Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Journey Beyond Borders: Kym Bolton's Overlanding Adventures

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Journey Beyond Borders: Kym Bolton's Overlanding Adventures · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Kim, Thank you so much for being on the podcast
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: this morning.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Thanks.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: It's an honor to finally get the chance to interview you.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Your travels around the world were some of the earliest
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: inspirations to me. I remember seeing some of the photos
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: of you guys crossing the Road of Bones in Russia
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: with these BC fusos.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah's, but I remember, I mean, this is back when
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: people had blogs and they had their own websites, and
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: you guys had this anthology, this story of what you
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: guys were going through going across there, and you know,
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: truly incredible images, very challenging terrain, and I just remember thinking,
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: that's what I wanted, you know.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: That's what I want to be inspirational. Thank you, of
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: course absolutely. But you know, if you look at the
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: map on your fuso outside here on the side of
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: the camper, it's incredible what you've done.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: And a special thanks to Nitto Tire for support this
• 1:00
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• 1:05
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• 1:10
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• 1:15
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• 1:21
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• 1:24
  Speaker 4: in the backcountry. And for even bigger news. The G
• 1:29
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• 1:33
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• 1:37
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• 1:41
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• 1:45
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• 1:49
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• 1:54
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• 1:58
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• 2:03
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• 2:10
  Speaker 1: You know, let's start off a little bit by giving
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the listeners some context around where you've traveled around the world.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: I know you've done it in multiple phases, but let's
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: kind of give them the we know we do.
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: Three months on, three months off. It's always been my
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: family a rate with arrangement with my wife, kids, grandkids
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: are now great d and kids, so go ahead every
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: three months. But Russia was the first one and it
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: was about four months across there. During that period of
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: time I designed another product which finish up becoming Earth
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: Cruiser twenty ten. When I sold an earth Cruiser, we
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: shipped it to Malaysia, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodi allow China
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: to bet back into Russia.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: Across the States Alaska to South America, then to Africa,
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: from Southern Africa to northern.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: And he did up the East coast for that.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: No, we've went at the center was problematical. Africa is
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: from part of the time. Sure, I went up through
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Sa'dan and a non Sa'dan's problematical too, then Europe, Iceland
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: and Scandadavia and back into the strip. Yeah. Look and
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: that's where they Yeah we want to go, we go.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Well and that and that's excluding the I mean, I'm
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: sure hundreds of thousands of kilometers you've traveled around Australia.
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean externally, I know I've done a number,
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: it's about half a million kilometers fuss. Externally of Australia
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: and then Australia. We've obviously done lots of the desert
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: tracks GPS. A couple of years ago we went out
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: looking for mediae craters in the in the Simpson Desert
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: and that was all GPS.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: No roads, no tracks. There they are on Google Maps.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: That looks interesting. Let's go there and find out what
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: it's all about. Yeah, so yeah cool.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: And you know, just to give some context to the listener,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: what brought you to that decision of using the Mitsubishi Fuso.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: I think they're awesome, but let's let the listener understand, well,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: why you choose those.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Cross road challenges with it.
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: We were ten years and the Outback Challenge, I did
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: three rain Forest Challenge in Malaysia, a couple of New
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: Zealand Wins Challenge series that was all on this and
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: patrol and we went through the stage of as everyone
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: does swags and then a pop up trailer camper and
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: then a a couple of truth.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Carries with popped up roofs. Sure just and it evolves
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: what is.
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: Ideal for you and to do true international travel you
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: already have to have. Well, I have a say, you
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: don't want to buy the biggest one that you can afford,
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: you want to live in the smallest.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Get the smallest one you can live here, and I guess.
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: The Fuso and I suz four x four NPS series
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: is appropriate for that. It's fifty mil wider or two
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: inches wider than a land cruise. It's about one hundred
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: mil longer than a land cruiser, so it goes down
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: every track in the world's made by a land cruiser
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: or a land rover, so you need to be able
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: to drive down those roads.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: And that's so true. And the fact that it's built
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: on a medium to heavy duty chassis, so you've got
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: the payload now to support.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: It correct well.
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: This need is actually one on one point three one
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: three hundred ko below the GVM of the vehicle, So
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: your power to weight ratio is important as well too.
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: You have a heavy vehicle, you're deeper in the bulk,
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: you're slower uphill, you're breaking distances longer. There's lots of
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: consideration to collect to select the right vehicle for the application.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: And I think universally, no matter what you end up driving,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: you want it to be as late as you can
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: make it. It's just going to perform so much better.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: It has to perform better, Yeah, that's right, and push
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: it to long distances and you're remote it needs to
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: be yeah, yeah, And.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: You can only carry so much fuel. And when you
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: do get stuck, you know, a vehicle that's larger like this,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: the heavier it gets, the more unlikely it is that
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: a passer by can get you out. So you want
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: to be as you know, as light as you can get.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, although there's plenty of land cruisers that get
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: you know, that get up that you know, Yeah, they
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: get up to almost five thousand kilograms for sure, but
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: there they do get heavy. But it's it's important to
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: not be so heavy that you can't get pulled out.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: That's why I've always stayed away from things like a
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: man truck or whatever. Is that you've got to get
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: some kind of a commercial recovery.
