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By breaking his own golden rule, Mark Eveleigh turned his back on independent travel and joined a 10-week overlanding trip through East Africa and South America. After that, he was hooked, so who better to guide us through the ins and outs of planning for an overlanding trip of a lifetime....
It's fair to say that I've done a lot of travelling recently: I've toured the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti Plains in a Land Rover; I've crossed Andean passes and crocodile-infested African rivers on horses; I've slept in a Masai manyatta in Kenya and an adobe pueblo on Lake Titicaca; I've walked the Inca Trail and I've climbed Mount Kilimanjaro; I've watched the sun rise over Great Zimbabwe Ruins and over Machu Picchu; I've plummeted off Vic Falls Bridge on a bungee jump, and I've swung through the Amazonian jungle on a fifty-foot liana; I've river-boarded down the Zambezi and I've surfed on Peru's Pacific Coast; I've eaten guinea pigs in Ecuador and fried mopane worms in Botswana. I've also been stung by a box jellyfish in the Mozambique Channel and kicked by a llama in an Andean meadow.
You might think that all this could only be the story of one of those lucky bastard travel-writers. But you're wrong: this could be your story too. These were just some of the highlights of a fun-packed, and needless to say hectic, 10-week overlanding trip that was divided equally between East Africa and South America. And what's more, this lifetime's worth of adventures came with a street value of just £2,000.
So, for anyone who thinks that overlanding is all about being cooped up in a rickety old truck with only the same old passengers and a good book to save you from insanity, think again. If you plan your journey carefully, overlanding could just work out to be the trip of a lifetime.
Tough choices
After 15 years extolling the virtues of independent (and usually solo) travel, I had serious reservations about joining a group on a five-week East African safari. But, reasoning that if the African wildlife failed to materialise then there at least ought to be enough feral behaviour inside the truck to make for a good story, I put my faith in the old maxim that 'there can be no bad experiences - only good writing material', and signed up for the trip.
I had such a fantastic time on that first trip that I jumped at the chance to escape the European winter on another five-week overland leg through South America. Though I still wouldn't trade a faithful old backpack and a lucky hitchhiker's thumb indefinitely for a seat on the next overland truck, I realised there are a lot of hidden benefits that are not immediately obvious.
I realised that the main advantages of overlanding are:
the ability to cover large areas in a limited time
the security of knowing that you have somewhere safe and comfortable to sleep each night
safety in numbers and the companionship of a large group
not having to organise your own guides or transport for spin-off expeditions
the saving in time (and bruises) by not having to rely on local transport
And the disadvantages? As above!
In the beginning Although still not recognised by my computer's spell-check, the word 'overlanding' became a firm fixture of travel-lore in the late sixties and was originally coined to describe a group of people - ranging from a convoy to a single vehicle - who drove across the forbidden wastes of Africa or Asia.
Now there are over a hundred commercial overland operators offering a bewildering assortment of itineraries and routes, from weeklong hotel-based tours of the Rocky Mountains to the legendary 29-week Trans-Africa. Many of the companies have radically different ideas and aim to provide very different services, so it's worth doing your homework before you part with your cash.
For most people the factors governing their choice of company are what areas the trip visits, the price, duration and level of comfort offered. But as everyone's tastes are different, it all boils down to choosing the right company for you.
Tortoise or the snail? Many a time-strapped traveller opts for the company that can offer them the most sights in the least time. But with overlanding this is not always the wisest choice, as it means that you've got to cover more ground each day, which can result in long stints in the truck and a very sore bum. Jason 'Doc' Boland is currently on the third part of a 25,000-mile, eight-month overlanding marathon - with three consecutive trips placed end-to-end (Mexico-Panama, Quito-Rio, Rio-Caracas). He'd deliberately chosen companies that travelled the same distance over a longer period of time, the theory being that you see more of the places you travel through and you won't spend so long each day cooped up in the truck.
