Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / 2025 Overlanders of the Year: GrizzlyNBear Reflect on Nearly a Decade of Overland Travel

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2025 Overlanders of the Year: GrizzlyNBear Reflect on Nearly a Decade of Overland Travel · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast Today. I'm
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: very excited to have the twenty twenty five expedition Portal
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Overlanders of the Year here Lean Steph from Grizzly and
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Bear Overland. Thank you so much for joining me from
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Oman YouTube.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having us, Thank.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: You very much for having us, and thank you for
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: the great honor of yep. We can say that the
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: great honor.
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: Of this award a big surprise. Cool starts for the
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: new year.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Wonderful. Yeah, so the award folks that are chosen for
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: the award inspire others give back to the overland community,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: whether that's through videos or books, blogs, et cetera, and
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: embody of the spirit of real world overland travel that
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: focuses on people, places and cultures. And now you're a
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: part of the club as previous recipients included MELA Mission
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Land Cruising Adventures. So what a cool honor.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: So it is very cool. Thank you, very.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Well deserved obviously, and I wanted to rattle off some
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: stats because you too have been doing this for a while.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: So you've been overlanding for nine years. As of twenty
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: twenty six, you have over three hundred episodes on YouTube.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: That is incredible dedication. Yeah, you've been to forty nine countries.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Soon we'll be fifty heading into Saudi and there are
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: over two hundred and forty two thousand kilometers on your
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: twenty ten Landrover Defender one thirty, which is outfitted with
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: a four wheel camp I believe correct. Yeah, So you've
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: been doing this for a long time and very consistently
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: and obviously love it. And so yeah, it's been a
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: pleasure to follow along with you guys along the way.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I wanted to go back to the beginning and ask
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: you more about like how you met and why you
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: decided to start overlanding.
• 2:08
  Speaker 5: Head on over to Expeditionportal dot com or our YouTube
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: page and join us along with Hun Kook Dinner Pro
• 2:14
  Speaker 5: tired at the Off Road Expo in Sunny Coasta, Mason, California.
• 2:18
  Speaker 5: It was a great family event, showcased everything from jumping
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: rally trucks, jeeps, pickups, and expedition builds.
• 2:27
  Speaker 6: So Lee and I met in two thousand and nine
• 2:30
  Speaker 6: on a rock climbing trip. Oh Lee was on a
• 2:33
  Speaker 6: rock climbing trip and I was traveling and we met
• 2:38
  Speaker 6: there in Thailand. In Thailand, Yes, and soon after I
• 2:42
  Speaker 6: moved to Australia and it has always been about traveling.
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: Really certainly has yeah, I think myself anyway, growing up
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: in Australia, the overland culture is strong there, you know.
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: It's I grew up in a semi rural sort of
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: area on a farm, so it was around four x
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: fours from a very young age, used to head away
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: on annual camping trips with the family, like everybody. It's
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: a massive part of the Australian culture, as you probably know.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: So yeah, it was already a part of my life.
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: When Stephie came out, she didn't have much choice.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: She had to.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: She went from the fancy streets of Paris to living
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: out of a trailer in Australia with a Toyota. At
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: the time, I had an eighty series. We decked that
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: out and we traveled Australia for a couple of years,
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: living out of a rooftop tent and a self made
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: camping trailer, absolutely clueless to anything. Pretty much. We built
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: this thing. We made a lot of mistakes, mostly mistakes.
• 3:40
  Speaker 6: I would say, no, you two at the time, so
• 3:43
  Speaker 6: you know, you can't like we were talking about it
• 3:46
  Speaker 6: a few days ago. Actually, I think Lee had the
• 3:49
  Speaker 6: free plugs tread to the Yeah, like we.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Had no clue.
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: Yes, it was cool, but yeah, So that's sort of
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: how we got into it, I guess was myself growing
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: up doing it, Stephanie coming to Australia and it was
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: always based on rock climbing trip. So we would drive
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: this car around go from climbing area to climbing area
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: within Australia to start with, and then.
• 4:11
  Speaker 6: We also did that in Europe and we had a shorter,
• 4:17
  Speaker 6: short reel based land rover and we were kind of
• 4:20
  Speaker 6: overlanding at the time that we will pick a destination
• 4:25
  Speaker 6: within a country and we will stay at the same
• 4:27
  Speaker 6: place for months, because it was just all about rock climbing.
• 4:31
  Speaker 6: But in between, it was that journey in between where
• 4:34
  Speaker 6: we started to discover the world and the people of
• 4:38
  Speaker 6: the world, the kindness of the people, the cuisine, and
• 4:43
  Speaker 6: we really enjoyed that. But we made it from France
• 4:47
  Speaker 6: as far as Turkey and then we didn't know that
• 4:51
  Speaker 6: we could continue, so we returned to France.
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: And then I guess that was the first taste of
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: international overlanding country to country.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Australia. Of course it's an island.
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: You know, we were big overlanding country, but you're not
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: crossing any borders. You know, you're crossing some state borders,
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: but it's not quite the same thing. So once we
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: did that, like Steph you mentioned, we arrived in Turkey
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: and we're like.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: We asked ourselves the question. We said, why can't we
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: just keep driving?