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: Yeah, a fuel remind it's very difficult, very difficult, and
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: big dulls if you do.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you read about these guys that get stuck out
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: on these salt salt pans and they're out there for weeks,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: you know, and they bring out the first tractor and
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: that's on and off, and then they bring out the
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: second tractor and then it takes it takes the whole village. Yeah,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: that's a whole bunch of money to make that happen,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: you know, The other thing that I really like about
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: the MIDSPEECHIFUSO is that they're sold all around the world
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: as a delivery vehicle. So when you're in countries that
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: that have poor road can do commercial entities use these
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: trucks to get goods and services.
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: It's a commercial truck that's half a meting kilometers standard lifespan.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: That's right, well, of course, yeah, yes.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: So it's designed to do that. I mean these vehicles oftentimes,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: you know, when you're coming into a little village somewhere
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: in Morocco, they probably have fusos that are coming in
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: delivering goods. So you know, the power lines are just the.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Right right, the engines is pretty much the siety.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that makes a huge difference around serviceability. Although
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: with the Mitsubishi you don't tend to need a lot
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: of service and repair. They tend to be incredibly reliable,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: but you know, things can still go wrong.
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: They do, Yeah, things absolutely. I mean we look after that.
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: I a graze this every five thousand cases, religiously. I
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: changed the oil in half the time. Stand that it's recommended. Yeah,
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: you're going to look after it.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: And what have you found on this platform that generally
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: needs to be upgraded or improved, or there are things
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: that you do need to modify on the beast Chausis
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: or what do you find?
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: First thing issues wheels.
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: It comes with thirty two inch steels on the back
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: which are useless off road. So we've designed thirty seven
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: inch and thirty five inch super singles to do that.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: That changed the dynamics of the vehicle. This ride high.
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: Obviously tracking front to rear is important. Improves the ride,
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: which is seriously important. Then suspension lifted up the bump
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: stop something like Yeah, so just a couple couple everything
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: it hits the bump stop. Add another two inches of
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: fifty mil to that. That improves the ride. A couple
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: of nice suspension seats that it keeps the wife happy
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: on the left hand side. Yeah, sure, that's the.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Main thing from that side.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense. I remember in I think it
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: was around twenty and twelve or so, I had the
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: opportunity to borrow an earth Cruiser. This would have been
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: shortly after you saw the business and I was able
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: to borrow a earth Cruiser ticket to free your island,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: getting off the ferry and all that. To have high
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: floatation tires makes such a huge difference. So while I
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: was on the ferry, I mean, nobody tells you, but
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: I knew what was coming.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: You hear those tires down to about twenty PSI, even
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: on a heavy number.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Even on a heavy.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Truck like that, you know, and a jeep, you'd air
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: it down to twelve or whatever. But on a heavy
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: truck you can only go solo. So being able to
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: air down like that and then.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: It just crawled right off, did you just keep going? Yeah,
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: it did fine.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Of course the land cruiser right behind me got bogged
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: because they'd had an air down. It was still a
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: stock yeah.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: But you know, it's being able to drive around that island,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: which is it's one of the most incredible places on
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: the planet to overland because it seems like you're in
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: another world. I mean, you got dingos running down the beach,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: You've got these crystal clear water lakes, heavy for it's
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: just it and the bird life is incredible. And to
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: be able to drive on the beach and the camp
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: on the beach is just awesome.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: And it's one hundred and sixty k along that bach.
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a long way. Yeah, you gotta got a
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: couple of headlands in the locks. Yeah, no, it's a
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: spectacular round.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: It's super cool, and I was impressed by the overall
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: performance of the Mitsubishi. One of the things I think
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: that's really nice about Australia. Nobody likes regulations, but because
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Australia has regulations on tire height and lift height, all
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: of the vehicles are kind of built to the same
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: level of capability. Whereas in the US you can put
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: a thirty seven or a forty inch tire on something,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: so if they if that vehicle goes through a trail
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: and creates a rut, every other vehicle behind them is
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: in trouble, right, Whereas in Australia, everybody's got pretty much
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: the same size tire, They got pretty much the same
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: list on them.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Nothing much bigger than the thirty seven inch tie.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Exactly, and that would be on a vehicle like this,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: which is much larger. So I what I loved about
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: that is that I could take that Mitsubishi fu so
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: everywhere that everybody was going with the land cruisers because
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: nothing was over built correct. And that isn't to say
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: that there aren't technically challenging trails in Australia, but they're
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: just less common, correct, Like all the main overland routes
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: are all driven by basically the same kind of way.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: You desert trial fritude.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, even if you're if you're doing the you know,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: the canning Stock route. You we drove them in seventy
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: series land cruisers with thirty three by ten inch tall
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: tires and the track with with with this perfect and
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: we never encountered obstacles that had been really chewed up
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: by a huge overland with the exactly which makes it
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: impossible to get through. That's something that I really like
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: about Australia. And then you have to be a better driver, Yes,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: You got to learn how to drive the thing. You
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: got to pay, you've got up tackle it correctly.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, get a good marshal out there to spot you through.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Maybe you got to pull some winch cable. But I
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: think that adds to the fund, it adds to the fun. Well,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: and you've done a lot of winching in your life.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, let's pivot a little bit towards some of
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: the competition that you've done. And I think that all
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: of this kind of comes back to the fact that
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: you've learned so much about building overland vehicles and campers
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: because of the fact that you've pushed yourself personally, not
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: only in competition but in international travel. So you've learnt
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: you've made a bunch of mistakes.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: I know I have.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: I've made a ton of mistakes that now inform the
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: decisions that I make.