Wherever possible, the longest driving stints are divided up with stop offs and sights along the way. But on some trips there just ain't anywhere to stop off; on the Trans-Africa for example, the 'empty quarters' of the Sahara Desert or Northern Cameroon can take as much as eight days to cross. Even on less ambitious expeditions, you need to view those long, mile crunching blasts across the Peruvian desert or the Tanzanian bush as part of the experience. Either look for solace in the Buddhist mantra that 'the goal is the path', or alternatively, look for it amongst the frost-beaded cans of beer in the on-board cool-box and a good game of cards!
Money talks
As with most things in life, you get what you pay for. But there is more to choosing an overland trip than simply picking the one with the highest price tag. Along with the improvements in comfort and upgraded accommodation, a difference in outlook and philosophy will often be part of what a more expensive company will refer to as "a superior product". For example, if money is no object but you want an intrepid trip with lots of camping, then the most expensive overland companies might not offer you what you want; they will often be geared towards clients who are more demanding in terms of travelling comfort and hotel quality.
When budgeting for an overland trip, don't always take the brochure price on face value. Most overland companies allow their passengers some extra degree of control over the cost of their trip (and make the advertised figure look good) by having a supplementary list of "optional excursions". These options, however, are usually the absolute highlights of the trip and without them the standard tour may be a disappointment. And after all, on a once-in-a-lifetime trip why miss out on the sights that drew you there in the first place?
Occasionally it's possible to arrange one of the tours cheaper on-the-spot through a local company. But in many cases it often proves to be difficult when you're back in the realm of the lone traveller to compete with the buying-power of a group of 20 overlanders. Overland operators have also usually done their homework about local companies and you can be confident that the company they're using is good and that they won't let you down.
"EASY ACCESS TO THESE SECRET SPOTS AND A SENSE OF SAFETY-IN-NUMBERS ARE TWO MORE BENEFITS THAT OVERLANDING HOLDS OVER INDEPENDENT FREE-CAMPING."
Another frequent addition to the advertised price is the 'local payment' or 'food kitty' that is paid to the driver/coordinator in cash at the beginning of the trip. This covers the on-road expenses for the group and is often slightly on the liberal side to be sure that there will be no unforeseen extras during the trip. What is not spent should be reimbursed at the end of the trip. A good way to compare the costs of the different companies is to total up prices for the whole trip including local payment and optional trips.
The nuts 'n bolts A phenomenal amount of work and planning goes into the design of the perfect overland vehicle. Even within the same company, the designs are tailored to the demands of a specific region; open sides are the usual in Africa and much of Asia, while sealed units with sliding windows are preferred in mountainous South American climes.
In drinking dens from Arequipa to Zanzibar veteran drivers can be heard holding interminable debates over who has the best box-layout/engine-type/sound-system. And even among the passengers the debate is heated; there are those who favour open-topped boxes whilst others say they are too noisy, cold and dusty. On the other side of the fence are those that prefer a sealed, air-conditioned cocoon that some people find to be too restrictive and difficult to take photos from. Traditional in-line coach seats are most popular but Exodus - who have been improving their truck designs for over 25 years and claim to have the newest fleet in the world - boast "a mixture of forward, inward and backward facing seats, so you don't spend your time looking at the back of someone's head".
I was dubious when I first saw the two rows of inward-facing seats that Oasis Overland rig their trucks out with - despite their claims that this was to give more leg-room and storage space for souvenirs. The main advantage of this seating system, however, seemed to be in the social benefits that it offered as it allowed us to gel much quicker as a group because of the hours that we spent sat together rather than with only one other seating partner. In-line seats offer the best vantage points (providing you're next to the window) but we would spend much of our time kneeling on the seats with our heads out the window, or we could take advantage of the open-plan layout to get up and stretch our legs, browse through the library or join the ubiquitous card school.
The traditional concept of the ultimate overlanding vehicle lay somewhere between a post-apocalyptic Mad Max people-mover and Thunderbird 3 - with all those flip out extras, interlocking floorboards and cunning cubby-holes. As one overland addict described it, it's like "some sort of incredible Swiss Army Truck".
Many companies now only rely on their rugged 4x4 expedition trucks where conditions are too harsh for more road-friendly vehicles. Oasis point out that, since more than 85% of the roads between Morocco and Cape Town are now sealed, they use 2-wheel drive vehicles, which they say have the advantage of much more space and horsepower.
