Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Gratitude from Nairobi: Crossing Africa Segment 2, Grenadier Reliability, and Travel Gear Lessons

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Gratitude from Nairobi: Crossing Africa Segment 2, Grenadier Reliability, and Travel Gear Lessons · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
0:04
Speaker 1: Scott Brady, and I'm recording this podcast today on a
0:09
Speaker 1: very rainy day in Nairobi, Kenya, having just completed segment
0:15
Speaker 1: two of our trip across the continent of Africa in
0:18
Speaker 1: the Grenadier and I have so much to be grateful for.
0:23
Speaker 1: This podcast is going to go live just about a
0:27
Speaker 1: week before Thanksgiving in the United States, and I know
0:30
Speaker 1: that not everyone in the world celebrates Thanksgiving in the
0:33
Speaker 1: same way that Americans do, but I know that it's
0:35
Speaker 1: a day that so many in the world can connect with,
0:39
Speaker 1: can relate to, and they have their own holidays around gratitude.
0:43
Speaker 1: But I really want to focus in this particular podcast
0:47
Speaker 1: about gratitude. The gratitude that I have to be in
0:50
Speaker 1: a place as special as the continent of Africa, the
0:54
Speaker 1: gratitude that I have for all of you that listen
0:56
Speaker 1: to and support this podcast, and the people in my life, family,
1:00
Speaker 1: my loved ones, the team back in Arizona that makes
1:05
Speaker 1: all of this possible. So I just really want to
1:07
Speaker 1: focus on gratitude today when I share all of our
1:11
Speaker 1: updates and some other information about traveling in Africa and
1:15
Speaker 1: the equipment that we've been using. And a special thanks
1:18
Speaker 1: to kuwat Racks for their support of this week's podcast.
1:23
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1:29
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1:43
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1:46
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1:49
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1:55
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1:58
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2:02
Speaker 1: For more details, please visit kuat dot com. Kuat because
2:07
Speaker 1: you will absolutely love this bedrack. So just want to
2:11
Speaker 1: bring it all back to this whole idea of gratitude,
2:15
Speaker 1: and for me personally, it really does come down to
2:20
Speaker 1: after having been in this industry for over two decades
2:24
Speaker 1: and having seen so much change, so much growth, and
2:29
Speaker 1: so many new companies and so many people coming into
2:32
Speaker 1: the space, that to be able to twenty plus years later,
2:37
Speaker 1: be able to be sitting in a vehicle as exciting
2:39
Speaker 1: as the Grenadier and crossing one of my favorite continents
2:43
Speaker 1: on the planet. I just am overwhelmed by thankfulness for
2:48
Speaker 1: the fact that this is even possible, the fact that
2:50
Speaker 1: I have my health to be able to do it,
2:52
Speaker 1: the fact that my family and loved ones have been
2:55
Speaker 1: so supportive of my journey, the fact that the team,
3:00
Speaker 1: the Overland International team, has made all of this possible,
3:04
Speaker 1: and then most important to all of you that are listening,
3:07
Speaker 1: our listeners and our readers that make not only Overland
3:12
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3:19
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3:26
Speaker 1: first issue. We started the business in two thousand and six,
3:28
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3:32
Speaker 1: decade just with the magazine, and as a gratitude to
3:37
Speaker 1: all of you that subscribe and support the magazine around
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Speaker 1: what is traditionally very consumers focus day on Black Friday,
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Speaker 1: we want to offer a big discount to those of
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Speaker 1: twenty three. So that way, if you've missed a couple
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4:23
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4:32
Speaker 1: and those that listen to and subscribe to the podcast.
4:36
Speaker 1: So it'll be our biggest discount we've ever offered on
4:41
Speaker 1: the subscription to the magazine that we care so much about.
4:45
Speaker 1: And we're an independent publication. We're veteran owned, women owned,
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Speaker 1: where employee owned publication, and we focus all of our
4:56
Speaker 1: energy on good journalism, on and not doing any advertorial.
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Speaker 1: We've never done any vertorial and Overland Journal and continuing
5:05
Speaker 1: to test the products that all of you really do
5:08
Speaker 1: rely on sometimes your life relies on our recommendation, So
5:11
Speaker 1: it's really important to us. And you can hear the
5:13
Speaker 1: rain starting right now. And I'm also so thankful to
5:17
Speaker 1: my family. I'm so thankful to my dad. I lost
5:22
Speaker 1: my mom a few years ago, and it was devastating
5:24
Speaker 1: for our entire family, and it was particularly devastating to
5:27
Speaker 1: my father. They had been married for almost fifty four years.
5:31
Speaker 1: They were teenage sweethearts that met at a Christian camp
5:35
Speaker 1: up in Big Bear, California, and it was just a
5:39
Speaker 1: real devastating loss for our family. But I am so
5:42
Speaker 1: thankful that I have my father in my life and
5:45
Speaker 1: that we get to spend the time together that we do.
5:48
Speaker 1: He's just recently had some medical issues that he's working through,
5:51
Speaker 1: and it makes me all the more grateful that I
5:54
Speaker 1: have him with me. The loss of my mom is
5:58
Speaker 1: beyond devastating, but the fact that I still have my
6:01
Speaker 1: dad means so much to me, and I'm so grateful
6:04
Speaker 1: for him and all of his support and my mom's
6:06
Speaker 1: support throughout my entire life. I just think it's important
6:10
Speaker 1: to remind kids that they can do what they have
6:14
Speaker 1: their heart set out to do, that they can dream big,
6:17
Speaker 1: and it's just really important to not tell them that
6:20
Speaker 1: you can't, because a lot of times that's our own
6:23
Speaker 1: insecurity is being projected onto those kids. And when a
6:26
Speaker 1: kid says, hey, I want to be an astronaut, just
6:28
Speaker 1: say that sounds amazing. How can I help? And they
6:31
Speaker 1: may find out on their own that that's not something
6:33
Speaker 1: that they want to do, but you certainly don't want
6:35
Speaker 1: to discourage them, especially when they're young. So I'm so
6:37
Speaker 1: grateful for my parents for always encouraging me to like, hey,
6:40
Speaker 1: I want to drive around the world. I want to
6:42
Speaker 1: travel around the world, And my dad says, it's not
6:44
Speaker 1: something that I would want to do, but tell me
6:46
Speaker 1: what I can do to help, And I love you
6:48
Speaker 1: and I support you, and that has made all the
6:50
Speaker 1: difference for me. And I'm also just grateful to my
6:56
Speaker 1: girlfriend Tavia. She has recently joined me on this trip.
6:59
Speaker 1: We haven't been to together all that long, and we
7:02
Speaker 1: decided to go spend a month in Africa together. And
7:05
Speaker 1: I'll share a little bit more about that in a
7:07
Speaker 1: few minutes about our experience having traveled together. Her passport,
7:13
Speaker 1: it was brand new and the first stamp that she
7:15
Speaker 1: received in it was South Africa, so there's a lot
7:18
Speaker 1: to share around traveling with someone that you really care about.