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: You know what's stopping us? I didn't even know overlanding
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: international overlanding was a thing, like, you know, continuing outside
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: of Europe. We got excited when we crossed the bridge
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: as you guys would have done into Asia. You know,
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: you've done the continent. It's like, wow, we've just entered Asia.
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: We turned around and we came back across the bridge,
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: and then we did it again because we missed the
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: photo of the signs. So I was like, that was
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: a big excitement, and I actually went back to work.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: I was working in Angola at the time, and I
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: was working with an Australian guy, and I explained to
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: him what we'd just done, or what we've been doing
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: over the couple of years, you know, just just moving
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: around Europe, Eastern Europe and as far as Turkey, and
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: how I wanted we both wanted to keep going, like
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: just continue.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: We didn't know where to but we just want to
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: keep driving.
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: Why can't we drive our car around the world. And
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: it was quite funny. Actually he lives in Canada, he
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: lives on Vancouver Island. My buddy a gi Aussie guy
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: with a Canadian girl, and he said to me, he goes, oh,
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: haven't you heard of that South African family, like they've
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: been doing it for years with a Defender one point thirty.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: He couldn't remember the name.
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: So we jumped on Google, had a look, and obviously
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: mister Graham Bell and Louisa Bell's name pop up, and
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: I see that he's written a book all about this.
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: So I ordered the book and that was, I guess,
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: our first Graham's book, Travel the Planet Overland. Got that
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: in the mile, read that cover to cover.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: And I was like, oh my god, this is possible.
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: We can do this. We can drive our own car
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: around the world. And that would have been in twenty
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: and sixteen, I guess, yeah, the year before we.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Left even fifteen, maybe twenty fifteen.
• 6:52
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and then we saved and then we bought bigger Defender.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: So then with thought all that when we realized probably
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: we would like, if we're going to do this, we're
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: going to do it properly.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: We want to do it comfortably.
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: The Defendant ninety was a little bit tight to sort
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: of deck out for an overland vehicle.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: So we bought the first one thirty.
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: I surprised Stepee with that purchase, and yeah, that was it.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: We bought the four wheel camper and then we set off.
• 7:19
  Speaker 6: We knew it was going to be for the long term,
• 7:23
  Speaker 6: so we didn't want a rooftop tent because we experienced
• 7:27
  Speaker 6: the rooftop tent for two years in Australia and we
• 7:31
  Speaker 6: knew if we wanted to be doing this for many years,
• 7:38
  Speaker 6: it's challenging the rooftop tent.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: We wanted a proper living space, yes.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: For sure, absolutely, And I'm sure you knew too that
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: you'll be running into a whole bunch of different types
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: of weather and if you're doing it full time, called rain,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: wind snow, all that stuff. So yeah, the inside living
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: spaces the most. It's so great.
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: I think to maintain the long term overland journey, I
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: think it's it's tougher people than not out there.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Don't get me wrong, it's way tougher.
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, people are doing it in far less and we
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: always have great admiration for the people that are doing
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: it on bicycles and living out of tents. But a
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: lot of them they might do it for a year
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: or two and they're not long term, super long term,
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: And we did.
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: We toughed it out in the little rooftop tent for
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: a couple of years. But we knew we wanted to
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: do this. We didn't want to have an end date.
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: We wanted to do this long term, and we knew
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: that it's more likely that we're going to maintain the
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: passion if we've got a small house and it's something
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: that we can go into and like you said, escape
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: the rain and the extreme weather and the elements and
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: have a cozy living space.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: And privacy or privacy is a big one now.
• 8:53
  Speaker 6: To live outside you talk outside and yeah, you don't
• 8:59
  Speaker 6: have much pri which sometimes you.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Need it, you do.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, some of the areas you're going through quite populated,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: and sometimes you need a break or a nap or
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: at a border crossing. Oh my gosh, it's so luxurious
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: to have the option of going in and making a
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: snack at some point. So it's great, it's great. I'm
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: curious what were you most concerned about and looking forward
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: to at the beginning, Like what kind of things in
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: your mind were you thinking about that maybe you were
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: worried about as you took off.
• 9:39
  Speaker 6: For me, my biggest concern at the beginning was the
• 9:44
  Speaker 6: cost of fuel. I said, this is gonna be huge,
• 9:49
  Speaker 6: but actually.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: You don't drive that much.
• 9:52
  Speaker 6: We will be driving less than someone that goes to
• 9:55
  Speaker 6: work every day sometimes, you know, you okay, we we
• 10:00
  Speaker 6: drive a lot sometimes, but there are so many days
• 10:03
  Speaker 6: or you don't move, or you do short distances. So
• 10:09
  Speaker 6: I thought the fuel expand will be way bigger than well.
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Stephanie was concerned we were just going to run
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: out of money instantly because of fuel, and I said.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: Well, we don't need to travel so fast. We don't
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: have a deadline.
