Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Christian Pelletier on Not Taking Traveling the World so Seriously

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Christian Pelletier on Not Taking Traveling the World so Seriously · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Scott Brady, and I'm here with my co host Matt.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Scott, and I'm here with the French Canadian.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Yes, we are here with our very favorite French Canadian.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: And for those of you on YouTube, this will all
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: be subtitled for your advantage. Christian speaks many languages and
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: has been around the world. In fact, I would submit
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: that he's going to be one of our best traveled
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: podcast guests, so we look forward to hearing all of
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: his travels around the globe. So thank you Christian so
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: much for being on the podcast.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Thanks Scott for having me.
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: And yes, I do speak multiple languages, and I have
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: an accident in all of them.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Which is perfect. So there's some fun backstory on Christian.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: So Christian was actually one of the first members of
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: the Expedition Portal Forum, and Christian has been an executive
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: and one of the owners of originally Expeditions West and
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: now Overland International that runs Overland Journal and Expedition Portal
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: and all of that. And there's a little bit of
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: a fun story. So I was down in the motto
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: for the Overland Expo and I had known Christian. For
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: many years we had done some work together at events
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: and Hollister and some other things. Christian walks up to
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: me very thoughtfully and he says, Scott, I just want
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: you to know that I think I'm going to start
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: my own forum and I'm going to call it Overland Portal.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: And I just remember sitting there for a second realizingly,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: here's this guy who's far more traveled than me and
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the technologists like I was at the time, and true
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: entrepreneurial spirit. I responded with, well, instead of you doing
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: it on your own, why don't we do it together?
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: And that started a series of conversations that led to
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: us partnering up on Expedition Portal and making it the
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: best that we could. And that has been fifteen years,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: if you can believe it, that we've been working on this.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: So for those of you who enjoy the Expedition Portal Forum,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Christian has been a key component of that as our
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: chief technology officer from the very beginning. So if you
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: got anything that you need fixed on, that will provide
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: his email address. At the the end of this episode,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: we're going to take a brief break and we will
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: be right back this week's episode is supported in part
• 2:01
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• 2:47
  Speaker 1: So some fun history with Christian, That's not what we're
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: going to talk about today.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: We're going to talk about you as the traveler.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: So kind of give us some background on where you
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: grew up in Canada and what first got that travel
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: bug started for you.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, some from Quebec, from a small town in Quebec City.
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: More many, I'm sure very few of you guys have
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: heard of it, and I was talking with Scout about
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: this before the podcast.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: You know what the initial trigger. When I was in high.
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: School, we had we didn't exchange like a student exchange.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: It's kind of a long story, but essentially we travel
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: all the way up north in Quebec and a small
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: village called Ivy, First Nation. They're like, really really remote.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: It's technically, I think the northern northernmost village in Quebec.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: And so when you're like fourteen fifteen, and then you
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: go there and you come from your small environment, you
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: haven't seen too much. You get there and you see
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: such a different world, you know, even though the same province,
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: it's the same country as yours. But then you realize, wow,
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: you know, the way that people are living and the
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: experiences that they have and everything. Such a shock and
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: in a good way, you know. It was it was
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: very Yeah, it was very interesting, and I remember it
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: was also very kind of old shocking is the right term.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: But the way it was will work is we're pair
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: with someone local, so we'll spend you know, a few
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: weeks living in the family, and then it was supposed
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: to be a match, like you know, a guy with
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: a guy. But and then the count was on the head,
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: so two of us got matched with two women. Yeah,
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: and we went to live in our family and then
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: but we became really good friends with all those people,
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: you know, after a few weeks. The second tolf of
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: of the trip was that they will come to our town.
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: So cool. And I always remember, like it's been like
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: many years now, but I was in high school and
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: when they all came in high school, like everyone was,
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: so it was such a different vibe because they had
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: never seen like First Nation people in our high school.
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: And for us, they were our friends and we sure
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: was normal, you know, differens on the normal. This whole
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: I don't know, this whole experience, and it really really
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: set up the tone for the next thirty years of
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: my life.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: And when we talked about the experience you had with
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: the First Nations people, one of the things that we
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: discussed was they were so happy. And I've experienced that
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: around the world and so have you. Mad is that
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: day to day in North America we are just surrounded
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: by people that just aren't very happy. They have so
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: much very happy Yeah, sometimes yeah, exactly, it's not even
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: a negative thing to say that someone's not happy. It's
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: just an awareness that happiness does not correlate to possessions
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: at all, and happiness, even very rarely after your basic
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: needs are met, correlates to wealth either. So there's a
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: lot of very unhappy wealthy people. But I have certainly
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: seen many more happy people in their original communities, in
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: their country of origin, living their life the way that
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: their ancestors lived. They are just filled with joy. They're
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: laughing and playing, and the kids are all running around
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: and the families are close. Yeah, I'm not so sure
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: that you know, modernity has actually given us much advantage
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: as humans. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, has it really helped? Has
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: it really helped anything? Probably not so.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: I mean it's a very it's a whole different discussion,
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: and it said iCal topic.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: It is that case. I want to go with you.
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: I don't think that any of the things that you
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: have now, the possession of the new our homes or
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: the gnomobiles or whatever, I don't think that happiness.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Then.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: I don't think it has And that's the beauty of travel,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: and that's the beauty of you having that experience so
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: young in life, you started to really question of like, yeah,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: what is out there? What else is out there to
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: experience in the world that you you have no idea
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: about that you would feel totally new as a new
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: experience for yourself.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: What came next?
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: You went to school and you you ended up getting
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: a degree talk about your education and.
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I went to school. So actually when what
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: came next? I went to school at in Quebec as
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: a civil engineer. So I studied to be a civil engineer.
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: And then what came after that is I heard about
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: people doing this kind of volunteer program in West Africa.
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: So right after college you could spend I think it
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: was like a three or four months training different aspects
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: of volunteering work. And so I did that with a
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: few friends, and then I went to West Africa and.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: What was the first country? What was the first cost Manley?
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: So we came down to Marion, Bamaco on the different
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: reasons ended up working in booking Offesso okay, and I
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: got transferred to brook Infso and then we worked there
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: for over a year building Wales all kind of remote
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: villages and all kind of places, and so I got
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: to travel all through West Africa.
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  Speaker 3: At that time was phenomenal.
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  Speaker 1: And I remember telling me the stories. You're in West Africa.
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  Speaker 1: You're there as an engineer to help build out water
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: infrastructure for the villages, and you were driving the NGO there.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: They had the company, there had Chevrolet pickups. You felt
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: like you got to experience Africa fully because you broke
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: down in every village and so you were able you
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: were able to like really soak up the experience of exactly.
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: I mean, I know you you you drive a show
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: then now that truck, so.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: We should be so far, so far it's been flawless.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: But I think back then, I think in the early
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: nineties they weren't so great.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I don't know, man, if this guy can
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: break a small block Chevy, I don't know.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: And to be fair, you know, they had so this
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: they had came from a different project I think that
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: was in ben A or some of the country, and
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: they had shipped the truck over to us. We had
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: to be a pot of those and so that must
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: have been late nineties, I guess seven ninety eight, and
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: they were like fifteen other and they were like, you know,
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: the light duty trucks and sure being abused a lot.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: So we had one. We had to keep one truck.
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: I remember that we had one in the yacht that
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: was almost brand new and it was just for the pots.
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: That truck for spare pots, because there was no spare
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: pounds all over there. And then but then yes to
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: your point, So many times, like I would drive because
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: what happened is our team that we're doing the drilling,
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: they would camp in the bush every day, every night,
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: and they will go from one vdage to another. And
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: my job most of the time was to drive from
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: our base camp and then find them somewhere and then
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: bring them supplies because they always need like some water
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: or some special stuff for the wells and all kind
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: of materials.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: So I would drive a.
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: Lot of these tracks, sure, and most of the time
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: in places that were very hard to find because they
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: were not really on the map or on the main road.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: And then I remember that.
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: Like the villagers, the local people would have a name
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: for the village, but it would be a different name
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: than the map, would be a different name than the report,
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: you know, where they were supposed to be. So we
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: ended up driving in circle you know, everywhere.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: And GPS would have just started. We had no GPS.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: We had only paper.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Amazing. Yeah, it was amazing, no.
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: Cell phone, nothing, when you think, when I think back
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: about it, it was a little bit crazy to send you know,
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: a couple of like, you know, young Canadians and over.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: There with no you're so nice, You're so nice. Yeah.
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: But I remember like a few times coming back on
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: the back of the mopet, there will be like someone
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: like a with a small mobile with the rock in
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: the back and then I would say, can you take
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: me back to the first phone? And they would drive
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: me even a few hours on the base and it
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: would con pect me up the next day.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Well, and that's kind of what started your love of
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: land cruisers. So you started to use land cruisers in
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Africa and you realize like this is the right tool
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: for the job.
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: So there was a couple of things that happened. So
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: we had those tracks, and I remember where we were
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: there were very few expats of very few firingers. And
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: I remember there was the two guys that showed up
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: on the and they were actually from a small town
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: near my town in Quebec because they come from a
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: long family of drinning okay other grandfather and they were
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: very well known for drinking and they were there old okay,
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: so they were pretty much on their own looking for gold.
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: And they had a normal bid upland course that had
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: like half a million mile and they didn't even care.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: It was just driving this thing anywhere. And I was like,
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: I was a bit jail.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: That sounds like a reality TV show.
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, actually yeah, it was before yeah, and then the funnel.
