Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Overlanding Africa: Countries, Cultures, and Insights with Expedition Rove

Transcript

Overlanding Africa: Countries, Cultures, and Insights with Expedition Rove · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Scott Brady, and I'm here with my illustrious co host
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Matt Scott.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: I am here, yes, which we.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Are very excited to be at the Big Thing at
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the ex Overland Ranch here in Montana, one of the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: most beautiful properties we've ever been at an event at
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: and this is just it's a thrill to see it
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: come to life. It's a thrill to see the team
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: at the collective pull together such an incredible opportunity for
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Overlanders to come together and be inspired, learn and grow together.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: But for our first podcast that we've got here at
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the Big Thing, we have Mary, Hannah and Andy and
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: you guys have an incredible story to tell about crossing Africa,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: but we thought we would break it up a little
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: bit and we would talk about your recent experience with
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: the new land Rover Defender. I wasn't able to go
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: on that one and you were able to, which ended
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: up being amazing. So give us, give us your impressions
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: of that new vehicle.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: And a special thanks to Tredder for their support of
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: this week's podcast. One of the age old problems of
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: vehicle dependent adventure travel is something that you probably don't
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: think of very often, and that's insurance. If you've put
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: a lot of money into your truck, chances are that
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: those modifications aren't covered by your current carrier. But now
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: there's Tredder. They fill in the gap between what your
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: car insurance company thinks your truck is worth and what
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: it is actually worth to you. You don't have to
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: switch your carrier, and you can use regular insurers that
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: provide the stock stuff while Tredder insures the cool gear.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Head to treader dot com and check out their easy
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: five minute quote process to see if Tredder is the
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: solution for you. Again, that's treader dot com, t R
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: e dd Er dot com, thank you again for.
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: The support so candidly. When the Defender twenty twenty came out,
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: I was a little crushed, right Defender OG Defender owner.
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: I've always loved the old school look, feel, shape in
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: what the brand stands for, and I think that weekend
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: changed it for me in a lot of ways. I
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: feel like the heart and soul of the land Rover
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: brand is coming back around with the Octa, which gets
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: me pretty excited. With the announcement of the Defender Trophy.
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: Obviously that coming back around. We've talked about it for
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: years of like why is there not still a Camel
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: Trophy inspired event, and so just seeing that whole side
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: of things coming back to life. But then also to
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: get behind the wheel of that, that was the first
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: time I've ever actually driven any of the newer Defenders
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: so twenty twenty onwards, that's the first time and I
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: actually felt kind of the heart and soul of the
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: vehicle and felt that limitless power. Okay, where do I
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: want to go in the world now? There's obviously also
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: the caveat of One of the journalists asked me at
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: the end of it, would you take that across Africa?
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: And like, potentially, yeah, but there's also a lot of
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: risks with something that has so much technology in it,
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: with any vehicle that's out there right now. So the
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: driveability incredible. I've never been in anything like that behind
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: the wheel that just feels like a race vehicle first
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: and foremost, So that was a little bit mind blowing
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: to me. I got to do some hot lapse with
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: some professional drivers and stuff and got behind the wheel
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: for a couple of days.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: So yeah, you were with Sean Gorman for part of that,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and he's a great driver one of ours, yeah, one
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: of our contributors to Overland Journal and on the podcast
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: a couple of times. It's interesting to draw the parallels
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: between the original Defender and the new Defender. In my experience,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: huge improvement in performance because I have an older Defender
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: and despite it is its incredible charm is it can
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: go half as fast and literally half as technical a
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: terrain in stock form the new Octa can. I think
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: the new Octa probably has four times more horsepower than
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: my Defender. I will just like your Defender, it might
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: not start. I don't know my Defend other than a
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: dead battery. Okay, the dead battery. It started every single time.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: And that's I think the difference is the original Defender
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: is something Andy, you and I have worked on our
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: own vehicles and we get them back running again, and
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: so there's a lot of confidence in the ability to
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: field service a classic Defender, whereas the new one we
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: just have to always be mindful of are you taking
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: it to an area where you'll have limited technical support
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: in the service of a new Defender, so oh.
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: Capable of doing some of those job yourself if you
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: are going to go. That makes sure you've got a
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: good computer and saw things just capable of Kingsley took
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: case from Cape Town to the top of Norway. I
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: did drive that Defender have to jumped on the sund June,
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: so that fell a little bit looser than maybe a
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: un new one. But I've not actually had an time
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: and then you defended out will actually live to drive
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: them for a week.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: I think that they're really like, they're really nice. I
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: like the interior of the new Defender When I sit
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: in it, just like in the old Defender. You take
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: your phone and what's in your pockets and you have
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: a place to throw it in the dash. I think
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: that's really great. And it's also one of the more
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: enjoyable vehicles to drive off road. Yep. Andy and I
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: were talking to the car like it's a vehicle that
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: you can be on two wheels, crossacks, all articulation and
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: land Rover is so great with their throttle break and
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: steering inputs for off road. You can move the thing
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: like by the millimeter. Really crazy what you can do
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: with it. I want to love it so much, Like
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: every time I get in one, I'm like I should
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: buy one of these.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the number of times you have, the number of
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: times I've built one on their site.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. And then but then I talk to friends
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: who have bought them and then six months later sell
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: them because they have issues. And I think it's important
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: to say that we love the car who we are.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: And we love the brand. I'm such a fan of
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Land same, so I just love it if they.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Question with this octave, they're now taking a vehicle and
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: making it more complicated.
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: And also more capable.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: More capable for sure, for sure, but it almost the
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Land of a brand for me needs to go back
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: to the fundamentals. They always try to push a little
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: too far. I think that's what they've always done.
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: If you look at Discovery three and La Free in
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: two thousand and five and they came out with the
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: terrain response, No, no other brand can touch that. But
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: that's also part of the problem is they're always ahead
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: with the technology. Yeah, but as British people, we don't
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: have the best look when it comes to electronics like
• 6:38
  Speaker 5: use toyotas normally, like I don't know, fifteen years behind
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: with the terrain response or where, Yeah, because it always works,
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: just protecting it and keeping it well, like I think
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: maybe it's time for Landrover to just let's let other
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: people catch up and try and get better at being
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: more reliably.
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: I appreciate the innovation though, you know, and I think
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: they're putting their money where they their mouth is with
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: the octave. Entering into Dakar is a huge thing, and
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: having Sarah Price racing and that's huge. I guess it's
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: only a test of time to see how the thing
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: does and see, my biggest thing is I want to
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: see somebody go do a long term trip in it.
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: I want to see how it performs over and one.
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: Thing I will say as well, because Landrover does have
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: a bad rep. I've only been left strandard three times
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: in the whole time, so I've had Landrover. I paid
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: three thousand dollars for that l afree.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: I you're telling you like how much it's such good value? Yea.
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: I drove that to the bottom of Argentina. It only
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: let me down once, which just meant a wait for
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: an air compressor. And most people won't even do a
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: trip like that on their suspension. But it's got over
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: two hundred and twenty thousand miles on it. The whole
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: Africa trip, which was forty five thousand miles. That only
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: I only got let down once on that trip.
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: That was due to output shaft.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, aftermarket par I love talking to land Rover people
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: because they're always like, it only let me down this
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: as we're talking, you're a defender with a blown.
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: I sat on the Africa trip. I didn't say it
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: with American diesel.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah.
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: Any big trip right in those amount of miles, no
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: matter what vehicle you take, you're going to have a breakdown.
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: And anybody that tells you otherwise either hasn't gone far.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Enough, or is in a or they bought, or they're
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: in a lankrus.
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: Like Leasta and Jason for instance, they've been stuck in
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: Arizona for the last three weeks. And that's howigh looks.
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, yeah, But anyway, I'm not trying to say
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: the Landrov was more reliable, and I'm not going to
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: try and persuade you to buy one. A Landrov is
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: one of those things that, well, it's working magic when
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: you park it up and walk away from even a
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: turn around and look back at it while it's parts.
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: Like it's romantic.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there is a level of romance and there's a
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: sense of occasion to land rovers. I do think any
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: of us is doing pretty well at that, like they're
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: striking the balance.