7:23
Speaker 1: And then also to the Overland International team. Paula Burr,
7:27
Speaker 1: our producer who works so tirelessly to put all of
7:30
Speaker 1: these podcasts together. She's recovering from a minor surgery and
7:35
Speaker 1: so we can all wish her the best and a
7:38
Speaker 1: rapid recovery because we need her. She does some amazing
7:41
Speaker 1: work around the podcast and all of the videos that
7:43
Speaker 1: you see on our YouTube channel. And then to the
7:46
Speaker 1: broader Overland International team. It's just been such a joy
7:50
Speaker 1: to work with these incredible individuals now for almost twenty years.
7:55
Speaker 1: Most of our staff is still with us from the
7:57
Speaker 1: very beginning, so just very grateful for that and grateful
8:01
Speaker 1: for their continued supportive of this adventure. So let's talk
8:06
Speaker 1: a little bit about the Africa trip. So the trip
8:10
Speaker 1: is now coming to close. The second segment. We were
8:14
Speaker 1: able to cross the equator, so traveled from the Southern
8:17
Speaker 1: Hemisphere into the Northern Hemisphere in Kenya and actually able
8:21
Speaker 1: to tie up with some previous trips that I had
8:23
Speaker 1: done through Kenya and Uganda and into South Sudan with
8:28
Speaker 1: the Mercedes g Wagon ent Decker, which is a really
8:31
Speaker 1: interesting vehicle if no one's ever looked one up. They
8:35
Speaker 1: were built by Unicat by Stanley Illman and his friend
8:39
Speaker 1: Alex Beckeria to a very unique overland spec and in
8:44
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen I drove through Kenya and Uganda into South
8:47
Speaker 1: Sudan with those vehicles. So being able to kind of
8:50
Speaker 1: tie into that original route was it felt like a
8:55
Speaker 1: row milestone for the trip, and to be able to
8:57
Speaker 1: cross into the Northern Hemisphere with the grenade also felt
9:01
Speaker 1: like a real joy. We were able to leave Dar
9:06
Speaker 1: Salam and travel up the coast of Tanzania through a
9:09
Speaker 1: new national park called Saddani. Very hot rains have come early,
9:15
Speaker 1: so things got pretty spicy with the mud, and it
9:19
Speaker 1: was just so grateful that we didn't get stuck in
9:21
Speaker 1: the middle of a park filled with lion and hyena
9:23
Speaker 1: and everything else like that. Of course we would have
9:26
Speaker 1: figured it out, but it would have been a little bit.
9:28
Speaker 1: It would have been slightly terrifying, but it was just
9:32
Speaker 1: a beautiful part of the country. And from there we
9:35
Speaker 1: went into what's called the Usumbara Mountains, and it's not
9:39
Speaker 1: a very well known area for overlanders, and you go
9:42
Speaker 1: into a little town called Leschoto, go there's some there's
9:47
Speaker 1: some really neat places to stay. But the one place
9:49
Speaker 1: that we did stay, it's called the Paradise. It's an
9:55
Speaker 1: eco farm and it's just run by a guy that
9:59
Speaker 1: sees an overline or two and he's making a go
10:02
Speaker 1: of it, and it's really neat place to camp, super inexpensive,
10:05
Speaker 1: but it's actually like a proper four drive road to
10:08
Speaker 1: get up there, so it makes it kind of fun.
10:10
Speaker 1: And then we went on a very remote route north
10:14
Speaker 1: from there through one of the most incredible open markets.
10:17
Speaker 1: We actually drove through this market because it was the
10:20
Speaker 1: main road of people swarming everywhere, and it probably took
10:24
Speaker 1: us thirty minutes to get through about four hundred five
10:27
Speaker 1: hundred meters of the road. But it was absolutely incredible,
10:31
Speaker 1: the vibrancy of it, the excitement, and it was really
10:35
Speaker 1: fun to see them excited about the fact that we
10:40
Speaker 1: were there and experiencing a really cool market. And then
10:46
Speaker 1: we continued through there and headed north and this route
10:50
Speaker 1: gets really remote and you need to have plenty of
10:53
Speaker 1: fuel and you need to kind of have your wits
10:56
Speaker 1: about you because when the rain comes in it can
10:57
Speaker 1: get really challenging and there's some really steep switchbacks and
11:01
Speaker 1: some heavily eroded areas, and they get in what's called
11:05
Speaker 1: black cotton soil on the northern slope as well, so
11:08
Speaker 1: that can be very, very challenging in the mud, but
11:11
Speaker 1: we made it through and then continued on from there.
11:14
Speaker 1: I really wanted to be able to go and drive
11:18
Speaker 1: a route that's always been on my bucket list to
11:20
Speaker 1: go around the northern slopes of Kilimanjaro, and I think
11:25
Speaker 1: it's a great overland route. It takes a couple of days.
11:28
Speaker 1: It's something you could start in Darsalam with a rented
11:31
Speaker 1: vehicle and do a big loop. But it's just very
11:34
Speaker 1: beautiful and it's really it's really powerful to be on
11:39
Speaker 1: the foothills on the slopes of the largest mountain, the
11:43
Speaker 1: tallest mountain in the continent of Africa at over nineteen
11:47
Speaker 1: thousand feet. It's one of the seven Summits and it
11:50
Speaker 1: looms large in the background, and we were driving along
11:54
Speaker 1: and through the clouds, Tavia says, look, we can see
12:00
Speaker 1: the summit, and we hadn't been able to see the
12:02
Speaker 1: summit up to that point. And I was able to
12:04
Speaker 1: pull the Grenadier over and get that classic photograph with
12:09
Speaker 1: the mountain in the background. Still some glacier up there
12:12
Speaker 1: on the top they're melting rapidly, but it is just
12:16
Speaker 1: a beautiful route. We continued on from there towards a
12:20
Speaker 1: mountain called Meru, Mount Mehrw and Mount mehrew Is. It's
12:27
Speaker 1: one of the most beautiful mountains in Africa. It is
12:31
Speaker 1: this classic peak and there is a RuSHA National Park
12:35
Speaker 1: which we decided not to go into the park because
12:38
Speaker 1: there is an overland route that goes right along the
12:40
Speaker 1: border of the park and it is also very remote,
12:45
Speaker 1: low range at times got a lot more technical and
12:48
Speaker 1: we didn't see another overland vehicle the entire time. In fact,
12:52
Speaker 1: we didn't see anything other than motorcycles and locals, and
12:55
Speaker 1: there was a couple of the National Park rangers that
12:59
Speaker 1: were moving around the northern part of the park. So
13:03
Speaker 1: it was a very very interesting areas. It's part of
13:06
Speaker 1: the Massai Lands, so you get to engage with the
13:08
Speaker 1: Masai people and it's also very arid. It's kind of
13:12
Speaker 1: in a rain shadow from the mountains and it makes
13:15
Speaker 1: it a very unique place to visit. And then from
13:19
Speaker 1: there we finally got to go into and Gore and Goro,
13:22
Speaker 1: which is it's basically like Disneyland. Of the safari parks
13:27
Speaker 1: in the world, they've got the Big Five. It is
13:32
Speaker 1: packed with wildlife and they really are in this little
13:35
Speaker 1: ecosystem down in this massive crater, and you have to
13:40
Speaker 1: pay a separate fee to travel with your vehicle down
13:43
Speaker 1: into the crater. But it is very very cool to experience,
13:49
Speaker 1: and within minutes we were face to face with lions
13:52
Speaker 1: and then saw rhino and massive herds of zebra and
13:57
Speaker 1: wildebeeste and hippo, all of it. So it was just
14:02
Speaker 1: an incredible thing. And that was actually the one of
14:05
Speaker 1: the first times that I had been able to just
14:07
Speaker 1: remove these Safari windows. The rain's really coming down now, Okay,
14:20
Speaker 1: the rains slowed down a little bit, so we're going
14:24
Speaker 1: to try to keep recording here. But then Gore and
14:27
Speaker 1: Gora was one of the first times that I was
14:29
Speaker 1: actually to take able to take kind of full use
14:32
Speaker 1: of these Safari windows because they removed completely. I'm not
14:35
Speaker 1: going to demonstrate right now because of the rain, but
14:38
Speaker 1: they remove completely from the roof and then you can
14:42
Speaker 1: stow them in the back of the vehicle. And what
14:45
Speaker 1: that allows for you to do then is you can
14:47
Speaker 1: stand on the seats and actually put your whole body
14:50
Speaker 1: up through the window and really get that chance to
14:53
Speaker 1: observe the animals from an elevated position. You're not allowed
14:57
Speaker 1: to get out of the vehicle in the national parks,
15:00
Speaker 1: so it's kind of like in a Safari vehicle where
15:03
Speaker 1: you can where you can be at an elevated position
15:06
Speaker 1: and really see the animals. And I really loved it.