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: I think the funnel trigger was when I went to
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: my friends waiting in takr And Senegal, and I remember
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: also very clearly in my mind, I saw I met
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: this French guy and he had just arrived from Paris
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: driving in LG forty with a loof top ten and
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: I was like, to me at the time, that was
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: the coolest thing in the world. There was nothing else
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: you could do that was more cool than driving in
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: LG forty because I SI it still is.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: I was like, okay, this is going to be my
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: life now. It has been pretty much.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're drilling in the wells. How long did you
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: do that for? And then where did you travel to next?
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: So that was about a year all less. Then I
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: came back.
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: Then we did like Vancouver, like the West coast, you know,
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: a few things and there, and then I came in
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: the US, almost by accident, very very quickly. I got
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: the job offer. One day I was working in Montreal.
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: Our company went down and the day before Christmas. Oh
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: it was a small startup, nice guys, one of my
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: best friends, and we got the memo on the twenty
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: second party, party is over.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: Body is over.
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: And then maybe a month after I got a call
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: and I moved to California. I made a bit of
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: money and then only dream was to go back and travel.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: And then that's how we ended up buying the truck
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: in Australia. So a couple of times in my life
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: I took it.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: So ibert it.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Okay, it was Australia.
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: For you, that was that must have been only two thousand,
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: thousand and two or something. I worked that But in Sydney, Sydney,
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: you I much wanted to talk to.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: Let's talk about it.
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: Of course to me, I mean after Africa and after
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: all those agreiances, it was clear that the Lancouz was
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: the best option, and the best was I was a
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: toop carrier, sure, and the best place we find it
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: one was in Australia. Okay, we just did two plus
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: two and then like, well, let's go to Australia and
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: stop that will trip there. So we did that. We
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: flew into but actually technically we started in New Zealand.
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: So we spent some time in New Zealand and then
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: we went and I bought a truck pretty much on scene.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: And then what did you experience in New Zealand?
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: I asked people a lot about New Zealand because I've
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: never been there and it's one of those places that
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: I so want to go.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Have you been met?
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I want to move.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: Okay, that's right.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: I did know that. Backup, You're right, I did. I
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: did remember that. You told me, Scott, it's my only
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: plan B is New Zealand.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: However, that looks slash green landscapes, yeah, blax sand beaches
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: and alpine mountains, all within about ten minutes to each other.
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: New Zealand's great, really, I mean anything I'll do with it,
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: fishing and you enjoyed it.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: We loved it.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: Yet, were you traveling with Persephone at this time? Yes? Okay,
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: because so she's been on all these adventures. She has
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: been on a lot of those adventures for sure.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Wow, amazing.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it's nice to have. Well, that's one thing
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: also that I realized through all the years. I mean
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: everyone is a bit different, but for me, I really
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: like to exp and something with a friend or my partner. Yeah,
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: kind of how to just keep all that for yourself.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: I've done some travel sometimes by myself.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Was just turned into a drunkard. That's what happened. Really,
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: what you end up to meet somebody at a hostel
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: exactly three in the morning, six days later.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true.
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: That happened to me in Africa actually, when I was
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: traveling and this guy, so I was trying one of
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: my friends from Quebec for a long time, but then
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: after Egypt he wanted to go to Iran. And so
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: I met a guy in Egypt and we traveled an
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: American guy and towl together. But then we got to
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: the Order of Syria. He didn't have a visa. Oh no,
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: I remember, like I have to go have my truck
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: and my visa. And it's like the guy was super nice, like, yeah,
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: I can't go with you. It was just kind of
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: split and I did and I did all Celia by myself,
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: and I was right before Arab spring. Oh wow, you know,
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: like it was a few months before the whole thing.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I remember that now. Yeah, I was
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: very I mean at the time, I didn't know. I mean,
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: you could, hell, there was something a little bit, some.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Tensions, you know.
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: And there's a picture of his name again, back, picture
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: of him everywhere, and you're like, it's a bit kind
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: of strange the.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: Top, Yeah, over the top, you know. I remember being that.
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: I remember going to internet cafe in Damascus and then
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: you know, the ask for your I D and you watch,
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: you know, everything you're typing and stuff.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: He was.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: It's kind of bizarre, you know. You tell that that
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: was not really sustainable for us. Yeah, situation, But yes,
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: I did all that by myself. I don't really have
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: anyone to share all those things. You know at the time.
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: I feel like you're also pushing yourself more when you
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: have someone with you, Like if I go, if you
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: go travel together, can yeah whatever, I'm going to be pushing.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: You'll be more adventurous. But further Yeah, for sure, for sure,
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: that's true. Let's go back to Australia.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: So you you find this troop carrier in Sydney, and
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: where did you guys go in Australia.
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: We took the trucks, which again I'm thinking back now
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: with maybe a bit crazy, but the truck was perfect.
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: It was Diesel, two tanks and long range. Had it
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: popped up. It was a trek conversion ye. And the
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: track of ones, yeah, there's a couple of ones in
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: the US now. I've been talking with a few people
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: who bought some from so but it was fairly old.
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: It wasn't even back then. So we took it from
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: Sydney all around the on the coast to keep you
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: who did the famous you know that the one was
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: talking about, which was awesome. It was still it was
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: beautiful and it was right before the summer there, which
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: is the season where people don't travel, okay, because I
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: remember after Kpek we drove from k across the Perst Okay.
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: So we did the entire like the travelers of Australia.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: And I remember stopping in a part in the outback
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: somewhere in Queensland. I think it was the guys were like, yeah,
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: you guys are last last client this season because we
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: had to shut down get after that.
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: I think maybe probably both yea, probably both.
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, because I remember the guy was like, yeah, we
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: always see a couple of crazy frenchy.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: That was us.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: So yeah, So we drove all the way there and
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: to Alias Spring the spring sorry in the middle, and
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: then from there to.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: Perth so cool. Yeah, that was very nice, and then
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: we shipped that.
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: Then our visa had expired, so I think they give
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: you like amounts of six months. I forgot, but it
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: had expired, and so we shipped the truck on there
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: to then yes and South Africa. Yeah, yeah, that's the
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: place to ship it into.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: And then we kept the truck.
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: Initially the touts were to take the truck and then
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: drive across Africa, but when we ended up iking hit
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: so much there that we kept the truck there for years.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Years.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: We keep the truck.
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: Our friend as a ranch in near Platoria, and we're
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: just flying out with the truck and go in Namibia
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: and Zambia and zambig a boy and all over for
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: years until eventually then I got the time and ender
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: me mine from Montreal and then we drove all across.
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: I talked to us about your route up Africa, so
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: we went. So we left from Cape Town. We actually
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: went again. You know, sometimes some memories right out. More
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: stays more vid than your mind. But I remember, like,
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: we went to Cape Town and then we met a
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: guy there from the local landcoster. We spent a few
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: weeks at his shop building the truck, fixing up some
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: stuff on the truck, and then we drove. We kind
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: of did the official start of the trip. So we
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: went down to caves at the bottom you know where
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: the altar and I guess it's the southern most point
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: and I remember, so we did that.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: It's crazy windy there. We want to door and the
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: KUSA kind of snapped, oh no, yeah, yeah, it's super
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: windy there. Yeah.
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: So I was like, okay, that might not be the
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: best way to stop the trip, but that's okay. We
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: fixed it all and then we started going up to Namibia,
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: then across to Botswana.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: I love Botswana. That's when I spent them out. That's
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: on my list.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, Matt, you're ready to go there. So
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: you went in the mound and then you explored the
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: okabon delta.
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: Yes, And I was going to say, I think if
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: you want a good initiation for Africa, that I might
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: be on the best place to stop.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: I would agree, super safe, super super wild. I mean
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: it's just very remote act with animals, beautiful kind sites. Yeah,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: super incredible and nice.
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: So you can find Rannsburg and get a truck from
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: there and drive into Botswana in the day. I think
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: you're at the bottle and yeah so I So we
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: loved it there and then then I crossed to Zimbabwe,
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: which was awesome too because we're there, we're in Zimbabwe
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: and this is like about training, because those type of
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: things can be you can't be a planned those We
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: got into Zimbabwe right after they had switched the currency
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: into the US dollar, because it was like the inflation
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: was to the move. It was also a kind of
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: a wild time because that's where they had all those
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: kicked out, all the white farmers.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: Oh sure, zimbab boys. So there was that kind of
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: a bad It was a little bit of challenging time.
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: Sure, yeah, I mean, I mean we like they clearly
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: seeing like burn you know, buildings on the side of
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: the road, you know, hoes and stuff, and it was
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: but at the same time it was also very interesting
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: to talk with the people because they had not been
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: many tourists for years. You know, a scary place obviously,
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: and any much. The first story is going back. I
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: remember going to some lodgers there that they were not
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: even opened. The guy I was like, yeah, you guys
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: can see if you want, but we don't have anything.
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: Well that's fine, we have everything in our trucks. We
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: have supplies. Sure, I mean they gave us like super
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: nice cabin aunt lake, you know, and sure it was awesome.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: But yeah, it was type of experience, you know, they
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: really stay with you, Yeah, for sure. And then from Zimbabwe,
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: then when we did the kind of more traditional East
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: coast route Mozambiq, not on Mozambique, which sadly I think
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: now has some issues. I don't know if you can
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: travel too much better anymore right now, not on Mozambiqu
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: But and that's why we did the famous crossing on
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: the truck over the river. The river where deeping those canoes.