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So prefer the interior of that actor though, Oh.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. But it's also they're what one hundred
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: and sixty nineties under ninety. I can't wait to buy
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: that for twelve dollars and a ham sandwich in five years.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: That's going to be great. And on that bombshell.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: On that note, should we shift to driving landovers up there? Yeah?
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: So specifically the west coast of Africa, I think is
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: what we're going to talk about on this trip. So
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: you guys shipped into South Africa. You drove all the
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: way to Kenya, which is obviously the east coast of
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Africa kind of the more traditional route totally, and Sudan
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: happened and they went into a whole civil uprising. So
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: you guys turned around pretty much went all the way
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: back south, yeah, and then started heading up the west coast.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: And the West coast of Africa to me is like
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: this incredibly romantic adventure because it's different, it's challenging, there's
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: all of the elements of these good overland trips, there's
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: a little bit of danger, there's a little bit of
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: you just don't actually know what.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: The geopolitical uncertainty.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Like Southern Africa is amazing, it's beautiful, but extent.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: You know what you're getting. You're getting the zebras and
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: the lions and the lodges and whatever where the West
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Coast of Africa you go through a lot of that
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: and then you end up in like the desert and
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: you have it's an absolute crazy trip. Like I think
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: it's probably the most in terms of travel. I would
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: say it's the most challenging overland route.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: That has been the general consensus by people who have
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: done it. Graham Bell and Luisa they said that. Dan
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Grek said that pretty much anyone that I've heard do
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: West Coast as it becomes it's twenty Central America's stacked
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: on top of each other, and then you go through
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: like this, there's this huge change happening in that whole region.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Like Nigeria is growing at a phenomenal rate. I want
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: to say it's projected to be one of the largest
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: population centers, the largest cities in the world. Is that's
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: it's the most populous country in Africa over two hundred
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: million people.
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: Huge. I'm not sure how many people are there, but
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: that was I think he's actually it's all in the
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: capital there. It was there's no one until you got
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: to them.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, So let's start from the Meibia because that's
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: really after you guys went to Kenya and back up here.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: We are here, we are here, we.
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: Are at the embry at this point is probably nine
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: months in Africa.
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so we yeah, nine months and then we any
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: highlights from the East coast.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: That you'd want to share.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: I think South Africa definitely captured our hearts in a
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: lot of ways. We've been through quite a few countries.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: But that was so easy to fall in love with.
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: It's incredible. It's the only place other than the US
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: or England that we've ever been like, we could plant
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: roots here, we could.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: See ourselves, we could absolutely live there.
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: And the community, the overland community is awesome there. Okaboga
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: Delta was pretty awesome. I would say those too.
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: I really need to go to go and if anyone's
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: listening that's never actually been to Africa, just in general,
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: you need to at least do two weeks in Africa.
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: Just go out there and rent a vehicle and see
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: Africa for yourself and see the wildlife and seeing it
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: on TV. It's nice, I think, see elephants around your
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: vehicle two o'clock lawn and all like a spiritual experience
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: is and it will really capture you and you will
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: be going back to Africa again after you've been one.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: I think that people are a little apprehensive of going
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: to Africa. There's been this kind of savior syndrome of
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Africa and American culture for a long time of oh
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: we have to there's missionaries and all this stuff going over.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Oh we've got to help it. And then you think
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: that it's this kind of like dark, dreary, backwoods place
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: when they called it the Dark Continent. So people have
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: this idea that it's foreboding a little bit, yeah, a
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: little foreboding. But I remember the first time exactly, it
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: was just so crazy when people are everybody's smiling, everybody's happy,
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: everybody's so nice. I always found when I go there,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: it takes a little bit to adjust because an American society,
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: I'm a little bit more stand offish. If somebody comes
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: up to me, probably trying to sell me something or
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: they're trying to like that's not the case that happens everywhere,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: but it's a little bit more insular and people are
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: just so friendly and so nice.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: There great food, great overlanding infrastructure. You can get a
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: seventy series, you can get an Ineos, you can get
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: a high Luck, get a Defender, Classic Defender. There's dealers
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: in Johannesburg, chalk full of Classic Defenders. You can take
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: your pick. You want to one ten, you want to
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: one thirty, you want a TV five, you want.
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: To And there's good mechanic shops down Yeah. Which is
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: another thing I'd recommend is coming from say America or
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: the UK or somewhere like where the garages are going
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: to be more expensive. If you plan in on getting
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: your vehicle ready to cross Africa or do a nice
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: big loop in Africa or whatever it's going to be,
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: just ship your vehicle down there and then send it
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: to a gateway fall by far off somewhere out in
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: South Africa.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: And where are they at in South Africa? Where's the
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: wine place?
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: Stelling Bush?
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh geez, would be such a nice place to
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: be beautiful.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: You could stay at a winery and get your car
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: done for less money than having it done in the US.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: I think there's a lot people are like, oh, I
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: wish I could afford that, And yeah, you can do Africa.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: There's an Africa for everybody, right, there's the private jet
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Safari whatever, Africa.
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: My first trip to Africa will free. Just join them.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Where you stationed in Africa.
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: We've got a big base in Kenya and Kenya nice. Yeah,
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: so just Nia and a new Ki and that's cool.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: But you can do a trip to Africa, like if
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: you're of the means where you're planning a family vacation
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: for a week to Europe or even some of these resorts.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Resort destinations these days, particularly like South Africa, is aggressively affordable. Yeah,
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: and I hope that you get inspired by the things
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: we're going to talk about after this. But you can
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: do it. You can. Surprisingly, you're not going to find
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: a two in a dollar flight there where you can
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: find flights in economy for eight hundred, nine hundred one
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars from the United States, it's easy to fly
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: from Europe and instead of looking at the three dollars
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: night two in earll night hotels, you're looking at fifty
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: seventy five, one hundred easy, there's fantastic lodges. You've done
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: a lot of Airbnb and then also obviously we camp
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: right Yeah, so there's a lots of camping. There's a
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: lot of great campgrounds. There's a lot of great areas
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: for camping. You do find yourself in more campgrounds because
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: there's things.
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: That you can actually hurt you out there.
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: But it's just like these guys have been doing oval
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: and since way before it was a cool yeah in
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: North America like that, family hollidays are all the oval
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: On trips. The camp size are with nice bride fails.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: The campsites are so great and sometimes you'll get the
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: camp sits to leave and have a little kitchen in
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: a bathroom.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Totally.
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: There's so many rental companies down there as well of
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: a lot of people think, oh, it's so overwhelming to
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: ship my vehicle across the world. I was amazed by
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: how many companies down there.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Bushlore, there's Overlanding with Bruce, a bunch of them that
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: you can just rent Highlex or rent a seventy series
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: or we did tackle Ro Safari and those are outfitted
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: in consultation with Paul marsh. Yeah, they were phenomenal. There
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: was that out of vent Hook, that was out of Venduk.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think they're also they have a South African location,
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: but you can go there and you can get completely
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: outfitted vehicles. That's maybe the last thing I would add
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: is down to the cutlery place, cups, the fridge, everything.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: You can literally fly in with your suitcase and have
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: an amazing adventure. And there are some Maybe if you're
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: worried about safety Johannesburg at night, okay, just don't walk
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: down random streets. I just stick to the base.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Anything you wouldn't do in Saint Louis, don't do it
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: in Johannesburg.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, But the rest of it, I've never felt unsafe.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: No ones, no no ones. So let's go back to Namibia.
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: Let's go back to it.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Let's just start from vent Hook. Did you guys go
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: through vind Hook? Ye?
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah. We spent what probably a week and a half
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: to two weeks there. Try it a little bit. Yeah.
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: We found a cool little campsite like German little restaurants
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: that allowed camping and we were there for two weeks.
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: We'd pop into town each day checking on our visas
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: and trying to.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: You're getting your DRC views, so there news to.
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: Get all everything sorted there. Yeah, we had Nigeria, we
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: got sorted their DRC and I believe there's one more
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: I want to say, Congo. This is going back two years.
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: I'm having to go way in the archive right now.
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: But yeah, there was three that we had to get
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: sorted in town and then the rest you had to
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: get sorted as you as you go up.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so from Vintech, like, what route did you guys take?
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Did you go the coast Skelton Coast up? Did you
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: go up through Atosha like world?