15:11
Speaker 1: It was fun to drive around and just be standing
15:15
Speaker 1: on the seat and taking a million photographs of all
15:19
Speaker 1: of all of the animals. But in goreng Goro is
15:22
Speaker 1: just really special and I highly recommend it. Then from
15:25
Speaker 1: in goreng Goro, it was time to get into the
15:27
Speaker 1: Serengetti and the road between in gore Andoro Crater and
15:33
Speaker 1: the Serengeti National Park is one of the most rough
15:39
Speaker 1: roads that I've encountered in my travels. It would be
15:43
Speaker 1: on par with some of the worst corrugations that you
15:46
Speaker 1: would see in Australia, but it's fairly rare in Australia
15:50
Speaker 1: to encounter that degree also of embedded rock. At the
15:54
Speaker 1: same time, you can get really bad corrugations in Australia,
15:57
Speaker 1: but it's rare to have really bad, really deep corrugations
16:01
Speaker 1: and embedded rock interspersed throughout the route. And it's also
16:07
Speaker 1: I think a real challenge in Africa because so much
16:10
Speaker 1: of the traffic is done with the same vehicle, being
16:13
Speaker 1: a seventy series Safari vehicles, so it's literally the same
16:19
Speaker 1: frequency of suspension that's going over and really causing very
16:24
Speaker 1: very deep corrugations. Even if there was some bigger variety
16:28
Speaker 1: of vehicles that were traveling and it would start to
16:30
Speaker 1: help with some of that frequency that's created from the
16:33
Speaker 1: suspension to cause these corrogations. But talk about putting the
16:37
Speaker 1: Grenadier to the test. I mean, we've done thousands of
16:40
Speaker 1: kilometers now of corrogations throughout the trip in Africa, but
16:44
Speaker 1: that was hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of some of
16:48
Speaker 1: the worst corrugations I've encountered in my travels. And the
16:52
Speaker 1: vehicle fortunately didn't have any failures. If anything was to
16:56
Speaker 1: come loose on a new vehicle, it was going to
16:59
Speaker 1: be on that and nothing did, so I'm really grateful
17:02
Speaker 1: for that. And then the Serengetti was incredible. And there's
17:06
Speaker 1: a way this is another little travel tip, but there's
17:08
Speaker 1: a way to book a campsite. They're called special campsites
17:15
Speaker 1: within the Serengetti, and you actually get to book them
17:18
Speaker 1: entirely for yourself. There's nothing there, there's no bathrooms, there's
17:22
Speaker 1: no fences. A lot of times they're booked in advance
17:25
Speaker 1: by tour operators, but since we were there in the
17:30
Speaker 1: shoulder season, there was nobody there really in the park,
17:34
Speaker 1: of very few people in the park, and we were
17:36
Speaker 1: able to get one of those special campsites, and it
17:39
Speaker 1: was amazing to just roll in under an acacia tree
17:44
Speaker 1: and you look around and all you hear is the
17:47
Speaker 1: hyena and you see I mean, we went through like
17:50
Speaker 1: a whole herd of Wildeby's just to get to the campsite,
17:54
Speaker 1: and so the whole night we heard hyena and any
17:58
Speaker 1: variety of animal that our imagination could muster. And of
18:03
Speaker 1: course that early morning pea is always exciting. When it's
18:07
Speaker 1: a dark cat, you literally don't know what's just beyond
18:10
Speaker 1: the scope of the flashlight. So that was a very
18:13
Speaker 1: special experience and I'd highly recommend that. And it's not
18:16
Speaker 1: terribly expensive to camp in the park that way. It's
18:18
Speaker 1: about sixty dollars a night, so that was really neat
18:22
Speaker 1: to experience. And then from then we got to finally
18:26
Speaker 1: see Lake Victoria, never been there before, and then continue
18:30
Speaker 1: north through Tanzania to the border of Kenya where we
18:33
Speaker 1: crossed into Kenya, and then really just took our time.
18:37
Speaker 1: We slowed the pace of the trip down since we
18:39
Speaker 1: had reached that milestone and worked our way up to
18:42
Speaker 1: a place called Menuki, which is famous for being on
18:46
Speaker 1: the equator and an incredible view of Mount Kenya. We
18:51
Speaker 1: took a couple of days to kind of refresh and
18:54
Speaker 1: download content and catch up on some emails, but then
19:00
Speaker 1: able to hook up with another Grenadier owner, Abide, who
19:04
Speaker 1: is here in in Kenya in Nairobi, and Abid is
19:10
Speaker 1: one of the first, in fact, he's the very first
19:13
Speaker 1: owner of a Grenadier in Africa and one of the
19:16
Speaker 1: earliest Grenadier owners outside of Europe. And he's passionate about
19:22
Speaker 1: the brand and he has a similar respect Grenadier to
19:26
Speaker 1: this one, and he's got it lightly modified with some
19:30
Speaker 1: front runner gear and some larger mud terrain tires on
19:34
Speaker 1: some rhino wheels. And it was fun to kind of
19:38
Speaker 1: have like the first meeting or the first club meeting
19:42
Speaker 1: of the Africa Grenadier Owners Society, which was a total
19:47
Speaker 1: of two but it was really fun to travel with
19:49
Speaker 1: another Grenadier. It was super fun to travel with a
19:52
Speaker 1: beide amazing guy and really knowledgeable about his country and
19:57
Speaker 1: passionate about the vehicle. And we went to a very
20:00
Speaker 1: remote route up Mount Kenya to a place called Lake Ellis,
20:05
Speaker 1: and we tried to get there from a very obscure
20:09
Speaker 1: gate that's been closed for about three years when we
20:11
Speaker 1: were able to get special permission to go in there,
20:14
Speaker 1: but there was just too many down trees and it
20:17
Speaker 1: took us hours just to go a few kilometers. And
20:20
Speaker 1: then we decided to turn around and then head in
20:23
Speaker 1: from another direction, and just as the sun was setting,
20:26
Speaker 1: we arrived at over eleven thousand feet three thousand, almost
20:30
Speaker 1: three hundred meters and able to camp up at elevation
20:34
Speaker 1: right on the side of Mount Kenya. Beautiful high mountain lake.