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: I know a lot of people maybe have their okay,
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: we're going to do this trip. We have twelve months,
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: or we have twenty four months, even three years maybe,
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: but there is an end, you know, there's an end
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: to this journey. And we said, no, just go extremely slowly,
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: and that that kilometers you mentioned earlier on the car,
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: it's actually we bought the vehicle at one hundred and
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: ten one hundred and nine thousand, So let's say in
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: nine years of overlanding, we've only put one hundred and
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: thirty thousand kilometers on that vehicle, which is, like Steph
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: you mentioned, that is less than an average person going
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: to work in the city every single day. Because we
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: choose to travel extremely slowly. So the fuel consumption was definitely.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: Not an issue.
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: And as you know, in other parts of the world
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: like Central Asia, fuel can be far more affordable than
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: than what we're used to in definitely in Australia and Europe,
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: so the money went a little bit further on fuel,
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: that's for sure, wasn't a concern in the end.
• 11:20
  Speaker 6: Fun fact, the cheapest fuel, more affordable fuel we ever
• 11:26
  Speaker 6: came across was in Angola and this was thirty thirteen
• 11:34
  Speaker 6: once three thirteen cents a litter eurosense.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 11:41
  Speaker 6: Wow. Here in the Middle East it's about sixty cents eurosense,
• 11:48
  Speaker 6: which is nice.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, it really helps to kind of I don't
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: want to say justify, but if you have some sort
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: of decision to make, you're like should we go to
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: this place or like in Greece for us We're like,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: we're probably not going to go there. Actually we got
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: to get out of here. It's like, yeah, but yeah,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: that's a great point. It's a great point. I think
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: that I saw that number, I'm like, wow, that's pretty
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: low and it's a testament to moving slowly. So that's
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: a great yeah, great thing. Yeah, did you have any
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: other kind of concerns.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: I don't think I had so many concerns.
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: Maybe the winters coming from Australia again, I didn't you know,
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: I come from Western Australia especially.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: We don't get snow there.
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: We don't get we get excited when it hails, you know,
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: because it's that's the most we see on the ground.
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: We think, we pretend it's snow. So I guess facing
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: the Central Asian winters was probably a bit of a
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: concern at the beginning and then now, but you manage it,
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: you know, you come across these challenges and you manage them.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: But other than that, I.
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: Don't think we we didn't really do other Graham's book.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: We didn't do a whole heap of research.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: We just we bought the car, we decked it out,
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: and we just went and we learned.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we just we just learned and we experienced things.
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: We made a lot of mistakes, of course, as you do,
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: still making mistakes nine years later, and I think that's
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: all part of it, you know, you learn, you're constantly learning,
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: and there's no one out there that's learned at all.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: But no, I don't think we had any other than that,
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: no major concerns when we set out.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to say, what were your sort
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: of what were you looking forward to most?
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: I would say that for me, it was the rock climbing,
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: the continuing of the climbing, and at this stage we
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: were we were starting to get into hiking a little
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: bit more so. It was the rock climbing always dominated
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: for twelve or thirteen years, you know, but then we
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: started to brand do not drift away from climbing. The
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: climbing always remained important to us and still is to
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: this day a big passion in our lives, but we
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: started to enjoy longer distance hiking trips more as well.
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: So I guess we were heading into these countries with
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: some of the most beautiful hiking and opportunities in the world,
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: So that was something we're very much looking forward to
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: and developing new climbing areas as we've always done.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd love to ask you a little bit more
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: about that hiking and climbing, But you guys are really
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: great at prioritizing out of truck excursions, which I love too.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: We love getting out of the truck and getting out there.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: But you've developed some new climbing routes at a whole
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: bunch of areas all over the world. I think if
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: you are Australia, Georgia, Japan, Angla, Zimbabwe and Malawi, and
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you have any plans to do
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: that going forward, but tell me a little bit of
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: about the importance of the climbing route in Malawi.
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: This on this son's been very special and it's in
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: a place called Milanjay. Malawi has a cool, very small
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: climbing community, unlimited climbing potential in that country, not just
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: in the one region when we went, but all over
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: the country from north to southeast to west. The place
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: is just filled with massive granite domes and boulders and mountains.
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: But Molanja itself is very special. So we went there
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: with the intention to actually bolt a big wall. We
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: were going to do a big wall, but When we
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: got there, the place is just so overwhelming. It's like,
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: I mean, their biggest wall there is seven hundred meters
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: higher than El Capitan in Yosemite. You know, it's enormous.
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: There's one thousand, seven hundred meters high face climb.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: The whole places are so huge.
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: So we say, okay, let's instead of focusing on this
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: massive thing, let's develop a smaller climbing area that people
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: with limited amount of equipment, which is often the case
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: in Africa, can come and enjoy in this magnificent setting
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: that they can hike every day. And so we found
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: a small area close to camp which had a river
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: right they could swim, and we developed that. And we
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: have had so much feedback from the Malawi climbing community
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: since leaving on Instagram and other social media platforms, just
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: messages and just saying thank you so much for developing
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: this area. Now we have somewhere to go on climb
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: at Molanjay that's not dangerous, and these other climbs are
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: so committing. You need to be a professional help and
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: andst almost to tackle this sort of thing. But now
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: locals and expats living in Malawi can go to a
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: smaller area that we developed in Mulanjay and enjoy it.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: Especially that one was Yeah, it was really cool.