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: But now build this based on one of the off
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: road Winch Challenge competitions where powder White's critical. I mean
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: a competition truck. We stripped the inside lines out, the
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: air condition went out. I used to joke with it
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: one we used to kind of precious enough to say
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: true story. But that relates back to exactly what we're
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: doing now. And then of course you've got your rave
• 12:49
  Speaker 5: land and travel backing that up. So the straight at
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: adventure of vehicles, which is a cap that I have
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: now is in conjunction with my son, we can build
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: a vehicle that's built on the reliability and the structure
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: and the learning curve put in what last thirty years, I.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Get exactly the things the mistakes that you make along
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: the way really help us. And you'll see that the people,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: the more traveled someone is, the less things that they
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: have on their vehicle. The lighter that they keep them,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: the more closely they keep them to stock, especially the
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: drive train. You know, it's that idea of that wild supercharger.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Sounds cool. Yeah, but where are you going to find
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: the pulley for that thing in the middle of Tajikistan.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: You're just not you're not. And maybe they can.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Machine one up for you.
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: But yeah, you've got to do it. You've probably heard
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: of the Caisse principal. Yeah, keep it simple, stupid, that's
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: exactly what you've got to do.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: And Australians get that because Australians get infinitely more remote
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: than we can ever get in the US. We have
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: similar terrain here. Yes, it's just very difficult.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: It's just stay on the rug where you've got help, that's.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Right, or you've got even got cell coverage or and
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: of course with starlink now and there are there are
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: people that have a business to go get you in
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: the middle of the back country.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: In Australia, if you're a middle in the middle of
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: the Simpson you're on your own, you really are. I
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: mean the longest you know, if you if you don't
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: cross pavement. In the United States, about the longest that
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: you can go from point to point is one hundred
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: and sixty miles, so call it three hundred kilometers, which
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: isn't that long, whereas the canning Stock route is eighteen
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: hundred kilometers.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: That's right. And there's nothing in between.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there's a tiny little village. Yeah, yeah,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: tiny little Yeah, there's not much there.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Fortunately you can now get fuel there, but I mean
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: you used to have to order your fuel well in
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: advanced to have it staged in drums and stuff.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: Like four down on drums.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: That's right, exactly, Yeah, unbelievable. So let's talk a little
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: bit about your competition. So where did what was the
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: competition series that you started in and then you ended
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: up going and doing the Rainforest Challenge and.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: I did like a four drive competitions with things like.
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: And then in nineteen ninety nine the Outback Challenge started
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: and we added that first challenge and we competed in
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: that for the ten years that it ran full. I
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: think it ran for a couple of years after that,
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: but we're on the podium a reasonable number of times
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: out of that, which was rather great.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, Yeah, that was quite the challenge.
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I did Malaysia Rainforest Challenge three times and New
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: Zealand Wins Challenge. I won the first one over there
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: and got up on stage and said, well, this is
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: really great guys, and this is how you do it.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: This is why we won. And of course went over
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: there the next year and they beat We didn't know
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: because they learned really well.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: But isn't that good for It's wonderful.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: For I love that hit and it's nice.
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: I mean, the Outback Challenge was a great event, and
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: I had pleased to say that after twenty years we're
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: still mates. You know, a lot of those people who
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: you camped with and competed with and against are some
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: of the best mate forgots.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: It's a great fraternity.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: You and I have a little bit of shared history
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: in that I was invited over to compete in the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Outback Challenge that was held in Northern Africa. So I
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: actually reced in that event in two thousand and six.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: So we both reached them.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Jim sort of thing.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which was fun. I mean, of course being able
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: to rese the anchrews Er in Morocco.
• 16:16
  Speaker 5: Was yeah, definitely, you were learning from that, which is
• 16:20
  Speaker 5: effectively a winch challenge type series where they put you
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: through bog holes and vertical cliff faces gets us out
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: of problems that we feel comfortable traveling in our own right.
• 16:29
  Speaker 5: Obviously on the Road of Bones, we winched a significant
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: number of times. We've been bogged in our sand hollow
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: in the Gobi Desert recovered self recovered.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Out of that by burying the tire and winching.
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: I guess the other time of wife and I were
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: in Kenya and the Kufui National Park in Kenya in
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: a swamp and finished up buried there and not movable,
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: so there was nothing in front of us around the
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: winch cable underneath the vehicle using a set of d
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: shackles and the extension back to a tree, and self
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: recovered from that. So it gives you certainly make confidence
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: be able to say yep, we can do that track,
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: but also confidence to be out to look at that
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: track and say, no, that's beyond where I'm going to
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: take the module which we're going to live in for
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: the next six.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Number of months or years.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Do I really want to expose my house to that obstacle?
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: Do I need that?
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: And my wife's singer for fingernails are my thigh normally
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: says enough enough.
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and she's probably learned a lot through the years.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: So if she says, if she says enough is enough.
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: Regie gets out and takes a photograph. That's her way
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: of saying, well, I'm not in here that you are.
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: But there is a limit after that as.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Well too, So we respect by side for sure.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: All you have to if you want to travel well
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: with your partner, that's right. Not a week goes by
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: that someone doesn't reach out to ask how they can
• 17:49
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• 17:58
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• 18:01
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• 18:04
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• 18:07
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• 18:11
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• 18:49
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• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Well, let's talk a little bit about how you the
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: mindset that you have towards recovery. So you've had to
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: do expedient recoveries, of course under competition conditions, and then
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: you've been able to take your time and be methought,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: you can come in here and make a cup of tea.