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we actually had it straight back through Atosha and
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: then cross the border, cross over the Orange River and
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: you go into Angola. And I think once we crossed
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: the border into Angola, you feel like okay, the West
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: coast and was a little.
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: Bit more while and up until that point we've been
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: using an app called Tracks for Africa and it's been
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: really really accurate. You have a good idea, like you
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: feel said what sort of gravel road You're like, yeah,
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: we can do fifty.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: Miles an hour on there or whatever.
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: We of the border in Angola, we were driving for
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: about maybe twenty minutes following this Christine Gravel road on
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: the map, and we ended up bogged down for what
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: six hours finding it was.
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: Probably one of the worst like winching breakdown, not breakdown, Yeah,
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: no experiences that we had on the whole trip. And
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: it was on this little road that we were following
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: on Tracks for Africa and we just got so bogged down.
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: We were the heat of the day out there for hours.
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: Just really hot, and I'd say it was.
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: All the way up to there.
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: So the point being when you once you do a
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: cross like into Angola, your Southern Africa experiences has ended.
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: Don't follow those maps anymore. You're on your own, so
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: to say.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: And you think there was a better route, did you
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: find that out?
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: Yeah, because we went back on ourselves and around and
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: then you found it.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: And we actually went back around, followed another Tracks for
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: Africa route that's similar situation. It was horrendous, and we
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: went back again and we camped at the border that night.
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: If you remember, we went back into the customs office
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: and more like we cannot find this route. They were
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: like sleep here tonight and we'll help you guys figure
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: it out tomorrow and so we finally they were like,
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: this is the main one, this is where you need
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: to go, this is where all the big glories and stuff.
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: Sure did that the next day and we were off
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: to the races. But there's no wind took Namibia, Southern Africa.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: It is set up for overlanding. It is set up
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: for camping. There's campsites everywhere, and Gola there is one,
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: maybe two campsites in the entire country. One guy even
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: markets his campsite is the only campsite.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: And then so it's just it's growing in popularity, especially
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: since they just changed the visa fee.
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: It's cheaper to go into Angola. And how just for
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: the fuel, so you may if you are in North Namibia,
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: you may as well go to a little loop.
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I want to say it's sixty cents a gallon
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: or something like that. Wow, all the hummers and the
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: tundras of the world that never made it in the
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: US are all there. I've never seen so many homers.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: That's crazy.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: And a special thanks to Warner home of the Ineos
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Grenadier and the Mercedes Benz Van Center.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Warner.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Whether you're traveling through Canning Country in your sprinter or
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: across continents in your Grenadier Warner has become a trusted
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: stop for serious Overlanders. I have personally serviced my quartermaster
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: at Warner and have seen the work they do to
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: their successful rebel rally competition. Grenadier's Matt Scott has experienced
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Warner too, helping his father in law by a Grenadier
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: from the dealership a few months ago. Warner has become
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: known for supporting travelers in both Grenadiers and sprinters, whether
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: it's outfitting, maintenance or helping with complex expedition buildings. I
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: have seen their team contribute to the community through sponsoring events,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: rebel rally teams, vaical training, and remote technical support. It
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: also helps that Tony Warner is an Overlander himself, so
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: he is committed to fitting high quality components and helping
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: fellow travelers. As a thank you for the podcast listeners,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: they are offering five hundred dollars off a new or
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: used INEOS or sprinter, or ten percent off parts and
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: service up to five hundred bucks. Just tell them you
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: heard about it on the Overland Journal podcast. Thanks again,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Tony and the Warner team for your support of this
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: week's podcast.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: All the v Eights, Yeah Like quite specifically. The Lex
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: four seventy is like the car of Cambodia really and
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: they're all over and like they still have Toyota Plano, Texas.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: On the back of them, but you know where they
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: came from.
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: I love that.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: Oh fascinating. Yeah, So southern Angola was a war zone
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: for a while until maybe it's twenty years ago. Not
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: a lot going on there. A lot of people don't
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: visit there anyway. So did you guys go through through
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: Luanda on the way north through? That's in the city
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: that's like changing like crazy.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: It's run down, to be honest. There's a little bit
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: of an up and coming area, but there's not much
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: to it. We spent I want to say, two days there.
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: We stocked and then.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: Head picks are really expensive.
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: It is quite pricey. Yeah. I remember trying to find
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: a SIM card there because each country we were getting
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: a different SIM card, and I want to say, it
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: was like the equivalent of seventy dollars or something cucku
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: And I was like, that's insane. How bad do we
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: need cellfone service here? And then yeah, we had it
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: up the coast, So we made our way over to
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: the coast there's a beautiful drive, and you do a
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: mix of coastal roots as well as like desert roots.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: And we were booking it pretty fast on that whole
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: West Coast trip, so I think we did the whole
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: thing in about sixty days.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: So that is moving.
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: I want to say, just to give you a bit
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: more on So the first part of the trip from
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: South Africa looping around and open to Kenya, we spent
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: nine months doing that. But by the time we come
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: to going to do with the West Coast, we priced
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: up shipping from Kenya or just.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Driving, and we're like, Benny doesn't really have an effective port.
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: So we were like, by the time you weigh up
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: these prices, why don't we just yes, we're going to
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: drive this fast up the West Coast. Basically what I'm saying,
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: it wasn't like we're going to do zig zagging around
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: and see. Look, it were more than mission of completing it.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: And people don't seem to really stick around when they're
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: doing that route. There's a lot of really cool things there,
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: but it's is it.
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: Is a mission and I actually love that stuff. I
• 23:37
  Speaker 5: love the fact that I'm just pointing towards Yorkshire and
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: I'm just going to keep driving that way every single day,
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: and and like you're seeing all these things out of
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: the window.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: And yeah, we always.
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: Joke if I wasn't on the road with Andy, Andy
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: probably would never stop the car, like he would just
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: keep cruising until he made it all the way back home.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: We would travel very well together and look.
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: Over there, let's go see this.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: Let's go see I think it's only six more hours.
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: We this right. Yeah, So there's a little bit of
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: a balance between the two of those.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: But it's a funny story. Of course we all know
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: it in this room, but for the audience. So when
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: I was in Africa, I was on the east coast
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: like you guys were. In fact, I think we were
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: in Kenya at the same time, and we were trying
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: to figure out do we push through on the east coast.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: I was looking into what kind of security detail could
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: we arrange for Sudan? Was that possible? And I did
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: there is it is possible. But at the end of
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: the day, I just felt it was too much of
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: a risk to the vehicle. Probably not pricey or probably
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: like pricey about eighteen thousand.
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: Bucks, yeah, which is not just for the holiday.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that, but that gives you armed escort through Sudan.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: And then there was the question of can you get
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: a visa? Could we all get a visa? Uh So,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: then I was talking to you guys about maybe us
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: doing it together, the two vehicles up the west coast,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: driveing the ineos and your defender up. And then the time,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the timing was weird because I was a little bit
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: ahead of you guys on that plan and I was
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: trying to get into a DRC visa and I could
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: not get a visa. They weren't issuing visas because of
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: the election. The election was like the tenth of December
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: or something like that, and they just weren't So when
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: did you guys go into the DRC.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: What was your entry date?
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, man, in January.
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: No, it wouldn't have been in January. We finished the
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: trip in May. We did sixty days, so we would
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: have set off. I want to say. It was yeah,
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: early March is where we Yeah, that.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Was that they just weren't issuing visas. They're like, yeah,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: we're having an election. We don't let foreigners come in
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: and they're worried about influencing their elections.
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that would have been awesome. I still
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: have that vision in my head of Theos and Defender
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: making their way back up. It would have been pretty cool.
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: And I think most people that do the West Coast
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: they do light to Boudio because it is known for
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: being a little bit not in some stretches, and we
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: would have happily done it together, like it would have
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: been cool, and there's probably you may have even enjoyed
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: it more if just a little bit of relief. But
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: there was just no one going up there. When by
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: the time we were going up, and it was never
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: our plan to go up, I would dive in in
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: in Zanzibar, and then I got a bit of decompression sickness,
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: so I came out of the chamber and by the
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: time I came out eight hours later, Mariana like, I've
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: decided we're going to go up the West coast of Africa.