20:38
Speaker 1: It's a natural lake, it's a hanging valley, and it's
20:42
Speaker 1: just a beautiful spot and another really neat place to
20:45
Speaker 1: have a campsite. And then from there moved down to Nairobi,
20:49
Speaker 1: where I'm scheduling the vehicle for some service and I'm
20:53
Speaker 1: organizing my equipment and I'm getting ready for the last
20:56
Speaker 1: segment of Africa, which will be to continue, most likely
21:00
Speaker 1: to continue north into Ethiopia, and then if Sudan opens,
21:04
Speaker 1: Sudan and Egypt, and if it does not, then I
21:07
Speaker 1: will head into Jibouti, which will get me north of
21:10
Speaker 1: the Horn of Africa, and I'll complete the crossing in Djibouti. Otherwise, hopefully,
21:17
Speaker 1: fingers cross, things get better over the next few months
21:20
Speaker 1: in Sudan and I'm able to continue through Sudan and
21:23
Speaker 1: into Egypt. Not likely, but certainly hopeful. Given that it's Thanksgiving,
21:27
Speaker 1: I'm going to be show a lot of gratitude for
21:29
Speaker 1: the possibility that might still be a thing. Let's talk
21:34
Speaker 1: about the things that I've learned on the trip around
21:38
Speaker 1: some of the equipment that I've used, and I thought
21:40
Speaker 1: it would be helpful to talk a little bit about communications,
21:44
Speaker 1: because I know that that's something that people are always
21:46
Speaker 1: very mindful of, because one of the understandable anxieties of
21:51
Speaker 1: travel is what happens if there's an emergency, or what
21:54
Speaker 1: happens if I need help, or what happens if I
21:56
Speaker 1: just need a toe or some fuel or spare hearts
22:00
Speaker 1: or whatever. And there's a lot of different solutions for that,
22:04
Speaker 1: and I have many solutions in the vehicle. Normally, when
22:08
Speaker 1: I travel solo, I don't carry quite as many things,
22:11
Speaker 1: but I have precious cargo with having Kavia with me,
22:14
Speaker 1: so I really wanted to make sure that I had
22:18
Speaker 1: multiple means of communication. And I also wanted to try
22:21
Speaker 1: out some new tools, including the starlink with the unique
22:26
Speaker 1: componentry conversion that flat mounts to the roof. And then
22:31
Speaker 1: I also wanted to try out the new Iridium Go Executive.
22:36
Speaker 1: But then I always have with me Garman in Reach.
22:41
Speaker 1: Many of you know what that is and you use them.
22:45
Speaker 1: This is about as compact and discrete of a satellite
22:49
Speaker 1: commuter communicator as you could possibly have, and it actually
22:53
Speaker 1: works as also a battery backup for your phone, so
22:57
Speaker 1: you can actually charge your phone from this. It's you
23:00
Speaker 1: USB sport. It allows for a two way power transfer,
23:04
Speaker 1: so it's really easy to kind of throw it in
23:07
Speaker 1: your bag and have it with you. I do like
23:10
Speaker 1: to actively track with a garment in reach, so I
23:12
Speaker 1: just leave it running all the time in tracking mode.
23:16
Speaker 1: I'm not doing that now because I'm in the city,
23:19
Speaker 1: but anytime that I'm moving, and the reason for that
23:21
Speaker 1: is I have people like family and some of my
23:25
Speaker 1: team members that are monitoring our progress, and that way
23:29
Speaker 1: if we were to have if the vehicle was to
23:31
Speaker 1: let's say, catch on fire and we had limited time
23:33
Speaker 1: to get out, or we got the vehicle, got swept
23:36
Speaker 1: away in rising waters, or any number of things that
23:42
Speaker 1: can happen. Those are the most likely scenarios. But then
23:45
Speaker 1: there's the course things that cross the mind, like the
23:47
Speaker 1: vehicle getting stolen or whatever. Banditry, which really doesn't happen,
23:51
Speaker 1: but I'm certainly not very often. But there's a way
23:54
Speaker 1: that the vehicle can always be tracked and our last
23:57
Speaker 1: known location. Even if that device was to get burned
24:01
Speaker 1: in a fire, somebody would know where we last were
24:05
Speaker 1: when that track point was sent. So I leave the
24:08
Speaker 1: inReach running all the time. It's also a great way
24:11
Speaker 1: to stay in touch with family and friends when you're
24:13
Speaker 1: outside of cell coverage. My primary method of communication is,
24:17
Speaker 1: of course, just a standard iPhone, and that's just because
24:23
Speaker 1: the camera's great and I use it as a backup camera.
24:27
Speaker 1: It's kind of get those impromptu photographs when you don't
24:30
Speaker 1: have another camera with you, and I use a small
24:34
Speaker 1: rig case with it because it's got quarter twenty holes
24:39
Speaker 1: in the side of it. That you can use to
24:44
Speaker 1: mount to a tripod. I can mount it to like
24:47
Speaker 1: with the cameras mounted two on the windscreen of the vehicle.
24:51
Speaker 1: Just provides other methods of documenting, you know, the experience
24:59
Speaker 1: locally around the vehicle. Simplex style communications. We use these
25:04
Speaker 1: Rocky Talkies. They've got a new five watt unit and
25:09
Speaker 1: during the trip with Abid, we he had one of
25:12
Speaker 1: the lower wattage output units and then I had the
25:15
Speaker 1: new five WAT and he was really impressed with how
25:18
Speaker 1: strong the signal came through even through some of the
25:23
Speaker 1: some of the more heavy foliaged areas and a lot
25:26
Speaker 1: of change in elevation, so really good communications from those.
25:32
Speaker 1: But any GMRS is a good solution middle and makes
25:35
Speaker 1: good radios too. I just like the fact that the
25:38
Speaker 1: that the Rocky Talkies are charged with USBC and they're
25:41
Speaker 1: super durable. The screen is also behind a protective cover
25:47
Speaker 1: so when it when it starts up, you can see
25:52
Speaker 1: this screen is just behind a super durable cover, so scratches,
26:00
Speaker 1: drops things. It's a really really durable unit. And then
26:05
Speaker 1: for doing work, for uploading content, and then the ability
26:11
Speaker 1: to even you know, run a service book on the
26:14
Speaker 1: vehicle or to do a backup of video and photos
26:21
Speaker 1: and really to be able to do you know, voice
26:24
Speaker 1: meetings with my team or to do video calls with
26:28
Speaker 1: my family. We did bring the starlink around along with
26:32
Speaker 1: us with that unique componentry flat conversion converts it to
26:38
Speaker 1: twelve volts, so it cuts the amperage draw about and
26:42
Speaker 1: a half, so I'm seeing around two amp hour draw,
26:45
Speaker 1: so similar to a fridge out of the starlink. And
26:50
Speaker 1: the starlink works incredible. I have it on the Global
26:53
Speaker 1: Mobile Plan which gives me about ten megabits a second
26:56
Speaker 1: of data rate and I didn't see quite that fast,
26:59
Speaker 1: but saw very close to it. In fact, this whole
27:03
Speaker 1: episode will be uploaded on starlink because starlink is faster
27:06
Speaker 1: than the internet at the place that I'm staying here
27:09
Speaker 1: in Nairobi, and I've used it for the last couple
27:13
Speaker 1: podcasts to upload the content. It works. It works so well.