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: So we're trying to If we stuff up, let's say, yeah,
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: stop everything, make a coffee, sit down, analyze the situation
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: and methodically work through it. Yeah, and analyze what's going
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: to go wrong. Yeah, yeah, and try and eliminate the issues.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: I think that's one of the most important things is
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: to slow down. You know, in competition, you've practiced so
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: much with your travel partner, with your co driver that
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: you know what to do, and oftentimes the cable is
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: already positioned on the front of the bumper. But when
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: we're traveling, in my mind, the thing that's the biggest
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: risk is to rush. Like the number of times that
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: people the vehicle stuck, they forget to put it, or
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: they forget when they're pulling it out. They forget that
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: all it could run out, it could run away from you.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: People they tip their car over and it's in neutral when.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: They get it righted back on.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: The wheels, it's not in park or it's not in gear.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: So when it comes back onto the wheels, off it goes.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: So taking the time to say is the vehicle in
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: the right condition when it gets out, which, of course,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: if you're winching forward you're going to most likely have
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: a driver in the driver's seat regardless, But a lot
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: of times when the vehicle's on its side, there's nobody
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: in the vehicle and you here you go, you write
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: the vehicle and the next thing you know that things
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: running down the trail. So taking that extra few minutes
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: to come up with a plan assess the situation. I
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: don't know if you've experienced this, but the number of
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: times it's actually just been a log in the bog, yeah,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: because a lot of times people will stuff logs in
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: there because somebody got stuck before you.
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I'd like to do that. But if somebody's natural
• 21:12
  Speaker 5: process that a local place with.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Junk, some local in Russia, they filled it full of
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: a bunch of logs. And so now that log is
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: just pushing against the front diff cover of your yeah,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: of your actual and oh.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: You breathe, the tubes are electrical. Wise, you got there,
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: and then you do more than good.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so take a look and you might find, oh wait,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: I just got to dig out the end of this
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: log and I'll be able to get out. So really
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: taking that time to do the assessment, I believe is critical,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: and then using all of the safety and multiplication factors
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: that you can in the recovery. People get they get
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: in a rush because maybe they're embarrassed or maybe they're
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: worried or whatever, or or there their partners worried about
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: what's happening. So, you know, so they'll just pull a
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: single line out straight to a tree strap. The winch
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: line isn't even fully extend. Did so the winch is struggling. Yeah,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: so take the time, put in a pulley block, run
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: it back, give a little bit of bridling to the
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: recovery so the load is spread out over multiple points. Yeah,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: you're right, taking.
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: That time, Yeah, think about it. Yeah, And the other
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: thing you've got to do is obviously prep your vehicle
• 22:17
  Speaker 5: before you start traveling to make sure your winch is
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: actually still active. Many times you haven't used the winch
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: for twelve months and then you finish up in a
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: situation that.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the electrics are corona. You've been on a beach,
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: you know, you sort of thing.
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: Just pre check the vehicle before you're actually starting head
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: out in the bush there and run the cable up.
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: Make sure it's not bound up from the last time
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: you wished.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: It makes sense, it's ready to go. That makes so
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: much sense. And with these modern winches, a lot of
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: them have remote controls, so it's not a wired remote.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: It is a wireless remote control. And those batteries go down,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: I do go down, you know, So you've got to
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: make sure it has it. When's the last time I
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: charge that thing? Do I have the cable to charge it?
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Some of them still come with older versions of USBC.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: You be chargers, and you may not have that cable
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: in your car.
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: Well, I've had something very simpler, just with the remote
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: sitting in the console where you've jammed something else in
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: and it's actually pushed the button and turned it on
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: even though the winch is isolating. So do anything but
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: the remote is actually active and flatten the battery of it.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Hanging on. Nothing happens.
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: But then we always carry a positive lad that you
• 23:23
  Speaker 5: can plug in and make sure.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a backup system is always handed.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: I would agree, And fortunately companies like Warren and others
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: have learned you can't just provide people with only a
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: wireless you know, you know where it uses radio frequency
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: to operate the winch. There needs to be a mechanical,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: a wired remote that you can also plug in. I
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: would never consider even consider buying buying a winch that
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: only had remote. Now, of course, those of US that
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: are more mechanically inclined. If that thing totally stuffs up
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: and you can't get it to pair, there's ways around it.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Pull that little solenoid box off. That's when you start
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: using in a jumper.
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: We're in the remote track on a track in Tasmania
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: and had to use the winch and for some reason
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: one of the solenoids it wouldn't pull in but would
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: pull out.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: Right, so you just get it, pull it all apart
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: and sort the solenoids around and rewire it and.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Yes, sort of pull in. I can pull it out
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: manually myself. That's so.
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: Yeah, a little bit of that outback challenge knowledge that
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: it comes into play.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you made it.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: You made a plan that made it, that made it work.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: What were some other things that you learned in your competitions,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: like working with others, working with your teammate. What were
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: some of the things that you did as a team
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: to help you be so successful.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: I think being of the same mindset certainly is critically important. Yeah,
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: and not sort.
