Monday, June 24, 2013

Trip Report - Abercrombie River National Park

Held together with Duct Tape, the 1984 Toyota Land Cruiser 60-series, fitted with the 4.0L diesel engine, had clocked over 700,000km.
Toyota Land Cruiser 60-Series
Its leaf suspension flexed as it kept pace with a new Jeep Rubicon mounted on 35” mud terrain tyres as we traced fire Trails around NSW Central tablelands Abercrombie River National Park.  Gazetted in 1994, this park protects the largest intact patch of open forest in the area and offered us an exciting weekend away traveling the steep fire trails and exploring the various campsites.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Western Sahara Convoy - Departing Tuesday and Friday!

Have you ever needed to wait for an overland convoy, anxiously completing endless paperwork and passport checks simply to continue your overland adventure?
Bike Brothers - Convoy
Today, there is no need to join a convoy to complete your trans-Africa overland adventure.  The closest gathering of overlanders, in a very loose sense, is a convoy on the Wadi Halfa route.  Twenty years ago, it was a very different story.

A convoy had transitted about six weeks before but nothing had happened since. Some people had been waiting the full time - Under African Skies

After four days of paper work we can join the convoy that will take us to Mauritania. It is an international group of travellers. Germans in a Unimog, Australians in a Land Rover, Spanish in an old Peugeot, Dutch in a very old VW bus and we on our Suzuki motorbikes - The Bike Brothers

What a fantastic experience the convoy was - Hujambo Africa

Welcome to The Atlantic overland route heading South through Western Sahara towards Mauritania.
It is worth noting that this was not the primary route South during the early 1990's, with majority of overlanders opting for the route South across Algeria and into Niger.  It was, however, a route gaining popularity especially after Algeria closed its borders mid 1990's thus forcing overlanders to keep West along the Atlantic.

In this blog post, I highlight a decade of commentary on the route.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Notorious Overland Routes: Nigeria to Cameroon

As overlanders, we generally love the challenge of tough routes.
BigSky Adventures
We love finding alternative ways around political conflict zones and sometimes even those unnerving border crossings.  As overland travelers, we will always find a way.  Sometimes though, there is only one way...

Welcome to the notorious Ekang, Nigeria to Mamfe, Cameroon road...

A few quotes to set the scene:
18 hours after crossing the border in Cameroon we eventually reached the town of Kumba - David Priddis
Reports from other overland travelers said that it was bad, very bad - Tale of Two Travelers
Too describe it as a road is misleading. It is a track hacked through the jungle by locals and others desperate to pass - Adventurous Spirits

Monday, June 3, 2013

Report: Sydney Overland Meetup

How do you recover an overland prepared Land Rover Defender from a muddy river?
@davidpriddis
Sounds easy, doesn't it?  Well, how do you recover it when the clutch plate has disintegrated and the vehicle has no gears?

Hosted by Daniel (Expedition Centre), the 1st Sydney Overland Meetup attracted a like-minded bunch of overland enthusiasts who were keen to hear the stories, like the one above, from fellow overland travelers.

David Priddis was our first guest speaker.  He is a veteran overlander having completed a trans-Africa (Defender 200Tdi) and recently Asia and The Americas in his Land Rover Defender TD5.