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: And that was also quite wild because by that by
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: that point you're in the Normans and because your exit
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: of Mozambiqu, but you're not yet in Tanzania. So your bother,
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: your passports, everything has been sent out. You spend the
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: night there and in the morning and you see those
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: guys coming with wood, your rugs, and then the first thing,
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: you know, after a few hours they can assemble is
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: like very very very dodgy raft together and you just
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: drive your truck on to this raft and then you
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: cast the river over two more to two tens. Anyhow,
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: so awesome, that cool, And it's also so at the
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: NYE last night, we're talking lot, you know, about our
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: next adventure, and this, to me is an example as
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: to why I will never have an expensive vehicle on
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: the trip, because when we were there, we actually can
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: have assess the risk and we're like, yeah, there's a
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: there's probably a good twenty five percent chances we won't
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: make it across the river and the truck is going
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: to end up at bottom of the river. And so
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: I was like, well, you know, back I mean, now
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: it's different, but back then I had paid like BI
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: a thousand for their new carriers. It's like, well, worst case,
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: I'm losing twelve thousand dollars, but I'm not using fifty.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, or the people who go over there with a
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: quarter million dollar vehicle that they still make a payment on. Yes, yes, terrifying, terrifying,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: that's crazy. So I guess you can still do it.
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: I'm not saying don't do it, but you just won't
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: be able to push the limits and do some adventure
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: or stuff like that.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: It's sure expensive vehicle, all very heavy vehicle, very rare vehicle.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: What other lessons did you learn like that on the
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: trip across Africa where you started to recalibrate yourself as
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: a traveler.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so one thing I've done. She's going to sound
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: a bit strange.
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: Sometimes I've got into countries sometimes without even having you know,
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: a book or nothing. I would up at the border
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: and just figure out everything from there. And it's very
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: and I do it on purpose, like like like sometimes
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: I would plan a trip and you get all the
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: books before whatever, and some of the time I'm like
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: going to win and see what happens.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: And now, especially now with.
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: You know, social media and everything, is usually quite easy
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: to find out what the best you know, what the
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: best attractions are or whatever.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: It might even be better because you got totally current data.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: Also also and you have its force you to ask
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: people also ask questions to people and interact with people
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: more instead of being in your phone. But back then
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: we didn't really have I mean, we had the website,
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: I think I had the blog I was publishing and
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: oh man.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: What was the blog called? I remember reading now and I.
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: Was like, what was your blog to you around the world? Yeah,
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: that's it kind of me and prosephony. Yeah, and back
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: then blogs, I don't know that blogs are still that
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: popular now.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: I think it's kind of been replaced by Instagram.
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think so, TikTok I guess. Yeah, but back
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: then that was a big thing. You know, you will
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: you want to write a blog and then pocal pictures there. Yeah,
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: so that was and then we had we did we
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: did have a GPS though to be fair, we had
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: tracks for Africa.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that makes a huge difference.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was great.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: That was great.
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: I find most in town when you had to go
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: to you you know, you drive all day and then
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: you're trying to get to your hotel. Yeah, we're going
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: in the place in town in Naobi. And then at
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: least the GPS with Q because most of the time
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: districts don't have names.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: And the other thing I really liked about Tracks for
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Africa is you can see that this is the main
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: road to get wherever you're going, which you could just
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: take that. That's fine, Yes, but oftentimes you'll see this
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: other route and it kind of goes around the mountain
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: and then there'll be like some like Skull and Crossbones
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: over there where there was where there was a car
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: jacking or whatever, and then there's a there's it says waterfall,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: and then tracks for Africa.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: It's hugely the best, like just maps for Overlanders. Like
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: almost a shame we've never seen anything like that in
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: the US. Yeah, yeah, I know.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: I guess maybe they're starting to get closer with on
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: X and stuff, but it's not it's certainly not.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: The level of like a curated map, that's true. Yeah,
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: you know, and I still like it. Good.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: Oh it's all because you use tracks for Africa in Namibia.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you did that big. Then we used it
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: in Tanzania.
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah because yeah you just did your trip. Yeah,
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: so you got Africa Africa.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: It's really cool. Yeah, it's kind of reminded me of Hamas.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah for sure for Australia.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean they've both been been around for a
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: long time now they have you can't like the reference
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: for sure for track so Africa's.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it just gives you a lot more confidence to
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: go check out something totally different, which is cool, gets
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: you off the beaten track.
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, But going back to lessons though I was thinking
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: about the question, I think that other thing I was
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: always bolder across. You know, a bader crossing is always
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: a hot topic, right they want to love sure about
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: their bader crossing experience.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: There's always yeah, there's always interesting stories.
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: But I think one thing I've I've learned over the
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: years is just to go with the flow there and
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: try to fight. I've seen so many people are getting
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: stressed out even before getting to the border, the red
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: X Y Z things, and as long as you have
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: your paper, you know in oder usually you know you
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: may have to wait a bit longer. But never really
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: had any especially after we really had any.
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: I must say.
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: Also we got a bit lucky and with because when
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: we when we did that trip, it was not long
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: after the long way up okay down, sorry, And they
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: remember some of the crossing, like they had stickers and stuff,
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: and they remember seeing like the bikers and sure the
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: cool and everything. So so many of them were a
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: little bit like more oil and what we're doing also
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: makes it.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you have you know Obi wan Kenobi comes through here. Yeah,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: through here through your border crossing. You don't forget the
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: time soon, Yeah, exactly, I would say.
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: The only one that I was thinking Matt also last
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: night about this, the only one that was that will
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: always take in my mind was the agyp one from
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: Sudan to Egypt because and I think there's still no
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: road that I mean, there is a road, but cemitary
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: road just for convoys. So you have to go on
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: the lake and it's nasire. That's right, the way it works.
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: And again that's where the lesson of going with the
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: flow is very important because the way it worked, and
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: I could talk about this for hours, but the way
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: it worked is that you will have to leave your
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: truck there because the trucks were going about, but you
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: will go on the ferry. So so I remember like
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: being on the ferry and seeing my truck on the
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: shore in the gyp and leaving the keys to some
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: called fixers, and like just put that the truck is
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: going to show up the next day, on the next
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: couple of days after, because I think it didn't have to.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: Get it's a long it's a long lassage passage for sure.
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: So you get there, you go to your hotel and
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: then you shouldn't luck and still the day after the
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: buck is going to show up. But then again there
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: are reasons not to have an expensive truck, right because
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: who knows what's going to happen totally, you never know.
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: In our case, it was kind of it was quite
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: funny because there was there were three of us, it
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: was five of us, three with motorcycles and two with trucks.
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: So a defender and our encouz and and the three
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: guys with the motorcycle managed to convince the captain of
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: the ferry of the ship passengers to put the bikes
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: on that ship. But you could only go so far
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: inside the ship, so you could only go where, you know,
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: like the main entrance the ship was, and they put
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: all three bikes there, and they were so excited because
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: they were like as soon as we get to Egypt
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: and to be out and want to be leaving, going
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: to keep driving up to Germany. They were from Germany.
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: I think then that's not what happened. When we got
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: there with the ferry. It became these giant chaos because
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: they were hundreds of people wanting to get after the
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: boat and the custom in e Gyp. We asked people
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: to steal on the boat. Everyone ended up being tramped
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: over those three bikes. I can't remember or like there
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: was like dozens of people like all over the bikes
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: and then everyone yelling and then trying to get the bikes.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: Out and getting to get away of those bikes to
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: get out.
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: And then it took about five days to get all
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: our paperworking out there in Egypt because you have to
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: get local driver license, local plates, you have to actually
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: go with the custom guide to the local police station
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: and get all that.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: I mean, it was it's a very demanding experience.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: Was Egypt worth it for you?
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: I get to that. I know for this guy it wasn't.
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: Because the biker guys actually left after us. You got
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: so bad. It got so bad with the custom guy.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: They won't talk to anyone. The customer told me, I
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: will only talk to you. You're going to bring the
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: papers and everything. I don't want to do with any
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: of those guys because they were too impatient and they
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: were yelling. And another lesson, I was going to use
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: a world that might not be good for the podcast, Paul,
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: I can leap it out or move it out, okay
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: and change it.
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: But yeah, no it was.
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: It was a circus, that's say, it was a big
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: circuss then Egypt. So the thing I don't know again
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: how many people from Egypt, but I liked some part
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: of it. I just felt it was a bit of
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: a tourist trap. Like I felt like many of the
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: pass will go were so popular, like when you have
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: like the big Pyramids for example, and yeah.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: It's one of the one of the wonders of the world. Yeah.
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: So I used to say when I was I used
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: to think, it's like snow in Canada. It doesn't matter
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: what you do, You're gonna get snow. It was kind
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: of the same with the tourists over there. It seems
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: like it doesn't really matter like how nice they were
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: or not.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: They knew that they were.
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: Always going to be tourists coming all the time for years.
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's been tourists for like what years over there,
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: So we did not I don't know. I can't say
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: that the experience was out that great. There was a
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: lot of trash. Also, felt like a lot of many
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: places or not. Maybe it's better now. I don't know
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: the bit back then, but that said, I did like
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: the Sinai Peninsula also we went down over there. We
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: spent some time there. My friend at the time was
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: big into free diving there. Yeah, and that's a big
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: spot for that.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, that's where we were. So we
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: spent quite some time there. But then again we left
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: that and then you drive on the coast at the
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: sight and I remember driving like almost a day and
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: seeing all those seeing all those buildings that were not finished.
