Overland Journal

«We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell the world the glories of our journey.»
~John Hope Franklin
Some of my earliest memories were leafing through National Geographic magazine at the library with my grandmother or watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom on Sunday evenings with my dad. I loved being transported, if only for a moment, to the plains of SubSaharan Africa watching a lion stalk an antelope or on top of Mount Everest risking life and limb to reach the top with enough canned air and daylight to make it back to base camp. I remember playing adventurer in the open spaces at the end of my street while growing up. Climbing trees, setting traps that never worked and riding my bike through tall grasses exploring my world as if I was the first person to ever do it.
Flash forward… ahem…a couple of years, and I find myself preparing for a round the world vehicle-​based expedition in my Toyota Land Cruiser. The dream is to drive through multiple continents and a myriad of countries experiencing the world free from airplane flights and drivers that never quite put you in the action. We’ve built the truck and we’re getting ready to depart in the next year. I’ve traveled in the past, but traveling for a few weeks or months is not the same thing as driving around the world.
While preparing for this trip of a lifetime, I stumbled upon a magazine called Overland Journal that embodies the true nature of adventure while using your own vehicle. Overlanding is about exploration, rather than conquering obstacles. It’s about using your vehicle to get you places where few people get to go so you can commune with nature in your own way– bicycle, raft, kayak, or on foot. The goal of Overland Journal is to encourage people to explore their world, whether it be in the mountains 100 miles from home over a weekend, or on a 30,000 mile journey crossing multiple international borders.
Overland Journal is a fantastic magazine packed with the latest gear to get you out exploring and get you home safely. Their editors test and retest products to help you spend your money wisely. The travel articles are second to none and truly capture the essence of what it means to be a traveler.
I can’t wait to finally get on the road, to experience life from the ground level. No, I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.
Travel well!