27:16
Speaker 1: It was even able to live stream with Brian on
27:19
Speaker 1: the last podcast using the starlink, so really effective tool.
27:24
Speaker 1: I just plug it into a Dometic Power power supply
27:29
Speaker 1: small battery pack and it works great even going down
27:33
Speaker 1: the road. It works in motion and then there's a
27:36
Speaker 1: lot of questions around can you bring a starlink with
27:39
Speaker 1: you to other countries, And that's a really easy thing
27:43
Speaker 1: to answer. If you go to starlink dot com and
27:47
Speaker 1: you look at their availability map, it'll show you all
27:50
Speaker 1: of the countries where starlink is currently available or when
27:56
Speaker 1: it will be available in those countries. If there's any questions,
27:59
Speaker 1: then you can actually look up the regulations for those
28:02
Speaker 1: particular countries that you're traveling through. Currently, there's no restriction
28:06
Speaker 1: on using starlink in South Africa. Starlink is currently available
28:10
Speaker 1: and can be purchased in Mozambique. It can be used.
28:13
Speaker 1: It's approved for all uses, including by the citizen citizenry
28:18
Speaker 1: in Malawi, in Zambia and in Kenya where I'm at Currently,
28:24
Speaker 1: in Tanzania, there's no restriction on the importing of a
28:27
Speaker 1: starlink and that's going to be available for Tanzanians to
28:31
Speaker 1: purchase and use within weeks. I mean it's it is.
28:35
Speaker 1: The final decisions are pending, but at the latest it
28:38
Speaker 1: would be in the first quarter or so of next year.
28:41
Speaker 1: So it's you're currently able to use starlink without restrictions.
28:45
Speaker 1: It's not illegal, it's you're able to cross borders with
28:47
Speaker 1: it in the entire route that we've done in Sub
28:51
Speaker 1: Saharan Africa on the eastern side anywhere else. You need
28:55
Speaker 1: to really make sure you know what the regulations are
28:57
Speaker 1: around satellite communications, like, for example, in the continent of Africa,
29:04
Speaker 1: it is very restricted in Nigeria, in Chad, and in Sudan,
29:10
Speaker 1: so you would have to have approval ahead of time
29:13
Speaker 1: in order to use a starlink or any other satellite
29:17
Speaker 1: communicator in those countries, and most of the time they're
29:20
Speaker 1: not going to give you approval, and there is really
29:24
Speaker 1: good documentation of units being inspected in Sudan and really
29:32
Speaker 1: never coming out of inspection. So even if you have approval,
29:35
Speaker 1: it doesn't necessarily mean that you get to travel with it,
29:38
Speaker 1: so you just don't bring it into those countries. You
29:40
Speaker 1: can ship it back or take it back in an
29:42
Speaker 1: airplane or give it to someone to hold for you
29:45
Speaker 1: until until you come back through the airport, and that
29:49
Speaker 1: applies to the same way to any other satellite communicator.
29:53
Speaker 1: So you just need to know the regulations of the
29:54
Speaker 1: countries that you're traveling in. But the easiest one obviously
29:58
Speaker 1: to travel with is a garment in reach because it's
30:01
Speaker 1: it's also the least nefarious looking to the officials when
30:06
Speaker 1: they're inspecting your equipment. And it's also common to have
30:10
Speaker 1: all of your bags x rayed when you go through
30:12
Speaker 1: a border, So just be aware that anything that you've
30:15
Speaker 1: got with you can be x rayed and found out
30:18
Speaker 1: by the government. And as another test, because I'm just
30:23
Speaker 1: I'm really interested in a lot of this new technology
30:26
Speaker 1: that's available for communication, is the new Iridium Go Executive.
30:33
Speaker 1: This is a really small satellite communicator. It works in
30:38
Speaker 1: one of the globe, so it works at both polls.
30:44
Speaker 1: It works. I mean, it's the type of communicator that
30:48
Speaker 1: we use when we cross Greenland. We use the Iridium Go,
30:52
Speaker 1: not the new exec model. But it's very very compact
30:58
Speaker 1: when you think of it compared to a starlink. This
31:02
Speaker 1: thing is very very small, and it's also more durable.
31:07
Speaker 1: It's more weather resistant, dust resistant, it has a higher
31:10
Speaker 1: specification for those very rugged environments. You can a starlink
31:15
Speaker 1: antenna you can absolutely leave out in the rain and
31:17
Speaker 1: in the weather. But think of those of us that
31:20
Speaker 1: are traveling by motorcycle. Having this Iridium Go with us
31:27
Speaker 1: in a panier is just an easy thing. Whereas the
31:30
Speaker 1: starlink is much larger and it requires a lot more power,
31:34
Speaker 1: and it doesn't have its own battery power, so this
31:37
Speaker 1: this will run for hours of communication, and it runs
31:42
Speaker 1: at eighty eight kill abits per second, so that is
31:46
Speaker 1: much slower than a starlink, but it's fast enough to
31:51
Speaker 1: be able to do most forms of communication. Email, you
31:55
Speaker 1: can do even light web browsing. If you're trying to
31:57
Speaker 1: find out information, you can all so do two lines
32:01
Speaker 1: of phone calls, so whoever's paired with it on their smartphone,
32:06
Speaker 1: you can actually have two phone calls going at the
32:07
Speaker 1: same time. You can even get that Instagram update uploaded.
32:13
Speaker 1: And it's available with unlimited plans for around two hundred
32:17
Speaker 1: dollars a month. The unit itself costs about fifteen hundred bucks.
32:21
Speaker 1: This is a pretty hardcore tool for communication and it's
32:26
Speaker 1: something that I plan to have along with me for
32:30
Speaker 1: as many of my travels as it's allowed, because it's
32:34
Speaker 1: it's a great backup and that covers the communication that
32:41
Speaker 1: we've used on the trip. And a special thanks to
32:45
Speaker 1: three Outdoors for their support of this week's podcast, The
32:49
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33:05
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33:50
Speaker 1: three outdoors go explore. Some of the other things that
34:00
Speaker 1: I found really interesting that I've learned a lot more
34:03
Speaker 1: about is One of them is the fridge. So a
34:07
Speaker 1: fridge is so nice to have along in it. I
34:09
Speaker 1: actually considered not bringing a fridge at all through Africa,
34:12
Speaker 1: but I'm so glad I did because having a cold
34:15
Speaker 1: drink at the end of the day can be just
34:19
Speaker 1: such a joyful luxury. But what I did decide to
34:23
Speaker 1: do is go with the smallest fridge that I could
34:25
Speaker 1: find in South Africa, which is a demetic twenty five liter,
34:30
Speaker 1: because I've really come to the realization that fridges are
34:33
Speaker 1: the perfect example of Parkinson's law, which is that you're
34:37
Speaker 1: going to fill whatever it is to the available space.
