OverlandSphere
Overland Travel, Expedition & Adventure Information for 4x4, motorcycle and truck overlanders
Hi Folks Been very quite for 1 year – sorry about that. Got the Blog mojo back and thought we would post some pics of some of the things we have done to Dassie the Land Rover. We are going to add some more pics to this post shortly, but the key items are shown in the images below. The…
Unbeknownst to us, protests were raging and roadblocks were going up in Chile’s Aysen region. We were heading into the capital, Coyhaique, the only reliable place to refuel on the 1,200km Carretera Austral. We rolled into town on a sunny Friday afternoon expecting only to resupply and hit the open road once again. Photo from Santiago Times Despite the remarkably…
For a while I’ve been wondering what baby gifts we should get for our friends Jen and Eric, who are expecting twin girls soon. You could say I don’t really “get” kids. When I speak to them I use long multisyllabic words, I assume that they want to talk about politics, or I force them to sit through my soapbox…
Now on the Pacific slope the first thing we notice is that everything is a brilliant green. Coming from the Argentine side, where endless golden plains stretch out in all directions, the scenery here is all the more captivating. In Chilean Patagonia luscious foliage hangs over the roads and infiltrates every square inch of unattended land. Verde The Carretera Austral…
We pushed ourselves into the mass of bodies while the uneasy shriek produced by hundreds of horns created a feeling as though something bad were about to happen. In a large circle in the plaza in front of the church, men in elaborate traditional Mayan dress acted out a battle themed march whose phases unfolded throughout the day. The first…
Continuing north, El Chalten was in our sights. The town was quickly put together in 1985 by the Argentinean government in an effort to beat Chile to the land claim. At a population of 600, it is not much of a town. Gas, groceries, and ATM service is infrequent. Chile’s official maps of this area don’t include the border but…
Before we left on our trip, people used to ask us what city in Mexico we were most looking forward to. No brainer: Oaxaca. In our minds it was a quaint food lover’s paradise. We imagined strolling around, sampling mole, eating at the best street carts in all of Mexico, and giving casual high fives to Rick Bayless. Everyone we…
Overland Advice Series, part 9 of 10: Spend a long weekend in Puerto Vallarta and it’s easy to believe you’ve mastered the Spanish language. The reality is you know how to order a beer and ask for the bathroom. That margarita weekend won’t get you far at the Guatemala border crossing. The first step is to admit ignorance. Una mas…
On the road at last! Only 3 weeks late. TIA! There she is! To kill time last week and to generally keep on schedule with Tin Can’s arrival being 3 weeks late, we decided to fly return from Cape Town to Johannesburg to see Marianne’s other sister Tineke and brother in law Dave. They were most hospitable and Mango Airlines…
Northbound on RN 40, Argentina’s granite spires and snowcapped peaks grow more prominent emerging from the arid plains stretching endlessly east. These mountains were the destination for Yvon Chouinard’s famous PanAm journey with Doug Tompkins in 1968. Inspired by the area, Yvon would go on to found the Patagonia brand. Similarly, Doug started his own little company called The North…
Overland advice series, 8 of 10: When planning we had a pretty good sense that bandits wouldn’t kidnap us, the truck frame wouldn’t snap nor would we disappear in the Nicaraguan jungle. But we knew from a bit of previous wandering south of the border that the police in Latin America can be corrupt. One of the worst was in…
We’ve been enjoying more of the morning sea mists, hot sunny days and gentle sunsets, as we’ve continued to make the most of our campsite in the sand dune. Although the weekend was busy the weekdays have been quieter with few passers by. After a couple of days of us both getting to grips with getting some more writing done…
AUTHOR’S NOTE: The only reason Sheena let me publish this article was for the hope that it may help future travelers overcome…their issues. Sitting in Nacho one evening in San Miguel de Allende, Sheena looked over at me with wanting eyes. Almost immediately I knew it was a trap. “Bradley?” She said, sounding so sweet. “Will you do me a…
We crossed to Punta Arenas, Chile via a rough seas ferry to meet up with our friend Espen. Over a few beers and a fine dinner we grilled him on his experience working in Antarctica for the season. Our interest was piqued but we had to get along before Malin would return from the ice. Good friends, good beer We…
Paul working on Landy This morning Paul finished off the final piece of maintenance work as he fitted new brake shoes to Landy’s rear brake system. The old ones had completely worn out on one side and it was with some dismay that we found the spares were for the wrong type of vehicle. Still, a bit of desert mechanics…