• 16:38
  Speaker 6: Also, it's a good area for learning to rock climb
• 16:42
  Speaker 6: on the outside, like.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: On the proper cliff.
• 16:45
  Speaker 6: A lot of people they climb indoors because they have
• 16:49
  Speaker 6: a climbing gym or bothering gym in the cities, but
• 16:53
  Speaker 6: this over a weekend, you can go there and rock
• 16:58
  Speaker 6: climb on the real rock and learn how to live climb.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: Because we put a couple of very.
• 17:03
  Speaker 6: Easy routes, we put some medium graiding, medium difficulty, and
• 17:08
  Speaker 6: we lee also did a couple of harder one that
• 17:12
  Speaker 6: we left open as a project for anyone to come
• 17:15
  Speaker 6: and climb and get what we call the first descent,
• 17:19
  Speaker 6: which means the first person to to succeed the route.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: And this one has already been.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: A Norwegian guy messaged me the other day and said
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: he completed one of the tough climbs I left there
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: as a challenge for anyone strong enough. So that was
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: really cool to know. And knowing that it's quite remote
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: down there, so knowing that people are taking the making
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: the effort to drive out there and do it, it's
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: been Yeah, that one was extra special.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that an angle, that's so great.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, tell me more about angle.
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: That was very cool because that was all you can
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: talk about that one stepim across.
• 17:56
  Speaker 6: It's one American guy I call a Nathan. He was
• 18:00
  Speaker 6: based in Angola. His wife worked as am at the
• 18:06
  Speaker 6: Unbassea and he's the husband the lady. Like.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: He hasn't got a he's.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: A stay at home dad.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: He just gets to go climbing every day while his
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: wife works at the embassy.
• 18:20
  Speaker 6: Guy with so much energy that he got so highly
• 18:24
  Speaker 6: involved in a climbing community in Angola, taking all the
• 18:29
  Speaker 6: kids and teaching the kids and teaching the local communities.
• 18:33
  Speaker 6: And so he's got this huge passion for the sports
• 18:39
  Speaker 6: and for what he does. And we got in touch
• 18:43
  Speaker 6: with him and together we went and we started not
• 18:47
  Speaker 6: started to develop this place had some climbing done earlier
• 18:52
  Speaker 6: in the seventies and then he got foot aside. Now
• 18:57
  Speaker 6: together we started to a lot more and more in
• 19:01
  Speaker 6: the organized climate festival.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: There a couple of it's been two years now.
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: Years now and they're growing very fast.
• 19:10
  Speaker 6: It's magical area, so much potential.
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: Sarah de Lever is the name of the area.
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: Now, it's a very special area to me because I
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: worked in Angola for five years, so.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: That country is a special country to me.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: I have a lot of friends there and some of
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: the local guys I worked with over the years. They
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: knew that I was a climber because where I was
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: working on the offshore platform, I built a small.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: Climbing wall, you know.
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: And I used to be climbing every day in the
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: gym and they would show me photos of this place
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: and they'd say, you need to come one day, Come
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: come climb this one. Nobody's climbing here looking I'm thinking,
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: this looks amazing. And they gave me the name and
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: it was this Sarah de Leva. And I don't know
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: how many hundreds of images I looked at this place
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: online over the years that I worked in Angola, and
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: then after I left Angla and I told I I
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: told the locals at the time, my friend's on the rig.
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: They said, one day, one day, I'm coming there to
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: climb these walls. And they said, how you come. You
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: come and we'll show you. I said, but I'm going
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: to drive my car there. I'm not going to fly in.
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: I said, oh, I know you, what do you mean?
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: They did they couldn't. They didn't really I get what
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: I was talking about, you know, And I said, I'm
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: going to bring my own vehicle to Angola and so no, no.
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: You just will pick you up at the airport.
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: I said, no, no, no, I'm driving and then yeah,
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: I guess what do we do it? In twenty twenty four,
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: so seven years after I finished working in Angola, I
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: arrived in the in the city of Luongo and my friend,
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: who was a mechanic on the ship that I was
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: working on, he met us and I told him. I said,
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: I told you one day I was coming with my car,
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: and I'm here with my car. Wow, that was cool,
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: especial moment.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Then he took up to the hardware store.
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: We needed a drill bit drill bit shopping with my
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: maid in Lubongo.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: But I said, that was very cool, very cool. I
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: think the climb it's cool to mix.
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: This is an overlanding podcast, so we're not talked too
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: much about climbing, but you know, it's I think other
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: people can relate to sharing a passion or overlanding for
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: a passion. We overland for many many reasons. It's definitely
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: not climbing alone. You know, it used to be climbing alone,
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: like Stephanie said, but now it's it's everything you mentioned,
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: the people, the cultures, the food is the reason to overland,
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: the hiking, that waking up with a new backyard. Every
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: single day you open your window, you look out. But
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: having the one driving passion, which has always been rock climbing.