34:42
Speaker 1: It was originally a law around governments and bureaucracies, but
34:46
Speaker 1: it also applies to everything from motorcycle panniers to fridges,
34:50
Speaker 1: to the inside of your vehicle, to your messenger bag
34:54
Speaker 1: to your carry on luggage. All of that you're going
34:56
Speaker 1: to just fill up the available space. Surprisingly, with two people,
35:02
Speaker 1: the twenty five liter was more than enough for us
35:04
Speaker 1: to have all the cold food, meat, veggies. I have
35:09
Speaker 1: a lot of chocolate in there, milk stuff for making
35:12
Speaker 1: coffee creamer. We were able to have fruit inside. There
35:16
Speaker 1: plenty of space, and one of the keys to that
35:19
Speaker 1: is to actually feed items into the fridge. So you
35:23
Speaker 1: try to buy shelf stable milk that then you feed
35:26
Speaker 1: into the fridge when you need to, when you're planning
35:29
Speaker 1: to open and use it, or when you want it cold.
35:32
Speaker 1: The same thing applies to stable juices and sodas and
35:38
Speaker 1: those kind of water. For example, you have just a
35:40
Speaker 1: small water container that you use to carry with you,
35:44
Speaker 1: but then you don't carry a ton of water inside
35:46
Speaker 1: the fridge, and that results in a much lighter fridge overall,
35:50
Speaker 1: and then a significantly lighter fridge when it's full. One
35:55
Speaker 1: of the things that people don't realize is a seventy
35:58
Speaker 1: or an eighty liter fridge is heavy to begin with,
36:02
Speaker 1: but once you fill it full of food, it can
36:05
Speaker 1: be well over one hundred pounds. So by putting that
36:08
Speaker 1: kind of self constrained space in place, I think makes
36:13
Speaker 1: a lot of difference. So I was really glad to
36:15
Speaker 1: have the twenty five liter. And when we sleep in
36:18
Speaker 1: the back, I just remove the fridge and a couple
36:20
Speaker 1: other items go into the front seats, and then that
36:24
Speaker 1: flat load floor has just been awesome. I hope that
36:29
Speaker 1: front Runner comes out with some products around this design
36:33
Speaker 1: that they came up with. I told him what I
36:36
Speaker 1: wanted to achieve, and Rob, one of their engineers, just
36:39
Speaker 1: went to town and he came up with a better
36:41
Speaker 1: solution than I would have ever thought of. But you
36:45
Speaker 1: can use all five seats in the vehicle when the
36:48
Speaker 1: back seats full down. The deck is high enough that
36:52
Speaker 1: when the load platform flips forward, it rests on the
36:56
Speaker 1: top of the back seats, and I have a full
37:00
Speaker 1: length sleeping surface. When I was traveling with Joe, he's
37:03
Speaker 1: six foot seven and was able to sleep inside the grenadier.
37:07
Speaker 1: You just push the seats forward, stuff some soft bags
37:10
Speaker 1: and personal effects down into the empty space, and then
37:14
Speaker 1: it's a very comfortable sleeping surface. And it was funny
37:19
Speaker 1: because I was trying to get another Melville and Moon
37:22
Speaker 1: sleeping pad, and I wasn't able to get it in time,
37:25
Speaker 1: so I actually just bought a mattress off the side
37:29
Speaker 1: of the road. In fact, it was within the first
37:31
Speaker 1: couple of days of traveling with Tavia, and here I
37:33
Speaker 1: pull down this little side street and this open air
37:35
Speaker 1: market and I hop hop out to go to go
37:39
Speaker 1: buy us a mattress that we could fit in the back,
37:41
Speaker 1: and it ended up being very comfortable. And now that
37:43
Speaker 1: I'm in Nairobi and that part of the trip is finished,
37:46
Speaker 1: I was able to donate it to someone in the
37:49
Speaker 1: area that can use it for their family, so it
37:52
Speaker 1: worked out really well. It's very easy to find the
37:55
Speaker 1: things that you need, as long as it's not something
37:57
Speaker 1: super obscure. So I really love this load platfor. I
38:00
Speaker 1: also love the fact that it doesn't use regular drawers.
38:04
Speaker 1: It uses just a standard front runner box that they
38:10
Speaker 1: sell and it fits four of them under the platform.
38:14
Speaker 1: And what I like about that is when I'm storing
38:17
Speaker 1: the vehicle, I can remove it all. When I'm in
38:21
Speaker 1: an accommodation and I want to have my cooking supplies
38:24
Speaker 1: or I want to have the food that I keep
38:26
Speaker 1: in the dry box, I can put that in there.
38:29
Speaker 1: If the vehicle was to get stuck or I need
38:32
Speaker 1: to remove weight from it, It's very easy just to
38:35
Speaker 1: remove those boxes. There's a great story of a couple
38:39
Speaker 1: that was in the Sahara in their Defender and they
38:43
Speaker 1: got stuck down in what's called a witch's eye. It's
38:45
Speaker 1: a very difficult bowl configuration to get out of in
38:49
Speaker 1: a vehicle, especially in a heavy, lightly powered vehicle like
38:53
Speaker 1: a Defender Diesel Defender, and they actually removed everything. They
38:57
Speaker 1: removed all of the doors, they removed all of the
38:59
Speaker 1: contents of the vehicle, they removed everything but the driver's seat,
39:02
Speaker 1: and they were finally able to get it light enough
39:04
Speaker 1: that they were able to get out of the sand dune.
39:07
Speaker 1: So it's good to be able to remove these items
39:10
Speaker 1: from the vehicle. You just never know when you want
39:12
Speaker 1: to be able to do that, and I really like
39:14
Speaker 1: that configuration. I find that it works out really well
39:18
Speaker 1: to be able to remove those boxes. So I like
39:20
Speaker 1: that load deck and I'm hoping that that front Runner
39:23
Speaker 1: comes out with a product like that because it's so lightweight.
39:26
Speaker 1: The frame itself is only eight kilograms. There's a little
39:29
Speaker 1: bit of weight obviously in the deck itself, but and
39:32
Speaker 1: it's carpeted, so it's really comfortable and lightweight, simple to execute.
39:37
Speaker 1: So it's a product that I've really enjoyed on this trip.
39:41
Speaker 1: For this last segment, I also brought a red Arc
39:46
Speaker 1: solar panel, so it's one hundred and sixty one unit.
39:50
Speaker 1: I wanted to be able to have solar power on
39:52
Speaker 1: the trip because I found that was a limitation on
39:55
Speaker 1: the last leg between the auxiliary battery and the main battery.
39:58
Speaker 1: If I was camped for a couple of days between communications, battery,
40:02
Speaker 1: charging of cameras and the fridge, I was already tight
40:08
Speaker 1: on power, and I knew with the two amp hour
40:10
Speaker 1: draw of the starlink that I would be exceeding my
40:14
Speaker 1: available system without overtaxing the starting battery of the Grenadier.
