Toyota - Unstoppable Big 6

I spotted this advert in the 1965 Desert Magazine:

For unstoppable, grab-hold-and-go power, professional 4 wheelers depend on the Toyota Land Cruiser.

Trade up to Toyota and get the big 6:
1. Power: 6-cyclinder, 135HP
2. Speed: 85mph on the highway all day long
3. Gradeability: 67%
4. Hi-Lo Gearing: 9 forward gear combindations
5. Ruggedness: heavy duty, tank-tough Toyota construction
6. Comfort: carries 7 men on foam rubber seats, plus gear

Additional reading:
Toyota Land Cruiser - gaining traction as an overlander
Land Rover vs Toyota - how the stats show the changes.

1959 Cape Town to Cairo Overland - with caravans!

Completing an overland trip today is sometimes quite stressful.  Being an expedition leader with a convoy of vehicles adds additional stress.  Now add 36 vehicles, majority of which are towing a caravan to your convoy and drive North from Cape Town.  The logistics leading 106 people would be pretty hard work.  Now do it in 1959...  And that's exactly what the founder of Airstream caravan did.

In 1959, 41 vehicles & Airstream caravans plus a few support vehicles (104 people) convoyed from Cape Town to Cairo.  The founder of the Airstream caravan, Wally Byam, was instrumental in expanding on the lifestyle a caravan could offer.  As a result, he lead his 1959 convoy North from Cape Town in a total of 221 days. In this blog post, I link to the various YouTube video clips, and a few photos from a podcast interview.

A few interesting comments and observations from the various videos: Eldest person was a gentleman aged 85 whilst the youngest was a girl aged 6.  The convoy 'quite accidentally' came across the Great Zimbabwean ruins!  Pith Helmets are a must as almost each film shot of the convoy includes one.  Giant Wildebeest sound like thunder as they rumble across the plains.  A good day in Ethiopia would be a total of 6miles covered due to the road conditions - It took a total of five weeks to get to Addis Ababa.  A good quote form part 5 of the videos:

'The Nubian desert is a blistering inferno of vagrant sandunes exiled from the rest of world'

Africa Expedition Films - Citroen / Croisiere Noire 1924

Here is an update to a previous post on Overland Expedition films.  In this post, I focus on one unique trip -  the Citroen Croisiere Noire 1924 and Croisiere Jaune 1931 (Black Cruise 1924 / Yellow Cruise 1931)

A Wikipedia article - Croisière Noire , translated from French into English, describes the first trip as follows:

The Black Cruise , which runs from 28 October 1924 to 26 June 1925 , also known as the "Expedition Citroen Centre for Africa" or "2 e mission Haardt Audouin-Dubreuil, is one of the expeditions set up by André Citroën to increase awareness of its brand and to open a regular motor on the African continent . Indeed, although some browsers, like Felix Dubois in 1898 , tried testing vehicles in Africa, the results are inconclusive as the idea has remained in draft 1 .

Beyond mere advertisement, it is also an expedition to reach political, cultural and scientific. Cruise black and compensates the project's stagnant "Transsaharien" using, as noted by André Citroën in 1925, with lower initial investment and a shorter duration.

Snow in Africa

As the end of 2010 draws to a close, Europe is covered in a blanket of snow, and the UK is ground to a standstill, I thought I would take the opportunity to share about Snow in Africa.  During my BigSky Adventures overland trip, our first African country that we entered was Morocco.  Slowly the weather declined until we were left with a blanket of snow covering the high Atlas mountains.

On the 11th February 2005, I posted the follow diary update:

Travelling from El Ksiba towards the Todra Gorge means that you have to traverse the High Atlas mountain range. It was a fantastic experience travelling in this remote part of Morocco. We had started the day at 1,000m above sea level (asl) and eventually peaked around the 2,400m mark.  Mostly we had the road to ourselves but once every 20km we would see a truck coming towards us.