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: I never wanted to put that pressure on that. I
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: wanted to come up with her own. You know, I've
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: decided to do itself because it is a little bit
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: more dangerous and I'm like cool sender then so then yeah,
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: so yeah, that our heart before we did set off,
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: But West Africa We were definitely more nervous than going
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: up East Africa, but there was just something pulling us
• 26:44
  Speaker 5: to do trans Africa.
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and just for a bit of context, like this
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: whole Africa thing for us started back in twenty nineteen.
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: We made the decision to go when we were in
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: Colombia on the Pian American trip. We just met another Overlander.
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: We were sitting around a campfire somewhere in the mountains
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: and we're like, this sounds amazing. Let's ship together. I think,
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: bought the Defender that we have now kidded it out,
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: shipped it to South Africa March of twenty twenty, and
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: that same week the lockdown.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: The day well there, yeah, I was in Africa.
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: So it went down there, stayed for five months, and
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: then we decided to ship it back. So this second
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: trip that we did setting off in twenty twenty three
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: was a tip number two. So when the Sudan were
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: kicked off and we made it to Kenya, we had
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: discussed maybe we just stop in Kenya and ship like
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: Andy said, but it felt like we only made it halfway,
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: and so considering this was round two, we probably were
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: not going to make around three. In the next five
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: plus years, we were like, this is our shot. We
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: gotta go and complete the thing, and if it means
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: going up the West Coast, it means going up to
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: the bust coast, and I'm glad we did. That was
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: probably one of the most adventurous routes that we've ever done.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: So we did a big thing.
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: We did a big thing. We did a big thing.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's what an incredible thing. What did you get?
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: A question for the two of you, but Mary, Hannah,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: what were some of the things that you noticed about
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Andy on the West Coast that made you really proud
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: of them?
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: I would say it was an incredibly stressful trip and
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: we were already but you're by yourself, it's hot, there's
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: no grocery stores, there's no camping, there's mechanical troubles whatever,
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: and just continuing to keep a level head through that
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: entire thing. That takes somebody that's very strong. Plus because
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: we were only one vehicle, there's a level of security
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: that he took on that entire trip of making sure
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: that we had good comms with everyone, that we had
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: people watching us, checking with all of his friends that
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: are either private security or former military you're still in
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: the military, to check on updates on routes, tracking the
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: latest things that were happening, and he internalized a lot
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: of that and held that so I didn't have to,
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: which is incredible. So like I was able to continue
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: to be my care free to a certain degree self
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: on that trip, even though he was dealing with the
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: pressure of making sure that we were crossing these countries safely.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes sense.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Andy. How about for you, what were some of the
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: things that you were most proud of Mary Hannah for
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: on that West Coast side, maybe even starting with her
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: decision to do it.
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's just having a partner that comes
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: up with these ideas and it's just let's go and
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: do this. So just the tick in the box from
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: the start, and she did that and then we're going
• 29:37
  Speaker 5: from there.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: It's really cool.
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: It's pretty sweet.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: It's amazing to do it together.
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: Totally. I always say, if you can make it through
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: a long term overland trip, then go ahead, get married,
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: do whatever you want. You'll be You're gonna be fine.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: On the other side, you can travel long term with
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: somebody totally, you can figure a lot of things out.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: It's pretty amazing how Laura has been put up with
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: you and Australia and everything else.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: You're lucky guy, opposite of your, opposite of Andy. He's
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: the duck and it's very calm on top and it's
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: paddling below. I'm the duck flapping and it's mine. But
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: I get over things quite quickly. Yeah, I'm just very
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: boisterous and emotional in the moment. Yea. The Congo, Let's
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: get back to the roots. Our background narrative is the
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: Congo is crazy.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: Oh my goodness.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: I loved another area of the world that is just
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: like growing like crazy. Like Shasa is nineteen million people.
• 30:33
  Speaker 5: Now we saw eighteen million of them.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Side of the road.
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was really busy when we because you crossed
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: in through you go Cabinda and then you crossover and
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: I was actually most impressed there. I think I had
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: it in my head that Congo was going to be
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: like Congo was going to be so hardcore, and it
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: was for whatever reason I had rationalized that of all
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: the places that we were going going.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: It was going to be it was the one that
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: you fix it.
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: DRC. Congo and Nigeria we're going to be the really
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: tough ones. Congo is immaculate roads, even.
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: Just at the border, Like the first minute there, they
• 31:11
  Speaker 5: just came to the vehicle, took our passports off us
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: and just did it all everything and we didn't even
• 31:17
  Speaker 5: stay any vehicles our guests.
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: I got yeah, I got nervous because they took our
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: passports and our carne and everything and we've never been
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: treated like that at a border in Africa before. And
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: they run off and I was like, wait, who are
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: you wait that are you coming back? And then they
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: came back and everything was organized. It was like having
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: a fixer. But they worked for the team there amazing.
• 31:37
  Speaker 5: And then the whole didn't pay them anything.
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was awesome. Didn't ask for anything. And then
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: we were on our Merry way and the road is
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: so smooth, so incredible, not a single pothole in sight.
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: It's overgrown, so you feel like you're going through the
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: jungle in that sense.
• 31:51
  Speaker 5: But the roads, I was just I think the Chinese
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: have just laid like a thousand miles worth of Christine tarmac.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: They continue to do that.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: And the DRC. You went into Cabinda, which I would
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: avoid Conchasa.
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: Right, yeah, yeah, to do that, Yeah.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: What was the reason to avoid.
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: So at the time, there was a lot of riots,
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: there was stuff happening there, and so it was election, yeah,
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: which just was not recommended. We did get stuck in
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: the Congo though, for an extra I want to say,
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: nine days or something. So you're supposed to the Cameroon
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: visa is supposed to be a seventy two hour turnaround,
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: and so we signed up for it, did the paperwork
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: five days in advance, thinking, okay, it guaranteed seventy two hours,
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: we'll do it five days in advance, just to make sure.
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: I think you got yours back in twelve or whatever.
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: And he got his in fourteen days or something like that.
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: And so we were just waiting at the border in
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: this tiny little hole in the wall town at the
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: very top of Congo for an extra and go into
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: the embassy every single day. Okay, can we do anything?
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: But I think it was tied to his military background,
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: and so they eventually sent it off to then go
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: to the London office to try and get approval and stuff.
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: But that's it was not on our radar to be
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: stuck in Congo for an extended period of time and.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Then to still do the whole thing in two months.
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 33:15
  Speaker 5: One thing you need to do as well if you're
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: going to be coming through the Congo. He's got to
• 33:19
  Speaker 5: see the gorillas. That were one of those insane experiences,
• 33:23
  Speaker 5: like seeing a gorilla I don't know, three four meters
• 33:27
  Speaker 5: away from you and watching his eyes and his fingers
• 33:30
  Speaker 5: and he's you can see.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: Does it feel primal?
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: Yes, it's human like that's the wild thing.
• 33:38
  Speaker 5: Just mesmerize you just not that much different apart from
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: the guns on that thing. He would tear you into
• 33:46
  Speaker 5: his hand gestures and all that. I would just sat
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: in the little boat just mesmerized looking at him and
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: I would just like fix it, like when you get
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: campfire TV and you just stare at the flame. Yeah,
• 33:55
  Speaker 5: I would like that looking at him, And all of
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: a sudden he went oh band his chest and the
• 33:58
  Speaker 5: shivers just went through up all day and I'm like,
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: when I'm actually that guy.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: There's just and there's some things about Africa where how
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: do you say it buried down deep? What do they
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: say you use ten percent of your brain or whatever
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: part of that other unused half knows to be terrified
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: of some of this something I remember the first time,
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: like I had a lion like tried to fake me
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: out or something and gave me a little roar, and
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: it was like a different kind of fear. Oh, totally.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: Even the first time you hear a lion roar, every
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: part of you know exactly what. You don't need someone
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: to tell you. Oh, that's a lion that just roared. Yep,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: I know your buddy knows. There's no doubt that what
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: that thing is.
• 34:40
  Speaker 5: Can you remember the first time you heard a lion
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: role in South Africa and went nine time or on
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: the campfire?
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, you guys. This is a little side story.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: But it's so what we're here for.
