The 2nd Annual RGS Overland Travel Workshop

LRO’s Sam Watson has let us know that the second Royal Geographical Survey Overland Travel Workshop is scheduled to take place in Yorkshire on May 29-30 in the same location as last year; YO60 6PR, Terrington Hall School. 
Plans for this useful event include; 1. Two days of talks and workshops, rather than one as per last year. 2. Extended catering arrangements, courtesy of HM Forces. 3. Off-road tuition at a neighboring location. 4. Several overland film presentations. 5. Traders present in the main hall where the talks are, instead of at a separate location.  Apparently the Overlander beer will be making a repeat appearance… The costs is a bargain £10 per vehicle and will be by registration and payment in advance please.

Additionally, a local specialist vehicle outfitters is offering us a ‘Bush Mechanics’ Course that will be a full day dealing with on-the-road fixes and fault diagnosis. Costs are still floating around and being worked out but will be over £200 per head. Let Sam know if you would be interested, and with what vehicle?
Contact Sam Watson at watsonsam@talk21.com

Source: Land Rover Owner International

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An old bus powered by used cooking oil has succeeded in reaching Asia, less than a month after leaving London. Andy Pag, 34, a veteran overland traveller, is attempting to drive round the world in a recycled scrap yard bus, using only waste cooking oil as fuel. On Friday 16th October he crossed from the European side of the Istanbul Straits to the Asian side. Pag said “Crossing the Bosphorus is a real milestone. I’m actually quite relieved to have made it this far, but it’s only going to get tougher to find used cooking oil to fuel the bus from here on.”

MORE INFO HERE!

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WITH just two knives for cutting and a baby pig for company, Xavier Rosset sat solo on an uninhabited Pacific island for 300 lonely days.

But unlike Robinson Crusoe, the young Swiss adventurer made a choice to isolate himself totally, surviving on food and shelter got by his own hand to challenge the modern way of life.

“It was hard, yes, very hard,” Mr Rosset said, freshly arrived back in Europe after ending his 10-month stint in Tonga.

His island of choice was Tofua, a 64-square-kilometre volcanic isle home to nothing except “some pigs, lots of coconuts, a lake and tropical forest”.

His luggage consisted of just a Swiss army knife, machete and a video camera to record his adventure for a documentary to be aired later this year.

The mission was to try to relearn the natural survival skills which urban men have long forgotten, but Mr Rosset said it was far from easy.

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“At the beginning I had to try hard to survive,” the former professional snowboarder said.

“I had to find the food and water, build shelter, learn how to fish, everything.”

Last September, just 10 days in, he had a realisation that he was all alone and would be for many months to come.

“That was very hard, without my family, my girlfriend, my friends. There was a lot of loneliness.”

But he was kept busy just trying to survive.

Over the next two months he lost nearly all the 18kg of body fat he had stockpiled before starting his adventure.

He wasn’t able to hold his weight steady until he discovered how to trap and kill wild pigs, in the process making his only “friend”, a tiny piglet.

“I couldn’t eat it because there wasn’t enough meat so I took it with me and she stayed with me for three months,” he said.

“She was exactly like a dog. She was a very good friend for me but I didn’t talk to her like (Tom Hanks) talked to the volleyball in the movie Castaway.”

It wasn’t until eight months into the stay that Mr Rosset says he felt at peace on the island.

In a blog recording from this time, the explorer said: “I’m spending the most part of the day doing nothing, looking at the big ocean or the butterfly who has come to say hello to me.”

“I even have enough food. I can say now and now only that I am feeling (at) home.”

Being truly home in Switzerland has been the biggest high however, and there’s no plan to go bush again anytime soon.

[via Daily Telegraph]

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Per AdvRider

Kris Coay, a professional tracker, found Jeremy Cox today (Wednesday) at about 12:45 p.m. at Tank Creek Mesa, which is a remote area about 20 miles west of Prescott in the southwest corner of Prescott National Forest.

Cox reportedly has a dislocated ankle but is otherwise in good health.

Coay discovered motorcycle tracks Tuesday evening but stopped searching at nightfall. He returned early this morning and followed the tracks until he found Cox.