This was our only encounter of snow in 2005.  During our Mt Kilimanjaro trek, we saw the glacier in the distance but did not venture of the track as the wind was blowing a gale that morning.

Seeking out other areas in Africa that get snow include South Africa and Lesotho.

Additional Reading:

Trailrider - Adventures & Ride Reports: On the Trail of Gideon Scheepers

Here's an excellent trip report published on the Trailrider website. The unique element is that the ride attempts to trace the route of a South African Boer war leader called Gideon Scheepers.

Unfortunately the author is not listed.

Enjoy the following:


Trailrider - Adventures & Ride Reports: On the Trail of Gideon Scheepers

Land Rover vs Toyota: Which overlander?

Any idea what percentage of independent overland trips use Land Rover's vs Toyota's?  Read on to see what percentage of overland trips use Land Rover's vs Toyota's vs other vehicles.

Here are a few interesting statistics from The Africa Overland Network pages.  

Please note that these stats are generated from the independent overland websites listed on The Africa Overland Network.  Although they offer an interesting read, please keep in mind that not all overland travellers keep an online journal and I certainly have not captured all the overland websites that have been created to remember an independent overland trip.

Total Trips currently listed on the website (In-active websites excluded):

Total Trips	546
Africa	409
Americas	24
Asia	56
World	57

The trips are split between the following vehicle types:

Overland Live Webcast - Recorded Link

The Overland Live webcast this past Sunday was a good success.  The format of the 90min session included a very brief introduction following by an interesting talk from Frederik & Josephine (Radio Baobab).  They did a fantastic job inspiring us to think beyond our short overland trips and to plan for an extended trip.

You can listen and watch Sunday session here:  Overland Live Webcast

Overland Live Webcast - Today is the day!

I am pretty excited about today.
The first Overland Live Webcast takes place later today (1900GMT).  We have had over 115 registrations for the live webcast session.  Many thanks goes to Frederik & Josephine for writing such a captivating trip report on their Congo experience and captivating overland enthusiasts to register for the live version.  If you missed the trip report, you can read it here: Radio Baobab

Registration is free to please click the link below to register to attend todays session.  We will be recording the event as well.

If you miss today's session, please sign up for our future events by clicking on the image below:

Overland Live Webcast

It's with huge excitement that I announce the Overland Live webcast series.  These live independent overland related travel webcasts are the first for the overland community.  It will give the audience the ability to listen live to key speakers.  Topics will range from overland journey's across the Congo, Trans-Americas and plenty of knowledge sharing on best practises.

Please visit www.overland-live.com for more information on these unique events.

2K5 Africa Charity Motorcycle Ride

Thursday 07/04/05 Blangy, France
We woke relatively early on Thursday morning, as we knew we were in for a serious day’s riding. We have chosen a route to the west of Paris as we know we are in need of a bit more saddle time before we hit Africa and the real hard riding starts. As such we will travel to a town called Rouen and then head south through some of the mountains to the Mediterranean coast in the region of Marseille, Cannes, Nice and Monaco before heading to Genoa. This route will make it a little longer and harder, but should also provide some great scenery. The weather got progressively worse and I was surprised at how flat the terrain was. It didn’t look anything like we were expecting from France, but then I suppose we had yet to hit the mountains. We have discovered that the “Paege” (Toll Roads) routes are fantastic to drive on and the traffic moves along quite steadily. It does of course mean we have to pay to travel on the roads, but that is why the roads are in such good condition. The only problem has been that as it is raining so much, we need to stop for coffee quite often to warm up, and we are loath to get the cookers out to make a brew in the rain and as such have to buy coffee at the services, which are ridiculously overpriced. We pushed on for a long day’s riding to a small town called Agueperse, which showed a campsite on the map. It was getting on for 19:00 when we arrived in the town and started looking for the campsite and it was still raining heavily. We were very disappointed to find that when we did eventually track down the campsite down a little dirt road, that it had been closed down and we would have to go back into town to find a hotel. Of course, as luck would have it, there were no hotels in Agueperse and we had to head on to a small town called Riom just north of Clermont Ferrand to find a cheap hotel. We shared a room with a single bed, which I very quickly claimed, and a double bed that Doug and Jason shared which meant that very little sleep was had by them.