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: We're campaign on this reserve, and we convinced the owner
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: of the reserve to allow us to camp in the
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: area that had the lions. Seemed like a thing to do, totally. Yeah.
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: And so anyways, the guys, Hey, I'm gonna go back
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: to my house, make sure everything's good at home, and
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: then I'll come back out here. I'm gonna camp with
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: you guys just in case they end up coming around.
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: I know what to do. So we're already a little
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: bit on edge, which just the four of us, two
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: of our friends, Harry and Chloe were with us. We're
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: camping out there, the fires roaring, and all of a
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: sudden we start hearing the.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: Sound and they're great, by the way I had them on.
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: They're so wonderful. Hear that sound and it's reverberating through
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: your body and I'm like, oh my gosh. I jump
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: into the back of the car. Harry and Chloe do
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: the same. We're throwing on all of the lights, trying
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: to scare these off. I'm texting the guy justin Okay,
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: there's a lion. What do we do? And I look
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: over and this guy's face has this cheeky little grin
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: and I'm like, what have you done? And I realize
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: in that moment, like, Okay, you've done something. This is you.
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: He knock out and put a speaker in the woods
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: and it's playing over YouTube. These lions sounds like the
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: wars he could find.
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: The best thing, though, is Harry told me that he
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: saw I.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: So good.
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah.
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: The only way that would have been better is if
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: you were playing like sounds for the Lion King.
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: Amazing.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: That is hilarious, played played.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: I know what I'm doing in camp tonight.
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, oh man, But yeah, Congo was awesome. I really
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: enjoyed that. That was highlight of the entire Africa trip
• 36:37
  Speaker 4: for me.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of that even more so than
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: anything on East Side.
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: I mean, I loved all of the parks and stuff.
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: I think that gorilla experience was just so far up
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: there would probably compete for some of the parks that
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: we went to and just.
• 36:49
  Speaker 5: Like, well and zero tourists zero and it's not going
• 36:52
  Speaker 5: to u Gander or whatever. We paid one hundred dollars,
• 36:55
  Speaker 5: not a thousands, a couple of thousand dollars, Like.
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because where's the other spot that Rwanda people and Rwanda.
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: And that's like a Rwanda that's that's like a thousand
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: dollar a night hotel. It looked into it when we
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: were in Uganda, and it was around I think it
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: was four to six thousand dollars that we were going
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: to pay to go have a It's granted it's with
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: the silverback gorillas, so it's a little bit of a
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: different experience and you're in the jungle. But this we
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: just walked up. It's a reservation. Basically, they help bring
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: gorillas back and rewild them basically, and so they keep
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: them on this reservation and they're each on islands. They
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: don't like water, so they won't go into the water,
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: but they stay on the island, which is how they
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: keep them there.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: How is that free? I wouldn't like water.
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: And then they release them so like once a year
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: they try and release one of them back into the wild,
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: which is so you're getting scary close to these guys. Wow,
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: it's amazing.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: And so then after the Congo, then you start getting
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: into the border after border, yeah, the good stuff.
• 37:56
  Speaker 5: Yeah, from that all the landing wise, like apart from
• 38:01
  Speaker 5: one border crossing, this is a two wheel drive thing
• 38:04
  Speaker 5: pretty much you could do. But like the top there
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: just after we got us where were that in going
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: into Cameroon. They've got a nice section there which is
• 38:13
  Speaker 5: nice dirt roads and the jungles just encroaching onto the road.
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: It's two lanes and then it ends up being like
• 38:17
  Speaker 5: half a len and then we saw chimpanzees like.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: Just in the tree there, so cool.
• 38:22
  Speaker 5: Made our way through there and then the top of
• 38:25
  Speaker 5: Cameroon that starts to feel some big potholes and yeah.
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: And I mean going back real quick like DRC, I
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: think was probably one of my favorite little stretches as well,
• 38:35
  Speaker 4: because you get this good mix of cultural side of things,
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: of towns and stuff that you're going through. I think
• 38:40
  Speaker 4: it's Matati there, that's the main town. And then you
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: remember like the final stretch of the DRC and it
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: was completely jungle covered and we're on like those red
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: dirt roads. That to me was like, okay, I feel
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: like I'm on the west coast of Africa. And that
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: was like the first time of that whole leg of
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: the trip that was like, we've made it, We're here.
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: Just a really cool feeling going through that section for me,
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: very cool. I'm trying to think Cameroon, where do I.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: Need that because there was a there's a section. I
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: think it's at the northern side of Cameroon where it
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: does get quite challenging for the like a vehicle to
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: get through to that next border, like that border is
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: it's one of the fewest number of travelers in Africa.
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: Is this the Cameroon to Nigeria border crossing?
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: Yes, you've only in Nigeria, I think for tourists. I
• 39:34
  Speaker 5: think now there's about free crossings that you can do.
• 39:38
  Speaker 5: We went into the Nigerian highlands it's called.
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: The Bono crossing, and it's almost infamous. If you've done
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: the West Coast, it's thought about doing the West Coast.
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: This is the cross that is.
• 39:48
  Speaker 5: The chalk point, that is the thing that's going to
• 39:51
  Speaker 5: make or break your trip or allow you to do
• 39:54
  Speaker 5: the trip if you get the weather wrong. It's not
• 39:58
  Speaker 5: you're not going to go through six foot or whatever.
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so there's a really small window each year that
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: you can cross that. And we were coming into rainy season,
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: so we were getting updates daily from whatever group we
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: could find that had gone in the recent weeks, week,
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: recent days, and it's basically a toss up, like you're
• 40:17
  Speaker 4: going to show up and it's gnarly to get to.
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: So once you get there, it's you find out day
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: of if you're going to be able to make it.
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: For research, Like the Facebook groups are so good.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: Facebook group and there, Yeah, there's WhatsApp groups that are
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: active travelers that really helpful.
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: Happened like day to day basis, which was pretty cool.
• 40:35
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that crossing into Nigeria, the band you're crossing, that
• 40:39
  Speaker 5: is one of those moments when you just look at
• 40:41
  Speaker 5: each other and you're like, this is overlanding like these
• 40:45
  Speaker 5: next few days, like your nerves are there because the
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: solo travelers, if we get stuck, now it's going into
• 40:52
  Speaker 5: a dangerous country, the terrain, the animals, the people, like
• 40:57
  Speaker 5: things might be against you. Yeah, and it's yes, this
• 40:59
  Speaker 5: is why we do it.
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: And the border crossings there are still not technically open.
• 41:05
  Speaker 4: So when we went to go get our stamp, they're like,
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: we can't give you anything. We don't this is not
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: even really open to you. Guys.
• 41:13
  Speaker 5: You get stamped out.
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: So we didn't get stamped out. We didn't get stamped in,
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: which was a little bit scary because obviously the next
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: border they're gonna ask questions about that. That was a
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: little bit of a weird one. And there's it's just
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: one random guy in the middle of the mountains that's
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: sitting in a hut that's completely shut down. There's no
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: paper trail or anything of you going in or out.
• 41:33
  Speaker 5: And then you'll come into the Nigerian highlands and it
• 41:36
  Speaker 5: is stunning and the people are like buzzing that you're
• 41:39
  Speaker 5: coming through just to be fully open, like a lot
• 41:42
  Speaker 5: of Africa that might be asking you for things a lot.
• 41:45
  Speaker 5: When you go into Nigeria, they're like cheering you on
• 41:48
  Speaker 5: that you're coming through like that, and they're like, oh, yes.
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: Just completed the Baja one thousand or something like. We
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: were coming across the finish sign and everyone was like
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: you made the crossing, like cheering you go by, and
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: I was like, I've never seen this. I've never experienced
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: that before on any trip, of someone just being so
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: excited that you're even driving through their village.
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: That's amazing.
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: What an interesting.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: The only time I've ever felt that was in Uganda.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: They just weren't habituated to asking for the things. Yeah,
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: they were just stoked to see.
