to person, and with the exception of leaving messages with city officials to give to Wally, this was rare.

As a scout, the longest period ahead from the main group was two weeks and might have included three to five campsites. Roads had to be really terrible for us to remain or backtrack to the group to let them know what they were getting into.

There were numerous almost no-go roads where we assisted with our scout trucks to pull trailers out of mud and ruts, helped in building roads, and moving units from precarious eroded highway areas. You can’t really change roads though; you endure them.

What were some of Africa’s challenges?

In Khartoum, seven Airstream owners opted to go through the Nubian Desert instead of by rail and down the Nile on a barge. We scouts went with them. The photographer’s truck burned out a bearing, and the mechanic’s truck had to tow it. We were bogged down in the desert for 10 hours before we made it back on track, eventually rejoining the rest.

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CHALLENGES MUST BE MET HEAD-ON KNOWING WHAT OUTCOME YOU MUST HAVE. THEN YOU BASE YOUR COURSE TO THAT END. WHEN YOUR OBJECTIVE MEETS FAILURE, YOU PICK UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF AND RESUME YOUR GOALS.

lunch one day and found the bag of rice full of weevils, and decided to cook it up anyway with that extra dose of protein.

We were dry camping, and to not run out of water was a particularly persistent challenge, plus all water was hand carried by jerry can. There were no water hook-ups in Africa.

Nick’s father, Andy, worked with Wally at Lockheed in WWII and eventually joined the Airstream company. Prior to Africa, he had read an article on setting up water filtration systems, and installed them on all three auxiliary vehicles. Warnings for schistosomiasis were everywhere, but we never boiled water or used chemicals. The doctors along the tour were livid, but no one got sick.

Did your parents ever have any concerns about your safety? Going to Africa for 11 months as a young man was a long time.

Did they wonder that you might not return to college?

Yes, my parents had some apprehensions about the trip. This was tempered by their complete faith in Wally’s leadership and planning. Probably more so for my mother than my father, having the knowledge about my four other caravans, personally knowing several seasoned caravanners, and recognizing that Wally needed someone to assist during tough times.

What advice do you have for parents who are thinking of pulling their kids out of traditional school and overlanding the world?

Photo by Dale Schwamb

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To everyone that can do that with their child, do it. Because memories can fade, have them keep a journal to chronicle their adventures. It will be a gift to them later; not only is it important for the child to look back, but to be able to share these memories with future generations. Parents should also keep a journal as it is interesting to see different perceptions from the same day.

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Caravanners tour the Luxor Temple in Egypt.

Upon docking in Cape Town, South Africa, the holds were opened, and dock cranes began unloading the Airstreams and tow vehicles.

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You became a history major, like Wally, and ended up in business, like Wally. His influence is evident, but how do you think your caravan experiences changed you?

The caravans taught me how to deal with and understand people, to read most people’s character within a short period after meeting them. This became an asset when making friends or made me leery about some new acquaintances.

In Africa, looking back, I found that I understood diplomacy after having to use

it on several occasions. When the roads needed rebuilding, everyone from children to adults pitched in as a team, showing that we could overcome obstacles together. That hard work paid dividends.

There is so much involved in our lives that the complexities and learning curves create not only who we are, but what we do.

How did it feel to have all of these extraordinary travels under your belt at such a young age? I imagine camping next to the Great Pyramids would give a guy some clout. Did you feel different from your peers?

I suppose that there was some discussion when I returned to the eighth grade about my travels, but seeing as I lived in Bakersfield, California, with such a large middleclass family base, the average student probably didn’t grasp what I had just done for four months. And I probably didn’t want to have a high profile.

My main difference was in associating with people in their late 50s or early 60s.

Looking back, I had more in common with adults. This did not set me aside from my peers, it just was part of my life.

Did the Byam motto, “We Byams can do anything,” often voiced by your mother and Wally, take hold of you as well?

Yes, but not in the context that my mother and Wally shared. The Schwamborns and the Byams were both strong believers in the power of positive thinking. When you are raised in a loving home you are less likely to have roadblocks created within your own imagination. Today, I truly believe there is no glass that is half-full or half-empty—your glass must always be full. Is that an illusion?

Maybe. But challenges must be met head-on knowing what outcome you must have. Then you base your course to that end. When your objective meets failure, you pick up where you left off and resume your goals. Never give up or fail because you have just begun.

You’ve mentioned that one of the reasons you have been so active giving talks on Airstream is because you can never give back what you received. How did the company frame your life?

It was wonderful to have a working relationship with Wally Byam and my mother. I watched Airstream’s growth and expansion, and the creation of the WBCCI. I’ve made

Clockwise from top right: Pete Turner took to the air for this shot of the caravan nestled among the Pyramids of Giza. Waking up in the morning surrounded by antiquity was special. The 1958 caravan to Mexico and Central America reached the Guatemala border by the same method they used in 1951: it was necessary to load the Airstreams and tow vehicles onto flat cars and travel by rail to the border.

Wally Byam looks on as his gold Airstream is towed through the deep mud in Southern Ethiopia. When the caravan met rough roads in Ethiopia, the caravanners would work together to clear the way. On this day, one of the bystanders was a member of Haile Selassie’s Imperial Guard. A Swedish truck driver who carried freight from Nairobi to Addis Abba offered his truck as a temporary tow vehicle.

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112 At the 1964 WBCCI rally in Princeton, New Jersey, over 2,000 families gathered from all over the US, with the main attraction being the New York World’s Fair going on at the same time. In subsequent years, rally attendees grew to over 4,000 families. The Schwamborns, at home in Bakersfield, California, in 1955. Opposite: Dale, immersed in memories at his home office.

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hundreds of Airstream friends over the years and went on a small Airstream excursion with Lynda Bird Johnson.

Later on, Airstream gave me the opportunity to work with Bob Chateau, director of materials management. I revered his intellect and consider him the most brilliant business man that I have ever known. He taught me valuable procurement skills including morality, integrity, and honesty, and the ability to work with owners, managers, and company presidents on equal footing.

In 2004 my mother passed away. When Russ Banham contacted me while he was writing a book about Airstream, I reentered the Airstream world. Afterward, I began to have further inquiries about the company’s history. After hoarding for almost 70 years, my Airstream memorabilia collection was one of the single largest in the world. My goal became to bring alive a bygone era with

newer generations of Airstream aficionados.

Traveling by trailer is unique in that it increases your awareness and participation in many areas—seeing how others live, their culture, history, beauty, and food. Travel contributed so much to my views and personal and world outlook.

This mode of transportation introduced a firsthand knowledge for people of vastly different cultures and how they managed to live with meager means, or in some cases, wealth beyond one’s imagination.