These road vehicles would of course be at a disadvantage in the harshest conditions and some companies compensate for this by using local companies for their more extreme optional trips. For instance, Oasis Overland contract a local company to supply a fleet of open-top Land Rovers for camping trips into Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti. The benefits of this were obvious as we shot past the impressively butch ex-military truck of another overland company as it chugged up the hill with the passengers fighting for shoulder-space through one set of windows.
Jack-of-all-roads The crews are surprisingly well trained (especially when you realise that they are also, in general, shockingly underpaid) and in addition to being diplomats, ambassadors, accountants, motivators, social workers and, occasionally, marriage-guidance counsellors, they must also be qualified mechanics and first-aiders too. But the in-depth knowledge of a place is left to the real experts - the locals who join the groups as they pass through a particular area.
Mark Stallwood of Nomadic Expeditions believes in getting the inside picture from local guides, "where we can benefit from their expert cultural and geographical knowledge". First 48 have a full-time Nepali ground manager, based in Kathmandu, who, "as an experienced jungle-guide and safari lodge manager in Nepal's National Parks, is ideal company for the group".
If you imagine the pitfalls of the average solo journey through a remote part of Asia or Africa and then multiply it by about two-dozen, you can understand that any long tour is likely to land some previously un-encountered problem in the lap of even the most experienced coordinator. In the two overland trips that I took last year there was a lost passport, a baboon raid, two cases of giardia, one each of amoebic dysentery and malaria, several of altitude sickness, an epidemic of 'the Quito quickstep' and two animal attacks that demanded first-aid - one from a jellyfish and one from a lion.
Karen Brown, coordinator of my South American trip, reckoned that her army background has stood her in good stead and, together with her boyfriend 'Wild Will' at the helm of the truck, she believes that people-skills are the most important pre-requisite of the job. Karen stresses that she's "not the boss of anyone's holiday" and seems to draw on an almost infinite supply of patience by constantly reminding herself that her passengers may have put all their savings into this once-in-a-lifetime, never-to-be-repeated journey and she's there to ensure that it's as close to the dream as possible.
Like-minded travellers
Flicking through any of the overlanding companies' brochures, you are - almost without exception - promised 'like-minded fellow travellers' to share your experiences with. But is it really the case?
There are usually no age restrictions on who can go but an expedition as tough and demanding as the infamous Trans-Africa is likely to make you wish that you'd put a few extra laps in around the park before you left home.
Overlanding - which has always traditionally been more popular with Aussies and Kiwis - has now earned a truly international appeal with ambassadors from seven nationalities present on one of the tours I took. Apart from trips in the Middle East, where overlanding is a favourite option for female travellers, the sexes are equally balanced, and around half of the passengers have usually joined alone.
Invariably, brochures stress that everyone is fully involved in the day-to-day running of the trip and gets stuck in and works as part of the team. Kumuka have coined the phrase 'participatory tours - where everyone shares the daily tasks'.
Although on some (more expensive) African trips there is often a third crewmember in the form of a local cook, the passengers in groups of two or three usually take turns cooking. Preparing meals for 20-odd hungry travellers over a campfire is actually not nearly as traumatic as it sounds; the crews are usually so used to the system that, unless you choose to take the full responsibility upon yourself, you are often required to be no more than a kitchen porter.
To get the most out of an overland trip you have to be prepared to travel as part of the group and enjoy overlanding as an experience in itself. But if you're not entirely convinced that you're going to hit it off with complete strangers, if there's enough of you it is possible to take over the whole truck. Many overland companies have had experiences of month-long private birthday parties, group honeymoons and even divorce celebrations.
Jumping ship Group size may be anywhere between six and 24, but it's worth bearing in mind that most overland trips and companies only run trips at or close to full capacity and things can get claustrophobic and personalities can clash. But passengers naturally tend to gravitate into small, like-minded groups of around two or three, and even on the popular Inca Trail, I spent many happy hours dawdling along on my own snapping photographs.