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: And that's because apparently that they had this kind of
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: lot that we were going to give people land, but
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: you had to build within five years to keep the
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: land or keep the taxes low. But you didn't have
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: to finish, you just had to start the construction. So
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: there was alas like for the mice and mice and
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: miles of unfinished building around the coast, and oh yeah.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: It was a bit What were your because I've never
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: been to the Pyramids, so what was your feeling of
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: being like at one of the only remaining ancient wonders
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: of the world.
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: I was going to say the best one for me
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: was actually in Sudan, Okay, on the way up to
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: sid I've heard that, yes, yes, And because there was
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: no one else, it was only maybe like yeah, to
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: the truck that had a little bit and and that
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: was Spectacua for sure.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: And that was the Nubie and pharaohs. Wasn't it that
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: built those? I think they said yeah, yeah, so cool. Yeah, yeah,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: that was amazing. I kind of want to go back now.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there we go, yeah soon.
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: I remember also when I was in Sudan then it
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: was especially it was so hot. First of all, it
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: was insane because we spent a few weeks in the
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: capital in Kalatom as we were trying to get from
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: it to go drive to Saudi Arabia, and back then
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: it was really hot, like you had like a business
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: and or whatever. So they kept us waiting for the
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: most two weeks and at the end we didn't get there.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: Now it's pretty easy, and now it's a lot easier.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they change the car.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Is there I'd like to go.
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: That'd be a cool one for you.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Is cheap right?
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: Prospector hammerdown next year? Isn't Ashley there? They just were Yeah,
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: Ashley and Richard Giordana. Yeah, I saw somethingture.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: They were just they were just there. They had a
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: wonderful time. They were there for the the car.
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: I saw that in Senegal. Wow, I would be back
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: and I was working there. That was phenomenal.
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: Did you know it was coming or did you just
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: happen to like racing? But no, no, I knew.
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: I had been watching it even before, but it happened
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: to be the same time I had the wedding in
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: the car. Okay, So when we went to the wedding,
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: I think it was after Christmas on the there's a
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: small isn't outside of that?
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: And then uh, and then yeah, and then and then.
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: My friend Diane it was local. He was Senegal and
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: he came from a wealthy family. Sure, I think his mother.
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: His mother was French and his father was the salese
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: ambassador to friends or something like that. Forgot the exact situation,
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: but she was very very well. Now, just to give
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: you an idea, his sister was diating job the posy
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: for a while.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: Oh wow.
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: At the wedding, she was there with another French actor
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: of early famous I forgot his name right now. I
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: was there at the wedding. It was it was a
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: pretty big thing, I would say, so, yeah, it was great.
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: And then at the wedding I actually met local Senegal
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: angles guy who had done the cap a few times,
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: and so it was awesome because he had some really
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: good stories, especially because he was from Synagal and there's
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: very few people from Senegale. I'm doing the duck Out.
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: It was expensive, you know, it was something that was
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: more she's just you know, I was doing it. So
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: it was great and like spending time night in the
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: ball in duck Out, like we left the ball and
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: the sun was up the next month, just talking about the.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Well and for you to experience the original the car
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: in Senegal, I.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: Mean, because it's likely never going back. Yeah, probably not. Yeah.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: So they have another one now that's called the Echo Challenge.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: The Challenge.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you need to spend a bit more time looking
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: at it.
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: I mean they have they have the classic now also
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: that they're doing the Duckout Classic.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: The classic is really Amy Lerner did that this year.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: And what was her thoughts on it?
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: You know, I haven't talked to her on it her
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: on the podcast, yeah, I mean from just from you know,
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: following her on Instagram. It looks really fun cool. Nine
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: to eleven is jam oh yeah.
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, oh yeah that's the one. Yeah, yeah, I read that.
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: The I think it's like the third seasons now for
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: the duck the classic. Yeah, and the numbers have like
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: triple they had like it just.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: Like sounds more fun.
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, totally, way does way more fun.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: Like I always had these like foolish dreams that I
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: do it on a motorcycle. Now there's like no way,
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: like absolutely no way. Those people are like superhuman. I
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: watched Winded Boskets video he did the Mallei Moto Class,
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: which you are self supported, and I'm like, man, I
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: could not ride for ten hours a day and then
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: sleep for four hours next to somebody's generator. Yeah for
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: two weeks. Yeah, crazy, Like I don't know how you
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: do it. Maybe that's why red Bull sponsors it.
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: Superhuman.
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: I find it a bit sad because in the US,
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: the converage we get to the deck out is so it's.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: Just hard to follow, right, It's complex, it's constantly changing,
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: and it takes, you know, two weeks of effort. It's
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: not My dog's name is named Dekar. Yeah yeah, yeah.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: Do you know how much I watch of the Takar Yeah,
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: not that much because it's just not even the coverage,
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: it's just the fact that it's like it's a big event.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: Two weeks long, so you kind of like kind of
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: check in. And I think the problem these days is
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: you end up following it on social media. You follow
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: the riders or the drivers or whatever, and they're posting
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: and they're giving their little, you know, snippet of the adventure.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: Why do I want to listen to ESPN and find
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: out what I already knew from Instagram?
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: I did an effort this year to follow it a
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: little bit more, like on a Red Bull website and
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: on the Dull website. But what I didn't like is
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: they always talk about the same What are the other stories?
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: What are the stories they only talk about like the
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: two guys in the quass and a couple of guys
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: on the bike.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: I think it's just such a compete again to follow,
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: to make a constant narrative of I don't.
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: Know, Yeah, I don't know. That makes sense, Yeah, makes sense.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: But then again, when I was there in West Africa,
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: like you had their own TV. It was on the
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: news every night and every.
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: Day and so cool. Do you feel like the locals
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: were into it?
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, awesome, Yeah, yeah, they're also into it getting
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: bribes on the way back because they'll let.
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: You come in quickly, but then you got to take
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: your time going back out.
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, because my friend had not told me he said,
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: he said, yeah, I take my nuz I had a
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: sixty serial. I said, take the truck and go see
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: the duck house. So I left and I realized that
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: the place was expired. We're expiled on the truck. It
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: had been about from France or whatever.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: And they expired.
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: So every track point, you know, I was getting stopped.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: And then I was like, okay, all part of the adventure.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: And a special thanks to this week's sponsor, The Medic.
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• 31:43
  Speaker 1: to come. That crossing of Africa was not your only
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: adventure in Africa. You got to tell us a story
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: about the limousine to tim Bucks to Timbuck.
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: Took two Yeah, so that yeah.
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: So, so the short story is, I've been obsessed with
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: West Africa. I love West Africa, and I always to
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: find a way to go back, one way or another.
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: And then at the time, I was working all the time,
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: you know, in San Francisco, so we didn't have that
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: much time. But I remember my my my friend had
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: an apartment and all of this kind of makes me
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: old now.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: It seems changed so much, right.
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: Because in just fifteen years, right, this was this was
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: before like you know, all the tech stuff, and there
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: was some tech stuff, but he was not like it
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: is now.
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: He had an apartment on Hate and Hashbury, like.
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, right in it and it was super cheap, you know,
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: with the terrace on the roof, and we'll go there
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: and dream about our trips, you know. And now this
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: apart minute, but it worked median Yeah, sure, yeah, so
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: he came, he came up one day and he said, yeah,
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: it was just like I think it was Simo to
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: Bengui okay, Charlie Lee race okay in West Africa, or
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: maybe I find it. I don't know, but I remember
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: having a drink with him and we're like, okay, so
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: let's do this race. And then the next topic what well,
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: then which cow we're going to take? And then he's like, well,
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: what's the least likely cow can take this race? So
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: the conditionrics a couple of bits after, we're like, limus
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: and take a limo.
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: So all right, So okay, so so far we're in
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: the same So father player.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: Is you know it's coming together perc ight, Well.
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: Totally totally stot there. So all right, so we didn't
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: think of that. That's so true.
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: The next question is where do we find a limo.
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: That's the best place to find a limo, ye, Las Vegas.
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: So the next day I was in crazy Las Vegas
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: and I found a limo like some I won't get
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: in that story, but some local guy had a limo
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: for say that he wasn't using. He was in the
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: storage place and I we we took our southwest points
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: with Vegas a new battery, and then we drove the
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: thing back.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: It almost would have been better if you had hired
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: the former limo driver to drive his former limo. You
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: imagine just blasted in the back.
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, yes, well that kind of almost happened in
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: a way. But yeah, So we took to the limo
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: back San Francisco. We spent the summer there with the
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: limo in San Francisco. It was a blast with the
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: kids framed with the surf boall we took it. The
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: burnning Man was phenomenon. And then we drove it across
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: to New York, ship it to Act to the UK
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: and drove it down all the way to Mali, and
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: then a couple of things happened there when we got there.
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: The charity event the way it was it was done with.
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: Then we like, you know, what the money was going
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: and stuff. So we just had to not because the
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: planet was to give away the limo to the charity
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: and then it would raise the money and the money
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: we'll go to.
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: Some local things. But then we like that there was
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: some aspect that was not.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: Did they not want your limo?
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: No?
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: No, no, it was not all where the money was
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: going and it was done and.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: How much actually went so much actually yeah, exactly, and
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: so we just had to just always and then keep
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: driving and go to tim Book two.
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: That's why I had this famous picture in front of
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: the airport tim Bu too well.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: And as I understand, he just gave me an update
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: today is that somebody, somebody posted on the internet a
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: picture of this limo in Timbuk two and everybody was
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: so confused about it.