After working at Airstream for five years, you left to become a Kaiser man. Were you always an Airstream man at heart?

It seems like your loyalty was to Wally more than anything else. And without him, maybe Airstream was just a job?

No, being an Airstream man is not the way I belonged in the Airstream world. I was always

What does the image of an Airstream invoke in you?

Such pride to know that within my family, Airstream was designed and owned. Knowing that at times, extreme hardships were experienced by Wally to keep his company open, and the doors almost shut on more than one occasion. That his determination, stick-to-itiveness, and marketing acumen created the Airstream for people to use and enjoy. Wally would be busting his buttons at the seam if he saw how Airstream is still going strong in the 21st century, an icon for American manufactured products. Because of his foresight, he and Airstream have become legendary.

Your father was an insurance agent and while he supported your early escapades,

RECOMMENDED READING Wanderlust: Airstream at 75, by Russ Banham. Dale contends that this is one of the most accurate books on Airstream, and he himself offered insight and collaboration on the project, as well as reviewed the first six chapters prior to publishing.

There is a love that you have with your parents. That is something my father and I had, that no other man including Wally could ever give me. I remember every night mom cooked dinner, dad washed the dishes, and I dried them. During this routine we sang old songs such as “Down by the Old Mill Stream” and “Bicycle Built for Two.” One time we were returning to our car in downtown Bakersfield after I had just purchased a comic book. My dad took it from me and gave it to a child waiting for the bus.

At the time, I didn’t understand and was visibly upset. My dad told me that the child obviously came from a family that couldn’t afford a comic book and he wanted the child to have something instead of being without.

He told me that we would stop and buy me a replacement. Dad was kind, generous, and loving—a great family man.

Before going to Africa, my dad’s cliché for keeping out of trouble was repeated, “Keep your nose clean!” He also made it known for me to support Wally 100 percent.

My dad wasn’t a traveling man, but if there were Airstream rallies nearby, he would accompany my mother. The caravanners just loved my dad. He died too early in 1966 at the age of 63.

In a letter to your mother during the first caravan, Wally said that he “…had learned that the difference between me is a matter of guts…Also that the price of success is eternal vigilance,” and that he wished he could teach those things to you. Did he?

How did they manifest in your life?

Wally also died too soon. In talking with my mother, he mentioned that he had various steps that he wanted to teach me about life and success. We never had these talks. In the years that I did spend with him, life lessons were passed on to me in other ways, primarily by example. You couldn’t be around him and not learn from him.

Photo by Rich Luhr

he wasn’t a traveling man himself. You refer to Wally as a surrogate father, but how much influence did your real father have on your life?

CONNECT WITH DALE

part of the legacy, the experiences, and held product admiration. To use the word loyalty is the wrong expression for my feelings for Wally; I believe friendship, love, and mentor are closer to my heart. Loyalty is just part of the equation. I was always there for him—in Africa, other caravans, and during his terminal illness prior to his passing in 1962.

Airstream wasn’t just another job, it was a fantastic training journey. My employment began as a receiving clerk, then organizing their personnel office into a new department, to cost accounting, and finally, materials manager. It was a firsthand view in dealing with office and company politics.

Wally never wanted me to work at Airstream—he had loftier goals in mind for me.

I so loved Airstream that it seemed natural for me to work there, but it was never a job.

Dale can often be found at Airstream rallies, enlightening fans through his various talks and Q&A sessions.

Alumanation, a documentary by Eric Bricker, is slated to be unveiled as soon as this fall. Dale is prominently featured onscreen as the primary voice for Wally, Helen, and the caravans in a body of work described

by Eric as “an impressionistic look at the Airstream world, illustrating how the company’s trailers embody the spirit of Wally Byam” and to what degree that spirit lives on, as kept alive by current Airstreamers. aluminationmovie.com

wherever and whenever you choose to go or stay.” Most overlanders have the same objective, though it manifests in different ways. What do you see as the biggest advantage to this method?

It’s a different slice of life. You don’t have to be tied to an office or house, you can run your entire life from your vehicle or Airstream. Get out there and use it, enjoy it, and see the world. Your only limits are your heart’s desires.

Wally felt that Airstream was a way “to provide a more satisfying, meaningful way of travel that offers complete independence, OVERLAND JOURNAL FALL 2019

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GIVING BACK GARY AND MONIKA WESCOTT

Magic Girl of the Pamiris Doing good as you go can take many different forms, even sponsoring a young girl’s education.

I

Her smile said what words could not: I am so happy you can see who I am.

t was another spectacular warm and sunny day in the mountains of Tajikistan, as warm as it gets at 14,000 feet. The intense blue sky almost hurt our eyes. This place is often called the “roof of the world,” according to National Geographic, “one of the last truly isolated places on earth.”

Turning off the Wakhan Corridor along the Afghan border, once trodden by Marco Polo as he followed the Silk Road, we climbed over the 15,272-foot Koy-Tezek Pass and headed slowly down into a long valley following the turbulent Toguz-Bulak River. The dusty Pamir Highway was as rough in places as the Wakhan Corridor had been.

Spotting a small creek on the side of the road, a tributary to the larger swift-rushing river, I backed the truck into it to wash off some of the silt-like powder that had hitched a ride. No sooner had we unpacked our bucket and wash brush than three young girls who had just carried some old window frames across the road came back. As they walked over a small footbridge, the last girl stopped, waded out into the water, took the brush from my hands and started to help me. Monika and I both looked at her and each other in surprise. In these countries, girls of any age don’t approach strange men. She spoke no English and little Russian, only Tajik and the local dialect. But words were not necessary.

There was a magic of wonder in her eyes, along with a smile that said, “I don’t know who you are or where you are from; nevermind, I’m going to help you.”

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named Masha, only 11 years old. We camped there for three days and met her family, who invited us for tea. Each time we saw her and those mysterious eyes, always discreetly catching ours, we could sense her uncomplicated imagination fueled by the burning desire to communicate. Was it her innocent confidence that shyly said, “No fear, bring it on”? Without a single word spoken, she had captured our attention and our hearts. We started to speculate on how we could help her.

Even six months later, after traveling through Kyrgyzstan, China, Mongolia, Russia, South Korea, and Japan, every time we looked at the pictures we had of her, the feeling came back. Through a series of emails, we were able to contact a young man, Sheroz Naimov, the director of the American Corner in Khorog, a free learning center sponsored by the American Embassy designed to promote mutual understanding between the United States and Tajikistan.

Khorog is a small town, hardly a city, and the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO). Situated in a valley at the confluence of the Gunt and the Panj rivers, at 7,217 feet above sea level, it is relatively low when you consider that 50 percent of the country sits at over 10,400 feet. Khorog is at least three hours from the village where Masha is from, on a road that can Hitching a ride with a be closed by snow or rock falls at friend to Masha’s village, any time. he spoke to the family We learned that there was a and explained that we prestigious private school in Khowanted to sponsor rog sponsored by the Aga Khan Masha in the Aga Khan Development Network, (AKDN).