Although you may be loathe to squander your hard-earned cash by deserting the truck altogether when you fall in love with a palm-fringed beach or see a peak that demands your attention, the freedom to sign off from the truck for a couple of days and meet up again further along the route, is always an option.
There is often scope to further tailor the already incredible range of itineraries to your needs by joining only for a certain stretch of the tour and most operators will be happy to discuss this possibility. Some companies have taken this concept to even further extremes by running frequent services so that you can jump off anywhere along the route, spend some time on your own and then join up with the next truck to pass.
This is a good way to slow the pace of your trip up if the road-hours begin to get a bit too much.
Camping or hotels? The first way that an operator can try to keep its prices low is to limit the number of nights in hotels: the second is to cut down on the quality of those hotels. Nevertheless, even the lodgings that the cheaper overland companies use are, in my experience, a cut above the usual backpackers hangouts that you find in the backstreets of Lima or Nairobi.
Some of the greatest memories of an overlanding trip are of boozy evenings huddled around a blazing campfire (known as the 'bush telly'), or of balmy nights under the stars on a tropical beach. Overlanding crews are constantly exploring exotic corners of the world and are often forced by incumbent weather or political strife to veer off their planned course and head for previously uncharted overlanding territory. The overlanding community are a close bunch and pass the word amongst themselves on a grapevine that invariably carries a list of near-paradisiacal camping spots that would elude even the most determined of lone travellers. Easy access to these 'secret spots' and a sense of safety-in-numbers are two more benefits that overlanding holds over independent free-camping.
All the camp-based operators supply roomy, insect-proof two-man tents, but you usually supply your own sleeping bag and mat. Since I was also going to be travelling independently in Southern Africa after the trip, I carried my free-standing mosi-net and found that it offered the much-appreciated opportunity to sleep out under the stars - although a lion prowling the outskirts of our camp in the Serengeti was more than enough to make me wish I had opted for the 'security' of a tent and another companion who would hopefully offer a more tempting meal than me; I made a mental note to bunk up with someone with a bit of meat on them on future trips!
Eco-landing Overland companies travelling through the same areas have a vested interest in keeping the communities and landscapes along their route as unspoiled as possible and this is often a greater incentive than any high moral aims.
"THE TRADITIONAL CONCEPT OF THE ULTIMATE OVERLANDING VEHICLE LAY SOMEWHERE BETWEEN A POST-APOCALYPTIC MAD MAX PEOPLE-MOVER AND THUNDERBIRD 3"
The World Bank estimates that as little as 10% of tourist expenditure worldwide actually ends up in the country of destination, but a study by Greenwich University showed that the figure for overlanding operations was as high as 56%.
Dragoman seem to be way ahead of the overlanding eco-game, with almost all of their African expeditions and many of their Latin American tours embracing at least one local community project en route - ranging from reforesting Peruvian hillsides to building schoolrooms in Uganda. Cath Urquhart, Travel Editor of The Times, was impressed with Dragoman's 'Responsible Tourism Policy' and confirmed that "the trip was set up so that our money went straight into the local economy wherever possible, directly benefiting the people we were meeting".
Low-impact tourism is an unlikely concept at the best of times but large numbers of people travelling through remote and unspoiled regions are sure to leave some sort of mark on the local inhabitants. Check that the overland company that you choose to travel with adheres to the guidelines of an organisation like CERT (Campaign for Environmentally Responsible Tourism), Survival for Tribal Peoples or Eye on the Wild to ensure the most positive and least damaging methods of tourism.
However, despite the brochure promises, it is disconcerting (or, in tinder-dry bushveld, downright nerve-racking) to see a steady chain of cigarette butts sailing out of the cab window - and some travellers who could benefit from some words of advice on such things as respectful dress-code in rural towns and photographic etiquette.
Blazing trails
Amongst overlanding parties there has always been a sort of bravado about driving the first truck into a country that has been newly removed from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's list of countries it advises against visiting. Oasis Overland's co-director, Steve Crowhurst told me a story from the early days of overlanding when they launched a successful rescue mission in the Congo rainforest to liberate two trucks that had been commandeered by the Zaire Liberation Army. "You've been where and done what?" said the incredulous staff of the British Embassy when they'd finally rattled triumphantly into the Angolan capital.