40:19
Speaker 1: So I brought along this one hundred and sixty watt
40:22
Speaker 1: solar panel. It uses Anderson connections, It has a twenty
40:25
Speaker 1: amp solar charge controller, and I would just alligator clip
40:29
Speaker 1: it to the jumping post underneath the bonnet of the Grenadier,
40:35
Speaker 1: underneath the hood of the Grenadier, and that would keep
40:38
Speaker 1: the main battery charge. And then there's actually a very
40:40
Speaker 1: clever solution in the Grenadier where you can turn on
40:44
Speaker 1: this power button up here and that actually powers all
40:49
Speaker 1: of the auxiliary sockets in the vehicle, so it turns
40:52
Speaker 1: on all the twelve vault sockets, all the USB sockets,
40:56
Speaker 1: allows you to keep the lights on. And what that
41:00
Speaker 1: would do then is when I'm charging the main battery
41:04
Speaker 1: off of the solar, then that would open up one
41:08
Speaker 1: of the twelve volts that would then charge my auxiliary battery.
41:11
Speaker 1: And it was just a very very simple solution that
41:16
Speaker 1: I found to be one hundred percent reliable. And it's
41:18
Speaker 1: also because the charge controller is not set up for lithium.
41:24
Speaker 1: So by charging the main battery and then having the
41:27
Speaker 1: main vehicle battery then charge the lithium through the charge
41:31
Speaker 1: controller of the battery pack. It worked out really well,
41:34
Speaker 1: and it's been super simple, not a lot of complexity,
41:38
Speaker 1: and one hundred percent reliable. The solar blanket that I
41:42
Speaker 1: used from red Arc is just big enough where it
41:45
Speaker 1: covers the windscreen of the Grenadier, and the Grenadier actually
41:49
Speaker 1: has this very unique kind of scoop where the where
41:52
Speaker 1: the winchel wipers are and the and the solar blanket
41:56
Speaker 1: just fits perfectly down into that scoop and rests up
41:59
Speaker 1: again it's the windshield, so it puts a little bit
42:02
Speaker 1: of an angle. And I just positioned the vehicle facing
42:04
Speaker 1: the sun, and I have gotten plenty of power because
42:08
Speaker 1: you're getting one hundred and sixty watts, so you know,
42:10
Speaker 1: I would see six seven eight amps coming into the
42:14
Speaker 1: battery no problem out of that panel when the conditions
42:19
Speaker 1: were right. And then let's talk a little bit about
42:24
Speaker 1: the Grenadier. I'm getting a lot of questions around how
42:26
Speaker 1: the Grenadier is doing. I've got a lot of information
42:30
Speaker 1: out there around my impressions of driving it, like technical
42:33
Speaker 1: side of driving it an off road, et cetera. But
42:37
Speaker 1: the most important thing is is to date, we have
42:40
Speaker 1: had zero failures out of the vehicle. I've just approaching
42:44
Speaker 1: twenty thousand kilometers in the Grenadier and I have been
42:47
Speaker 1: driving it for long periods of time on heavily corrugated roads,
42:53
Speaker 1: a lot more technical terrain than they're typically used for.
42:57
Speaker 1: And we're not overlyloaded. We're running at about eighty five
43:01
Speaker 1: percent of gross vehicle weight. There are times that I'm
43:04
Speaker 1: a little bit heavier when I'm full up on fuel,
43:06
Speaker 1: but the vehicle I've kept under gross vehicle weight because
43:10
Speaker 1: that's an important thing for me to try to do
43:13
Speaker 1: and to recommend others to do. But other than that,
43:16
Speaker 1: the vehicle has had just no issues at all. Every
43:21
Speaker 1: once in a while, I'll get a tire pressure monitoring
43:23
Speaker 1: system light come on, like for example, up at Lake
43:27
Speaker 1: Ellis at eleven thousand feet, it's cooler and the atmospheric
43:32
Speaker 1: pressure is different, so when I started the vehicle up
43:35
Speaker 1: through the tire pressure monitoring light on. But they've got
43:40
Speaker 1: a really clever solution in the panel display is you
43:46
Speaker 1: can go into vehicle settings vehicle information, and you can
43:49
Speaker 1: go into tire pressure and then you can actually reset
43:52
Speaker 1: the cold pressure of the system, so it then recalibrates
43:57
Speaker 1: it to a new threshold. It doesn't allow you to
43:59
Speaker 1: go much lower than thirty psi or so, but it
44:04
Speaker 1: allows you to go also much higher because some of
44:08
Speaker 1: the tire pressures at full gross vehicle weight or if
44:11
Speaker 1: you're towing or really heavily biased weight in the rear,
44:14
Speaker 1: you can get much higher pressures in the rear tires
44:17
Speaker 1: and that allows you to then reset the cold tire
44:20
Speaker 1: pressures based upon those new loads, so it's actually fairly clever.
44:24
Speaker 1: And then that shuts off the tire pressure monitoring system lights.
44:28
Speaker 1: But again nothing else. It's started every single time that
44:32
Speaker 1: we've turned the key, and we've not had any failures
44:37
Speaker 1: out of the vehicle. Nothing, no hard failures, no hardware failures,
44:41
Speaker 1: no software failures that have kept us any trouble. No
44:46
Speaker 1: check engine lights have come on. So really really grateful
44:50
Speaker 1: that the vehicle has performed so well, especially given that
44:52
Speaker 1: it's such an early production unit. This is in the
44:55
Speaker 1: three hundred and seventy range on production, so very very
44:58
Speaker 1: early production via and so far no issues. I know
45:02
Speaker 1: that they have some software updates coming out and some
45:05
Speaker 1: other things that they're working on which will just make
45:07
Speaker 1: it better, but we promised to let you know if
45:10
Speaker 1: there's any any issues that do come up, so that
45:13
Speaker 1: way we can be aware of that and around the
45:15
Speaker 1: Grenadier too. Also some exciting news, I know that within
45:18
Speaker 1: the next few weeks they're going to be doing customer
45:22
Speaker 1: deliveries in North America, which is so exciting. I cannot
45:26
Speaker 1: wait to hear the stories and the photos from the
45:30
Speaker 1: first customers that are going to get that vehicle. Kind
45:33
Speaker 1: of get a sense for the joy that I've had
45:35
Speaker 1: with it for the past few months. And I've mentioned
45:40
Speaker 1: this on the podcast before, but it's important to note
45:42
Speaker 1: we're not being compensated by Anios in any way. I'm
45:45
Speaker 1: paying all of my own expenses, they're not paying me
45:50
Speaker 1: a salary, and we're not receiving any advertising from Anios.
45:55
Speaker 1: We were just loaned a vehicle for this particular trip
45:57
Speaker 1: and then we'll be giving it back at the other
45:59
Speaker 1: end of it, and we have no restriction on sharing
46:03
Speaker 1: our information that we've learned about the vehicle with you.
46:07
Speaker 1: So it's a really important vehicle we believe coming into
46:09
Speaker 1: the market, which is why we were so excited to
46:11
Speaker 1: use it on this trip. It's the first time in
46:13
Speaker 1: my memory that a car company was started specifically for
46:18
Speaker 1: vehicle based travelers and that the models that they produce
46:21
Speaker 1: are made specifically for the things that you and I do.