Lycée school. His words His Highness, Prince Karim Aga were met by tears in the Khan IV, is the founder and chairyoung girl’s eyes. man of AKDN and is the 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili, a very unique and liberal sect of the Muslim religion. There are no mosques or minarets; their home is their church. And women are not required to cover their heads or faces.

Sheroz volunteered to help us. Hitching a ride with a friend to Masha’s village, he spoke to the family and explained that we wanted to sponsor Masha in the Aga Khan Lycée school. His words were met by tears in the young girl’s eyes. Her father called Sheroz the next day to ask disbelievingly, “Is this really going to happen?” Yes, Sheroz told him, but now the first problem would be finding a safe place for her to live in Khorog. Secondly, could she pass the entrance test with her very poor math and Russian?

Sheroz’s father and his sister both opened their homes to her, providing Masha a place to live most of the year while she was at school. Extreme generosity and hospitality are a cornerstone

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of the Shia Ismaili faith, but the amazing warmth of these people still astounded us.

Masha did not pass the school’s entrance test, at first.

After three months of intense tutoring, she made the grade.

She was 12 years old, nearing 13. We supplied Masha with a phone so that she could call her parents. A computer, printer, and appropriate “city” clothes for four seasons were also necessities. There are other expenses such as a uniform, daily transportation, school supplies, and tuition at Aga Khan Lycée school which is around $48 a month, but the costs are minor when measuring the opportunities they allow.

Sheroz arranged a modem and internet connection for Masha, allowing us to Skype and WhatsApp. In the beginning, Sheroz had to translate for her, but her smile and the sparkle in her eyes told us she was making the transition from remote village life to being a modern teenage girl in a “city” environment. The difference was great: away from her home, family, and friends, daily chores had changed from gathering firewood and milking goats to practicing her studies and household chores such as cooking.

We celebrated Masha’s 15th birthday with her new school friends and family live on Skype—amazing when you consider that Khorog is 7,525 miles and 12 time zones away. She is essentially in her sophomore year of high school, taking 17 classes six days a week with special English and math tutoring after school.

And, we recently journeyed to Tajikistan to visit Masha and her family, a grueling 26-hour hop from Sacramento to San Francisco to Istanbul to Dushanbe and then a 14-hour drive in a 4WD to Khorog—then another three hours by 4WD to her village. Spending three days at her home in the mountains opened our eyes to conditions we were truly not aware of when we were invited for chai in 2014.

It is a unique way of life for the people in the Pamir Mountains who have survived in this remote part of the world for hundreds of years. There is no running water. All washing, dishes, brushing of teeth, etcetera, are done in the irrigation ditch conveniently located in front of Masha’s traditional Pamiri home. The ditch takes its water from the river where cows, sheep, and goats graze. Cooking is done on an old, wood-fired metal stove, and water for tea boiled on an antique hotplate resembling a burner from a 1950’s electric stove. The bread is baked daily in a dilapidated Russian electric oven. As is the norm, we all slept on thin mattresses in a communal living room where meals are served, and all social activities take place.

We brought gifts of fruit, chicken, eggs, and vegetables to contribute to the meals. At 10,000 feet, crops are limited to onions, potatoes, and wheat. The standard fare included bread, tea, and potato and onion soup with a bone or a piece of meat from a recently killed sheep to give it some flavor.

The community is perhaps 15 or 20 homes spread out across a wide valley, in between potato and onion fields laced with a web of small interconnected irrigation channels. Many fami-

lies are related, so when a sheep or goat is slaughtered, the meat goes to many homes.

At this elevation, winters are brutal. Animals must be kept in closed sheds because packs of wolves are a problem. Wood gathered during the short summer, and dried cow and sheep dung are the only sources of fuel for heat.

We now had a much clearer idea of Masha’s background and the daunting change in her life that we must have offered her. When we met, her future was somewhat predetermined. Now her choices are plentiful, and no doubt a little overwhelming, especially at first. With two and a half more years before she graduates, her current aspirations of being a musician, actress, or doctor may change more than once. Our primary goal is to keep her healthy and happy while she is learning and to allow her the power of dreams.

Before we left Tajikistan, we took Masha and Sheroz’s niece to Dushanbe, the capital of the country. It was their first travel by airplane, and we had fun spoiling them in a new world of museums, zoos, shopping malls, hamburgers, Baskin-Robbins ice cream, pizza, escalators, elevators, and even a 3D movie. A comfortable bed in a nice hotel with

unlimited hot water was special. Masha also had her teeth cleaned by a professional dentist, topped off by a manicure and a visit to a hair salon. The two girls returned to Khorog by themselves, by the standard 14- to 19-hour 4WD taxi into the mountains, their minds swirling with impressions from another world.

Our chance meeting of Masha and our ability to sponsor her and watch her learn and grow has become one of the highlights of our lives. It has been a real treasure of overland travel, and an experience we recommend.

GET INVOLVED To sponsor another Pamiri child's education, visit donorbox.org/turtleexpedition-pamir-children-education

117 Clockwise from top left: From Pamiri mountain girl to city teenager, Masha’s love of life has not changed. In the mountains of Tajikistan, song and dance are an integral part of life. Despite limited schooling in her village, Masha made a remarkable transition to a full-time student. Sponsoring this young girl has been one of the great joys of overlanding travel for us. Opposite: There was a magical aura around Masha that touched our hearts.

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Another Day, Another Border Preparation, the right attitude, and shared information can make a difference.

By Steve Edwards Photography by Julie Edwards and Scott Brady

S

it here,” he said. A direct order from a customs official in East Africa is not unusual, but this particular request was. “Do you type quickly?”

“Yes, I suppose I do.”

“Excellent. Then you sit here and complete this form.

Can you help me with the printer?”

In this way, on a very humid Christmas Eve, in the liminal space between Kenya and Uganda, I found myself seated at the desk of the Kenya Revenue Authority. The dusty monitor displayed the temporary import permit form we needed to move our Land Rover onto the next country. The ancient Dell tower creaked and whirred at my left knee as I grasped the sticky mouse in my right hand.

Don’t mess this up, I muttered to myself, as I typed as “quickly” as I could without giving away my inevitable mistakes, and without doing anything irreparable to the customs software of an entire nation.

Our vehicle’s information eventually made its way safely into the system, and, after a few reboots, the required documents came whirring from the laser printer, half spilling on the floor. The customs official opened a huge paper ledger, where we scribbled in longhand our passport numbers and address. Signed and sealed, the customs official—his name was Patrick—then cracked a broad smile and wished us a very Merry Christmas. “

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guiding principles in mind, some hard knowledge, and a bit of patience and self-confidence, you will move on to that next adventure.