Though that sort of intrepidity still exists, operators these days are anxious to avoid the sort of old-time 'thrills' that are potentially life-threatening to their passengers. At the time of writing, First 48 were flying their passengers over Pakistan rather than travelling overland, but director Ralph Foulds was already looking forward to the next full ground trip: "Obviously, the current situation in Afghanistan has an effect on tourism throughout the rest of the region but we hope to be able to start taking groups through Pakistan again later this year."
Far from sticking rigidly to the itinerary, Nomadic Expeditions regard the need to "make spur of the moment decisions about routes and freedom to spend extra time to take in unexpected events or experiences" as a central tenet to their own ethics of overlanding.
Exodus advise potential overlanders that "the unexpected is all part of the experience, and if you want your travel cut-and-dried, we suggest you look elsewhere!" Oasis issue the challenge: "Things will not always go according to plan, so if you are not prepared for this and want to be pampered on your holiday then maybe you should think again."
Operators of the legendary Trans-Africa habitually advise their passengers to allow a leeway of one clear month at the end of the trip; even if some Liberation army doesn't steal the truck you really can't predict what (mis-)adventures you'll experience on a 29-week journey across 23 African countries.
Adventures on an overlanding trip are there in plentiful measures and it may just be that an overlanding trip is still one of the best ways to cram a lot of fantastic experiences into a relatively short period of time, leaving you with plenty of stories to tell the grandchildren! So get packing and enjoy the ride
Resources
www.go-overland.com is a good first stop when planning an overland trip. There is a directory of operators, showing the countries they cover, and a whole wealth of background material on commercial and independent overlanding.
The world's top ten overlanding trips
'Trans Africa Expedition' - London to Cape Town (29 weeks - £2,415)
The blurb: "The Trans is a true expedition. Discover an Africa most travellers only dream of and meet people you would never otherwise encounter. From the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, through the intense midday heat of the Sahara, the oldest cultures and palm-fringed beaches of West Africa, to the dense jungles of Central Africa and the wildlife of East Africa, you will have had the experience of a lifetime."
Highlights: Rift Mountains; Fez; Casablanca; Todra Gorge; Marrakech; Sahara Desert; Parc d'Arguin; Dogon villages; stilted village in Lake Nakoue; Lagos; Lobe Falls; Mount Cameroon; Ndjemena; White Nile River; Blue Nile Falls; rock-hewn churches of Lalibela; source of the Nile; mountain gorillas; QEII NP; white-water rafting on the Nile; Lakes Naivasha & Nakuru; Masai village; Ngorongoro Crater; Serengeti NP; Zanzibar; Lake Malawi; Harare; Chimanimani NP; Great Zimbabwe Ruins; horse-(or elephant-)safari at Kwe Kwe; rhino-tracking at Motobo NP; Victoria Falls; river-boarding the Zambezi; dug-out safari in Okavango Delta; Windhoek; Etosha NP; Cheetah sanctuary; Skeleton Coast; Cape Cross seal colony; shark-fishing, quad-biking and dune-sledding near Swakopmund; world's highest dunes at Namin-Naukluft Park; Fish River Canyon; Cape vineyards; Cape Town.
"SOME OF THE GREATEST MEMORIES OF AN OVERLANDING TRIP ARE OF PLEASANT, BOOZY EVENINGS HUDDLED AROUND A BLAZING CAMPFIRE"
'Asia Overland' - London to Kathmandu (18 weeks - £1,800)
Company: First 48 (www.first48.com / tel: 0700 4 238368)
The blurb: "Take a ride on this, the classic Asian overland route. Spend 18 weeks visiting 15 countries, each with its own unique culture and history. Pass from west to east, through an ever-changing array of beautiful landscapes and fascinating sites on this journey of a lifetime."
Departures: August & March
Destinations: France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon (optional day-trip), Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal. (NB. At the time of writing First 48 were by-passing Pakistan by flying groups directly from Iran to India and finishing the expedition with vehicles based in India).