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: Got there exactly exactly. Yeah, it's still there. I was
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: looking for it like a few weeks ago because I
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: told the started someone and I was the online kind
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: of picture. We got to go rescue the limo from
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: Timbuk two.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: I know, I know.
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: I was actually looking design and shape, so I have
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: no because it was you know, it's one of those.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: One that tries to take it from the local limo drive.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: No, but it'll be a super fun it'll be a
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: super fun adventure. Oh yeah, no, you got to find
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: a way to make them happy. Yeah yeah, well we've
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: done that. Just did that now and you go out
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: with the full honor.
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: Went to rescue it a couple of times too, because
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: a different started, different suation. But as there's an adventure,
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: we did that also. That's right, I forgot to mention
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: this one we drove across Mexico am I rally we
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: still have a band and believe that needs to be rescued.
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: I remember it's like on a tree farm or something,
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: isn't it. Yeah, it's like it's more of a drug
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: dinner phone. Yeah. Yeah.
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: It was a little bit shocked when I went back
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: a few years ago to see where the limo was.
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: But not emo the beans.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: They're very profitable if you drive it home.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll pay your expenses to drive it back to
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: the US.
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: Just don't look in the trunk.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: I think the lesson again, that was asking me about lesson.
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: I think the lesson is you can't really take anything
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: to go travel and to spend you know, a fortune
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: and years you know, planning.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, imagine how many how much you laughed driving
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: a limo across Africa. It had to have been like there,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: there's probably not another car like you couldn't drive like
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: the coolest land cruiser on the planet would not bring
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: as much attention as a limo.
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: For sure, for sure, for sure. Wasn't it like a
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: pink limo?
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: And I was white, white white white?
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: What like inside it was red like red leather and
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: stuff inside, had the antenna in the back, like the guys,
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: how do you ship a limo?
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, roll on, roll off. There was no container for it.
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: It had that like v antenna on the back.
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and the son of hoof and it had a
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: mini bar inside. That's so good. It's so good.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: Reminds me of like, don't I don't even go into
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: the airport when I was three because I think maybe
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: limos died.
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: It was.
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: It was really fun, even the summer in San Francisco
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: because everyone because it was it was I think it
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: was an eighty six eighty eight like from the late eighties,
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: so it was like fort eighties, and everyone was like,
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: oh my gosh, I had this when I went to Pumped,
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: you know, and they all come and talk with you
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: us and and then in Africa, like you said, the
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: thing also about having a vehicle like this, it's act
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: in some strange ways safer because people are so shocked.
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: I don't even think about you know.
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: They can't even think about robbing. Yeah, I've got to
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: rob you a limo laughing. They're laughing to that thing.
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: They're like, what's that? You know? These guys are crazy.
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: For you can't have to have to be a bit
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: crazy to start with to try going to mess with
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: those guys, be crazy enough to drive a limo here,
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: so because I remember and then but then on the
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: other hand, oftentimes the actual overlander started going to look
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: down on you. Yeah, because if the German guys spending
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: thousand dollars on his age seventy eight, you di with
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: your limo.
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: That kind of like two drive with miss fun you know, yeah, sure.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: That, as you know friendly with, we need more limos
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: driving around the world to keep the egos at bay
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: for more.
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: Limo Now there is a yeah. And then the band's
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: similar story. I mean the organized the mayorally in Mexico
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: and we about the bands unseen. There was a seventy
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: four four fifty sel, the big V eight, Yeah, and
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: I remember we bought it the same friend again. We
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: bought it off eBay for less than two thousand dollars.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: Super clean.
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: Actually now I can we got a little bit big
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: clean and now they are worth a lot.
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: But the body is from a guy in Santa Rama
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: and in the area and then drove it all over
• 38:06
  Speaker 4: the bellies.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: No, that's the right, and that's the right car for
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: it too. I mean a Mercedes Benz for those roads.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: It's made for it.
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: It's made for it.
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: And with Thebviate in Mexico when we had to go
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: on those auto band but the one that has a toll, yeah, sure,
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: that guy has a lot of talk at high speed
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: and I remember trying to follow the full honor and.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: He's good, it's gone. We've got to go rescue the Benz. Yeah,
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: we got to do it. Like the three of us,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: we're going to plan it right here on this podcast. Yeah,
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: everybody's gonna everybody's gonna learn how to plan. I'd rather
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: go for the Okay, maybe we'll do both. We would
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: do both, yeah, but it could be both fun. Yeah,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: the limo would be an adventure. Yeah.
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: But you often have Vernanders that, like, you know, they
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: finished a trip somewhere and they sell the cast for
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: free and they just need to own you know.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: Then purtal in the forum all the time, people that
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: finish their trip and just leave them to America and
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: you can buy them for sometimes pennies on the dollar.
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, because he realized how much money is to ship
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: them back take care of it. And then that's how
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: we got awful honor in South America. That's right, super
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: nice couple, and they'd been traveling for a couple of
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: years and then in the case they got they decided
• 39:10
  Speaker 4: to adopt the dog in Columbia. And then I think
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: it was some money you should only detaste, essentially, But
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: they were gonna hurry.
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: They're like, I was done, we want to go. And
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: one was going to buy.
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: The truck because it had plates from Alaska. Yeah, sure
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: they have to sell les you find someone a bit crazy,
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: and sure you need to deal with the paperwork, and
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: you did.
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: In fact, you had to.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: You had to meet the guy and go to the
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: border together so he could get it out and then
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: get it back in.
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: Well, I think that's what I told you to do,
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: and then you didn't do that exactly, that's the right
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: thing to do. I remember, that's right.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: You said, Scott, how do I get the car out
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: of the country? And I explained how to do it,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: and then you took a totally different plan.
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, okay, exactly interesting advice the opposite.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: So how did how did that happen?
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: So the way you explained it is the proper way
• 39:55
  Speaker 4: of doing it you go there. The way I did
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: it is they were already gone. They were gone back
• 39:58
  Speaker 4: to New Zealand, and they left the truck the apple. Yeah,
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: you in, and I got the keys. I think he
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: had made me the keys or something. And then I
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: drove to the I drove to the Pew. I went
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: up to Pew, and then I got to the Ballder
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: and to my surprise, I was hoping to just cancel
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: the tip invitations from it and get a new one
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: in Pew. But to my shock when I got there
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: that you were both connected. It was the same person.
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: I was doing both. Yeah, exactly. So it was pretty dodgy.
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: It was pretty effy because it's like your name doesn't
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: match the name there and the name and this and that,
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: and I was sweating and I was like, well, yeah,
• 40:31
  Speaker 4: I want to have a truck after that, and then yeah,
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: the next thing, I explained in Spanish bit of what
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: was happening, and after the wife said fine and everything,
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: and then I was on my wheel.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: But again, that's another example.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: You've had such great luck with just showing up just
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: like and figuring it out, shut it up and figuring
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: it out.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: Well, that's the point of like the cheap car, like
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: because then you you just aren't that stressed, you know,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: I mean you would you would be disappointed, of course
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: if it didn't work out, But it's it's not like
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: you spent sixty grand on a new forrun.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: I think it was sweet.
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thirty five.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: Hundred bucks I about with a yeah. Sure he was
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: with Chris Caller. Chris Caller.
• 41:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I would have hate el Chris that truck.
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: You know, he was probably a fifty to fifty chances,
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: you know, and I still had everything in my suitcase.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: I didn't.
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: I had not to be on pack at that point
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: because I like, if I take the bus, I need
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: to truck that and some bus you know.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: By oh, you know what we got to talk about.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: I just realized because we had to send Chris Caller
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: down to rescue our land Cruiser from Panama. But you guys,
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: you guys first connected.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: At Panama with US.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: So for those that are listening, there was a period
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: of time. Christian is usually a decade ahead of the trends.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: This was at least ten years ago for two thousand.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: You started this. You started this like Overlanders hostel in
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: Panama City, yes, yes, and you got this house down there,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: and then you hired this young whipper snapper, this ginger
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: haired young whipper snapper.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: I was so drunk. I was twenty one years old.
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: I had just left the Midwest, and I was running
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: an overland or hostile And.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: So you actually worked for both of us. Hopefully someday
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: I'll work for you, Matt.
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: So Christian Christian hired Matt Scott to run Panama Passage
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: and help people get their documents in order.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: Help people get trucks and stuff.
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that was an adventure for sure.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: That was quite I want to tell one story about
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: a certain someone at this table who hid the AC remote. Okay,
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: I don't know who it was, but Jackson maybe maybe
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: maybe maybe this slightly pampered kid from Midwest was like
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: sitting there at two in the morning, like sweating with
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: this fan because it was like nine thousand degrees one
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: hundred percent humidity. And then in this you finally gave
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: me the code to the safe to like put the
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: cash in for like the three dollars that we would
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: have elected, like, and there's this AC remote in there,
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, oh, you did me dirty, it did
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: me really I sat in that room for like twenty
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: four hours at like sixty degrees. But really, I think
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: I think that each overlander there, I think maybe that
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: place made three dollars.
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we didn't make any money there.
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: Because like somebody would come in and it would be like,
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: I don't know, I'm going to make up numbers. It
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: was like fifteen dollars a night for a room, super reasonable,
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: and then you'd get people that would come in and
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: be like, well, in Honduras, I paid eight dollars, so
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: I'm not paying you any more than eight thirty two,
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: And I'm like.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: What do you get to do? Like, yeah, this is Panama.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: It's a little more expensive in Panama than under.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: Say, we'll kind of sleep in the yard for like,
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: oh man, just paying the fifteen dollars to get to bed,
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: like that's all I do.