There is some well-established wisdom that overlanders have deployed for border crossings over the decades: be prepared with your documents and have extra copies of them separately stowed, plan for a long wait, walk away from bribes, treat other humans with humanity, don’t be a jerk.

But the traveling landscape is always changing. While those core principles still hold, it’s well worth regularly revisiting how we approach the border experience, and well worth learning from our fellow overlanders about how to make those transitions as smooth and hassle-free as possible.

Our travel in East and Southern Africa over the last few years, checking in at almost 30 different border offices, has taught us some valuable lessons.

ADJUST YOUR EXPECTATIONS ABOUT CORRUPTION

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With a wave to the police officer as he raised the gate and a stab of the throttle, we motored slowly into Uganda, ready to do it all over again.

As overlanders, we see ourselves as free agents. We are used to charting our course and controlling our destinies. We wild camp and explore back roads. We pride ourselves on selfsufficiency.

But all that independence breaks down abruptly when we reach a frontier. Suddenly, our future appears dim and uncertain; at the border, that future is fully in the hands of somebody else. It may be a plodding bureaucrat, a potentially corrupt official, or the sly and opportunistic runners and money changers that prowl the boundaries, sometimes spreading misinformation.

In short, moving from one country to another is a stressful experience. Border posts are a necessary evil, and we spend a lot of time and energy worrying about them. But with a few Customs officials may not be familiar with a carnet, so it is critical to fill the document out correctly. Always review entries prior to leaving the border. Remote outposts and borders can be the most challenging, and the most entertaining. This police station serves as an impromptu immigration office near an old smugglers’ route in Kenya.

Opening page: On the road in Tanzania—nine border crossings down, many more to go.

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Reporting from Southern Africa, I can confirm that immigration and customs procedures in this part of the globe, and across the rest of the rapidly developing world, are becoming much more efficient, and much less corrupt than you may imagine.

The fear that you will be scammed, encouraged to bribe, and generally held up at international borders for arbitrary and malicious reasons is rapidly fading as technology and professional development advance. As our friend and former customs officer Peter Sweetser says, customs and immigration officials have one job: to collect legal revenue on behalf of the state. As BIG BREATH OUT that role is increasingly mediThe fear that you will be ated and monitored by computscammed, encouraged to erized systems, and as officials bribe, and generally held up are now more likely to be paid at international borders for arbitrary and malicious a living wage, the opportunity reasons is rapidly fading as for bribery and corruption has technology and professional shrunk dramatically. development advance.

In addition, globalization and the growth of international overland travel have made overlanders less of an anomaly and less of a target. Our exotic and amazing journey from Uganda into northern Rwanda was flat-out boring and old hat to the Rwandan customs officer who wrote out our Land Rover’s temporary import permit. He didn’t bother even to look at the truck. “Just don’t forget to have the customs office cancel the TIP when you leave Rwanda,” he said. “That’ll be 15,000 RWF. Next.”

We have never been asked for a bribe outright by a single customs or immigration official in Africa. The police, well, that’s a topic for another time.

THE QUIETER AND MORE REMOTE THE BORDER, THE BETTER

We usually seek out small and quiet border posts across the continent. The officials tend to be more relaxed. You can avoid fighting the long lines, stacked-up mountains of long-

haul trucks, and the thoroughly annoying money changers and touts.

These rural border crossings often have a feeling of community, where residents go back and forth on foot between countries regularly, and foreigners, while a rare sight, are a welcome and friendly distraction to the daily rhythms of life.

The caveat is that you need to be more comprehensively prepared for rural border crossings in terms of information, documents, and, especially, money. Those aggressive money changers hounding you at busy border crossings? Well, you may miss their services when you need to pay for an unexpected “council fee,” and you’ve got shillings—but not the right kind. Some visa services are not available at remote borders either. Talk to your fellow overlanders, and find out what you need ahead of time.

Be aware that officials at these borders may be bored. We spent longer than necessary at a tiny border crossing in Mozambique when the customs official made us fill out the same paperwork twice because I transposed the date (using the American-style month and day rather than the African-style day and month). With no one waiting in line behind us, we were clearly the morning’s entertainment.

THE FOLDER

The Folder is a common tool used by overlanders all over the world, but we don’t talk about it in depth, and we should.

For us, it is a blue plastic accordion stuffed with all the documents, photocopies, local currency, and other paraphernalia we need to make a successful border crossing. It is a simple but powerful thing.

With your documents organized into easily identified categories, The Folder is your guide from desk to desk, and station to station at your border crossing. I memorize which pockets in the folder contain which things: pockets for passports and copies of passports, envelopes full of exact change for visa fees, and immunization certifications for immigration; pockets for vehicle ownership documents, TIPs or Carnet de Passages, and vehicle insurance for customs. When a document is demanded, I don’t even need to think. I reflexively reach into The Folder and produce it—the first time, every time, with multiple copies, stamped and certified, in reserve.

Border officials appreciate this efficiency and will reward you for it.

The Folder also acts as a deterrent against scammers.

When carried prominently under your arm, or waved in the face of a particularly aggressive hawker, it’s a physical sign that you are serious, and that you know what you are doing, even if you don’t. With a confident walk and a willingness to ask for help from uniformed customs and immigration officials, The Folder will be your guide.

PUT AWAY DISTRACTIONS

It may come as no surprise, but the confusion of a border crossing demands your full attention. Be prepared ahead of time to deal with its complexities by doing your research, and

then focus intently on your one task: moving from the country you are in to the next one.

We have often seen travelers, traders, truckers, and border officials alike distracted by their phones, and even by the usual television bolted on the wall of the immigration office, which can drag down the border process into a standstill. Forget the photographs and the Instagram posts—they can wait. The more distracted you are, the more likely you will be scammed, or maybe you will fill out a form incorrectly and have to start over. The border is all business, and even if nobody else is treating it that way, you should.

SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE

The iOverlander app for iOS and Android has helped us immensely on our travels in Africa, as well as the Facebook pages for Overlanding Africa and Overland Sphere. This goes double for the personal blogs, Facebook feeds, and Instagram accounts of the many travelers on this continent like Dan Grec, Whitefella Walkabout, and Fearless on Four Wheels.

Since different countries’ immigration and visa policies change constantly, and even separate borders in the same country often have different fees and processes, when you get new knowledge about a border crossing, pass it along. Some of that knowledge is informal, so keep your ears open. At the border crossing from Uganda to Rwanda I mentioned above, a local at the bureau de change told me that to cross on the particular Sunday we were there was “a good thing,” because “Thursday and Saturday are the market days, and the wait is hours and hours long.” That’s the kind of fortunately acquired, location-specific knowledge to share with your fellow travelers.