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: Of trying to You've got to have someone to make
• 24:45
  Speaker 5: the decision and someone to lead the process. If you
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: are in a situation, someone's got to call it, and
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: you've got to trust the other side that if he's
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: outside and says look stop, then that you got to
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: take that lead from them as.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Well for sure. Yeah.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, once you get your spotter out of the vehicle,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: they're in charge.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: That's on.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: You're just you're there the monkey. You're the monkey operating
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: the controls. Yeah, and you really have to trust your spotter.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: And when we can relate that back to travel for
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: those that are listening, when's the last time you and
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: your partner worked through a scenario together? So it's you know,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: husband and wife team. The wife is a great driver,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: she competes in the rebel rallies. She's got all of
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: this experience with recovery, but her husband needs an accountant.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: He doesn't do that stuff. When's the last time that
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: she taught him how to do that stuff? So you
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: really want to make sure that whoever you're traveling with
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: is comfortable marshaling you through obstacles, operating the winch. What
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: happens if the primary driver ends up with a broken leg,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: they've had a fall and they can't operate the vehicle.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Can your partner drive the truck? So those are things
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: that I think people really need to be thinking about
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: I do well.
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: I may not have had the occasion. My wife was
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: never involved than competition, but we've been in situations where
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: we've had to winch and.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Say, right, okay, this is what you're doing.
• 26:05
  Speaker 5: He go through the learning process, you set it up,
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: and you do a dummy run on all these sorts
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: of things.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And what a neat memory that you guys. I mean,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: how long have you and your wife been traveling together?
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: Basically all our life, all our married life certainly, I
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: mean we're all camping from from day one. We were
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: married at twenty one on what seventy five?
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Now, that's yeah, that's so.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: Look, our honeymoon was camping.
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, yes, we had a couple of days
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: in a nice barrier Refinling. But then we went to
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: Canarvan Gorge and camp and we went out there with
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: the v W and Bob the v W a campsite.
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: So we spent a married night in the back of
• 26:44
  Speaker 5: the backseat of the v W in a swamp.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah. But how cool is it?
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: I mean it's just it's amazing memories and you know, like,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: how do what have you guys learned as a couple.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's an incredible feat to you know, to
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: now being married for over fifty years and to have
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: had so much time together. How did you guys learn
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: to work together? And what advice would you give to
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: a young couple that was about ready to do their
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: own travels around the world.
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: Probably listen to your partner and yeah, and and modify
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: your desires to suit.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: The desires as well too.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: A little give and take.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, lit'tle bit of give and take.
• 27:22
  Speaker 5: I mean that's why we travel three months on, three
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: months off, and then I've read yeah, Rock, just keep
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: punching away. But we have made that arrangement and it works.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: So you guys found a compromise.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Compromise and to compromise. It works for both of us.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: I do like that strategy though, of I mean, I
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: think a lot of times people will say, Okay, I'm
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: going to go take the trip of a lifetime, and
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: they pack it all into a year or two or whatever,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: and they're just so exhausted by the end of it.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: I have found for myself personally that I don't really
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: like to be out for more than about three months.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: I like to come back and spend time with my
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: dad partner, and you know, spend time working on the
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: content that I pulled in, spend time with the team.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: I love my business.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: In the next for too.
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, go to the doctor, you know, get go
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: do something fun, you know, go out and have.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: That's good. It's good to stay on top of it
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: to be healthy, that's right, exactly. Yeah.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: I like that tempo of of those couple months off,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: a couple of months on, and I think more people
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: should consider that. I think that would help them travel
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: for longer. Sometimes you can work out an arrangement with
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: your employer where you can come in and out of
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: projects and do those kinds of things that I first
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: started to be able to do that because I was
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: a I was a consultant. I was a software consultant.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: So I would do a big project and then the
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: project would finish and I could go travel, and then
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: I would travel until the next big project started, which
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: sometimes it was a couple of weeks, sometimes it was
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: a month, And that really gave me the opportunity to
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: get out and start to explore. So you can oftentimes
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: find work that supports that. And you're case because you
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: founded several businesses yourself. You and your family, your son
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: and your team can operate the business while you're away.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah. The other thing people ask, what do
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: you do with the vehicle when your fly back home?
• 29:14
  Speaker 5: Well, I sort of think I sort of say, okay, look,
• 29:16
  Speaker 5: you can pay for storage, which I'm doing next week.
• 29:20
  Speaker 5: Making create a friend someone's got a barn somewhere. I
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: found up quite often to a FUSO dealer in the
• 29:27
  Speaker 5: States when they were operating through time Back and Seek.
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: Can I steward here? And they were delighted to have
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: a truck sitting in their yard. They do a service
• 29:36
  Speaker 5: for me gratus, which was wonderful, but they got a
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: benefit and say did I out of it too?
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think it's getting more and more possible
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: to do that. I mean, you know, in Panama there's
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: the Overland I can't remember when everything's overland something, but
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: you know there's a there's basically like a hostel that
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: also will store the vehicles down there. You know, even
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: in Prescott, you know Matt Scott who's my co host
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: on the podcast, and I you know, we occupy this
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: commercial space. We offer up spaces for people to be
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: able to store their truck because it's all locked up
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: and they people want to come to Prescott anyways, it's
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: a nice, nice spot along the journey. So we're finding
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: more and more people are starting to offer that kind
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: of storage of vehicles around the world. Yeah, yeah, makes
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: a big difference. And yeah, don't be afraid to leave it.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: I remember one time when I was doing Expedition seven,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: that trip where we took the land cruisers to all
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: seven continents. We needed to leave them in Mendoza, and
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: I did a bunch of research and there was no
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: limit on how long you could leave it at the airport,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: and there was no daily fee.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: Wow. Perfect.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: So I pulled it into the airport, tucked it up
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: underneath a sunshade, you know, shut it off, just connected
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: the batteries, left on, left to go home for a
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: month or two, came back and there nected the batteries
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: back up again, fired right up.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: It was fantastic.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that's still the case, but but
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: you can definitely find places to leave cars. Yeah, and
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: don't be afraid to do that. The only limitations, and
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: you got to know where you're traveling in the world.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Sometimes temporary your tip, your temporary import process won't allow
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: you to leave the country without without some other process,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: or there's a limited amount of time that you can
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: leave the vehicle in the country, or you're sometimes limited
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: by the length of your carney. So you want to
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: make sure that you're paying attention to coming to playing.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: So make sure you're paying attention to that. Don't get
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: yourself in trouble. You know, there's people that have gotten
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: turned back at the airport that show up to leave,
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: and the and the customs places. Hey you still have
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: where's your vehicle at?