46:25
Speaker 1: So we're really excited about the Grenadier. We think it's
46:28
Speaker 1: a really important new model in the space. We think
46:31
Speaker 1: that a lot of people are going to like it,
46:33
Speaker 1: so that's why it was so important for us to
46:35
Speaker 1: test it thoroughly in the way, like twenty thousand kilometers
46:39
Speaker 1: across Africa. And I think one of the last things
46:44
Speaker 1: that I want to talk about is traveling with a partner.
46:49
Speaker 1: I was traveling with my girlfriend Tavia. We've not been
46:53
Speaker 1: together all that long, and she had not traveled internationally before.
46:59
Speaker 1: In fact, she had just got on her passport a
47:01
Speaker 1: few months ago and the first passport stamp that she
47:05
Speaker 1: received was when we arrived in South Africa, and it
47:10
Speaker 1: was just absolutely incredible how well she did on the trip.
47:14
Speaker 1: And I think it's an important reminder that I've traveled
47:19
Speaker 1: with people with lots of international travel experience that struggled
47:24
Speaker 1: way more than Tavia did, and she had never traveled
47:28
Speaker 1: internationally before. So it's important to not put any expectations
47:33
Speaker 1: on either a season or a new traveler until you
47:36
Speaker 1: get a chance to really get out on the road
47:39
Speaker 1: with them, And I think a lot of it has
47:42
Speaker 1: to do with the fact that she's an RN, so
47:44
Speaker 1: she deals with a lot of stressful environments. She runs
47:49
Speaker 1: a group home for medically fragile children, so she deals
47:54
Speaker 1: with very extreme situations, far more extreme than I deal
47:59
Speaker 1: with in my day to day life, life, life threatening
48:01
Speaker 1: situations where her ability to stay calm and to make
48:05
Speaker 1: decisions quickly, so she just fit right into it. And
48:11
Speaker 1: I don't talk a lot about my personal life on
48:13
Speaker 1: the podcast, but it was just such a joy for
48:17
Speaker 1: me to travel with her and for us to get
48:20
Speaker 1: along so well. The whole time we've been together, we've
48:23
Speaker 1: never had an argument, and the arguments didn't start traveling
48:27
Speaker 1: through Africa and some really new and unique situations for her.
48:32
Speaker 1: So I think the keys that I learned in that
48:35
Speaker 1: process was to make sure that you're always communicating, checking
48:38
Speaker 1: in on each other, seeing how everybody's doing. One of
48:41
Speaker 1: the things that we do is actively track our sleep,
48:45
Speaker 1: because I know that when I get low on sleep
48:48
Speaker 1: after a couple of days, it really does start to
48:50
Speaker 1: affect how I feel. I don't ever, I'm never not happy,
48:56
Speaker 1: but it starts to affect how I feel. I think
49:00
Speaker 1: being able to keep an eye on how each other
49:02
Speaker 1: is doing with their sleep is really important. We also
49:06
Speaker 1: paid really close attention to nutrition. Tavia has some things
49:10
Speaker 1: that she doesn't like to eat, and we just made
49:12
Speaker 1: sure that to communicate that with the places that we
49:15
Speaker 1: were going to stay ahead of time and then go
49:18
Speaker 1: out of our way to find fresh food, good food
49:22
Speaker 1: at local groceries that we could prepare ourselves. And I
49:27
Speaker 1: think being well fed and well rested, well hydrated makes
49:31
Speaker 1: such a good difference in how people feel. And then
49:35
Speaker 1: also because you're traveling with your partner, just making sure
49:38
Speaker 1: that you're always checking in on each other, seeing how
49:41
Speaker 1: the other person's doing, reinforcing your gratitude that they're with you,
49:47
Speaker 1: asking them what they're enjoying about their day or what
49:50
Speaker 1: they felt was a challenge in their day, so that way,
49:54
Speaker 1: as travel partners, we can be more mindful of how
49:57
Speaker 1: the person's doing and find ways to prove the situations
50:01
Speaker 1: for them and for those of you who are listening.
50:04
Speaker 1: If you found things that work for you and your partner,
50:06
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear about it. I'm gonna give my
50:09
Speaker 1: Instagram handle at the end of the podcast, so you
50:12
Speaker 1: can reach out, but I really like to know other
50:16
Speaker 1: things that you guys have done to be able to
50:18
Speaker 1: travel well together. I also was able to kind of
50:21
Speaker 1: do on the job training driver training, and she ended
50:25
Speaker 1: up just being an amazing driver and adapted very quickly
50:28
Speaker 1: to the dynamic driving environment that is Africa, and it
50:34
Speaker 1: was so it was a total joy for me to
50:37
Speaker 1: travel someone with someone that I care so much about,
50:40
Speaker 1: and for us to do that so well together certainly
50:43
Speaker 1: makes it exciting to consider what the next stage of
50:46
Speaker 1: the relationship could be. So another thing that I'm grateful
50:49
Speaker 1: for on this Thanksgiving Day, and I think the last
50:54
Speaker 1: thing for me overall is to thank you again as listeners.
50:58
Speaker 1: It's such a joy to this podcast. It's a very
51:03
Speaker 1: intense time of year for us as a business and
51:06
Speaker 1: for me traveling. It's also been difficult for Matt to
51:11
Speaker 1: get on the podcast as much recently, Paula having that
51:14
Speaker 1: minor surgery as well, so there are things that are
51:18
Speaker 1: making it more challenging for us to do the podcast
51:20
Speaker 1: over this few week period. But I decided that I
51:23
Speaker 1: was going to mount the camera to the windshield of
51:26
Speaker 1: the Grenadier and sit here and have a conversation. I
51:29
Speaker 1: know that this is a little bit different format than
51:31
Speaker 1: we normally have, so I apologize if it didn't meet
51:35
Speaker 1: your expectations, but I'd love to get your feedback on
51:38
Speaker 1: the ways that I could improve it. But I really
51:41
Speaker 1: wanted to share the things that I've learned on the
51:43
Speaker 1: trip so far, the things that are working well on
51:45
Speaker 1: the trip, and also just to thank all of you
51:48
Speaker 1: for your support and for listening. And remember we've got
51:51
Speaker 1: that fifty percent off of the Overland Journal subscription going
51:56
Speaker 1: on right now again, that's Podcast twenty twenty three when
52:00
Speaker 1: you go into the Overland Journal dot com store. So
52:04
Speaker 1: to reach me on Instagram, you can find me at
52:06
Speaker 1: Scott dot a dot Brady and please reach out send
52:10
Speaker 1: me a DM. If you're getting a Grenadier and you're
52:13
Speaker 1: excited about it, If you have questions about the trip,
52:16
Speaker 1: if you've learned skills and tools to help you travel
52:20
Speaker 1: better with your partner, I'd love to talk to you
52:22
Speaker 1: about that because that's something we'd like to expand on
52:25
Speaker 1: in the podcast. If you got any other feedback for us,
52:29
Speaker 1: if there's something that you're particularly grateful for about the
52:33
Speaker 1: industry or about a trip that you've been on or
52:35
Speaker 1: an experience that you've had. Please share that because we'd
52:37
Speaker 1: love to, with your permission, put that out to the
52:40
Speaker 1: audience as well. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and for those
52:44
Speaker 1: of you who are not celebrating Thanksgiving, have a wonderful
52:46
Speaker 1: day of gratitude regardless, and we will talk to you
52:50
Speaker 1: all next time.