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, No, we didn't make any money. I
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: kind of like that you had that. You had that
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: for a couple of years, did you? Maybe a year
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: we had it.
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: Matt was there, I thought, no, Sean was there, and
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: then phil Field was there for a while too, and
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: then we lost the house essentially, Oh that's right, the
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: lease on it.
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the house. But that's a guy. What year
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: was that though, I remember we.
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: Were looking for a new one when you were down there.
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, yeah, we did try to find my cab
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: driver's name.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: Remember the cab driver's name, was it Bruno?
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: I remember the cab driver. I don't remember his name.
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: It would come all the time. But now there's a
• 44:10
  Speaker 4: guy who I haven't met them.
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: I just saw it.
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: And I'm over an embassy okay, in the outdown in
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: tent in my city, and it's essentially the same concept
• 44:17
  Speaker 4: as I was doing.
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: He's offering we're doing. He was offering.
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: He's offering place to stay and out with shipping and
• 44:23
  Speaker 4: that type of stuff.
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: I mean doesn't need for that, there no question for sure,
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: for sure doesn't need.
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: I think he started that early shortly after I had
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: been in Panama. I had driven, I had driven from
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: Arizona down down to the Dirty.
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: So I took this one down. Yeah that's right.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So I had done the trip down to the
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: dairy and Gap in two thousand and nine, and then
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: it was maybe twenty twelve, twenty eleven, and then you
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: drove the eighty series.
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: Down the KTM in the back. Yeah, that's right with us.
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: And then you left the land Cruiser there and then
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: we had to have it rescued, so Chris Chris collared,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: blew down and drove it back.
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: So it went so far almost more time. Who is
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: our Yeah, I went back and fought to Costa Rica. Yeah, yeah,
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: I love that thing. But taking so much fuel it does,
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: it's very believable. Yeah, it consumes a lot of fuel.
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: Talked about that also last night with about the eighties.
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: They were great for a while, but opinion now that
• 45:13
  Speaker 4: you old, now they're no less they're no less great.
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: They're just they're so old, I mean, and they were
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: just complex enough.
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: Where now the wiring.
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: In the classic another classics, like you know, I mean,
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: that's that's what you're driving around the world. Yeah, you
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: know exactly, this idea that you're going to find parts everywhere.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: But I had two hundred and go, we're on the
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: highlux train. Yeah, fuel economy, no comfort.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: You look like every other car going down the road
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: exactly in one metric ton of payload twenty two hundred pound.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: So because right now I'm obsessed with going back to Africa, perfectly,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: do they want to go back.
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: It's well, I'm going in August.
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: But did you see on the farm as a person
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: I don't know his name, We just posted a trip
• 45:52
  Speaker 4: in Africa that he from what I've gathered, he's lives
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: in Utah somewhere. Okay, yep, he took carry in the UK,
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: so he has like I don't know, like let us
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: fire port that he did. I think he's done like
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: fifty expeditions in Africa.
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: Wow. And the last one he shipped his truck to
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: Daka and.
• 46:05
  Speaker 4: He's out to Mali and uh and Chad and the
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: Cow that's sometime African Republic. And that was like a
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: few months ago. And then he went back to Cameron
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: and ship is back to Oh that's awesome. That's insane,
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: Like no one does that even no one does that.
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: Now he says that he hasn't seen once again another
• 46:21
  Speaker 4: on the trip, and he has beautiful pictures of but
• 46:24
  Speaker 4: has he.
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: Done road.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: Not an overlander? Yeah, he seems like answer seems questionable.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: He hasn't done the Mojave road exactly.
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: But yeah, so that totally kind of isn't my session
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: with going back to Africa.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: Oh man, that's so so incredible so let's let's kind
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: of start to pivot a little bit. We cannot cover
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: all of your travels because you've done these incredible journeys,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: including the stuff that you did in the Middle East
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: and the travels that you've done in South America recently,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: and and that Chris Collar continues to do. You guys
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: are sharing this forerunner down there in South America. In fact,
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: I think Chris is down there right now. Your travels
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: have been extensive. But what we hope to do is
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: take away some some questions. So Matt and I will
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: will have a couple of questions for you. But one
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: of the questions we do like to ask on every
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: podcast is what is your your favorite books?
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: I gotta say travel books.
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: Lonely Planet was the big one for a while, and
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: I still buy them today. I still buy you know,
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: I honestly, I go on eBay these days. I don't
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: even have to be like the full Whetaildrice. I go
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: on eBay and I get a few travel books, and
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: I think it's a great way to get excited about it.
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: You know, that's true. It kind of prime the primes,
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: the pump.
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: You get all excited about it.
• 47:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, Yeah, there's just something symbolic about it. Iving
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: this on your table when you pack your loggage and
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: stuff and you have the book next to you, and
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: you look like you know, now I'm going there, and
• 47:38
  Speaker 4: I still have I kept all them. I have like
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: a library for That's awesome. But there is one there
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: is one connection I will link after some guys did
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: those are travel books? But it's it's everything is fake
• 47:48
  Speaker 4: tire things is a joke, and it's actually quite funny.
• 47:51
  Speaker 4: I fell you sure that some of the jokes will
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: not be acceptable. Maybe these days maybe we need to
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: be re visited. But those are very very funny books
• 47:59
  Speaker 4: that have one for like Asia, we have one for
• 48:02
  Speaker 4: like sometimes on America and you know Eastern very cool.
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: What questions do you have for the illustrious Christian?
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: I guess it's not really a question as much as
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: asking or advice on You've always kept things refreshingly simple,
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: always kept things really fun, and you've always managed to
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: avoid like the serious overland overlander stereotype, like what's what's
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: your key to that?
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: One thing is my background? No, you we go up
• 48:29
  Speaker 4: in Quebec, you have six months a year of winter.
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: My first car was a Chrysler Lebaho it will drive,
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: and then I had that's what we were driving in
• 48:36
  Speaker 4: the winter. Didn't have any didn't it was no max strikes,
• 48:38
  Speaker 4: it was no you know, we didn't have any full
• 48:41
  Speaker 4: to full by four when I was young and we
• 48:42
  Speaker 4: were living six months like crazy winter.
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: Sure, when you go up like this, it was just
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: another day. It's the other day.
• 48:47
  Speaker 4: So you don't go up with all those needs of
• 48:49
  Speaker 4: having the most you know, crazy.
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: Many may cold on the planet, but you've seen California
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: drivers they actually need for drive.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's crazy in La. It's crazy. Got to
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: have a four while world driving away. Yeah, So I
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: think that's what rains the background. I think the other
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: part is to not take yourself too seriously.
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: And that again goes along the way on the border crossing,
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: because I've seen it it welcoming, especially in Central America.
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: Like so many times, you have all those fixtures that
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: you don't get stressed out about and just have fun
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: with them.
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, smile, yes, smile.
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: I remember, like I was like I remember one time
• 49:22
  Speaker 4: on again, why but I was at the order in
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: the Caiago on your house and I had a picture
• 49:26
  Speaker 4: of now the guy next to me, the fix I
• 49:28
  Speaker 4: had a picture of his girlfriend. They'll often have that,
• 49:30
  Speaker 4: right when on your cell phone. You had a picture
• 49:32
  Speaker 4: my my wife on my phone. So I told the
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: guy in Spanish, I said, it's just a picture of
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: your mother. And that just just that sentence, the guys
• 49:39
  Speaker 4: started laughing, and then the whole thing was totally you know,
• 49:42
  Speaker 4: the dynamic was totally different. And then I gave him
• 49:44
  Speaker 4: I don't know, like some people really refuse. That's a
• 49:46
  Speaker 4: whole other discussion too, But I gave him maybe five
• 49:48
  Speaker 4: bucks or whatever, and I went for a drink and
• 49:50
  Speaker 4: I let him just go on my paperwork, you know.
• 49:52
  Speaker 3: And there's there's.
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: A lot fixtures can be so cheap, and so to.
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: Discuss about this, you know a lot of people have
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: a very strong opinion. I remember with my friend fighting
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: a about this a lot. You know, some people always
• 50:01
  Speaker 4: want to that you don't encourage alcohol by giving money.
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: Don't encourage them to have a job. Yeah, he's offering
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: a service. I mean it's different if you're someone's panhandling,
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: of course you don't want to encourage that. But someone
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: that's there to help you with the service and move some.
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: Of the comp I think people get very righteous about it,
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: so they get the boy Scott badge, the boy Scott patch.
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't fixers.
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, yeah, well how many how many extra
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: days do you have your time worth? What's your time worth?
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah? And and how much is that worth five bucks
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: to me? Yeah?
• 50:34
  Speaker 4: Exactly, I mean for the price, I mean it's and
• 50:36
  Speaker 4: the clime is they're gonna be a yeah, they're gonna
• 50:38
  Speaker 4: be wil more efficient than you anyway.
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: They know the process that people you know everything.
• 50:42
  Speaker 4: I mean I've done both, you know, on myself also
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: very often, and sometimes they're not even there, depending on
• 50:46
  Speaker 4: the ball there. But when the guy's there and he
• 50:48
  Speaker 4: looks digit and yeah, the chance to just reacts and
• 50:50
  Speaker 4: have a drink and at the cafee and just you
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: can watch him like this time running around.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: And that's another reason to be in a car that
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: doesn't cost a lot of money. You're just like, none
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: of it, none of it becomes.
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: A us anymore.