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: You know, why are you flying out? Did you sell it?
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, that can make it complicated for sure. Of
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: all the places that you've been around the world, I
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: mean you've literally driven around the world many times. What's
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: one of your most favorites?
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: Sorry sorry, Mongolia?
• 31:55
  Speaker 5: Okay, Mongolia is the size of the sort of lesson
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: the US. Yeah, when we were there, there were one
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: hundred kilometers of gazette roads. Everything else is by direction.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: If you want to you're a noltavatar, I want to
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: go to the next town, you log in the GPS
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: direct coordinates, Yeah.
• 32:13
  Speaker 5: And you drive it down that river valley or I
• 32:15
  Speaker 5: with that mount Ryan Durrett through the forest. They there's
• 32:17
  Speaker 5: no fences in Mongoli. Yes, so it's true over landing
• 32:21
  Speaker 5: because you are across country.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's Brett.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: The people are beautiful, yeah yeah, and the little families
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: that you know in the yur It's one of my
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: favorite stories. I was when I was driving across the
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: northern end of Mongolia to Lumba Tar from Russia. I
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: had stopped and camped out for the night. I was
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: in this little nemo tent and I was getting ready
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: in the morning, and this little little boy just like
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: crawls into my tent and just sits there and watches it.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Because it's totally normal, yes, for him to be able
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: to because his whole fam his whole family is in
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: one tent.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: Yep, so it'd feel totally normal.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: This little kid just out of there and he was
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: just adorable and look, yeah, he just that ended it up.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: I just he was very respectful, but he was very
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: curious what I was up to. So I'm rolling up
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: my sleeping pad and all that stuff, you know, And
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: then I get to meet his father and then then
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: and we had a fresh apple. I don't remember where
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: we got it, but we had an apple, and I
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: gave him the apple, and next thing, you know, his
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: other sons coming down with a camel, had to ride
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: a camera.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: He was just, yeah, wonderful. I got stories like that.
• 33:21
  Speaker 5: So we're in a June valley and the guy comes
• 33:24
  Speaker 5: down and he's on his jack and all these goats
• 33:27
  Speaker 5: and heard of animals, and we're sitting there where your
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: wife still drawing pictures of animals and asking him how
• 33:34
  Speaker 5: many he's got.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And then he brings out the vodka.
• 33:37
  Speaker 5: We have a few drinks, and then he invites us
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: back to his family the next morning. And you invited
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: us for breakfast, which was wonderful experience.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: I just couldn't quite heck the vodka breakfast breakfast.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: Say, they do wash most of the things down with
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: bode that or the ferment the water fermented Mary's milk. Yeah,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: they have in the doorway.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah that's that. Stuff is rough, Yeah, stuff is rough.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Quite Yeah, I was grateful for the vodka wash that down.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well yeah, the people in your meet traveling, it's
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: just yeah.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: So Mongolia is one of your favorites. What would be
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: the next one that comes to mind?
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: I think you'd have to say just South America.
• 34:20
  Speaker 5: Generally Australia doesn't have the mountains that South America has,
• 34:24
  Speaker 5: and the scenery is just spectacular diversity of scenery from
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: your your deserts and Bolivia and the rainforests of the
• 34:33
  Speaker 5: br three y nine sugar back into the Amazon jungle
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: which we drove was Britain.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: When did you drive that twenty fourteen that.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: I thought about doing. That's one of the trips in
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: South America I'd love to do because I've never been
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: to Brazil.
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah, bridgiant plate the bridges for my wife wouldn't sit
• 34:50
  Speaker 5: the vehicle where you drove across the bridges because when
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: you drive on them, apart from us putting stumps underneath
• 34:56
  Speaker 5: and more logs and more rocks, the bridge still sways
• 34:59
  Speaker 5: like this vehicle a cross that's like take a breath
• 35:04
  Speaker 5: and take up religion.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: What do yeah?
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that that's supposed to be a really great round.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: I know that they're actively improving it to make it
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: easier to get into the into the jungle and into
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: the rainforest, so I know I need to go sooner
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: than later before it becomes paved.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: So we met a bike rider coming going south.
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: We passed him, and he was proudly saying, I'm going
• 35:29
  Speaker 5: to be the first bike rider to ever do this
• 35:32
  Speaker 5: three one nine trip thirty ks. Further on in that travels,
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: we met a bike rider coming north, yeah, saying I'm
• 35:38
  Speaker 5: going to be the first one I really would love
• 35:42
  Speaker 5: to feed on.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: Because I guarantee their speed and no question. How funny
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: is that?
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: How funny is that? Yeah, it's it's really easy to
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: try to attach ourselves. So those those competitive components of travel,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I think I think
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: So America is really special. The food's great roads or
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: grade mountains are beautiful.