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: You know, we've we've drifted away from it, we've come
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: back to it, We've drifted away like this over the years,
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: but it's always been there that you know, we're hiking
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: order and we're looking, Oh my god, look at this.
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: Look at this cliff base. So we need to come
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: here and climb. So it's been driven our passion to overland,
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: we can say, over the years and kept it strong.
• 21:49
  Speaker 6: And that's what makes us the happiest.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: It's always happiest when we're climbing.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that.
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: And you it's so rewarding to be able to leave
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: the vehicle and get out there and juvenate and everything's
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: kind of simpler, and I don't know, you're just out
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: there seeing things you wouldn't necessarily see. Yeah, exactly exactly.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: I wanted to just chat a little bit about the
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: long distance hikes that you've done, because you've done quite
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: a few now and yeah, let's talk about like some
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: of the highlights. Do you have any favorite routes that
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: you've done.
• 22:30
  Speaker 6: So we hike the oh that was three years ago.
• 22:34
  Speaker 6: We hiked the entire length of Jordan from the north.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: To the south Akaba.
• 22:43
  Speaker 7: And it was the just the eight hundred kilometers and
• 22:48
  Speaker 7: to this day it was personally the most amazing experience
• 22:55
  Speaker 7: was in including the scenery, the remoteness, the challenge, the
• 23:01
  Speaker 7: historical sites we came across, the hospitality and the kindness
• 23:06
  Speaker 7: of the people.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: Everything was just very special hike that we did.
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: That one whilst the vehicle was being shipped from Australia
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: to South Africa, so we had we knew that shipping
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: route was going to take some time, so this was
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: a great opportunity to jump on a long distance trail.
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: We thought, okay, we've got to do something we're not
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: going to It was either that or go climbing. I said,
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: all right, we're going to do this this trail and
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: it was Coonan Karen that inspired us to do the
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: from Land cruising adventure. They were the ones that inspired
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: us to do the Jordan trail.
• 23:42
  Speaker 6: They recommended it.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Oh wonderful.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so that was pretty special.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: We thought of them a lot whilst we were doing
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: that hike, and without them recommending that, there's there's no
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: way we would have done it, you know, we wouldn't
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: have even heard about it. And it was challenging too
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: because it is it's a few years now, it's been
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: I guess a world renowned through hike, but it's come
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: I would say twenty percent of it is marked, you know,
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: and the rest of it you really need to know
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: how to navigate. There's limited water supplies. There was a
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: big challenge.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: We'd gone.
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: Our previous longer distance hike was the Bibolman Track in Australia,
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: which was a thousand kilometers, but this through hike is
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: I guess it's a through hike for beginners, you know,
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: and it was perfect because it was our first one.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: So we went from doing this very easy, very.
• 24:30
  Speaker 6: Like you go from hut to hut with water supply
• 24:34
  Speaker 6: and extremely well marked.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: With the triangles. Yeah, it's very.
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: Welled up through hiking and it's in Australia, and then
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: we went to Jordan and just went to this extremely
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: difficult one. You know, so it was like one easy too,
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: there was no in between. We went easy, then we
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: went extreme. So it was super challenging and I guess
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: that just made it all the worthwhile. The people were amazing,
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: the landscapes mind blowing. Just the dogs. There were a
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: lot of nasty strade dogs that attack us every day.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: But it was only downside to the Jordan trial.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Would you do it again? Since you're going in.
• 25:10
  Speaker 6: That, we're talking about going to will we go to Jordan?
• 25:19
  Speaker 6: Because we didn't have the car when we did that
• 25:21
  Speaker 6: hike and we were thinking should we returned to Jordan?
• 25:25
  Speaker 6: And the memory is just so special and magical because
• 25:33
  Speaker 6: of what we did. I'm afraid that if we went
• 25:35
  Speaker 6: with the car we had, that we would have not
• 25:40
  Speaker 6: a good experience. I don't want to damage my memories.
• 25:44
  Speaker 6: I don't know how to explain if that's really clear.
• 25:47
  Speaker 6: But we've seen the most amazing sceneries there and we
• 25:50
  Speaker 6: got there on foot after so many hours, and so
• 25:55
  Speaker 6: to see Petra was so special because we walked there.
• 25:59
  Speaker 6: You know, we did didn't drive five the car. Walk
• 26:03
  Speaker 6: this is Petra like we arrived from the back.
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we'd already walked like six hundred kilometers I think
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: by the time we so it's like we earned this,
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: We earned this right to walk into Petra from the
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: back way. And yeah, we were discussing it the other
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: day whether we would go back now that we're in
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: the region. Will we go there with the grizzly and
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: bear and take the car in? But we're not sure.
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: We're like, we've walked across that entire country. Do we
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: need to go there with the car? I'm not sure
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: because overlanding for us is it's everything. But but you know,
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: you can overland on foot as well as many people do.
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: And I think we overlanded that country pretty good with
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: our own two legs. And I don't know if we'll
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: go there with the car. Just leave that memory the
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: way it is, you know, Yeah.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Why mess was something that was so special to you? Yes, yeah, yes, cool.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Exactly How has your overland style changed over time?