The takeaway from this discussion about border crossings is that it is an ongoing discussion, and we will need to rely more and more on the information we share among ourselves.

But, as Patrick from the Kenya Revenue Authority showed us, that information does nothing without a little bit of humanity thrown into the mix. He trusted me to fill out my forms correctly, and I trusted him to stamp us and our vehicle out and along the way to Uganda on a Christmas Eve, when I’m certain he would have rather been with his family. A smile and a handshake do more than you might imagine.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE Border crossings are a wonderful component of overland travel, but should be treated with the respect they deserve. We suggest you obtain detailed feedback from multiple qualified sources and refer to websites like WikiOverland for the latest information. Talk with fellow travelers that have recently crossed the border, and avoid advice from those who have not experienced boots on the ground at that particular crossing. The suggestions contained in this article are not all-encompassing or definitive, so be sure to practice good judgment and focused situational awareness during any border crossing.

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OVERLAND CONSERVATION ÅSA BJÖRKLUND

WATER FOR LIFE MSR PROVIDES STATE OF THE ART WATER FILTERS FOR THE DEVELOPING WORLD. Anyone who has ventured into the backcountry is likely to have come across MSR’s range of tents, water filters, and camping stoves. But few people know that the company also provides safe drinking water to 500,000 people in over 30 countries around the globe.

Three in ten people worldwide, or 2.1 billion, lack access to safe water at home. Children are at most risk of the consequences.

According to the World Health Organization, every year, 361,000 children under 5 years of age die due to diarrhea.

Instead of using cheap labor countries for production, MSR manufactures equipment in the United States and Ireland. Product sales then cover all operating expenses (research, salaries, overhead costs, etcetera) for the company’s distribution of water filters in developing countries. For the sake of efficiency, MSR partners with aid organizations experienced in community work in each country. Of all of MSR’s water filter systems, the Community Chlorine Maker spearheads their global health work.

“The innovation of this system is that it solves a supply chain issue. Chlorine has been used for over a century to clean water, but the problem is that chlorine starts to break down from the moment it’s made and is also extremely difficult and costly to transport,” said Patrick Diller, MSR Global Health’s program manager. “The MSR Community Chlorine Maker, on the other hand, empowers communities to make their own chlorine for water treatment on the spot with just salt, water, and electricity from any power source.”

From its humble beginnings in 1969 as a mountain safety newsletter for climbers, MSR has evolved into a stakeholder not only in the outdoor industry but also in the field of global health. MSR is certainly not afraid of climbing the highest peaks, a challenge worth admiring.

GET INVOLVED Direct donations are always welcome, and individuals can fundraise for MSR’s cause in relation to a trip or other occasions.

For the overland community, Patrick mentions the opportunity to distribute chlorine devices in remote villages with MSR’s travel program: Adventures for Impact. With destinations such as Kilimanjaro or Nepal, these trips operate under the concept of “leaving your destination better than you found it.” Trip costs go toward covering water filter distribution and local guides and do not benefit MSR financially. msrglobalhealth.com

Photo courtsey of MSR

Diller recently visited a community in Guatemala after it had used the Chlorine Maker for six months. “When we talked with people in the community, the benefits that extend beyond having safe water became clear. Students with access to safe drinking water will spend more days in the classroom because they’re not sick and missing school,” Patrick said.

The benefits are particularly evident for women and girls, who often spend hours finding and treating water, at the expense of schooling. “This lack of education early in life often consigns girls to poverty or dependence,” UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy shares.

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MSR’s Chlorine Maker, a state of the art water filter that’s simple, cheap, and durable.

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PHOTOGRAPHY

GRAEME GREEN

Y

ears ago, in Punakha Dzong in Bhutan, I saw a horde of tourists surround a young Bhutanese woman. In the courtyard of the monastery, they pushed their cameras, smartphones, and iPads close to her face, snapping away. The woman, trapped inside the circle like a movie star caught by the paparazzi, looked anxious, bewildered, and deeply uncomfortable.

Photographers call this the Human Zoo, where amateurs or tourists with cameras treat local people as exotic creatures to gawp at and photograph, rather than real humans with real feelings.

There are worthwhile debates, especially online, discussing photography of people and cultures and whether it is respectful or helpful or instead exploitative.

That isn’t something I plan to go into too much detail on here, but the Human Zoo is obviously the wrong way to go.

For a start, it makes for terrible photos. I can guarantee that when those tourists got their pictures home and scanned through them, the girl’s eyes would have been nervously glancing around at the crowd, her face clouded with an expression of confusion or fear.

Those photos were probably deleted or flicked past with the same small amount of thought with which they were taken.

More importantly, it’s not right to treat another person as just a curiosity for a picture. There’s no “hello” in this method—no handshake, smile, or interaction. It’s just a quick, selfish click of the shutter. For the person on the other side of the lens, this experience is likely to leave them feeling used, taken for granted, or dehumanised.

GET ENGAGED Behaviour like this also misses the point of photography, which is to tell a story. In order to produce a unique take on a subject, whether it’s a place or a culture, you’ll need to learn a bit about it first. Spend time with people—talking, listening, and asking questions. Your images will then reflect everything you’ve soaked up and thought about. That process is one of the most rewarding parts of being a photographer.

It was never my inclination to go and talk to strangers in foreign countries. But photography opens up new worlds. Over the last 15 years, I’ve travelled from remote villages in the Ethiopian highlands to the favelas of Brazil, exploring places and meeting people from completely different cultures to my own. Without a camera, those encounters would never have happened. Photography can bring about some of the most memorable experiences in life, giving you a deeper appreciation of the world and the people in it.

Photographing People

A guide to capturing images of cultures around the world with creativity and respect.

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A musician plays a traditional threestringed guinbri on the backstreets of Marrakesh, Morocco.

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DEDICATE TIME Time is an essential ingredient in photography. Of course, there are exceptions. Creating an image with depth often means forming a connection to a subject. I previously worked on an assignment with the Ju|’hoansi tribe of the San people in Botswana’s Makgadikgadi Pans, who were keen to talk about their traditions, changing ways of life, and the impact of diamond mining and wildlife tourism. We spent a day together talking, usually with the camera sitting on the ground.

In the remote hills in the north of Thailand, I met with various hill tribes, including the Red Lahu, staying in their homes, meeting their families, finding out how life in this region was changing. There was plenty of time to talk. We shared whisky, as well as ideas, stories, and details about our lives. Spending hours or days with people you’re photographing means you’re able to learn a lot more, rather than just hurriedly dashing off shots without any real insight.