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: And the practical advice that even if you're not like
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: overland traveling, you know, crossing borders and vehicles, is if
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: you're going into difficult countries, you can still hire those
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: guys that like meet you at the airport for like
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: almost no money, walk you through customs, save these huge
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: amounts of time. We were doing that. We've done that
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: in Africa before, where it's like an arrival services like
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: fifteen bucks and the dude grabs your bag, walks you
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: through the diplomatic line and puts you in a taxi.
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: You have like the best fifteen dollars you can spend
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: in the world.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: And it adds to the experience totally. I mean, aren't
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: we here to interact with the locals. It's like you
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: see some guy come roll through the unimogue with armor
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: plated windows and this kind. He never interacts with it.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: He's like he's in his safe, he's in his bubble.
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: To me, having a fixer, work with laugh with them,
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: understand the process, work with them on it.
• 51:50
  Speaker 4: And it's great that it has to be, you know,
• 51:52
  Speaker 4: painful and sell experience. I mean, I remember a one
• 51:55
  Speaker 4: time when we had the Panama Passage place in Panama,
• 51:57
  Speaker 4: we had to do bottle runs every three months. Our
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: brother I would expire in Panama. So you go to
• 52:02
  Speaker 4: Costa Rica, you stamp out, you stand back in had
• 52:05
  Speaker 4: to we had to we we don't like to do.
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: But of course I remember we go on the on
• 52:10
  Speaker 4: the border that's on the west side, there's a smaller
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: butter crossing.
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: The agent that the butter guy there.
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: I think he was probably gay, and I think he
• 52:19
  Speaker 4: was probably liking my friend a lot. We became a
• 52:21
  Speaker 4: a friend with him, sure, And I remember like, we're
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: doing that one time and the guy is like, Hey,
• 52:25
  Speaker 4: do you want to take our job? So we ended
• 52:26
  Speaker 4: up Frenchine behind the custom stamping people coming in. There
• 52:32
  Speaker 4: was like backpackers coming down and yeah, what they have
• 52:35
  Speaker 4: to decline?
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: And then.
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: So it's amazing, it's it's it's that's amazing.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: And we didn't even get to talk about the fact
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: that you did a mountain bike race across Costa Rica too.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's just there's no way to pack it
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: all in the one to have them on. Yeah, I
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: think we're going to have to have them on again.
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: Any other questions coming to mind? Man, that was a
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: great well say that next time. That was a great question.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: So one of the things that we also really like
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: to ask is, and you've covered a lot in this,
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: but if someone is new to overlanding, what is a
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: couple key pieces of advice that you would give them
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: to help them on their journey around the world.
• 53:09
  Speaker 4: One of the biggest one is don't focus too much
• 53:11
  Speaker 4: on your vehicles on where you want to go. And yeah,
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: it's so easy, even myself, like it's so easy to
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: get trapped and need to add those tires mentioned and
• 53:18
  Speaker 4: spend that month. And that's not to think about a
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: lot more about planning. Depending how long you want to take,
• 53:22
  Speaker 4: I would say that I would say very quickly right now,
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: and I would say this too approach. If you are
• 53:27
  Speaker 4: shot on turn on time. If you have litterally like
• 53:29
  Speaker 4: less than two mounts, just get something granted how or
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: buy something like one for my friend or whatever. You know,
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: if you're gonna go to Iceland for a mounts, just
• 53:35
  Speaker 4: get some of the fundle trucks that.
• 53:37
  Speaker 3: They do, super cool trucks, cooler than we got, super nice.
• 53:40
  Speaker 4: You're gonna go for longer than that, then, yes, you
• 53:41
  Speaker 4: may want to have your vehicle, but think about more
• 53:43
  Speaker 4: things like when you travel and you have every day
• 53:46
  Speaker 4: that it does one of your most expensive things is
• 53:48
  Speaker 4: on the most expensive things think about coming back to
• 53:51
  Speaker 4: doesn't matter how long you're going to go and I
• 53:52
  Speaker 4: have to come back. And I made that mistake you
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: know once, like the first time, I thought that's it,
• 53:56
  Speaker 4: I'm going forever. I'm selling everything. We sold everything surf
• 53:59
  Speaker 4: ball want and buy everything like living and you come
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: back after you know too, you have to stop from
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: scratch surfboard.
• 54:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you didn't have a surfboard. That's a problem.
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: I have a need furniture, have any computer, and have
• 54:11
  Speaker 4: anything at all. You have to stop from scratch, and
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: that just a shock of coming back by itself. Sometimes
• 54:16
  Speaker 4: it's a bit difficult because you've had so much fun
• 54:18
  Speaker 4: and you know, you have this great experience, so it's
• 54:20
  Speaker 4: changed shock coming back to that having to like find
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: an apartment, you know, buy all this stuff and everything.
• 54:26
  Speaker 4: That also, I think on that experience. Yeah, so so
• 54:29
  Speaker 4: I would say just plan. I try to plan the end.
• 54:32
  Speaker 4: And also yeah, what does that mean.
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: Maybe make sure you have some support because you're going
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: to be a changed person when you come back.
• 54:37
  Speaker 4: And if you want to travel, and another thing also
• 54:39
  Speaker 4: if you want to travel for a long time. Finentially,
• 54:41
  Speaker 4: I think it's also good to have a plan on
• 54:42
  Speaker 4: how you're going to finance this trip because so many
• 54:44
  Speaker 4: times I've seen people like we've seen this Panama passage.
• 54:46
  Speaker 4: Right after a few months driving, You're like, oh, I
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: like that. I want to keep doing it? Or do
• 54:49
  Speaker 4: you make money? It's really hard to make money when
• 54:51
  Speaker 4: your own when in Mexico or whatever.
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: People are like usually underestimate how much they're going to
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: spend them Also, yeah, that's so true. Yeah.
• 54:59
  Speaker 4: So my advice is, I think, and that's what I
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: do now is work with how he makes really good money,
• 55:03
  Speaker 4: then spend the money.
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: And I tried to mix both.
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: You're really good at that. It's like it seems like
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: you'll kind of you know, you'll work and then you'll
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: take a sabbatical and you'll really enjoy it. Like there's
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: there's a couple of travelers that I really admire that
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: do that, Like David Critis is like he's like he
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: works and he travels and they are different.
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, Dan Gregt does that, although he's starting to
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: make more money as a traveler too.
• 55:25
  Speaker 4: But it's so hot. I've tried to do well together.
• 55:27
  Speaker 4: I've done it a few times, you know, and you
• 55:29
  Speaker 4: don't end up.
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: I don't think that you end up getting the full
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: experience of travel if you're working all the time.
• 55:34
  Speaker 4: No, no, no, for sure take it over not traveling. Yeah,
• 55:37
  Speaker 4: that's true. Yeah, because maybe we can. I don't know
• 55:40
  Speaker 4: how much money we have.
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's wet this like I because I work in it.
• 55:46
  Speaker 4: So my work is remote and my boss won't listen
• 55:49
  Speaker 4: to this. But but a few years ago I was working,
• 55:50
  Speaker 4: I was wearing Czech Republic work. I was kind of
• 55:52
  Speaker 4: working remote at the time, but I was also visiting
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: and everything, and I remember this one night I had
• 55:56
  Speaker 4: a meeting and it's really how so one thing I
• 55:58
  Speaker 4: found out also when it's traveling, it's you want to work,
• 56:00
  Speaker 4: it's really hard to find a quiet place because there's
• 56:02
  Speaker 4: noise everywhere easy and then you go to the hotel,
• 56:04
  Speaker 4: the WiFi might not work, it might be down.
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: Sometimes it works better.
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: In the lobby lobby.
• 56:09
  Speaker 4: So this one time I had a meeting and I
• 56:11
  Speaker 4: was the one to call the meeting, and so I
• 56:13
  Speaker 4: told my wife Procifony, I said, I got to find
• 56:15
  Speaker 4: a quiet place. So we found this restaurant that was downstairs,
• 56:18
  Speaker 4: super quiet, like because the restaurant usually like starts a
• 56:20
  Speaker 4: bit later or whatever, and to the meeting. With the
• 56:22
  Speaker 4: time difference, the meeting was maybe five six for US
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: and maybe eight am on the West coast, and so
• 56:26
  Speaker 4: I'm like, this is perfect on the place, good WiFi, everything,
• 56:29
  Speaker 4: I get set up. I stopped the meeting about ten minutes.
• 56:32
  Speaker 4: It was a Washington club, like a like a disco club.
• 56:34
  Speaker 4: The DJ came in crind it easy. I couldn't even
• 56:37
  Speaker 4: hear anything on the phone.
• 56:38
  Speaker 3: Was a disaster.
• 56:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and that has happened so many times, where you know,
• 56:42
  Speaker 4: you plan for something when you're trying to travel or
• 56:44
  Speaker 4: have a conference call and then Yeah, for me, that
• 56:47
  Speaker 4: led me to believe, to conclude that now it's much
• 56:49
  Speaker 4: better to like and six months a year whatever, I
• 56:51
  Speaker 4: make the good money in the US and then go
• 56:53
  Speaker 4: travel and enjoy the trip.
• 56:54
  Speaker 3: And that try to mix.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: And you recently became an American citizen, Yes, exactly, it's
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: like the best to both, Like you're super nice Canadian
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: and you also have your American city.
• 57:03
  Speaker 4: I wasn't sure if that was I was supposed to
• 57:05
  Speaker 4: make that, you know, official something. But the last time
• 57:09
  Speaker 4: the custom guy went across from Canada the US and
• 57:12
  Speaker 4: some guys the old citizenship, I guess.