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: It's quite quite massively, I guess, because we have recently
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: well I say recently, it's been a couple of years now,
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: but we have since we've been on this journey, you know,
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: so we have going backing it up a little bit,
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: we've been we briefly mentioned it before we've been nine
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: years in this setup with this land Rover, but then
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: it was two years before that vehicle base living out
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: of the Defender ninety and then a couple of years
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: in Australia. So it has been say thirteen years that
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: we've been primarily living out of vehicles, you know, not
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: always in the vehicle themselves, but traveling and living out
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: of vehicles. So it's gone over the years from a
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: rooftop tent and a self made camping trailer that we
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: towed around Australia for those couple of years completely clueless.
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: Then we went to the Defender in France, which we
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: travel all around Europe, and like Step you said, that
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: was more. Yeah, we had a tent. We used to
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: do a mixture between Airbnbs. We would still we'd move
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: the car around, but we'd stay in Airbnb's campsites with
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: the small tent, doing some hiking trips.
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: And then of.
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: Course the going to the four wheel camper with our
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: original version of the Defender, which two years ago we
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: completely rebuilt. And that rebuild was the culmination, I guess
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: of all those years, all those kilometers and elements that
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: we'd lived through in different forms of camping setups and
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: vehicle based living to suit our style that we knew
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: we had by then down to a t. You know,
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: we knew, I knew exactly what we needed to build
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: to suit our style of overland travel completely and we
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: were fortunate enough to find the most incredible place in
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: South Africa to build the what we believe And I
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: say this often that what we what is perfect for
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: us and suits our style doesn't suit everybody because everybody
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: travels differently with different passions. But we built the ultimate
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: overland vehicle for our style of travel definitely and our
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: needs and our needs.
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it was. It was amazing.
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: So the style is definitely changed over the years, but
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: now there's there's not anything now that we can think
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: of to improve or fault the setup that we've got
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: now and that but that's come through experience.
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: It didn't happen the first time, you know.
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: It took years and years and years of traveling overland
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: to figure out what is what is our style of travel,
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: what's going to suit if we do a rebuild? And yeah,
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: that was it was fantastic to do that.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: So what are some of the things that you did
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: to suit your style? Of travel.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: I bet. Yeah.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: It was a big project.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: I was a huge project and that was Stephanie. She
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: did all of it.
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: I was I went back to work to finance this project.
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: So my job's quite cool because I do rotation work,
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: so I do when I do work full time. It's
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: still only six months a year, so I work a
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: one month on one month off rotation.
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: But I was working quite a lot.
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: Doing a bit of overtime and everything because I had
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: to pay for this this rebuild, you know, a big job.
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: So Stephie she became a resident of South Africa and
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: she was workshop based in managing the entire project.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: Managing for you.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: She was on the tools.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: I was on my back and I would probably see ah,
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: know she's coming today.
• 30:16
  Speaker 6: I know, we don't want to see her because I
• 30:20
  Speaker 6: was affections.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: I was also we were authorized, like.
• 30:25
  Speaker 6: We were given the green card to document the rebuilt,
• 30:29
  Speaker 6: so I was capturing images but also being involved and
• 30:35
  Speaker 6: asking lots of questions. But yeah, it was looking back now,
• 30:41
  Speaker 6: it's it was a great experience. It wasn't every day,
• 30:47
  Speaker 6: but it was stressful for me sometimes. Yeah, me, like
• 30:52
  Speaker 6: the day they so what we did, we our vehicle
• 30:56
  Speaker 6: was a four doors and we modified to a two
• 30:59
  Speaker 6: door to bring the kemper forward and to change the
• 31:05
  Speaker 6: weight distribution over the vehicle, we removed we had the
• 31:08
  Speaker 6: speedie on the roof, so we changed location for.
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: Better center of gravity. There were many things. I actually
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: I had this dream in my head for a long
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: time to build this setup, you know, and it's not
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: a completely original setup. Like this style of what we've
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: done is very common in Australia and.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: For fifty sixty years people have.
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: Been building flatbed conversions with storage boxes. You know, a
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: lot of the tradesmen and stuff in Australia that have
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: these setups, these builds. There's the big companies like NORWLD
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: and stuff. They've been doing this kind of thing for years.
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: But you know, we wanted it. I wanted it specific
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: exactly how we needed it. Essentially, we wanted to be
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: better organized. We had these rear seats, you know, and
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: it was always a mess in there. We very rarely
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: took passengers. We would pick up hitch hikers and stuff.
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: The original idea to keep some seats in the back
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: rather than remove them at the beginning was that we're like, oh,
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: maybe we'll have friends and family come to visit and
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: travel with us for a little while, or.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: We'll pick up hitchhikers all the time.
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: And we didn't have so many people coming to visit,
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: and we were very rarely picking up hitch hikers.
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: We will do if they were there, but it just
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: wasn't happening. How many people, He's no, So this.
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: Rear six space, it was just a mess. You know,
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: we can be better organized here. And I actually made
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: one of the few little YouTube videos I attempted to make.