• 42:20
  Speaker 5: Yeah, which is such a cool thing. And I hope
• 42:24
  Speaker 5: in the near future, like the security gets sorted out
• 42:26
  Speaker 5: in Nigeria, because it would be an epic place to
• 42:29
  Speaker 5: be able to go and explore more rather than to
• 42:31
  Speaker 5: be honest, it's let's get through this as quick as
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: we can. While we were there, I think what the
• 42:36
  Speaker 5: news were showing just the four days that were there,
• 42:38
  Speaker 5: I think there were over three hundred people kidnapped. Granted,
• 42:41
  Speaker 5: like most things, you need to break down where you're going,
• 42:44
  Speaker 5: and most of that's like in the North regional Yeah,
• 42:48
  Speaker 5: that's small. Like Booker Ram and that sort of thing.
• 42:50
  Speaker 5: But and then but then on the coast, that's where
• 42:53
  Speaker 5: the oil workers are and stuff, so they know they've
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: got kidnapping ransom insurance and that's often which we didn't.
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: You're trying to like get through these things and that's
• 43:01
  Speaker 5: at risks there. So hopeful in the near future the
• 43:04
  Speaker 5: government get a grip of that.
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: As a country, it's developing fast, it's growing fast.
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And to be fair, the highlands were incredible. We
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: spent a few days there and then it was only
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: when we actually started to get down into the main
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: highway realm that we started getting pulled over all the
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: time and checking every single vehicle and I want to
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: say we had something like one hundred and fifty vehicle
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: checks throughout the movie four days.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: Well, it's part of a good thing as well.
• 43:32
  Speaker 5: So if anyone is going to go do that route,
• 43:34
  Speaker 5: don't let it get to you like, oh, that's.
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: A good thing.
• 43:37
  Speaker 5: Should something happen to you, there's an idea of where
• 43:40
  Speaker 5: you were last so they're going to be able to
• 43:43
  Speaker 5: track it down a lot quicker.
• 43:44
  Speaker 4: And as soon as they realized we were tourists, every
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: single time they said thank you for being in our country.
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: It was there was never any intimidation factor any of that.
• 43:52
  Speaker 4: It was always like we're just making sure that everything's good.
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: Are you guys good? Okay, we're good. They're just trying
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: to get the bad people. It's a benefit, if anything,
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: to tourists.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: And then what was your next border crossing after Nigeria?
• 44:07
  Speaker 5: And that's when it felt like and relaxed. Now we
• 44:11
  Speaker 5: have filne the dodgy stuff. Obviously anything could still happen
• 44:15
  Speaker 5: into the world, but it just felt like a way
• 44:17
  Speaker 5: of being lifted off as shoulders.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: Now you're so close.
• 44:20
  Speaker 5: Now we're just like on the beach, like having a beer,
• 44:23
  Speaker 5: and it just feels like it's in a tourist destination,
• 44:26
  Speaker 5: Like it's a different it's a different feeling now from
• 44:29
  Speaker 5: then on, like it's just getting to effort.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: And see, I've heard Senegal's fun, a lot of energy
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: in the place. Do you guys go there.
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: Yes, there's a little bar that's right on the coast
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: there that we like pushed to. The temperatures in Senegal
• 44:41
  Speaker 4: were through the roof. I think it was like forty
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: two degrees anything like that, which was the hardest day
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: of any trip that we've ever done. So we got
• 44:48
  Speaker 4: on our little garment the next morning and we found
• 44:50
  Speaker 4: cooler temperatures on the coast at this place called Zebra Bar,
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: and we were like, okay, that's where we're going. We
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: are going to push all the way there to get
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: there tonight at least be and the bar, I think.
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: And there were so many Overlanders, I'd say that's probably
• 45:05
  Speaker 5: about where most Overlanders will stop and then do a
• 45:08
  Speaker 5: U turn and go back into Europe. And that's where
• 45:11
  Speaker 5: I first ever went in like a man truck, not
• 45:13
  Speaker 5: a mantle. I went in one in the army, but
• 45:15
  Speaker 5: one not a big expedition vehicle was kicked out and
• 45:17
  Speaker 5: this old a couple though lovely. They invited us round
• 45:20
  Speaker 5: four four tea, and then they invited another couple arounds.
• 45:23
  Speaker 5: So there were six of us sat around a granite
• 45:25
  Speaker 5: table and this is.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: What I want. Then, it's so cool. This content is
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: brought to you by Overland Journal, our premium quality print publication.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: The magazine was founded in two thousand and six with
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: the goal of providing independent equipment and vehicle reviews, along
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: with the most stunning adventures and photography. We care deeply
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: about the countries and cultures we visit and share our
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: experiences freely with our readers. We also have zero vratorial
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: policy and do not accept any advertiser compensation.
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: For our reviews.
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: By subscribing to Overland Journal, you're helping to support our
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: employee owned and veteran owned publication. Your support also provides
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: resources and funding for content like you are watching or
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: listening to right now. You can subscribe directly on our
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: website at Overland journal dot com.
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: I think you should share the story in Nigeria about
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: the convoy because that was all.
• 46:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that was got the adrenaline going. I felt like
• 46:39
  Speaker 5: went in Sicario or something.
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: Preface a little bit. So rewind a week and a
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: half before there had been a at one of the
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: convoy blocks there or sorry, at one of the there
• 46:52
  Speaker 4: had been a attack, and so we were on high
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: alert of okay, as we go through this city. It
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: was it just happened, anything but happened. And we were
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: prefacing that as.
• 47:02
  Speaker 5: The days why we knew this was going to be
• 47:04
  Speaker 5: the hot spot or we had not.
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: We didn't know.
• 47:07
  Speaker 5: We had an idea this is going to be the
• 47:09
  Speaker 5: cheekiest part of this whole Africa trip, and all of
• 47:13
  Speaker 5: a sudden.
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: I want to say it was.
• 47:14
  Speaker 5: Probably like five A couple of land cruisers and some
• 47:17
  Speaker 5: high looks, all black, and then they were in like
• 47:19
  Speaker 5: convoy drills, like pushing vehicles out of the way and
• 47:21
  Speaker 5: all that stuff. So I just hung back and just
• 47:23
  Speaker 5: followed the convoy for a bit, and then we came
• 47:26
  Speaker 5: to this town, which we knew were going to be
• 47:28
  Speaker 5: the worst part, and they did a stop shot and
• 47:30
  Speaker 5: pulled off to the side. They must have done a
• 47:32
  Speaker 5: quick brief. Obviously I couldn't stop part of their gang,
• 47:35
  Speaker 5: so I just went past them and then got into
• 47:37
  Speaker 5: the the traffic again. And then a few minutes later
• 47:40
  Speaker 5: they came up behind me again and I saw and
• 47:42
  Speaker 5: then the rear man in the vehicle just went come
• 47:45
  Speaker 5: towards me, just with wave me and give me the
• 47:47
  Speaker 5: funds up to follow him, and I, like pom, put
• 47:49
  Speaker 5: my hazard lights on. It's probably the fastest that Defender's
• 47:52
  Speaker 5: ever driven, Like I want to do this every day.
• 47:56
  Speaker 5: Were just burning frutals. Now we're not stopping for checkpoints
• 47:59
  Speaker 5: and we're driving past everyone in vehicles were moving out
• 48:01
  Speaker 5: of the way.
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: Was the cone.
• 48:03
  Speaker 5: I don't know if there were a police or a
• 48:04
  Speaker 5: private security group.
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: Or whatever.
• 48:05
  Speaker 5: But we did about one hundred miles with them, and
• 48:08
  Speaker 5: like we just.
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: Y, yeah, we don't know if it was a good
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: group or a bad group. We're part of them for
• 48:17
  Speaker 4: a little while and it was amazing. Yeah, that was
• 48:20
  Speaker 4: cool for sure.
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: That's the I want to travel a lot every day.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: You don't go back in the army, all your dreams
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: will come true.
