Book Review: Gone Riding by Dom Giles

"Knowing about something, reading about it or seeing pictures of it is not the same as witnessing it." Gone Riding by Dom Giles

Dom Giles

Twitter, and other social media, is a neat way of broadening perspective... I follow a number of overland travelers on Twitter and enjoy reading the various updates and being introduced to other travelers via 'follow' recommendations. A recent follow introduction was adventure motorcycling author Dom Giles. His newly published book "Gone Riding" was launched in the UK in November 2013 and made for the ideal Christmas holiday read. A quick visit to Amazon and a Kindle version was winging its way to my device...

Gone Riding by Dom Giles

Quoting two paragraphs from Dom's book provides a good insight into his travel style, and in turn, how this is translated into his book:

"I’d always been a little suspicious of trips that had definitive start and end points: that whole ‘Alaska to Ushuaia’ or ‘Cape to Cairo’ thing. It might look and sound neat, beautifully packaged and bookended but it seems to be focusing more on the destinations than the journey." - Highlight Loc. 403-5

"The English anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard said: “History is not a succession of events, it is the links between them,” and I think the same can be said about travelling. It shouldn’t be about where you start and where you finish as much as about what happens in between." - Highlight Loc. 405-7

The African Pothole by Kingsley Holgate

Kingsley Holgate - Google Image Search Results

“No adventure is complete without them” writes Kinglsey Holgate on his facebook page. He was writing in reference to 'The African Pothole'.

Don't miss the ferry...

Organised chaos, the hum of conversation, the smell of diesel, the stench of dirty water... people everywhere... welcome to the Brazzaville to Kinshasa ferry.

Peter Townsend - Land Rover Series I - Congo - Ferry 

Majority of overland routes in Africa involve some sort of ferry crossing, either in the likes of a state funded ferry service, or a simple homemade raft. The most popular ferry that most overlanders encounter is the Egypt to Sudan ferry - a barge takes your vehicle South and you patiently wait out the days on the passenger ferry.  Ferries operate on all major rivers, especially in Central Africa where bridges are hundreds of kilometers apart. These ferry trips take minutes to perhaps an hour max.  The most notorious is surely the Brazzaville to Kinshasa ferry...

Google Maps: Kinshasa to Brazzaville

A bit of history according to Mwana Mboka:

The twin cities of Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) and Brazzaville faced each other across 4 kilometers of the Congo River.  Both were founded at the beginning of the 1880s and boat traffic between the two was a priority from the outset, especially as French Congo received all its imports through the Belgian Congo port of Matadi until the Congo-Ocean railway was completed in 1934.  In 1898, the year the railway arrived in Leopoldville from Matadi, the Ste. Congolia started a ferry service to Brazzaville.

Vehicle Age Statistics

What is the average vehicle age for an overland prepared vehicle?  My requirement was to find out what the average Land Rover and Toyota vehicle age is, the generation of vehicle, plus facts like the newest vehicle, and the oldest.
In this blog post I analyse trans-Africa trips, listed on The Africa Overland Network, which departed in 2010 through to 2014 (departing next year).

Currently, The Africa Overland Network, has 791 websites listed - all based on independent trans-continental overland travel. I visited each and every website listed from 2010 to 2014 to find out what year their vehicle was built - that totaled a whopping 324 websites and took hours to complete.  Only half the websites actually listed the age of the vehicle, which left me with 161 websites, of which 134 were trans-Africa trips.

Paved or Unpaved?

What's your preference?  A paved (sealed) road or unpaved (gravel) road?

Somewhere in Tanzania (BigSky Adventures)

I was recently reading The Hubb forum and these two contrasting posts caught my eye.
The first post was requesting information on a route from London to Cape Town, with as little paved roads as possible.

Unpaved Roads

 The post below, was rather more hesitant and preferred paved roads from Germany to South Africa.

Paved Roads

Personally, I prefer gravel roads.  The World Bank has data on the percentage of paved roads each country has.

Roads, paved (% of total roads)

Data from World Bank

Feel free to add your thoughts on the Hubb forum.

Trip Report: Olney & Watagan State Forest

The white Toyota Hilux ute, powered by the 3.0TD 1KZ-TE engine, fitted with Cooper Discoverer STT Mud terrains and driven by an enthusiastic Central Coast 4wd member lead our small convoy of Toyota's and one lone Land Rover Discovery towards the Olney and Watagan State Forest.

Unlike previous weekend trips, we had no plan (which is very unusual for me!).  Little did we know what awaited...

The Comradery of Overland Travel

Overland travel in Africa has a number of 'merge' points along the myriad of roads.

Richard, Sophie, Wynand & Talia

At these meeting points, the grapevine is abuzz with travel news, route planning, reports of other overlanders and the usual hearty fireside conversations. The excitement of sharing stories with other overlanders and the serendipitous meeting along a rural road, campsite or website has a unique effect of keeping the travel passion alive.

I was reminded of this after reading four current blogs written in October 2013, all with a common theme of Tanzania. Each blog referenced meeting up with the other overlanders...
It started with Arno & Elize mentioning time spent at 'The Farmhouse' in Iringa, Tanzania.

1956: Pretoria to London by Karrier Gamecock Bus

Bessie Rutherford - 1956 Africa by Bus route

"Retief carefully set the compass at a point where the Niger River made an obvious bend – the compass was now our only way to navigate. We drove and drove. After days of endless yellow sand, we began to wonder if we’d ever see our families or our country again. One day we came across a heap of bones. We had been told about this landmark – the skeleton of a camel – and it meant we were still on course." 

In 1956, Retief and his wife Bessie, led a group of South African's from Pretoria to London. Driving two Karrier Gamecock buses with Rootes engines, the groups of travelers headed North...

Graces Guides describes the Rootes engine as a two stroke diesel marketed with two horizontally opposed piston in each of the three cylinders. More on the engine here

You can read all about the trip, written by Bessie Rutherford, via the Go! website: Across Africa by bus.

BESSIE RUTHERFORD & KOOS DE SWARDT PICTURES SUPPLIED

Following the early explorers...

Mick O - Sunset: Thomas bluff

Mapping new routes and exploring new areas is certainly a thing of the past... but retracing those footprints of early explorers hold as much excitement today as it did a hundred years ago... especially if it's in conjunction for an old diary and old maps.

Here is an example from Australia: Mick O - In the footsteps of Carnegie

An African example is Kingsley Holgate... he has followed in the footsteps of many of the early African explorers.

Reading the blog of Mick O has got me thinking... perhaps the next overland adventure I undertake should be in the footsteps of those early explorers.

Kingsley Holgate books are worth reading:

Bright Continent - Nigella

When offered the option of driving someone's prized overland prepared vehicle, do you gracefully accept or decline?

Photo by Bright Continent

Anton Crone, photographer and blogger from Bright Continent recently blogged about his experience with an eggshell blue Land Cruiser called Nigella...

“She’s yours,” he said, and after bashing my way out of the passenger door, I took the controls. She bucked, she bolted, she tried to throw me out, but the driver door was stuck too. She was no kinder to Paul who began looking for an ejector button. He was too kind to state the obvious: Nigella hated me. Her temperature was rising so I handed her back to the one man who knew her. But by then, like most men scorned, I had fallen for her. You see, it’s not just the rejection, it’s the places these wild girls take you.

Anton Crone had explained beautifully how owners and their classic 4x4's form a bond on how to treat it other.  The owner learns to be in sync with every rattle, clank and crunch whereas the new driver needs to learn from scratch and often never has the time to fully appreciate the pleasures of driving an old 4x4.

You can read Anton Crone's blog via Bright Continent and follow him on Twitter.