I usually work by explaining my reason for being there, and first off ascertain if people are comfortable with being photographed. Then, the object is to try to become invisible, part of the scenery. With this approach, it is easier to get natural shots of people as they go about their daily lives.

126 THE SIMPLE PLEASURE OF GETTING TO KNOW PEOPLE

The caretaker at Chimi Lhakhang (Temple of the Divine Madman), in Punakha, Bhutan. A traditional dancer performs in Kerala, South India. This man is playing the violin to keep the evil spirits away from the Cusárare Mission in Copper Canyon, Mexico.

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PHOTOGRAPHY WITH PURPOSE Perhaps because I’ve never particularly liked having my photo taken, I’m always sensitive to how a person might feel in my spotlight. But it’s surprised me over the years how accommodating people can be if you treat them like a person, interacting in a genuine way instead of just shoving a camera in their face.

Many people are often quite keen to have their stories told. I’ve covered subjects ranging from human trafficking to forced evictions to wildlife conservation, and people appreciate the exposure.

A few years ago, I travelled into the Peruvian Amazon to meet the Asháninka tribe who were fighting to save their land, faced with plans for a major hydroelectric dam that would have flooded 750 square kilometres of forest. Communicating via a translator, we shared food and a pink, fermented yucca-based drink, talking about their lives, families, and ties to the forest. It was essential to establish a relationship with the Asháninka, and the result was images that communicated something personal about the tribe and what they stood to lose.

In El Salvador, I photographed a man called Wilbur Castillo, who’d been a child soldier in the country’s Civil War two decades prior and had struggled with life since then. After spending an hour or so talking and taking his picture outside the village hall, he thanked me. He told me no one had ever asked him any questions about his life or experiences before.

Those kinds of stories, forgotten or ignored by the world, are often the most satisfying to work on. Beyond simply taking pictures, getting to know people is one of the great pleasures of being a travel photographer.

BREAK DOWN BARRIERS Last year, I led a photography tour to Albania. In the city of Gjirokastër, clients were set to task: to produce a series of photographs of a local person. They were given technical advice on tak-

ing portraits, as well as suggestions for how to engage with their subjects. The goal was to return not only with pictures, but also the person’s name and some meaningful information about them. In short, they had to become photojournalists.

Hours later at a café, the group was bursting with enthusiasm.

The exercise had pushed them out of their comfort zone. Photography isn’t only about camera skills and composition, it’s also about people skills. People need to feel comfortable with your presence.

If you’re anxious and awkward, it’s likely the person you’re trying to photograph will be too. Worse, if you’re unfriendly or rude, you’re unlikely to get a big welcome or help with your task. Regardless of the amount of time you have, it’s about developing trust and as much of a connection as you can.

SMILE A smile goes a long way. Sometimes spending hours or days with someone before taking their picture isn’t possible. In those instances, a genuine smile, eye contact, and pointing at my camera, perhaps with an optimistic “Okay?” is usually enough to get people onboard. People around the world are much friendlier and helpful than we think, and certainly more so than how they are portrayed by various media outlets. In every country I’ve worked in, people were welcoming and happy to help a stranger.

I tend to avoid paying to take someone’s photo since that opens up situations in which people wear costumes or perform local “customs” just for the sake of tourists. It becomes artificial and can be harmful to local cultures.

And if someone does not want their photo taken, I won’t take it. But I do often walk through a place, taking shots of people without them knowing, whether discreetly using a zoom or by working TRY TO CONNECT quickly before my camera is noticed.

Photography isn’t only about camera skills and For example, some people in Morocco, composition, it’s also especially older women, prefer not to about people skills. be photographed. In that case, strike If you’re anxious and up conversations with people at marawkward, it’s likely the ket stalls or bakeries who don’t mind person you’re trying to having their picture taken, or photophotograph will be too. graph crowds or lines of people on Regardless of the amount their daily commute to give a sense of of time you have, it’s the experience. about developing trust At the Punakha Dzong monand as much of a astery in Bhutan, I also spent time connection as you can. photographing locals, but respectfully.

Sometimes that meant talking first; other times, taking pictures from a distance. I noticed a young woman on a balcony and photographed her using a zoom. The woman noticed my lens pointing in her direction. We made eye contact, I smiled, and she smiled back. She looked into my lens while I took a few pictures, then returned to gazing out from the balcony while I took a few more, never feeling like I was ruining her day or showing any disrespect.

It isn’t always possible for photos to be the result of a collaboration or to be agreed upon in advance. Street shooting works best if the shots are candid captures of life in motion. Increasingly, these are some of my favourite photos to take, as they’re natural

and unstaged. The image produced is a purely distilled moment of a person or place.

When walking the streets of Havana or Luang Prabang, I don’t want people to pose or change their behaviour for the camera—I want to show something authentic. Here again, the question is one of respect and engaging in a meaningful way with a place and culture. It’s easy to get caught up in the most transparent details, but the more you get beneath the surface, the more you’ll find there is to see, think about, and communicate. The photos you produce will then have a deeper meaning.

Around the world, people are endlessly fascinating. The last thing you want to do with your photos is to sell them short.

127 TAKING PHOTOGRAPHS WITHOUT BEING DETECTED

A Maasai warrior and an armed ranger, hiking to the Olmoti Crater in Tanzania. A cyclist passes the entrance to Medersa Ben Youssef in Marrakesh, Morocco.

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OVERLAND CHEF S.K. DAVIS

Tacos al Pastor

The Middle East comes to Mexico, resulting in one tasty little taco.

SERVES 2-3

PREP TIME 1-8 hours (to marinate) COOK TIME 30 minutes

EQUIPMENT Knife, cutting board, large ziplock bag, skewers

1 pound pork shoulder, thinly sliced (you can substitute pork loin for a leaner option) Salt and freshly ground black pepper Oil, for cooking tortillas 12 small corn tortillas 1 cup fresh pineapple, diced 1/4 white onion, chopped 2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped Limes for garnish

W

hen I was 18, I hopped a jumbo jet to the Middle East and settled in. It was a difficult transition from my speedy, drive-through life back in the States. Living just a few miles from the Old City of Jerusalem, I woke to the minarets each morning—early—and spent time going up and down the country from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Golan Heights. The culture was fascinating, the history was amazing (though tragic), and the food was brilliant. I fell in love with falafel, got hooked on pizza without meat, and pigged out on street shawarma.

Years later I got into big bikes. Each winter, my friend and I travel to Baja and explore the lesser-seen areas of the peninsula, trying the food everywhere we go. One time, I noticed a spit of meat which looked a lot like shawarma and asked what it was. In machine-gun Spanish, the cook replied, “tacos de adobada.” Later, I learned this meat is also called al pastor.