Week 2
Friday 08/04/05 Riom, France
It was still raining when we woke up in Riom, but our spirits were high as we left for the coast and we were really hoping that the weather would improve as we travelled through the mountains to the coastline. We had thought that the sunshine coast of the Cote d’Azur and towns like Cannes, Nice and Monaco would definitely bring some sunshine to the trip. As we left central France for the coast, the weather did improve a bit and we travelled through some spectacular mountain passes which did mean that it got a little chilly higher up, in fact in places there was snow about. I had a bit of a scary call on the way down a great pass towards Montelimer, when my back brakes decided to give up the ghost. Not such a pleasant experience when the bike is extremely heavy and overloaded. By the time we made it to the bottom, very tentatively I might add, the brakes seemed to come back. A very strange experience. As we rejoined the highway, the heavens opened again and on the approach to Cannes, the rain was torrential with visibility dropping to about 10 meters. We were drained and completely knackered by the time we reached Nice and were in no state to try to find a campsite. As such, Doug and I walked straight into the Radisson Hotel on the Nice promenade and I told the hotel manager about our trip and asked if their hotel would sponsor us a room for the night. I had thought that this was a complete waste of time, but much to our surprise, he was quite amenable to the idea and once I had explained that I could add their hotel to our sponsors page in just a few minutes, he agreed. So free accommodation on one of the most expensive strips in Europe. Styling!

2K5 Africa Charity Motorcycle Ride 05/04/05

Tuesday 05/04/05 London, England

Departure Day! We wanted to leave at about 09:30 from my house, but ended up getting away at about 11:30 to go to Honda Chiswick to collect the part for Doug’s bike that we had ordered on Friday. We then popped in to the Hole in the Wall for a quick photo shoot and to say good-bye to Lucy who has been fantastic to us all through our stay at their pub’s garage. Thanks also to Jason and the rest of the crew at the Hole in the Wall who have put up with us for the last few months. After the photo’s it was one final stop to get some spare keys cut and then it was straight to Dover along the M20. Our first stop also saw our first casualty at the Maidstone Services. Jason and I went to get some food while Doug was watching the bikes and by the time we had got back with coffee and burgers, Doug had dropped his bike breaking the windscreen in 2 and only just managing to catch my AT which was knocked over by his bike, but he also managed to drop not just his helmet, but my brand spanking new 1 day old helmet. Luckily it wasn’t too serious and both helmets only received a few scratches and neither should be too seriously damaged. We will have to think twice about allowing Doug too much responsibility like looking after the bikes! (Just kidding). Then it was back on the road for Dover where we spent a very pleasant evening camping in a site just outside of Dover in a village called Martin Mill.


Wednesday 06/04/05 Dover, England

We woke early very excited to be leaving England and catching the ferry over to Calais. We got bumped around on the ferries as the Sea France guys were striking or something and had to be moved to a P&O ferry which meant a slight delay but actually turned out to be quite a big delay, about 1,5 hours. Nothing in the big picture really, especially as we were already a few days behind schedule. Loads of people came up to ask asking us about the trip as the bikes look fantastic and they generate loads of interest wherever we seem to go. Once we arrived in France, it was our intention to get as far from Calais as was possible to start the journey and generally get away from the port. We made it about 2 hours south to a small town called Blangy where we set up our first night’s camp. Pretty good really, and super cheap, but the weather was starting to turn and we could tell we were in for a spot of rain.

An exciting development: Overland Live Webcast

Hot off the press:  Overland Live presents live webcasts:

Following a well established tradition of bringing exclusive content to our members, Expedition Portal and The Africa Overland Network are proud to announce our latest project - Overland Live.