campsite in the sand – Salgas, Peru Paul spent the weekend and Monday working on Landy: he’s now had a full service with all new oils and is feeling fresh as a daisy again (Landy that is). I pottered around doing a bit of writing on the laptop, and a bit of knitting and a bit of reading and a…
El Golpeador was a squat man who moved about hurriedly. He was missing half of his little finger, likely due to the rapidity with which he carried out his projects. As he approached Nacho, I could see through the pouring rain that he was carrying a bucket full of tools, none of which were intended for a rear wheel bearing…
El Golpeador was a squat man who moved about hurriedly. He was missing half of his little finger, likely due to the rapidity with which he carried out his projects. As he approached Nacho, I could see through the pouring rain that he was carrying a bucket full of tools, none of which were intended for a rear wheel bearing…
We didn’t fancy cooking breakfast in the hostel’s garage this morning so we decided to head out early and find somewhere to stop further along the road. Yesterday had brought us out of the mountains and back on to the Pan American Highway through the coastal sand dunes. With much of the land bought up by agricultural companies finding somewhere…
Cape Town 9th February 2012 Well, it’s a good thing that Cape Town is not too bad a place to kick one’s heels around (and that Marianne’s sister and BIL are good hosts), because Tin Can’s time of arrival in Cape Town has become a moving target! The local agents have been pretty good, but the story with the MSC…
Passing through the “City of God” After the muddy driving conditions of yesterday Landy was, to say the least, filthy, so waking up after a night camping in the grounds of a garage was the perfect place to take advantage of the on site car wash – after the whole of the town’s police force which were queued in front…
Paul needed to buy some transmission fluid in town this morning (the steering box is leaking again!) which gave us the chance to have a look around the markets where they were making the local straw hats and finely crocheted multi coloured blankets for sale at what in the UK we would consider silly prices. Two months work to make…
On the drive from Guadalajara to Guanajuato, Nacho developed a high frequency vibration, most likely in one of the wheels, which also manifested itself as a vibration under braking. Being that we didn’t know what was wrong, we were a little on edge about the performance of our brakes. Following the directions to the campground in Guanajuato, we climbed higher…
Planning, saving, and executing over the last three years meant we had one solitary focus. Now having reached the terminus of the PanAmerican Highway, we suddenly find ourselves without a mission. An eerie yearning pulls at us when we head out each morning. The sun even rises out of the wrong window. For the first time in 13 months we…
Hardly surprising in the cloud forest we woke to rain this morning. We feel as if we have been living in the rain for ever. Well, actually, we have seen a lot of rain since we were first delighted with the tropical rainstorms of Belize. But that was 9 months ago. We’d like some sunshine now. long and winding road…
our faithful companion poses among the ruins at Kuelap It’s probably fair to say that we both have mixed feelings about ruins and we were not sure we particularly wanted to traipse round some ancient archaeological park. We’d seen the pyramids at Teotihuhan and Mayan ruins in Mexico, and then the grave guards at San Agustin in Colombia. Were we…
Garage camps inevitably mean an early start but we delayed a little today to stop and wash Landy free from the thick caked on mud that we had picked up over the last couple of days. The tap water itself was a shade of orange mud that suggests it was drawn straight from the still nearby fast flowing river. But…
Day 134,135,136: (going to) LibrevilleWe get the entry stamp easily at Bitam and follow the road to the Oyo where there must be a hotel where we can sleep. We find a strange little motel where each room has its own parking place closed of by a big shower curtain. There is no running water and so it’s back to…
Overlander advice, 7 of 10: Our first bush camp was on the tip of Baja. We heard from a several experienced boondockers about Playa Tecalote. This beach had no services, no fees, and no fences or watchmen to keep out those evil-doers. It was nothing but undisturbed beach. About the third person to bring it up described it to us…
We woke this morning to peer at the hen and her chicks pecking at the mud at the foot of our tent ladder and the sun was shining. At first many of the roads in Peru, from this little used border crossing, were much the same as we had seen on our last day in Ecuador. The mud is more…