After some research, I found that Lebanese immigrants came to central Mexico in the late 19th century and their propensity for spit-cooked meats influenced pork-based food with Mexican flavors. Bang—it all made sense. The tasty redness of achiote, crispy ends of the grilled meat, and pineapple all come together in this booming, flavor-punched taco.

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MARINADE

2 garlic cloves, chopped 1/2 tablespoon of dried guajillo peppers or chili powder 2 tablespoons chipotle pepper in adobo 2 tablespoons white vinegar 1 tablespoon orange juice 3/4 white onion, chopped 1 ounce of achiote paste Pinch of ground cinnamon

Finely chop the marinade ingredients and combine in the ziplock bag. Be sure to reserve 1/4 of the onion for garnish. Take your pork shoulder—boneless is easiest—then cut it into thin slices, sprinkling with salt and pepper. Add it to the bag and refrigerate for 1 to 8 hours.

Once the meat is done marinating, slide it onto a wooden or metal skewer and cook over an open fire or grill until the pork reaches a minimum internal temperature of 160°F and the ends are brown and crispy. If you have access to an oven, you can alternately bake the pork for 30 minutes at 350°F. When the meat is ready, remove from the skewers and cut into small pieces for your tacos. You can also cut the ends off periodically while the rest of the meat cooks—this is how shawarma or gyros are done. Heat the tortillas before assembling the tacos.

Traditionally, tacos al pastor are served with chopped onion, cilantro, and diced pineapple on top of the taco, but during my recent trip, I did not have pineapple so went without. You can also use pineapple in the marinade. There is no wrong answer.

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CLASSIC KIT

BRYON BASS

The Acheulean Hand Axe A stone handaxe found in Kenya by members of the Overland Journal team and its place in the history of Classic Kit.

THE OUTCROP: PART 1

The Acheulean handaxe, alongside a Winkler Knives II Blue Ridge Hunter, found near Lake Turkana during an exploration with Entdecker Geländewagens through Kenya, Uganda, and South Sudan.

Let’s go back 750,000 years ago. In eastern Africa, within the Great Rift Valley along the western margin of Lake Turkana, a band of early humans called Homo erectus (Latin for upright man) bivouac just below a precipitous volcanic outcrop rising from the Turkana Basin. There is water within eyesight, and herd animals roam nearby. Apex predators in the vicinity hunt these quadrupeds—and the early humans.

The temporary encampment is uphill and downwind from a particularly busy waterhole. The field tool of choice for this group, like most other early humans, is a stone tool archaeologists call an Acheulean handaxe. Coined after the type-site of Saint-Acheul in France where they were first studied, these lithic (stone) implements span multiple continents and a vast timeframe. From about 1.7 million years ago to approximately 200,000 years ago, this was the predominant accoutrement.

Group members surely learned to manufacture them from fellow hominids, via observation, imitation, and practice.

Chop, cleave, scrape, dig, pierce, and slice—the Acheulean handaxe did it all. One could say it was “standard issue” for early man, and as copious as the modern Swiss Army knife.

Our troop hunkers to assess the watering hole, and one hunter ducks away. His tool was cached at the last campsite, but nearby are surface protrusions of fine-grained basalt. This smooth, rapidly cooled igneous (volcanic) rock will suffice.

Ubiquitous in that area, the fine grain composition of this stone makes it highly predictable when knapped. He strikes with a cobble found nearby, rapidly chipping flakes from both sides. He deftly shifts the source stone around, and with a series of finessed blows, refines the outer edges. The implement OVERLAND JOURNAL FALL 2019

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quickly takes on the well-known working form of a pointed teardrop.

He rejoins the group, fresh stone axe in hand. Below, a large predatory cat takes out a juvenile ruminant at water’s edge. The feline feasts, then retreats to taller grass. The hunter skulks down to the carcass ahead of the rest. He intends to claim the choice seconds left by the cat. Unfortunately, hunger clouds his senses. The attack from behind is swift. As he’s bowled to the ground, sharp canines penetrate and crush the base of his skull. The others flee only to regroup elsewhere, but nobody attempts to recover his handaxe. There is no reason for the risk; any skilled hunter with the right materials could fabricate a similar tool.

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And then, 750,000 years later, five modern humans descendent from Homo erectus arrive on the scene. Overland Journal Publisher Scott Brady, myself, and the rest of our team are a little worn after a rogue border crossing from Uganda, which funneled us directly into members of an armed militia in Kenya. Driving three Mercedes Entedecker Geländewagens, we The stone handaxe is deviate about one kilometer into the original and ultimate piece of Classic Kit, from the bush off the A1 (a highly unwhich modern knives, improved road in that section) to axes, and multi-tools, make needed repairs and overnight. and the impetus behind Readers may recall the Lake carrying them, evolved.

Turkana Basin from history class, or more likely, via copious early human and evolution articles in National Geographic. Researchers often refer to this region as the cradle of human civilization, solely because early humans evolved and learned to use stone tools and fire here before spreading out and inhabiting the rest of the planet. Tectonics, climate, wind, rain, volcanism, grazing animals, humans, war, colonialism (among other factors) have altered this landscape over many hundreds of thousands of years. But the evidence of early man, albeit elusive, is still here.

Engines off, one of our crew opens a cold drink with the appropriate multi-tool utensil. In the shadow of an eroding volcanic outcrop, an Entdecker nomad uses a folding pocketknife to cut a cable tie, while another uses a screwdriver to tighten a radiator hose band clamp. Still one more attempts to slice snacks with a fixed blade. And there it is, waiting through the ages to meet its maker’s descendants. I spot it right near the front tire of a truck—the Acheulean handaxe.

The indomitable stalwart transcends time like the monolith in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and imparts a humbling sense of perspective.

EPILOGUE: ORIGINAL CLASSIC KIT

Good kit has always mattered, and form also followed function 750,000 years ago. Back then, if only one piece of gear was present in the camp or at the kill site, it was probably OVERLAND JOURNAL FALL 2019

the Acheulean handaxe. Within the overland and expedition community, nearly everyone has core paraphernalia, and invariably a sub-component of that will be a knife and a basic multi-tool. Some now refer to this as “everyday carry” gear.

The rationale for carrying these mainstay trappings distills to a few universal primitive concepts. They usually involve cutting, digging, scraping, crushing, slicing, puncturing, and chopping to accomplish the task at hand. And with that notion, modern humans are connected to an almost incomprehensible lineage of fellow hominids, spanning many tens of thousands of generations if not more, who had the same motivation with their stone handaxe.

We could discuss a myriad of intriguing topics about this specific stone handaxe’s trajectory through time, as it left one hominid’s hands only to arrive in another’s eons later. Was it possibly hafted as a spear point? Was the signature teardrop shape resultant from inherent human genetics, or learned behavior? Are there deeper psychological meanings of the tool?