We have teamed together to bring you a new and exciting way to learn about and interact with everything related to Overland travel and travelers.

Situated between a Webinar and a video presentation, Overland Live will allow you to hear and see the presenters - live! 
You will have the opportunity to send your questions in advance and get answers during the session. 

The presentation will also be recorded so those who can't make the live broadcast may view it later.

For our very first session, we are excited to announce as our presenters:

Frederik and Josephine (www.radiobaobab.be), the overlanders who recently traveled across Congo (DRC) while journeying around the world for 2 years.
They will share details about their challenges and accomplishments, as well as answer your questions. 
The presentation will be held on Sunday Dec 5th at 11:00 am Pacific Standard Time.

The number of guests is limited (200) so reserve in advance to secure your spot - it is free!

http://overlandlive.doattend.com

Also please note that this requires a high speed connection and a laptop/computer with adequate processing capacity. The session will have a live chat and video stream.

More details on the technical functioning of the session will be provided next week. 

Get your questions ready - we must receive them by Dec 1st!

Thank you, 

The Expo and The Africa Overand Network team!

2K5 Africa Charity Motorcycle Ride Continued

Saturday 02/04/05 London, England

None of us slept a wink on Friday night, as we were all so keen to get the bikes and were far too excited to see what Ernie had done for all the money that we had paid him. We were up at the crack of dawn and were out the door in Doug’s van to collect his bike and ride the two AT’s back to the Hole in the Wall pub, the venue for our launch party. Ernie had advised that we could only collect them after 10:00 and we were due to be at the launch party for 12:00 so it would be fine as Ernie is based in Sheerness, at least a 90 min ride. Still, we shot down to him as fast as we could and he didn’t disappoint. The bikes were fantastic and it was amazing to see what he had done. We collected the bikes and settled the bill and were back in Chiswick for 13:00 to find that a load of bikers and overland travellers had turned up to see us off. Unfortunately we couldn’t depart as we were still waiting for Doug’s part, and instead a great party was had by all.

Sunday 03/04/05 London, England

Sunday was spent finalizing the packing of the bikes and making sure that the weight was evenly distributed on the bikes. They are all unbelievably heavy and we have totally over packed them, but we would rather have too much and be in a position to ditch equipment, than not have something and want to use it. The bikes are all running smoothly and we have made the decision not to replace the seal on the XL600 until it actually goes, as it seems not to be leaking any oil.

Monday 04/04/05 London, England

Monday was a day to finish off the remaining few things that always seam to pop up at the last minute. None of us could sleep at all and the excitement levels had completely shot off the scale. We ended the day by packing the bikes with absolutely everything we could think off that might be needed and listing all the contents of our panniers on the insides of the pannier lids. This should help us to identify what is in each pannier and ultimately identify what we will throw away from each pannier as we travel on and start to get rid of extra weight.

Photo Africa - Gerry van der Walt

The first article (actually tweet) I read this morning was from the photographer Gerry van der Walt.  His photo, below, highlights a massive storm brewing over Madikwe.  Absolutely love the moment!

Makikwe Storm - Gerry van der Walt

The website Photo Africa is hosted by Gerry and offers a fantastic insight into wildlife photography, along with offering various training and photography safaris. 

Be sure to follow Gerry on Twitter: http://twitter.com/gerryvanderwalt
Additional photos from his Twitter feed may be viewed via TwitPic. 

Original Tweet:
Massive storm brewing over the Madikwe Game Reserve. #madikwe #weather #photog http://twitpic.com/33g1sg

2K5 Africa Charity Motorcycle Ride

Here is a story for all adventure nuts interested in a trans Africa motorcycle trip. In an earlier posting I wrote about Mark Kirby a seasoned adventure rider who is about to embark on another ambitious journey the Enfields to India Challenge.