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: But yeah, then we got to Senegal and I feel
• 48:32
  Speaker 4: like Senegal, you're so right from there. It's a completely
• 48:35
  Speaker 4: different energy and vibe and you feel like you came
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: out on the other side of it. We felt like
• 48:39
  Speaker 4: we had just ran a marathon. And so many people
• 48:42
  Speaker 4: were coming down from Europe to Senegal, and so they
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: are all two max three weeks into their trip. There's
• 48:48
  Speaker 4: so fresh, bright eyed and bushy tailed, and Andy and
• 48:51
  Speaker 4: I are like, we have been through it. We have
• 48:54
  Speaker 4: been here now like a year, yes, exactly. And so
• 48:57
  Speaker 4: it's interesting because there's almost like this merging of my
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: They have people that are coming from this perspective like
• 49:02
  Speaker 4: Africa so incredible. We're saying it's incredible, but we're also
• 49:07
  Speaker 4: exhausted because we've been just on back roads. Now your
• 49:11
  Speaker 4: thelf haven't seen a campsite and since Angola at this point,
• 49:15
  Speaker 4: and yeah, I hadn't seen a grocery store or anything,
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: so we were almost we were not used to the
• 49:21
  Speaker 4: creature comforts and having to get reacclimized to conversations.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: Do you think trips like that make you a little
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: more tougher in day to day in life?
• 49:32
  Speaker 4: I would say any overland trip makes you tougher.
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: Not having a grocery store for a month would.
• 49:38
  Speaker 4: Be We did get a whole new appreciation. Like y'all,
• 49:42
  Speaker 4: we were eating beans, cans of beans, and mealy pop
• 49:47
  Speaker 4: every single day.
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: It was always this semantic Anthony Bourdain esque idea of
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go get my food from the market.
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: The grocery store is actually really nice.
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, the market's on the side of the road.
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: You're getting fresh bread, mealy pop, tomatoes, and some type
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: of fruit. Sometimes you can only make so many meals,
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: and our bodies are so used to eating protein and
• 50:11
  Speaker 4: just a balanced diet that we were struggling there for
• 50:14
  Speaker 4: a little while on like having holding conversations, being able
• 50:18
  Speaker 4: to just think through things and stuff like that on
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: a day to day really much challenging.
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: On a trip like that, you also have the constant
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: background stress right Africa.
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's why I always bring a couple like tubs
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: of protein powder.
• 50:33
  Speaker 5: And we found the protein shop in benin auto Ago.
• 50:38
  Speaker 4: I've never been so excited to see just protein like
• 50:43
  Speaker 4: it was just a workout shop.
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: I just always bring a couple tubs of it with
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: me because I feel affected if I.
• 50:49
  Speaker 4: Don't have massively.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah that's and then how did you guys deal with
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: since you said there was no camp grounds? I know
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of people tend to use schools, churches, What
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: did you guys use for places to camp at night?
• 51:02
  Speaker 4: All of the above, Yes, churches, school, military checkpoints.
• 51:06
  Speaker 5: Yet first we come to military checkpoints because at least
• 51:09
  Speaker 5: they're armed. I don't know if that's better or worse.
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: The target, but you're yeah, the thing that dissuades it.
• 51:16
  Speaker 5: But especially when you first cross the border because there's
• 51:18
  Speaker 5: nothing around anyway in the highlands. And they were really
• 51:20
  Speaker 5: nice to us.
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: That loved it, and throughout the entire trip. That was
• 51:24
  Speaker 4: the m O. If you can find a good spot
• 51:27
  Speaker 4: to camp, say yes, because you don't know.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: When take the bird in the hand.
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: Yes, exactly exactly, And we did sleep at quite a
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: few schools. They were incredible, and Andy said, like the
• 51:37
  Speaker 4: military checkpoints, there was quite a few that were very
• 51:39
  Speaker 4: welcoming to overlanders and it's almost become an iconic spot
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: to stop. And so it's quite cool to be welcomed
• 51:46
  Speaker 4: by them. And they all wanted photos and stuff, which
• 51:49
  Speaker 4: is pretty fun.
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's super fun.
• 51:50
  Speaker 4: That was cool.
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: So from there and you're now in the desert, you're
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: in Senegal.
• 51:55
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and so you would you spend the last at
• 51:58
  Speaker 5: this point almost we just under a year in Sahara,
• 52:03
  Speaker 5: in sub Sahara, and then it's like you just cross
• 52:06
  Speaker 5: this line and all of a sudden and you look
• 52:08
  Speaker 5: out the window and now sand dunes are starting, and
• 52:11
  Speaker 5: it's just like a line in the world.
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: Just now you've.
• 52:14
  Speaker 5: Crossed, and the people have crossed. The people are different,
• 52:18
  Speaker 5: they act different.
• 52:19
  Speaker 4: Dressed differently, they differently, eat differently. Everything is it's almost
• 52:24
  Speaker 4: like a culture shock when you cross that line into
• 52:26
  Speaker 4: a completely different world.
• 52:27
  Speaker 5: And it were cool. They were a nice feeling. But
• 52:29
  Speaker 5: we loved Africa.
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: Did you go to the there's those ship breaking yards
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: in Mauritania where all the old cruise ships end up,
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: and they like they literally beached. I have seen that, yeah,
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: but we didn't. We didn't. I don't know if that's
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: a place you didn't want to go, but I want
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: to go one hundred percent.
• 52:47
  Speaker 5: Recommend going to Mauritania anyone out there like that was
• 52:51
  Speaker 5: actually one of the roots. So I can't remember the name,
• 52:54
  Speaker 5: but you go quite far into the desert and then
• 52:57
  Speaker 5: you come across and just follow the train line. So
• 52:59
  Speaker 5: he's ees to navigate because we're going north. As long
• 53:02
  Speaker 5: as you keep the railway flying on your right, you
• 53:05
  Speaker 5: can't really go wrong.
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: But it's such that I don't fly.
• 53:09
  Speaker 5: If I could, I imagine that's the closest thing to flying,
• 53:12
  Speaker 5: where you can just turn left, turn right.
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: Any direction.
• 53:14
  Speaker 5: Is just going over sand dunes and that track we
• 53:17
  Speaker 5: didn't see anybody, and it will four hundred kilometers.
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: Just through the desert.
• 53:21
  Speaker 5: Incredible were it was like, that's when I think about
• 53:26
  Speaker 5: some of them most special routes I've ever done anywhere
• 53:29
  Speaker 5: in the world.
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: That section there, that's always like more to any of
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: the dunes and like the desert there. That was what
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: you saw from the decor. Yeah, yeah, that is like
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: the iconic. The camera pans out into the distance and
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: it's sand as far as you can see. And as
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: a kid, that's it.
• 53:44
  Speaker 5: You'll hear about the Sahara Desert, and now you are
• 53:48
  Speaker 5: in you're in the middle of the Sahara Desert.
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: You read the books as a kid and burrows in
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: your head.
• 53:55
  Speaker 5: And it's as good as you imagine, like that four
• 53:57
  Speaker 5: year old boy when you're playing with your card in
• 53:59
  Speaker 5: the sound, Yeah, that's all you're doing. Just thirty years later,
• 54:02
  Speaker 5: it's incredible.
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: So then that was just such a good way.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: To like end, you know what I mean, because then
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: you're in Western You're then you're in Western Sarah.
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: As a little iffy at points, right, there's just nothing,
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: there's nothing.
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: It's just a contested border.
• 54:20
  Speaker 5: Which another little story there, like we were carrying our
• 54:23
  Speaker 5: drone and you're not allowed to have drones in Morocco. No,
• 54:28
  Speaker 5: we didn't realize, just these two dumb people traveling around
• 54:32
  Speaker 5: the world, we didn't realize that's actually Western Sahara is Morocco.
• 54:35
  Speaker 5: Because they were like, oh, we'll sort the drone out
• 54:37
  Speaker 5: before Morocco comes. And all of a sudden we're like,
• 54:40
  Speaker 5: this is the Morocco and now we're at the Morocco border.
• 54:42
  Speaker 5: About to go through, and they're like, do you have
• 54:44
  Speaker 5: any drones or whatever? And we sweating and we're like no,
• 54:47
  Speaker 5: like we're going to scan, do an X ray on
• 54:49
  Speaker 5: your vehicle, like.
• 54:50
  Speaker 4: Okay, we were actually inside and the guys said, I
• 54:55
  Speaker 4: think we realized inside the customs office of oh my gosh,
• 54:58
  Speaker 4: we're actually at the border. And I was like, I'm
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: just going to go to the car and get drink
• 55:02
  Speaker 4: and I ran back out and hit the drone because
• 55:03
  Speaker 4: I'm like, oh my god, this is horrible to get
• 55:07
  Speaker 4: searched right now.