Highlights: Galipolli war memorials; Troy; beaches of southern Turkey; Cappadocia; Crac des Chevaliers crusader castle; Dead Sea; city of Petra; camel ride at Wadi Rum; city of Esfahan; Persepolis ruins; mud city of Bamidi, Khyber Pass, Karakorum Mountains (glacier walks); jeep-trip to Khunjerab Pass (Chinese border); cycling through Bharatapur Bird Sanctuary; Golden Temple at Amritsar; Taj Mahal; erotic temples at Khajuraho; sunrise boat-ride down the Ganges; Chitwan National Park (elephant ride, boat-trip, jeep safari or jungle-walk)
'Trans Africa West' - Casablanca to Accra (10 weeks - £1,957)
The blurb: "An expedition full of fascinating contrasts. We meet Berber and Arabic cultures in Morocco and the Moors in Mauritania. The road conditions in Mauritania and Senegal are sometimes poor and in the Sahara desert we have to work hard to keep the truck moving through the soft sand. From the Atlantic Coast we head into the heart of West Africa and on to the Gulf of Guinea. A real discovery of different cultures and their traditions: from vibrant Senegal, to traditional Mali, the music of Burkina Faso to the incredible warmth of Ghana and its peoples. It's all there, just waiting to be discovered."
The blurb: "A trip right across Tibet, including an extended stay in Lhasa, and then on to some of the most exciting places in China - the great grasslands, the mountains and forests of Sichuan and Yunnan, with many fascinating sights along the way. We'll see minority peoples in Dali, the dramatic Tiger Leaping Gorge, pandas at Chengdu and the weird Stone Forest at Kunming. Altogether, an outstanding trip."
Departures: May, June, & July
Destinations: Tibet, China.
Highlights: Kathmandu; Himalayas; Everest's North Face; Gyangtse; Scorpion Lake; Lhasa; Kun Lun Mountains; Xining; Labrang Monastery; the Great Grasslands; peaks and lakes of Jiuzhaigou; Chengdu; Yunnan; Lijiang; Tiger Leaping Gorge; Dali; Kunming Stone Forest; Guangzhou; Hong Kong.
Trans Amazonia - Rio to Caracas (Six/seven weeks - £1,614)
The blurb: "Your voyage up the Amazon takes four days from the mouth at Belem to the jungle city of Manaus, where there is the option to take a three day jungle trek. This trip, however, takes in much more than the Amazon; you will beach-hop along miles of the Brazilian coastline and visit the carnival city of Salvador, where you will discover that the Brazilians are among the most vibrant people in South America. The adventure continues into Venezuela, with the chance to explore the Grand Sabana and to visit the remarkable Angel Falls."
Departures: Periodically throughout the year
Destinations: Brazil, Venezuela
Highlights: Rio de Janeiro; Teresopolis NP; Colonial Ouro Preto goldmine; Porto Seguro beaches (plus diving/snorkelling); Reserva Jaqueira community project; Salvador de Bahia; Olinda; Praia da Pipa beaches (dolphin trip/dune buggies); Ubajara NP; Sete Citades NP; Belem; four-day Amazon voyage; three-day jungle trek near Manaus; Gran Sabana Plateau; Ciudad Bolivar; trekking in Canaima NP; Angel Falls; Caracas.
'Middle East Overland' - Istanbul to Cairo (Five weeks - £1,210)
The blurb: "A comprehensive trip giving an excellent insight into this fascinating and rewarding region. In many parts of the Middle East, the culture and lifestyle remain unchanged - the people and architecture are almost like portholes through which we can glimpse something of the ancient world."
Highlights: Gallipoli; Troy; Ephesus; Kerkova Island; Cappadocia; Aleppo; Crac des Chevaliers; Palmyra; Damascus; Beirut; Jerash; Amman; Dead Sea; Petra; Wadi Rum; Aqaba; Dahab; Mount Sinai; Cairo; Pyramids & Sphinx; Western Desert; Hurghada; Luxor; Valley of the Kings; Aswan; Nile felucca trip; Edfu; Abu Simbal; Philae.