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One our contributing blogs are Izabela Frycz and Kamil Gamanski of Singapore2 Poland fame. They have been on a long journey starting from Singapore. Here at Overland Journey, we have been following their overland travel since the beginning. Its great to see they made it in a Poland news site called Krakow Post. Here is what they had to say:

“Polish couple explores the world by motorbike

In April 2008, Kamil and Izabela Gamański set out on a journey from Singapore to Poland – on the back of a motorbike.

It’s turned out to be a true odyssey, one that’s spanned 17 months, 82,000 kilometres and 51 countries in Asia and Africa, mainly via “off-the-beaten” tracks.

After roaming vast, open Mongolian grasslands, meandering along coastal routes in Japan and embarking on hunting escapades in the Central African Republic, they expected to be home by now. That was before their compulsive wanderlust inspired the decision to extend the trip to South America.

The Krakow Post caught up with these globetrotters and got a unique insight into the art of around-the-world travel.”

MORE INFO HERE!

Congratulations guys! Keep up the amazing adventure! Ride on!

Ron Douglas

AKA ColoradoRon

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If Norway is now the best place to live, than it should most certainly be on the list for any Overlander!

PARIS (AFP) – Norway takes the number one spot in the annual United Nations human development index released Monday but China has made the biggest strides in improving the well-being of its citizens.

The index compiled by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) ranks 182 countries based on such criteria as life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

Norway, Australia and Iceland took the first three spots while Niger ranks at the very bottom, just below Afghanistan.

China moved up seven places on the list to rank as the 92nd most developed country due to improvements in education as well as income levels and life expectancy.

Colombia and Peru rose five spaces to rank 77th and 78th while France — which was not part of the top 10 last year — returns to the upper echelons by moving up three places to number 8.

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It is that time of year again! If you are lucky enough to be overlanding in South Africa this time a year you have a great opportunity to do some amazing whale watching.

It’s a good weekend, particularly this Saturday (provided the wind holds off), to get out to find the whales who are definitely in False Bay, this weekend. And don’t assume that you need to go all the way to Hermanus to do so, although, admittedly in Hermanus one gets a good deal closer to these gentle beasts, but the price you pay is having to battle the crowds in order to do so – even if it is the best land-based whale watching site around.

The WWF and Greenpeace regard whale watching in Cape Town as one of the top 3 places in the world to get ‘up and personal’ with whales. There are three types of whales usually sighted in False Bay – Southern Right, Humpbacks and Bryde’s. These sea animals that are generally the cumulative size of around 10 African elephants can be pretty elusive and September has had very few days that are conducive to sighting them, because of the wind …

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It is not abnormal to find cats climbing into trees. It is however fairly unusual to see lions lounging in the trees.  Like all other cats they use their claws to help them scale tree trunks while climbing into the branches of a tree, however their size often makes scaling a tree a challenge or impossible.  

Our partners at Chief’s Camp in Botswana shared with us these fun photos of lions relaxing in the trees of the Moremi Game Reserve. Their experts are speculating that the lions are climbing into the trees either to avoid the pestering of flies or to enjoy a cool breeze that will cool them from the heat.

Either way we wanted to share with you these wonderful photos courtesy of our friends at Chief’s Camp in Botswana.

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Photo DigitalGlobe via Getty Images This satellite image shows Tristan da Cunha Island.

Tristan da Cunha: The World’s Most Remote Inhabited Island

Today, Tristan da Cunha is certainly off the beaten path and is considered the most remote inhabited island on the planet. But in the 17th and 18th centuries, the archipelago was on the preferred maritime route to the Cape of Good Hope and the Indian Ocean. The islands of Tristan da Cunha were discovered by Portuguese explorer Tristao da Cunha during an expedition to the Cape of Good Hope in 1506. In 1643, the first recorded crew, the Dutch Heemstede, landed on Tristan to replenish supplies. In 1650 and 1669, the Dutch initiated efforts to explore the island as a base but soon abandoned the idea, perhaps because Tristan lacked a safe harbor…….

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