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: I mean we're preying while camping and people friendly and
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: not worried about you. No, they're really aren't.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Their territory and camping is quite it's a part of
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: the Argentine culture and they do camp down there, so
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: they used to seeing people out camping out, you know.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: And you think about even where we're sitting right now.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: We're at over seven thousand feet here in Flagstaff, the
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Overland Expo, which is already two thousand feet higher than Costkiasco.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Well you looking like that, and you and I are
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: just sitting here having a chat. Yeah, and we're we're
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: you know what would that be five six hundred meters
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: higher than Costkiasco.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: Which at the highest mountain of the STrenD. Yeah, that's incredible.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: Yes, so the world is highly varied.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: I continue a quick story that believe you're in South America. Yeah,
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: please do.
• 36:50
  Speaker 5: We were Ife and I alone, traveling into Thursday. We
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: went looking for puts casting in the sun Dance kids.
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: They have grave site because he used to rob coaches
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: down there, so we're looking.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: For their burial.
• 37:04
  Speaker 5: Side overnight went minus fifteen. Diesel froze, water froze. We
• 37:10
  Speaker 5: actually had a flat tire at the same time, and
• 37:13
  Speaker 5: I wouldn't say we were lost in the desert, but
• 37:15
  Speaker 5: we were certainly remote and not a soul around. The
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: next morning, it was cold right, wouldn't start because the
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: diesel had turned to us like a slushy bit of
• 37:26
  Speaker 5: a gel a gel. So I finished up taking the
• 37:29
  Speaker 5: exhaust pipe out of the diesel. Heater ran that into
• 37:33
  Speaker 5: the fuel tank, melted the fuel, which managed to get
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: us started, which then managed to we managed to push
• 37:39
  Speaker 5: the vehicle around so the sunshine was also on the
• 37:42
  Speaker 5: fuel tank side and that managed to self recover out
• 37:45
  Speaker 5: of that experience.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: Well, that's a great story. And then when it was running,
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: you could run the air compressor and yeah, changed the tire.
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: But we ever got out of there just logically thinking well,
• 37:58
  Speaker 5: what's the next move you want should do?
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: And then did you end up finding which Cassidy's grave?
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: No, we didn't know it was to you said, enough
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: of that enough if people.
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: Don't realize how high that Altiplano is, I mean that
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: is such fine co is you're driving around at fourteen
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: thousand feet.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there very high. But you made it to solardi Us.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, yeah, we've never been there. What'd you think
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: of the salar?
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: Oh fantastic.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it looks beautiful.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: And a special thanks to Hankook Tire for supporting this
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: week's podcast. With Summer Underway, head over to Expedition Portal
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: dot com for jeep Beach Vibe inspiration. Our team spent
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: the weekend with Handcook Dinapro Tire at this year's twenty
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: twenty six Jeep beachweak in Daytona, Florida, and took a
• 38:48
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• 38:52
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• 38:56
  Speaker 4: dot com.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: It's a really impressive country.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: So what's what for your planning going forward? Is there
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: a spot on the map you still want to make
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: it to.
• 39:06
  Speaker 5: When there's a couple of holes to fill in we
• 39:08
  Speaker 5: haven't done when I fly Ham this time i'll come
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: back and we'll do three months Florida Everglades.
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: You haven't been in that area, then yes, I'd like
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: to see one of the spaceships sort of God nor
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: woued you. I'd like to tick that box.
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: Even we spend another three months again in the eastern
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: part the western parts of the US, or more than
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: like people probably.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: Ship to the Europe. We haven't done.
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: Eastern Europe is one other places on a map i'd
• 39:35
  Speaker 5: like to do. We've I mean, as I said, seventy
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: five of b another five years of healthy life.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: I'm hoping hopefully than right, but I mean that's what
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: we're planning for in five years of travel on or.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: Off, and Eastern Europe would be fantastic in a vehicle
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: like this. I mean, you know, just some of the
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: back roads in Albania were just awesome for driving there,
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: you know, through the Balkans in that eastern part of Europe,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: you could still overland for you know, days at a
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: time on remote roads. That's much less the case unless
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: you're in like Portugal there's some longer trips, or in Spain,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: but for the most part of Europe there's just not
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: a lot of But there's so much to see there
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: is that people will say I can't go in the
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: back country in Europe. I'm like, well, but there's thousands
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: of years of history to enjoy.
• 40:21
  Speaker 5: It's history and off Friday and the people and the
• 40:27
  Speaker 5: great food museums.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: Just go enjoy a different kind of trip, Yeah, for sure.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: Society, different culture. Yeah, that's what traveling is. All of that.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: I would agree, I would agree. What advice would you
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: give if you were to sit down and either chat
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: with your younger self or with another couple that was
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: just getting ready to start traveling, how would you help
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: them make decisions around their vehicle? You know, what, what
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: are the basics that they need to get started? What
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: are some things that you think people need to be considering?
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: Certainly have touched by some traveling light is critical. What
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: you don't need in two weeks you don't need in
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: two months or two years. Apart from medical and recovery gear.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: So maybe a couple of spars, yeah, I.
• 41:10
  Speaker 5: Mean your spas, yes, But I mean as far as
• 41:13
  Speaker 5: taking stuff, and I've got the biggest problem is people
• 41:16
  Speaker 5: have got space and they will oh, what can I
• 41:19
  Speaker 5: put in there? And they walk around the house that
• 41:21
  Speaker 5: I might need that and fill that hole if you
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: don't need it. I mean i'd even when we ship
• 41:27
  Speaker 5: the first time, as we're going back each time, I
• 41:30
  Speaker 5: always took stuff back I wasn't using it.