In 2005 Mark & Jason managed to ride from London to Cape Town in just over 4 months. I have been lucky enough to get my hands on the journal for their Africa adventure. Over the next few weeks I will be posting a day to day rundown of what went on in his own words. I will be starting out a day before they were due to depart.



Friday 01/04/05 London, England

The day before we are due to depart and the day started with 3 very excited guys frantically trying to get all our paperwork sorted and the final few things that we needed all in order. At about midday we got a phone call from Overland Solutions (the company modifying the bikes) saying that Doug’s bike, the XL600, had a perished oil seal at the output shaft and that the bike probably wasn’t in good enough condition to go to Africa. The advice was that it might make a couple of thousand miles, but that it wouldn’t go all the way as it was leaking oil at a rapid rate. Major panic from all sides as we are just about at the final hurdle and now one of us may be in deep water. Not to be daunted, we made a few frantic phone calls to various mechanics and suppliers and ordered a part which was due to arrive on Tuesday from the Honda parts department in Brussels. This of course meant that we had to wait for this part and postpone our departure. At 23:30 Friday night, we got the call that the 2 Africa Twins (AT’s) were ready for collection and that the XL600 could be collected, but that it was advisable to replace the part.


Watch out for my next post to find out what happened next:)

The Explorer & the Explored

Do expeditions benefit the explorer or the explored?  
The Intelligence2 debate hosted at the Royal Geographic Society posed this thought: Exploring is good for the explorer but not much good for those being explored.

Twitter Feed

With these questions in my mind, I set out to the RGS offices to attend a talk hosted on the topic of exploration.  Six guest speakers presented at the event which included Ed Stafford, Benedict Allen and a host of other well known authors, expedition leaders and explorers.

Each guest had ten minutes to present on a topic related to the above. Here are few highlights of the evening:

The Rugged Road by Theresa Wallach

"You are going WHERE? - You'll never get there."

Not very encouraging comments for any overlander, let alone in 1934 when you are planning on using a motorbike with a sidecar!
Theresa Wallach and her friend Florence Blenkiron did what no man had yet achieved - and that was to ride a motorbike from London to Cape Town.

Extracts from the book: 
The Rugged Road by Theresa Wallach

Gravel Roads: London To Cape Town

Two mates, Dean and Erich, have taken six months out from their hectic lives to ride down Africa on their trusty motorcycles. They set off on the 3rd of September aiming to reach Cape Town around March 2011. They are riding to raise money for the charity Born Free.
Take a look at their website. It makes for good reading.






These two guys planned and organised their trip on a relatively tight budget with a little help from friends and family. While I am writing this they are in Mali. Good luck guys!

Sites of interest
http://randrtravels.co.uk/1.html
http://www.f650.co.uk/
http://www.africa-overland.net/

Trip Report: Radio Baobab (Lubumbashi to Kinshasa, Congo)

Always choose the alternative route overland... that was my motto for my trans-Africa trip in 2005.  Easier said than done!  Well, here's a trip report from Radio Baobab who did just that...

I recently blogged about The Lost Routes in Africa - those routes that are slowly being forgotten and where once the the preferred route during an overland expedition.  It's very rare that current overlanders head near those routes... until recently that is!

Introducing Frederik & Josephine from Radio Baobab.  This couple completed the South to North-West crossing of the DRC.  They crossed the border in Congo and headed North-West from Lubumbashi to Kinshasa.

You can read all about this unique crossing on Expedition Portal or The Horizons Unlimited website.

What is needed for an African Motorcycle adventure?

Have you ever been scared off by the logistics of organising an overland motorcycle adventure? I was about five years ago. I thought it was almost impossible for an average Joe like me to pull it off, but after a lot of research I found out that it is not as difficult as it seems if you plan it correctly.