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: I made a little video just talking about what my
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: dream build would be, you know, and and it was
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: essentially that I drew this this thing up and I said,
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: this would do this. We'll move the camper forward, we'll
• 32:38
  Speaker 4: have better center of gravity, we can get the spare
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: tire off the roof. We can just be organized. And
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: that meant for our style. Again we spoke about style before.
• 32:47
  Speaker 4: Our style of travel means outdoor sports, outdoor equipment, things
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: that we do not want inside the camper. So a
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: lot of people ask us a question, why didn't you
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: go for a flatbed full will camper or a flatbed truck,
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: you know, because you do have a lot more inside
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: living space. So we don't need the inside living space.
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: We go inside to sleep and that's essentially it. You know,
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: we do have a small living space in there, but
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: we needed exterior storage and I wanted all this stuff.
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: I didn't want any of this stuff inside. We don't
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: want rock climbing equipment in our living space, hiking equipment,
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: camping equipment, none of this stuff, cooking equipment, the firewood,
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: the brye, all of this sort of stuff. It needed
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: to be exterior. So we worked it out to the
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: millimeter and utilized all of the exterior storage space to
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: build this flatbed with side storage boxes and a garage box.
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: And it was really cool and a fantastic experience to
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: be involved in the design from the ground up. You know,
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: we cut that car in half, we stripped it back
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: to the chassis. We essentially rebuilt from the chassis up.
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: So it was amazing.
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: Thanks to Dinah pro Tyre for supporting this week's podcast.
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: Visit expedition portal dot com to learn more about rugged
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: terrain tire design as we interview their tire experts and
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: take a close look at the diner pro xt as
• 34:09
  Speaker 5: an example of the rugged terrain tire category.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I can see why or how that would be
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: a little bit stressful on the.
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: Phone all the time from work. What are they doing?
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: The check this, check this out? What's going on there?
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: From a beautiful car.
• 34:26
  Speaker 6: In in less than two hours, they had removed everything.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: It was just a chassis and I was there watching
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: they took the car of pieces.
• 34:38
  Speaker 6: It was like twenty gap maybe ten guys working on it.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: In less than two hours. It was nothing left of
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: the car, and it.
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: Was, yeah, it was.
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: It was a bit intimidating that I wasn't there for
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: that process. But I got the videos from Steffy and
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: I think it was at that moment I did you know,
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: we discussed this.
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: This wasn't something we rushed into.
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: This had been years in the making and we would
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: originally I did get some very loose quotes whilst we're
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: in Australia, but way out of our budget. You know,
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: we couldn't afford to do this in probably in any
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: other country other than South Africa, and that's because of course,
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: the conversion rate was in our favor, so it was
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: it was affordable, much more affordable for us to choose
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: South Africa.
• 35:22
  Speaker 6: And they've got the expertise and.
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: The skill is next level.
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: It's very similar to Australia with the outdoor living culture,
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: and they deck out the BUCkies as they call them,
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: which is like a truck as you guys would say
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: in North America or a ute in Australia. They deck
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: them out and they're very good at what they do
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: and they're willing to customize a lot of things that
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: you wouldn't get in Australia. In Australia they were it's
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: more like, okay, you've got option A, B and C
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: you can have. You can make slight modifications on those
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: main options, but that's it. You know, you want to
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: do anything really extensive, you need to do it yourself.
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: Whereas in South Africa it was in crowd I was
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: very particular. Everything was to the millimeter, you know, because
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: we didn't just make a single cab truck. We made
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: an extra cab so I had I needed one hundred
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: and fifty millimeters, you know. So they built new panels
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: for the defender, you know, in the press and like
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: stuff you just wouldn't get done in other parts of
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: the world.
• 36:17
  Speaker 6: No way, everything is possible, Everything is possible, but they
• 36:22
  Speaker 6: are willing to help.
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: And it was amazing, but yeah, I was sorry side tracked.
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: It was intimidating. And when I saw that video from
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: step of them stripping the car, I did have the
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: thought like, are we have we made the right decision here?
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: Because it's you. You can relate.
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: You know, it's your home, it's your house, it's it
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: was everything. It is everything to us. And I was like, oh, jeez,
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: we've just just pulled this car to pieces. You know,
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: it's got to go back together, and this could turn
• 36:51
  Speaker 4: into a disaster, but it didn't.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: Where are so glad?
• 36:56
  Speaker 6: Yes victims Pannel name of the company, one of the.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Carret How is the build now? Like all these big
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: changes you made, is it the thing you thought it
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: was gonna be?
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: Yes, that and more and more weird.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we also changed. So the four wheel camper.
• 37:19
  Speaker 6: That we bought originally was white and the car is
• 37:22
  Speaker 6: green and black. And the car I knew was gonna
• 37:26
  Speaker 6: look so beautiful. And I said toally, we can't have
• 37:31
  Speaker 6: this white camper that is already almost ten years old.