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: Don't carry it, yeah, fly back with it, fly back
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: with it, take it back home again.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: Get it out of there, give it or donate it away.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: Give it away absolutely no. I think that's important advice.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: Keep it late. And also if you buy a fewer things,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: you have more money for diesel, or you have more
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: money for visas, or you can stay out a little
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: bit longer, maybe continue your journeys. Being able to budget
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: for that is really important.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: We tend not to buy souvenirs per se.
• 42:02
  Speaker 5: Something nice from each country is always nice, but we
• 42:05
  Speaker 5: try and sort of take back home what is important
• 42:09
  Speaker 5: to us. If you find something on the beach just
• 42:12
  Speaker 5: means something and reflects back to that.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: A shell or yeah, something like that. Yeah, I do
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: the same thing. They're not much for the trinkets and
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: stuff like that, but yeah, certainly the.
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: Foota they're not made in the country of origin Fortunes.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, that's very much the case. Well, let's talk a
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: little bit about your camper business. We're sitting in your
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: personal camper right now, built on a FUSO chassis. What's
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: the name of your business.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: It's Australian Adventure Vehicles.
• 42:39
  Speaker 5: The name of the product is a Global Explorer. Obviously,
• 42:42
  Speaker 5: it comes from the background of where we are at.
• 42:44
  Speaker 5: Built for primarily around Australia, because I guess you'd say
• 42:48
  Speaker 5: ninety five percent of my clients of these vehicles are
• 42:52
  Speaker 5: doing around Australia. Look, yeah, there's probably six or seven
• 42:56
  Speaker 5: trucks that are international, which.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: I try and encourage. Yeah, be proud of that.
• 43:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's good and I'm proud also that two or
• 43:04
  Speaker 5: three people have come here over the Overland Expose show
• 43:08
  Speaker 5: and sort of said, well, I bought a different vehicle,
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: but it was you who encouraged.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: Me to travel the world. So yeah, I think that's
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: a nice box to tick.
• 43:15
  Speaker 5: I'm sort of rather proud that I've encouraged others to
• 43:19
  Speaker 5: get out there and explore more than just their backyard.
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: You absolutely have.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: I mean they shared the story of you inspiring me,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: you know, almost twenty years ago. Now I read that
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: first trip of you doing Russia, so you know that
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: obviously the work that you did with Earth Cruiser built
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: a great brand there. Still that's still going in Australia.
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: And then there's another company after that called Travel Trucks,
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: which I built up with based on the Vecco Daily.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: Sure again I got ischy feet and saw that onto
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: my business partner.
• 43:49
  Speaker 5: Yes, yes, and now I couldn't help myself again, very
• 43:53
  Speaker 5: tired five times and back again.
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: But now your son gets gray Soun's great. How cool
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: is that? Great ideas?
• 44:00
  Speaker 5: So I come back and say, well, we'll tweak this
• 44:03
  Speaker 5: a little bit here and tweak that there, and we've
• 44:05
  Speaker 5: got a new product in production at the moment along
• 44:08
  Speaker 5: the same almost exactly the same layout, but just tweak
• 44:11
  Speaker 5: or ems in there. Clients want more and more of
• 44:16
  Speaker 5: everything these days, and everything a thousand wats of sol
• 44:19
  Speaker 5: or an eight hundred or twelve hundred wats of amp
• 44:22
  Speaker 5: pounds of lithium.
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: Batteries and just improved again from my experience out there
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: and playing with the product.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: Do you still have that website going that has all
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: the story go AA tracks?
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, so spell that spell that out for the
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: is it a straighted lizard?
• 44:37
  Speaker 5: So g O A W N A one word t
• 44:40
  Speaker 5: R A c k S dot com Yeah, yeah, not
• 44:44
  Speaker 5: au just dot com.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: Those stories are awesome, those photos are incredible seeing seeing
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: a fosol just like crashing out of this hole on
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: the road of bone. I mean I saw that when
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: I was eyes wide like that is that it was
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: so incredible that that kind.
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: Of crop wheels off, which is a little bit beyond
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: but sometimes you got to meet to do it.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: Was land Rover says, you know, as slow as possible,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: but as fast as necessary. In that case, that was
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: as fast as what it is. Yeah, that's right exactly.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: And then do you guys have any social media accounts
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: that you can point people to really up for the business.
• 45:24
  Speaker 5: So the business yes, ww dot I V four x
• 45:28
  Speaker 5: four dot com is a straight at adventure vehicles. Okay,
• 45:32
  Speaker 5: that's got a lot of product on there, based for
• 45:34
  Speaker 5: either the FUSA Canada or the Iuzu NPS.
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: Four by four as well too. We build on both platforms.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Kim, it's been such an honor for me to
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: interview you. You're an inspiration so to so many people.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: I'm incredibly proud of what you've accomplished in all of
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: your travels. Just looking at that map out there on
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: the side of your camper is just it's so humbling
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: to see what you guys have done, and I just
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: I'm really grateful that I had the chance to sit
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: down with you ask you about your life and your
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: incredible journeys. So those that are listening, please take a
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: look at Kim's travels. They're just out of this world.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: You think Camel Trophy was cool, Wait, do you see
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: what Kim did? Yeah, thank you, thank you, and thank
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: you for your for the book.
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah no, well again, like, well, you can give me
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: some updates so I can add it to the next
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: version of it. So thank you so much, Kim, absolutely,
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: and we thank you all for listening, and we'll talk
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: to you next time.