This month I have the distinct pleasure to review all the best that Overland & Expedition had to offer from August. As always, find the most compelling off-road and adventure travel content anywhere on the Internet right here on Kinja at Overland & Expedition.
We’ve got gear, we’ve got skills, we’ve got travel, we’ve got rigs. We’ve got thoughtful and knowledgable discussion (and terrible jokes). Our YouTube game is strong, and only getting stronger. We’re reporting from Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Colorado, Australia, California, Botswana, The Republic of Texas, and even Vermont (!).
My dirt-bound brothers and sisters, you make my job very, very easy. Never mind the handshakes, brothers gotta hug.
Let’s get to it.
Top Pick
As Czar of the O&E Rankings this month, I choose to hand out the goldest of the gold stars to SilentButNotReallyDeadly’s second installment in his “Winter’s Tale” Series from the remote Australian Outback.
Kudos go to Silent’s undeniably charming literary voice, remarkable calm in the face of crocodiles, limb fractures, juggling a whole lot of family, more broken trucks than you can shake a didgeridoo at, and treating rental cars in the manner that is required - all in classic Aussie style. I can’t even believe that Thrifty Land Cruiser. The last car I rented from Thrifty was a Chevy Cobalt.
Trip Reports
On the other side of the planet without the crocodiles, we’ve been busy criss-crossing the forests of New England by human power and by 4x4, traversing nearly all of the American west in a tiny Jeep, and kicking dust in Texas and the desert Southwest.
Shared from our pal Eberle-Hills-Cop over on Oppo comes some muddy mayhem from deep in the Vermont woods. Maybe I’m subconsciously starting to become a Mitsubishi homer, but I flat out LOVE this Raider:
And from functionoverfashion, the bone-bruising story of C-Note puncture repairs and hike-a-bike in the unforgiving granite of New Hampshire’s White Mountains.
The permanently peripatetic Tim and Kelsey (I mean - when do they sleep?!) wrapped up their TASTEY adventures up on the Grand Canyon’s North Rim. Let’s just say things were dusty...
And, last, but definitely not least, Skychismo sent in the final dispatches from his family epic out west. An extra merit badge goes to Skychismo for his lyrical writing - seriously, this Arizonan knows how to handle a pen as well as a Jeep:
Ol’ Cactus Ed would be proud.
Video
Overland & Expedition has always been home to some excellent moving picture shows, but folks have been experimenting ever more with the video camera, and with great results.
Tim and Kelsey have been leading the charge on their new You Tube channel with a full documentation of their North Rim trip, and a quick, sticky ride south to Tucson in good ol’ Tonto/Rockford.
You can watch for yourself, but Kelsey also illustrates some of the possibly expensive pitfalls (sorry) of trying to capture good film. Be careful out there, folks.
And our rep in Texas, Blind Willy of TXpedition Offroad and Overland, has been supplementing his wheeling reports and gear reviews with a lot of fun blues-infused videos. Willy’s FJ is one of my favorite O&E-regular rigs. How does someone so near-sighted have such impeccable sticker placement? Oh, and he’s got new tires.
Gear, Mods, and Skills
Continuing with our video theme, Tim took the time to review some forbidden-fuel-storage-fruit by walking us Americans through the benefits of the Canadian Scepter Military Fuel Can:
And, Dirtsunrise also took us inside their buddy’s highly enviable Tucson shop for a full custom auxiliary fuel tank build for their 80-Series, Da Goose. Hey Tim! Now that you’ve got all that extra petrol sloshing around under the Land Cruiser, I’d be happy to take those Scepters off your hands.
O&E Emperor Hammerheadfistpunch wrote in with a discussion of full-floater axles. I always learn something new from that guy.
The Land Cruiser contingent from Colorado, benjrblant, took us on a tour of a Wilderness First Aid course. As overlanders, traveling in remote areas with heavy machinery and sketchy roads as our close companions, we owe it to ourselves to learn some real first-aid skills.
Rufant, as usual, detailed the finer points of the pre-expedition load-out and maintenance routine for his 105. Always so, so organized, that one. Be on the lookout for his trip report this month to the western reaches of South Australia.
Yours truly, mtdrift, talked about the frustrations of outfitting a camping system in a foreign country, but also learning to let go of some of the things we might normally think we can’t live without.
Discussion
As always, the comment sections on O&E are chock full of lively debate, fascinating ideas, and mostly tasteful jokes (am I on the right blog?).
SilentButNotReallyDeadly, reeling from a catastrophic Land Rover-related breakdown on his Outback adventure ranted about the disconnect between Land Rovers themselves, and the company that gives them birth:
Did we talk about rigs? Does the wind always kick up as soon as you unfold your awning? You better believe we talked about rigs.
Cheap ones:
Expensive ones:
Gold Plated ones:
And even rigs that don’t yet exist:
Our California correspondent, LionZoo, got a new rig, and thus his clever Forester-inspired travel trademark may be shelved. That Lotus is just so demanding:
Born of the frustrations of cubicle life, desktop adventures always draw lots of wistful commentary:
That’s all for August, folks. Stay tuned on Overland & Expedition during the remainder of September and into October for some truly inspiring adventure travel reporting from Down Under, Alaska, Colorado, and California.
I’ll leave you with one from the archives - a winter-over in Death Valley from Cooperd0g (who’s been pretty quiet lately):
Go forth and explore, my friends!