There are a few points that need to be taken into consideration and NOT over looked e.g. weather, route, terrain and clothing to name a few. There are a lot of websites that have some really good tips on offer for the basic preparation e.g. http://www.bigearth.co.uk/experts.html . These websites are brilliant but they don’t really get down to the nuts and bolts of the trip. What people seem to do is try and scrimp on things like tyres, spares, tools etc. These are some of the most important items you will need to complete your journey and make the difference between an enjoyable trip or a logistical nightmare. I have listed one of the reasons below.

London to CT in 13days?

Would you be up for this challenge?  London to Cape Town in 13days?  That's how quick your overland adventure needs to be in order to beat the current world record.

My local newspaper had this article on the topic:


Max Adventure - London to CT

 Having departed on 16th October 2010, Mac MacKenny & team are attempting the record. You can read more on the following website: http://www.maxadventure.co.uk/L2CT

The previous record was set in 1963 by Eric Jackson. You can follow Eric Jackson on Facebook: Damn Long Way


Additional Reading:
Cape Cold to Cape Hot
Cape Cold to Cape Hot, Story Epic Drive Arctic North Cape to African South Cape

The best motorcycle to take to Africa

Have you ever thought of what would be the best bike to take to Africa?
There are quite a few bikes that could be used on a long haul adventure in Africa. A lot of people think that they have to go out and buy a brand new bike to go on an African adventure which invariably puts them off due to the cost. In my eyes this is not the case. If you have a good understanding of the bike’s workings and make the correct choices in preparation for the trip you could use almost any bike you want.

In my opinion, it doesn’t matter if you have latest BMW R1200GSA or a Yamaha XT660, you can still complete your trip. Each bike has its pros and cons. For example, the BMW has all the modern equipment such as electronic suspension, ABS and traction control which makes it more stable and comfortable, but they are heavy and not as easy to work on.
On the other hand,the Yamaha XT660 is an older bike without all the modern electronics so it is easier to work on and lighter but it’s not as comfortable. It all comes down to your own preference.

Over my next few blogs, I'll be thinking about the considerations anyone should make when planning a motorcycle adventure.

We welcome your comments and opinions on this. What bike would you take to Africa?

Check out these links:

• http://www.visordown.com/
• http://www.motorcycle.com/shoot-outs/touring.html
• http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/bikereviews/searchresults/Bike-Reviews/BMW/BMW-R1200GS-Adventure-2010-current/
• The Africa Overland Network

Exciting times ahead!

Hi overland lovers!
My name is Bruce Paice, a bit of an adventure nut. I would like to thank Martin Solms for giving me this opportunity to jot down my thoughts on Overland Live. I was originally born in Zimbabwe where I spent the first twenty years of my life riding motorcycles on some of the most awesome terrain Africa has to offer. I competed in Motocross and Enduro when I had a nasty accident whilst competing and broke both legs. This put my riding career to an end. But that did not stop me from getting back on a bike! Since then I have been riding socially and commuting whilst sharpening my skills as a mechanic.

Overland Expedition Film Festival

Once again its time for the Adventure Film Fest.  This event is held annually and is free to attend the showcasing the best independent adventure films from the previous year.
Last years event was a huge success - you can read about it in this blog post:
Independent Overland Films

Regardless of the year, overland expeditions have always been filmed.  Here are a few clips from the past decades (1930's to 2010)

Quick Introduction: Bruce, our new blog author @zimbo243

The Overland Live blog has been a good project to get involved in. My initial idea was to start blogging about all topics related to independent overland travel - this evolved into historical overland trips, alternative vehicles plus a good mix of random thoughts (See Contents). A year after starting the project I have voiced my thoughts on enough topics that it is time for some fresh content and thoughts.

Time to evolve a step further: Introducing Bruce Paice.
Bruce is a keen overlander with a passion for his motorbikes. His enthusiasm and knowledge on the topic is excellent, which, as a result for Overland Live Blog, he wants to jot down his thoughts.