'Andes & Amazon' - Quito to La Paz (Five weeks - £1,007)
The blurb: "An action-packed adventure through some of the most diverse landscapes in South America. In Ecuador we explore the dense Amazon jungle, spectacular volcanoes and colourful cultural markets. We follow the Pacific coast through the immense deserts of Northern Peru to the ancient city of Cusco and trek in the footsteps of the Incas to the mysterious ruins of Machu Picchu."
Departures: Periodically between March & November
Destinations: Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia
Highlights: Quito; Otavalo Indian market; trekking/rafting in Amazon Jungle; horse-riding/mountain biking in Ba𮱻 Cuenca; Huanchaco; Chan Chan ruins; Lima; Paracas Natural Reserve; Ballestas Islands sea-lion colony; flight over Nazca Lines; colonial town of Arequipa; condor-spotting at Colca Canyon; Cusco; 4-day Inca Trail trek to Machu Picchu; local 'home-stay' on Lake Titicaca; La Paz.
"IN THE TWO OVERLAND TRIPS THAT I TOOK LAST YEAR THERE WAS A LOST PASSPORT, A BABOON RAID, TWO CASES OF GIARDIA, ONE EACH OF AMOEBIC DYSENTRY AND MALARIA, SEVERAL OF ALTITUDE SICKNESS, AN EPIDEMIC OF 'THE QUITO QUICKSTEP' AND TWO ANIMAL ATTACKS THAT DEMANDED FIRST-AID - ONE FROM A JELLYFISH AND ONE FROM A LION."
'Sombrero' - Central America (Four weeks - £1,207)
Company: Tucan Travel (www.tucantravel.com)
The blurb: "A wonderful journey through these fascinating countries, taking in incredible landscapes and a mixture of ancient and modern cultures. The variety is simply astounding. Our 'Discovery Tours' represent a different (and unique) 'overlanding' concept centred on our very own Mercedes Benz coaches, specially designed and constructed with your comfort in mind. Rather than camping, accommodation is in small, secure, centrally-located hotels and guesthouses."
Highlights: Mexico City; Veracruz; Lake Catemaco; Sumidero Canyon; San Crist indigenous villages; Lacandloud Forest; swim in Agua Azul waterfalls; Palenque Mayan ruins; walled city of Campeche; Uxmal Mayan ruins; Chich謠Itz�Cancun beach; Isla Mujeres; Tulum ruins; Belize City; snorkelling on Caye Caulker; canoeing near jungle outpost of San Ignacio; Lake Peten Itz�Tikal ruins; boat ride to L쵩ngston; town and ruins of Cop old colonial town of Antigua.
'Rocky Mountain High' - USA (Three weeks - from £837)
Company: Trek America (www.trekamerica.com / tel: 0870 444 8735)
The blurb: "This unique tour traverses three distinct regions of the West to create an incredible combination of beautiful mountains, national parks, cowboy country, Indian lands, desert lakes and cities. With a week each in the Cascades/Northern Rockies area, the Colorado Rockies and the Desert Southwest, this is the complete western experience - Rocky Mountain style!"
Departures: May to September
Destinations: USA
Highlights: Seattle; Mt Rainier NP; Snake River; Yellowstone NP; Grand Teton NP; Jackson; Rocky Mountain NP; Denver; Ouray gold-rush town; Arkansas River; white-water rafting near Black Canyon; Mesa Verde NP (Anasazi cliff dwellings); horse-riding in Monument Valley; Grand Canyon; Lake Powell; Zion NP; Las Vegas; Los Angeles.
'African Adventure Safaris' - South Africa & Botswana (13 days - from £990, based on four people per vehicle)
Company: Africa Unlimited Safaris (www.africansafaris.co.za / tel:+27 11 976 3486
The blurb: "Explore Southern Africa as never before! Join our guided self-drive safaris in the comfort of your own, rented, four wheel-drive camper. Travel safely off the beaten track in convoy, together with fellow tourists, whilst your competent guide leads the way in his fully equipped 4x4. These adventure safaris offer you the freedom and privacy unusual to group tours, with the added benefit of a professional guide who is intimately familiar with the country, its surroundings and its people." Departures: Year round
Destinations: South Africa, Botswana
Highlights: Johannesburg; Warmbaths Game Farm; Francistown; Nxai Pan NP; Okavango Delta; Moremi Game Reserve; Chobe NP; Victoria Falls (rafting, bungy etc); Makgadigadi Pans; Johannesburg.