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: He knew they know. Yeah, so I know what you
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: had for breakfast?
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: Man?
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. So that's fine then, so no, no, and
• 57:22
  Speaker 3: actually it's uh, I'm kind of part of it.
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: You should be.
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a big deal.
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: Honestly, they have like an assault rifle vending machine at
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: your nationalization. He did not, but I didn't have seeing
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: a big thing there. Well, to be fair, I didn't
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: get the full experience because of COVID. It was a
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: little bit of a donor in no way, because the
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: way it works is you go to your interview and
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: then a few weeks after you have the actual allegiance
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: like oh, sure of an agent. But because of COVID,
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: after I finished the interview, I was in Boston, she said,
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: but always she said, hey, do you want to ead
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: this morning?
• 57:50
  Speaker 4: With the ceremony every hour? So I was by myself.
• 57:53
  Speaker 4: I went upstairs in America, right, But you know, it's
• 57:55
  Speaker 4: a it's a big milestone for sure, for sure. To
• 57:58
  Speaker 4: be fair, I'm also really really happy I get Indian one. Yeah,
• 58:01
  Speaker 4: some countries won't let you have boat sure, so that
• 58:04
  Speaker 4: if I had to choose, and then that's a whole
• 58:05
  Speaker 4: different discussion.
• 58:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, but you didn't have to choose it.
• 58:08
  Speaker 3: That's good.
• 58:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I get often asking when you travel, you know,
• 58:11
  Speaker 4: like oftentimes by Americans actually like.
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I can't.
• 58:13
  Speaker 4: I suppose so much better in this living in both
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: countries you know, for like twenty five almost twenty five each.
• 58:19
  Speaker 4: You know, it's like there's plus and minus everywhere.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: Everywhere in the world. Yeah, maybe Norway there's not it's
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: cold there. Yeah, So I mean there's a plus and
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: minus every year and always pretty good. But yeah, there's
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: there's always pluses and minuses.
• 58:31
  Speaker 4: Where that led me though, to also talk about something
• 58:33
  Speaker 4: else about travel when you ask about the landing. Also,
• 58:35
  Speaker 4: I think try to pick a destination that means something
• 58:38
  Speaker 4: to you. Like for me, I like adventure, right, I
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: like surprises. I like I didn't like Thailand. I found
• 58:42
  Speaker 4: like Thailand was very predictable at of tourists that everything is.
• 58:46
  Speaker 4: I remember like going to the famous bay where they
• 58:48
  Speaker 4: did the move at the beach with Leonard. Oh yeah,
• 58:52
  Speaker 4: it was the famous you know beach place that was beautiful.
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: It had like twelve different speedboat you had to put
• 58:56
  Speaker 4: like a sticker on us. You want to lose track
• 58:58
  Speaker 4: of who was on which boat, you know.
• 59:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Like.
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: You know, if you go to those places in Asia
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: that are the touristy spots, it can be a little overwhelming,
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: but if you you can get off the being path
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: pretty quickly.
• 59:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's alsually. That's also very very too.
• 59:12
  Speaker 4: But then again you go to South Africa, Yeah, then
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: it's a surprise every corner. It is every corner. It's
• 59:17
  Speaker 4: very intense, you know. For the same one of my
• 59:19
  Speaker 4: favorite places on the I would say, I think I
• 59:21
  Speaker 4: would see the same.
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: Also, it's I'm going to retire someday and I'm going
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: to be doing the podcast from South Africa.
• 59:26
  Speaker 3: You have the chance to go to the museum.
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: No, I have not, and I I need to do that.
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: It's uh, I need to do that.
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: I could do I could do Namibia. And I really
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: like vind Hook. It reminds me of.
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: Bits super great.
• 59:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I kind of I need to go back. Our
• 59:40
  Speaker 4: stuff got stolen. That was my experience over there. So
• 59:43
  Speaker 4: we got we got there, our master and our break
• 59:46
  Speaker 4: and I was leaking on the trucks. So when we
• 59:49
  Speaker 4: got we got to Windo, the first thing we did
• 59:51
  Speaker 4: was to go to the dealership to buy one. That's
• 59:54
  Speaker 4: often the case in Africa. It was behind the one.
• 59:56
  Speaker 4: I think it was closed. The big aids. I drove
• 59:59
  Speaker 4: in there to the service service desk and I'm looking
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 4: for and then we came back and someone had jumped
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 4: the fence, got in the truck stuff.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 3: Oh no, sorry, Yeah, that's a bummer. Yeah, that was
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: a bit of a bummer.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 4: And then I remember going to the hotel the same
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 4: day and there was a big sign at the hotel
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 4: he said something like experience that night gets stolen experience
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 4: whatever I had made like some so that, like I
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 4: found it was quite.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 3: Common over there, so we've got we've got to find out.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: I think it just keeps getting better there.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah maybe maybe maybe a lot of them, Yeah, yeah,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: a lot of but but and I honestly it was
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: I mean it was most off, like we had all
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: GOLs down.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 3: No, and that's always when it happened, right, That's what
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: happened to me in Estonia.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: The only time I've ever been robbed, okay, and I
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: mean I've had some attempted robberies otherwise, but yeah, the
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: only time I've ever had vehicle broken into super nice hotel,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: you know, writing Talent, which is the super beautiful city
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: and yeah, yeah exactly, And and it's.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: Very cool there.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: People are very squared away, you know on the euro
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: twenty four hour security when.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 3: You don't expect when you it always released.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: Expectactly can also break into a seventy series with a
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: code hand.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 3: That's true, that's true. It broke broken window.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 4: I came to term with that story now, but for
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 4: a long time it was the most embarrassing time maybe
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 4: I travel is getting my wallet stolen and my landcos
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 4: are in Turkey.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 3: On there again a toll road.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 4: So it was one of those roads like there in
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 4: Europe that you you put a credit card, you know,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 4: and then you go on the road and there's no exit,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 4: there's nothing.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: I went to there.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 4: It's almost like a j and all you can do
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 4: is driving. So I was like, okay, this is like
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 4: super nice. And and then I saw there was this
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 4: cow walking down and I stopped to help them. And
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 4: then the women jumping the land cooler and stole my wallet.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 4: Oh no, And then they had some guys waiting for
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 4: them on the other side of the freeway.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 3: So when I crossed the freeway.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 4: And jumping in the carn and left, and then I
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 4: had and then I was stuck there with no more usual.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 4: I always have a fake wallet but I was crossing
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 4: Turkey from actually from Saya, and that was the first
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 4: time I saw ETM in quite a while. And so
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 4: I had a bunch of cash and I had to
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 4: I taken my proper wallet that had left on the
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 4: dash at that moment, again a bad time, and so
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 4: I got stuck there on the way with no more
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 4: cars and no more cash. Luckily it had just filled
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 4: up the tank, so I had almost like a thousand
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 4: kilimings as our friend sure, So I just kept driving
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 4: and I'm close to the Stambul and then I had
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 4: to exit at some point somewhere, and so I took
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 4: the exit and expend try to explain to the guy
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 4: the best that had happened, because I couldn't pay for
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 4: the toll. So the guy finally called one of his friends,
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 4: and then his friend picked me up in his car
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 4: and then to do some village but they had a
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 4: cafe and I had to call my mother. I had
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 4: heard Frands ferd me some money on the union.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 3: Mom. Yeah, that's so great. With those things happen, they
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 3: really do, and you remember those things a lot more
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 3: of course adventures for sure.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: You know, it's a lesson. It's those are all lessons,
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: and they're also great memories for sure too.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 4: So and the next time you're more careful. And yeah,
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 4: and again maybe one last thing about one last lesson.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 4: It's super safe everyone it is. It's crazy surprising. I
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 4: can go like Mexico is the best example I never had. Yeah, either,
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 4: And there are some corners, for sure. I mean you
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 4: don't go out at him in the morning and see
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 4: that wires. But you know, as long as you're footing,
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 4: you know what you unless your long way up.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're gonna do a really bright buss. Yeah, we
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 3: have a.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: Secure pretty concerned so we're gonna try and get to
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: Warez at night.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 3: I talked about this last night. I did not understand
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 3: the ending.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, first half of for her. Yeah, and then there
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: was this bus and yeah.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: It was confusing. It seemed like it took more time
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: to make the bus than just to finish the ride.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly. It must be something. Who knows.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 4: Maybe they thought it was a good story, maybe it
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 4: could show maybe something show I mean thinking of bus
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 4: instead of kind of fun.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, totally on it.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: And then they bought such a bad bus, so much work.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: Well, Christian, thank you so much for being on the podcast.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for all of your support throughout
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: the years. As we said in the beginning, for those
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: of you who have enjoyed the Expedition Portal Forum and
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: the Expedition Portal site, Christian has been key to keeping
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: that all running and all of the updates to word
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: Press and the you did the forum, migration and all
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: those other things. So beyond being such an amazing traveler
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: and such a great friend for such a long time,
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: you've also been so key to the success of this organization.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: So thanks for being on man.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no, thank you, Thank you very much Scott Matt
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 4: having me on this podcast.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 3: No, this was great, super fun.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 4: It's been Yeah, it's been fun. So hopefully we can
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 4: do it again soon. We will COVID, you know, and
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 4: the folders are reopening.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah maybe Well, we'll do it in Timbucto when we
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: all go rescue.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 3: When we all go rescue the.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: Limo Perfect, we can do the podcast inside the Limo Perfect.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: Right on that note, thank you all for listening, and
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: we will talk to you next time.