These are all good points that make for great campfire discussions or graduate school dissertations.

One thing is certain. Humans did not use any other tool for this length of time, over such a broad geographic area.

Nothing compares. The stone handaxe is the original and ultimate piece of Classic Kit, from which modern knives, axes, and multi-tools, and the impetus behind carrying them, evolved. This is worth pondering the next time you pull out your favorite pocketknife or hatchet.

TAKE ONLY MEMORIES Archaeology (the scientific study of remains from prehistoric and historic human culture) is often confused with paleontology (the scientific study of past life forms, often via fossils, attributed to prior geological periods). The lines between disciplines do blur, especially at early human sites where extinct species, fossils, and prehistoric human culture are all present. Professionals in these disciplines, and others such as geologists and paleoanthropologists, often collaborate on the research.

International treaties safeguard common cultural heritage worldwide, focusing on activities such as unlawful cross-border antiquities trafficking and purchasing stolen artifacts. Nearly every country has laws that protect archaeological, cultural, paleontological, and historical resources within their borders. Violation of these at most levels can result in various penalties, including fines and/or imprisonment.

For enthusiastic, law-abiding inquisitors, follow this advice: If you do not have legitimate permits or authorizations to conduct valid scientific research, then leave the materials exactly where you find them. Take only memories and photos. There are numerous volunteer programs in archaeology or paleontology where one can learn from, and work alongside, field professionals. Some locales are in exotic or remote locations, while others might include your local town square.

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Continued from page 136

pecially if you expect your rescue party to be sober. Our knight in shining armor turned up in a brand-new red Tundra. As his window came down, we were face to face with someone who looked and smelled like a modernAs his window came day pirate. The man rolled out of down, we were face to the driver’s seat and was so inebriface with someone who ated he forgot how to pop his hood. looked and smelled like a After an irritable length of time, modern-day pirate. The Topher finally managed to locate man rolled out of the the hood latch. Gunther was resusdriver’s seat and was so citated, and we were back in action. inebriated he forgot how With our energy now a little low, to pop his hood. and the realization that mechanical experience was reasonably critical to our venture, we tried not to mention our collective feeling of being a little out of our depth.

It was now 10:45 p.m. We wouldn’t make our target destination for the night, and this was only the first day of 1,195.

Hungry, cold, and tired, we decided to make camp just outside Deadhorse. After finding a spot 30 minutes out of town, we began to set ourselves up for the night ahead. For the northern regions of our expedition, our plan was to sleep inside the Jeep and then use a tent for warmer climates. Topher began to set up our beds while I prepared dinner.

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What we didn’t realize was that our food sitting on the back seat of the car had frozen solid. Not only this, but our drinking and cooking water was now also a solid block of ice, and the propane gas from our cooker had turned to liquid.

At 1:00 a.m., we were lying in bed, our live tracker proudly pinging our location to everyone back home as just 27 kilometres beyond Deadhorse. Now apprehensive for our sevencontinent journey ahead, we began asking questions. Have we made the biggest mistake of our lives? Will we get our savings back if we sell everything tomorrow? How are we going to survive this?

ONE YEAR LATER Topher is outside setting up camp while the 40°C heat

of Namibia is working its way inside Gunther as I write this article. Last year, we covered the Americas in eight months with only one tire puncture, no more flat batteries, never running out of fuel, not having lost anything, and without a single bump or scratch on Gunther. The second leg of our journey is now in full swing, and this year we navigate our way up to Eastern Africa, through the Middle East, to the most northern drivable point of Europe, North Cape in Norway. Expedition Earth has been the most brilliant and exciting decision of our lives.

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TAIL LAMP BRIDGET THACKWRAY AND TOPHER RICHWHITE

Expedition Earth An inauspicious beginning in Deadhorse, Alaska.

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fter meeting each other only two months earlier, through a mix of reckless wanderlust and spontaneous adventure, we came up with an idea. Together, we would drive the planet. Inspired by Gunther Holtorf ’s 24-year world tour, we put pen to paper and drew up a 220,000-mile route through all seven continents and 70 countries. This was to become our life for the next three years.

Neither Topher nor I had any 4WD experience, mechanical background, or overlanding history. And with our departure date set for only one month away, we knew we would have to learn on the fly.

This quick departure turnaround allowed us to keep the entire expedition on the down-low, with our friends and family back home in New Zealand having near to no knowledge of our plans. Our aim was to announce the expedition on day one, from the most northern point in the Americas.

We flew from Auckland to Vancouver, Canada, and finally met our third companion on the expedition: Gunther, a 2015 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. After one week he was packed, kitted out with little more than a roof rack, and ready to go. We turned ourselves north and began the drive to Deadhorse, Alaska, our expedition’s starting point. After 10 days, we reached the remote mining town and the end of the road. Seven hundred miles earlier we had crossed over the Arctic Circle, now deep within the northern slope. Here temperatures were sitting between -15 and -30°C. Gunther was parked outside, and we were perched happily within a cafeteria packed with oil drillers from the area. With no cellular signal, this became our WiFi hub to announce the expedition to all of our friends and family back home. With OVERLAND JOURNAL FALL 2019

nervous excitement, and completely out of our comfort zones, we launched Expedition Earth at 8:00 p.m. on April 7, 2018.

Our website was uploaded, Instagram launched, Facebook status posted, the timer started, and Garmin GPS live tracker turned on.

The message was clear, Follow the expedition as we head south, starting NOW, accompanied by our GPS link. Once Expedition Earth was live, our adrenaline started to pump. We felt as though we were all of a sudden on center stage. The comments were flooding in, and the live tracker views began to climb.

It was time to begin leg one of three, our drive south from Alaska to Argentina. We rushed to Gunther, gave each other a hug and kiss, turned the ignition and—nothing. A little laugh, “Imagine that,” and one more try—nothing.

We knew that if the car was sitting idle in these temperatures, it would be necessary to plug into a block heater but hadn’t expected the entire battery to drain within an hour. We checked the systems and quickly realized that Topher had left the light bar on.

This first challenge brought a sense of thrill, as we were eager to put a few of our recovery products to the test. After only a few minutes, just enough time for the cafeteria staff to have cleared out, we noticed that our portable jump starter kit had drained its battery from the cold. Sitting in -30°C temperatures with frozen hands, we were not going anywhere fast.

With the temperature and sudden influx of calls and messages from friends and family, our phone batteries quickly died too. Unfortunately, the live tracker was still going strong.

Trying to find someone to help jumpstart a vehicle at 10:00 p.m. in the Arctic Circle can be quite a difficult prospect, esContinued on page 134

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authentic