• 55:08
  Speaker 5: Recommend definitely not.
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: The drones are like an interesting thing. Like more Overlanders
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: have gotten in trouble because of drone.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's an issue now, yeah, for obvious reasons.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: Look at the conflict in the Ukraine right now. I
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: mean there's drones are a thing. When I went into Morocco,
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: they confiscated my drone and they gave it back to
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: me when I flew back out, like they actually the
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: commander said, hey, when you fly back out, come get me.
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: I'll give you your drone back. And he did that cool,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: and he actually took the time to say make sure
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: all everything's there, like he wanted to make sure that
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: I saw that, like everything was exactly is.
• 55:43
  Speaker 5: Coming to that Ballder. I do remember thinking like wow,
• 55:49
  Speaker 5: the safety and the law enforcement now like he had
• 55:51
  Speaker 5: the camera on his chest and all that to try
• 55:54
  Speaker 5: we are getting closer and close.
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: Morocco was very attainable for the people listening. Yes, that's awesome,
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: gas like it is. We started with talking about how
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: Southern Africa is so approachable Rocco for Northern Africa, it's fantastic.
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: Oh it's so nice as well.
• 56:09
  Speaker 4: I would say anywhere down to Senegal. Yeah, that whole
• 56:12
  Speaker 4: stretch is incredible and it's right in everyone's backyard, but
• 56:16
  Speaker 4: doesn't take a lot to take a ferry over and
• 56:18
  Speaker 4: go do an incredible trip from.
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: Europe Baha for Europe, Yeah awesome, you can get to
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: g yeah exactly, lots of.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: And all the spices and the spice markets and oh
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: so good the tea.
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh so good.
• 56:34
  Speaker 4: And then we had actually Dusk to Glory. That's right, actually, Richard,
• 56:38
  Speaker 4: she's down.
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 56:40
  Speaker 4: She was with us for a week and a half
• 56:41
  Speaker 4: and I think we were still coming off of the high,
• 56:45
  Speaker 4: if you will, and the adrenaline of West Africa and
• 56:48
  Speaker 4: still having a very big culture shock at that point
• 56:51
  Speaker 4: in time, because you're immediately thrown back into all the
• 56:55
  Speaker 4: normal things. There's so many tourists. You've been isolated for
• 56:58
  Speaker 4: so long, you haven't had the normal creature comforts or
• 57:01
  Speaker 4: hotels or.
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: Restaurants, send people on pack holidays.
• 57:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and we probably looked like these weathered old people
• 57:09
  Speaker 4: that had some times in their eyes at that point.
• 57:11
  Speaker 4: And yeah, it's interesting to come back into that so quickly.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: And you guys, ery from Tangiers to Gibraltar. No, we
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: didn't actually go. We went to Spain and then we drove.
• 57:22
  Speaker 4: We did, you're right, we went.
• 57:23
  Speaker 5: Then we got a full English breakfast as soon as
• 57:25
  Speaker 5: we got into gibralar as you do a.
• 57:29
  Speaker 4: Little English, that Gibraltar is mind blowing. And that was
• 57:33
  Speaker 4: again culture shock. It feels like English.
• 57:36
  Speaker 5: It's literally pulled into England. But span it's amazing.
• 57:40
  Speaker 4: It's British flags everywhere, phone boxes, little pubs and restaurants.
• 57:45
  Speaker 4: A little bit crazy.
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: And then do you guys just basically shoot straight back.
• 57:51
  Speaker 5: We did a little bit of diving in Portugal.
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: Nice.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Portugal so nice, so cheap, so nice, beautiful.
• 57:57
  Speaker 4: People and we had not a couple in Namibia. So
• 58:02
  Speaker 4: this is now going back ten months before. We met
• 58:05
  Speaker 4: a couple in Namibia that had just done the West
• 58:07
  Speaker 4: Coast as well, so they were about two months ahead
• 58:09
  Speaker 4: of us, and they're from Lisbon. So we went and
• 58:12
  Speaker 4: spent about a week and a half with them in
• 58:13
  Speaker 4: Lisbon and just caught up on the stories, exchanged West
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: Coast stories and everybody has a slightly different experience. Yeah,
• 58:20
  Speaker 4: it was really a good way to ground things off,
• 58:23
  Speaker 4: for sure.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: Did you guys take the tunnel or the ferry back
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: to the UK?
• 58:28
  Speaker 4: We took the Yeah, we ferried. We had friends in
• 58:31
  Speaker 4: the south of England, so we got back, visited them
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: and then headed straight home. We spent a week and
• 58:37
  Speaker 4: a half maybe two weeks back in North England, and
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: then shipped our vehicle. Yeah, shipped our vehicle to the US.
• 58:45
  Speaker 4: And here we are a year later.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: Amazing, and now all the things are happening.
• 58:50
  Speaker 4: Now, all the things and the big thing, and yeah,
• 58:53
  Speaker 4: it's like we still haven't let's put off the gush.
• 58:57
  Speaker 4: And honestly, it's hard, right when you come back from
• 58:59
  Speaker 4: a trip and you we didn't have a minute to
• 59:02
  Speaker 4: process anything that happens. Yeah, it totally is a thing
• 59:06
  Speaker 4: and I think only in the last maybe six to
• 59:10
  Speaker 4: six seven months in from the return, we finally started
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: to take a moment of pause to look back on
• 59:17
  Speaker 4: the trip and actually reflect on the trip, which is
• 59:19
  Speaker 4: part of the reason I was even excited for this,
• 59:21
  Speaker 4: just because like it pulls you back into a headspace
• 59:24
  Speaker 4: that you feel almost so far removed from in a
• 59:26
  Speaker 4: lot of ways.
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what was for you, Mary Hannah? What was the
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: thing that you felt changed about you the most from
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: that experience?
• 59:35
  Speaker 4: I think over the years, like every trip has had
• 59:37
  Speaker 4: a pretty profound impact to me. It's always been I
• 59:42
  Speaker 4: used to be a very rigid, in the box kind
• 59:44
  Speaker 4: of gal, and this has completely changed that for me.
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: So your risk profile for.
• 59:49
  Speaker 4: Life profile has completely changed. My perception of the world
• 59:55
  Speaker 4: has changed in a lot of ways. And also just
• 59:58
  Speaker 4: adaptability and flight flexibility, there's always going to be a problem.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 4: The whole all and overlearning trip is figuring out an
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 4: obstacle after obstacle until you get home and having a
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 4: good attitude and having a good attitude.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: Finding yourself that you actually signed up to.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is what I want to see stress over
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: landing maybe for you?
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: And how about for you? And what how do you
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: feel like that trip changed you.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 5: I'm not sure actually did it change me? Must have
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 5: done in some ways, I think.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 4: I'm not going to speak for you, but just from
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 4: my perspective, what I've seen over the years is each
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 4: time we do a trip, Andy's okay, that one was awesome,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 4: but like, how can we do something that's even more
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 4: And with each of our trips has progressed.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 5: And we've definitely got to and West Africa like anyone,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 5: because we did when we were in Southern Africa, a
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 5: few people had come down. Everybody seems to come from
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 5: north to south and everybody that did West Africa like,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 5: I'm glad, I've done it, I'll do it again.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 4: I would do it again.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: I do it again.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah you might.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: I think it's going to interesting. It's a growing area
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: of the world. I think it's a part of the
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: world that's going to play a larger and larger part
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: of the global economy and the global community. Yeah, it's
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: very under recognized and underrepresented right now. And it's really
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: cool to you know, have your guys experience of saying, oh, yeah,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: Congo was actually really great.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 4: I loved it.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: The roads were perfect, and there's these I think it's
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: cool that West Africa you're challenging these perceptions and I'm
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: just so glad you guys are able to chat with
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: us on this.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, absolutely yeah.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: Thank you both so much for being on the podcast.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: So thanks for having you guys are an inspiration. It
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: was so fun to follow your journey while I was
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: making my own way across to Africa and getting the
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: chat and catch up and see which way we're going.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 4: To go, all the things I have no doubt at
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 4: some point passable cross actually on the road.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: Yes, have no doubt, just a matter of where exactly.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: We thank you all for listening and we'll talk to
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: you next time.