Notes:
Most overland companies add a supplementary 'local payment' or 'food kitty' to their tour price - these have been included in the above quotes. Though optional highlights may be listed the supplementary charges have NOT been included above. Prices may vary with seasons.
It's fair to say that I've done a lot of travelling recently: I've toured the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti Plains in a Land Rover; I've crossed Andean passes and crocodile-infested African rivers on horses; I've slept in a Masai manyatta in Kenya and an adobe pueblo on Lake Titicaca; I've walked the Inca Trail and I've climbed Mount Kilimanjaro; I've watched the sun rise over Great Zimbabwe Ruins and over Machu Picchu; I've plummeted off Vic Falls Bridge on a bungee jump, and I've swung through the Amazonian jungle on a fifty-foot liana; I've river-boarded down the Zambezi and I've surfed on Peru's Pacific Coast; I've eaten guinea pigs in Ecuador and fried mopane worms in Botswana. I've also been stung by a box jellyfish in the Mozambique Channel and kicked by a llama in an Andean meadow.
So, for anyone who thinks that overlanding is all about being cooped up in a rickety old truck with only the same old passengers and a good book to save you from insanity, think again. If you plan your journey carefully, overlanding could just work out to be the trip of a lifetime.
Although still not recognised by my computer's spell-check, the word 'overlanding' became a firm fixture of travel-lore in the late sixties and was originally coined to describe a group of people - ranging from a convoy to a single vehicle - who drove across the forbidden wastes of Africa or Asia.
Many a time-strapped traveller opts for the company that can offer them the most sights in the least time. But with overlanding this is not always the wisest choice, as it means that you've got to cover more ground each day, which can result in long stints in the truck and a very sore bum. Jason 'Doc' Boland is currently on the third part of a 25,000-mile, eight-month overlanding marathon - with three consecutive trips placed end-to-end (Mexico-Panama, Quito-Rio, Rio-Caracas). He'd deliberately chosen companies that travelled the same distance over a longer period of time, the theory being that you see more of the places you travel through and you won't spend so long each day cooped up in the truck.
When budgeting for an overland trip, don't always take the brochure price on face value. Most overland companies allow their passengers some extra degree of control over the cost of their trip (and make the advertised figure look good) by having a supplementary list of "optional excursions". These options, however, are usually the absolute highlights of the trip and without them the standard tour may be a disappointment. And after all, on a once-in-a-lifetime trip why miss out on the sights that drew you there in the first place?
In drinking dens from Arequipa to Zanzibar veteran drivers can be heard holding interminable debates over who has the best box-layout/engine-type/sound-system. And even among the passengers the debate is heated; there are those who favour open-topped boxes whilst others say they are too noisy, cold and dusty. On the other side of the fence are those that prefer a sealed, air-conditioned cocoon that some people find to be too restrictive and difficult to take photos from. Traditional in-line coach seats are most popular but Exodus - who have been improving their truck designs for over 25 years and claim to have the newest fleet in the world - boast "a mixture of forward, inward and backward facing seats, so you don't spend your time looking at the back of someone's head".
The crews are surprisingly well trained (especially when you realise that they are also, in general, shockingly underpaid) and in addition to being diplomats, ambassadors, accountants, motivators, social workers and, occasionally, marriage-guidance counsellors, they must also be qualified mechanics and first-aiders too. But the in-depth knowledge of a place is left to the real experts - the locals who join the groups as they pass through a particular area.
Group size may be anywhere between six and 24, but it's worth bearing in mind that most overland trips and companies only run trips at or close to full capacity and things can get claustrophobic and personalities can clash. But passengers naturally tend to gravitate into small, like-minded groups of around two or three, and even on the popular Inca Trail, I spent many happy hours dawdling along on my own snapping photographs.
