What is “overlanding” you might ask? Overlanding is self-reliant overland travel to remote destinations where the journey is the principal goal. Typically, but not exclusively, it is accomplished with mechanized off-road capable transport (from bicycles to trucks) where the principal form of lodging is camping, often lasting for extended lengths of time (months to years) and spanning international boundaries. The Overland Expo “series”; West and East locations held annually, provided an excellent confluence of adventure travelers to Flagstaff, Arizona from all over the globe.
Historically, “overlanding” is an Australian term to denote the droving of livestock over very long distances to open up new country or to take livestock to market far from grazing grounds. Between 1906 and 1910 Alfred Canning opened up the Canning Stock Route. In Australia overlanding was inspired to a large degree by Len Beadell who, in the 1940s and 1950s, constructed many of the roads that opened up the Australian Outback. Those roads are still used today by Australian overlanders and still hold the names Len gave them; the Gunbarrel Highway, the Connie Sue Highway (named after his daughter), and the Anne Beadell Highway (named after his wife).
Overlanding in its most modern form with the use of mechanized transport began in the middle of the last century with the advent of commercially available four-wheel-drive trucks (Mercedes-Benz G-Class’s, Unimog, Jeeps and Land Rovers). Nonetheless, there were a few earlier pioneers travelling in remarkably unsophisticated vehicles.
In the early 1920s, John Weston and family travelled from Britain to Greece and back in a converted US built Commerce one ton truck with a Continental N engine. At the time, the Weston family was based in Europe but returned to South Africa, their homeland, in 1924, taking the vehicle with them. In 1931, the family set out in the same truck from the south-western tip of Africa and drove to Cairo and on to Britain. Not only is this story well-documented but remarkably the vehicle is still extant. In 1975, following renovation, it featured in the International Veteran and Vintage Car Rally from Durban to Cape Town and was then donated to the Winterton Museum, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, where it can be seen today.
In 1949, with the Land Rover brand less than a year old, Colonel Leblanc drove his brand new 80-inch Series I Land Rover from the United Kingdom to Abyssinia.
There followed many more private journeys, with many groups setting out from Europe for remote African destinations. To aid in these endeavors the Automobile Association of South Africa published a guide titled Trans-African Highways, A Route Book of the Main Trunk Roads in Africa. The first edition appeared in 1949 and included sections on choice of vehicle, choice of starting time, petrol supplies, water, provisions, equipment, rules of the road, government officials and rest houses. The serious tone of this book gives some clue as to the magnitude of such a trip, and it was from these beginnings that overlanding developed in Europe and Africa. Notable early examples include Barbara Toy’s solo overland journeys in a Land Rover, including one in 1951-2 from Tangier to Baghdad, and the 1955-6 Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition, which travelled overland from London to Singapore, also in Land Rovers.
2017 OUTLANDER EXPO WEST
As a lifelong adventurer and a person who likes to camp, through social media I became aware of the Outlander Expo and registered for the May event in Flagstaff, Arizona. The Overland Expo is one of the world’s most dynamic and largest events that educates and inspires people to get out and explore the world, by motorcycle and four-wheel-drive, whether 100 miles or 10,000 miles from home. Overland Journal is proud to be an original supporter of this event, first held in 2009. The 2017 Expo exceeded all previous records for exhibitors and attendees alike managing over 300 vendors and almost 15,000 paying attendees.
The event was very well managed and checking in for the weekend pass bracelet was easy enough and the location at the Fort Tuthill Bike Park was a noted remarkable improvement from it’s previous location at Mormon Lake. Friday was cool with a light wind, but Saturday was slightly warmer with strong gusts and at times a challenging setting. Here are a few images from a couple hours on Friday.
DAIRY SPRINGS CAMPGROUND
Usually, I am pretty lucky figuring out logistics and reading reviews of campsites, but, this time I would consider it a fail. It turned out this location was 20 miles from the downtown area and the Expo location. The campground hosts were friendly but, this place had zero amenities and ultimately I would leave my campsite at 8am and return at 10pm. The too close bathroom reeked badly. I guess the one positive is it was quiet. Probably, because no partiers would basecamp here. LOL
MY PERSONAL FAV AT THE EXPO
Meet Miguel. A very interesting guy. With a background in F1 autoracing as a mechanic, he now works with a mentor restoring classic Porsche’s for celebrities. He loves Vintage. He purchase this 1972 Ford Econoline Sportsmobile. 99% original with all it’s appropriate paperwork, this is a true classic. In fact, Miguel and his wife parked in the normal camping parking area and the folks at Sportsmobile were so impressed they had him stage his personal van amongst the show vans. I volunteered to shoot his van if he ever came to Las Vegas and recreate some of the scenes originally created in the Ford Sportsmobile marketing material.