Be sure to follow Bruce via www.twitter.com/zimbo243

Please feel free to contact myself or Bruce if you have any comments, thoughts or ideas.

Additional Reading:

Enfields to India challenge

Ever fancied buying a classic Royal Enfield Bullet motorbike and heading to India?
Here are four guys that are undertaking an awesome challenge. They are riding four classic Royal Enfield Bullet Motorcycles on a 10000 mile journey from London to India.
See the website Enfields to India for more information
The expedition leader Mark Kirby is not a stranger to the adventure riding scene. Mark and a mate rode two 1998 Honda Africa Twin from London to Cape Town in 2005. The photo below was taken in Sudan. It just goes to shows that you don't need a brand new bike to go on an awesome adventure.



Recommended Reading:
Living in the past: sampling the Royal Enfield Bullet 500 Classic ES. (Ridden & Rated).: An article from: Rider

Feel the dust... Africa's Roads

The dust layers the Defender dashboard, whilst the azure African sky blurs the horizon.  A faint smell of EP90 invades the cockpit.  The gear lever quivers in its rubber gator as the diesel engine idly clunks under the spare wheel on the bonnet.  Two wheel tracks guide you forward...

Engaging the clutch, selecting the gear and feathering the accelerator gives forward motion. Dust rises from the XZL tyres as they roll over the track.
This is the life of the overlander and these are the roads Africa offer...

Focus on: Kenya

Jambo, Welcome to Magical Kenya!
I was thinking back to 2005 when I was overlanding through Kenya.  If you are looking for a country that offers a mix of cultures, awesome wildlife, diverse landscapes, then Kenya is for you.   Here are a few thoughts from my few months spent in the country:

UK TV: My Crazy Family Gap Year - Africa Overland

The Pindorias Overland Adventure

I have often wondered what it must be like to travel with children overland.  In this documentary by the UK Channel 4 team, a family of five drive from Cape Town to Cairo. (Trip Website)

From the Archives - Overland Expeditions 1968

From the 1968 Overland Archives: The Pegasus Overland Expedition and the Grandmother's Expedition to Australia

Pegasus Overland Expedition
BBC reported:

"For five young men from Liverpool, 1968 was to be a year they would never forget as they travelled overland from the UK to New Zealand. John Proffit, John Doran, John Bate, Tom McCormack and Victor Parkinson set off to make the trip through 18 countries in a second hand Land Rover."

DRC: Parc de La N’Sele

I received this email from Breemeersch & thought it might be useful for overlanders needing a break after the hectic border crossing into Kinshasa.

République Démocratique du Congo (RDC) : Parc de La N’Sele

By coincidence we found this wonderful parc at the “embouchure” of the N’Sele river and the Congo stream at 45km East of Kinshasa.

Willy Treffen - Largest Overland Truck Meeting

For the last 31 years overlanders have been gathering in Germany for an overland & expedition meeting.  This event, however, is unique.  It's an overlanders meeting point for all those interesting in overlanding with expedition prepared trucks.  The trucks vary from campers to huge Man ex-army vehicles.  Each vehicle is uniquely prepared.

Land Rover Series I Expedition Vehicles

Land Rover Series 1 Advert

Land Rover entered production of the Series I vehicle in 1948.  Since that day the Land Rover has evolved into the most seen and respected expedition vehicle.  Additional information on the Series I can be found on the wikipedia website: Land Rover Series 1

In this blog post I attempt to trace early Land Rover Expeditions which have used the trusty Series 1 as the vehicle of choice.  I have also linked to a few videos and old Land Rover adverts

Bhubesi Pride - TransAfrique 2011

Bhubesi Pride - TransAfrique 2011

A quick plug for Bhubesi Pride's upcoming Trans-Africa trip.

Richard and Co. are heading South from the UK with a Rugby Ball.  Following the East Africa route, the team, all certified Rugby Coaches, will meet with various rugby clubs and schools to share and encourage rugby as a sport.