• 37:35
  Speaker 6: You know, it's aging a little bit. And I asked someone,
• 37:39
  Speaker 6: I said, oh, can we have it wrapped? I put
• 37:42
  Speaker 6: or painted or something so it looks suits the car
• 37:48
  Speaker 6: and they said, no, we can't paint this, we can't
• 37:51
  Speaker 6: wrap this, It's not gonna look great. And we decided
• 37:56
  Speaker 6: to strip the four wheel camper and we changed the
• 38:01
  Speaker 6: panels and we had them painted same color as the car.
• 38:05
  Speaker 6: So now it really makes it like one one unit,
• 38:10
  Speaker 6: matching units.
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: They did a Yeah, they did a really good job.
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: We are.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: In the camper.
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the camper.
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: I was there for a bit of that, and I
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: was there for bits and pieces of the car rebuild
• 38:22
  Speaker 4: as well. Stepie did most of it. But but yeah,
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: when it came to the end, I was there. So
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: that was really nice because I think it is important
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: to know your overland vehicle and no, you know, especially
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: when you're doing such a massive rebuild, that it's really
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: good to be there for the important pieces, you know.
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: You know, we know.
• 38:40
  Speaker 4: That vehicle, every nut and bolt, where everything goes. It
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: is important when it's your home on wheels, you have
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: to know that thing inside and out. But no, we
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: could not be happier with the rebuilders. It's been fantastic.
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: And of course there were teeting issues, you know. Yeah,
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: it took a little while. There were the initial build.
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: It was a few let's say quality control issues. Not
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: from a VICTI tech from another company that did some work.
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: And then we did have to do rebuild a lot
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: of the front end of the Defender, which was a shame.
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: But in doing that, I was there for a lot
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: of that too, so I learned more. We put it
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: back together better than it was before. And I think
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: now that is it been two full years already, no,
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: one year one since we finished the rebuild. Yeah, okay,
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: so one year on we feel like, can I knock
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: on wood here? That we are we've sort of got
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: through the worst of all the teething issues and it's
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: normal though, you know, you I work in a in
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: a big industry as well, and we're working with some
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: of the stutmost state of the art equipment from all
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: over the world, and stuff breaks.
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: You know, it's not it's just the way it is.
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: And whenever we do big jobs, in massive overhauls of
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: equipment or anything, we expect issues. You know, you expect
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: issues with something that's been You can't pull something apart
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: completely put it all back together and expect everything to
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: just be perfect.
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: So we were prepared for, you know, some minor glitches.
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: There were a few that were probably a little bit
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: more than minor that.
• 40:10
  Speaker 4: We weren't ready for, but we we're on top of
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: them now and it's made our living, day to day
• 40:17
  Speaker 4: living just so much easier. Storage everything's quicker now. You know,
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: packing up was always very quick with a truck camper,
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: but now it's even quicker, more efficient.
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: We know where.
• 40:28
  Speaker 4: It took us a long time, but now we know
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: where we keep everything in, what boxes are where, and
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: it's been.
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: It's been a pleasure to live out of this thing now,
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: for sure.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: Incredible. Yeah, not moving something to get to something is
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: always good. And yeah, that's so great. I'm excited for
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: you guys. And yeah, it's always kind of an unknown
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: rate and like you were saying, it's your home and
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: it's like a huge part, it's your third third teammate.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: Kind of we don't really know how it's going to go.
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: This is what made it an exciting rebuild was to
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: do it in a foreign country. You know, we weren't
• 41:05
  Speaker 4: doing it in our own countries, so that was you know,
• 41:09
  Speaker 4: most people build their overland vehicle at home, they built
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: it before they leave, and we did that as well.
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: You know, we built our initial build in France, before
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: we left and then we rebuilt our vehicle in a
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: foreign country. So that's that had challenges in itself, you know,
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: dealing with different cultures.
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: Fortunately it was well my native was speaking.
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: Well they were mostly speaking Afrikaan, but they speak English
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: fluently as well, so it's you know, that took away
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: a big challenge, but still you're doing it in another country.
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: So that was that was an exciting i would say,
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: part of it.
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: And the connection we formed with those guys, you know,
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: day in day out in the workshop, I think they
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: there were tears.
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: It was emotional when that when.
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: We reversed bear under grizzly and lowered that camper and
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: it fit.
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: Everybody was so nervous.
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: You know, we measured a thousand times, you know it
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: it's like but when everything fit, everything was perfect and
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: it lowered on. You could feel the emotion at the workshop.
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: It was very special. All those guys had put in
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: everything into this vehicle, you know, and that was so proud.
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: That's what we loved too.
• 42:17
  Speaker 4: There was, i mean all the guys there, but the
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: welder in particular, Jean, he was so proud of his work.
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: I mean he's a welder. He welds all day long,
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: every day.
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: You'd think, Okay, maybe he's just he's not even paying
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: attention to what he does.
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: He's very good at what he does. I did well.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: And then he'd come, come and just want to show us.
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: The look at this, and he was so proud of
• 42:40
  Speaker 4: a particular world that he'd done.
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: And I have so much respect for good tradesmen, you know.
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: And then this, knowing that this passion went into our vehicle,
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: which is also our home, it was just fantastic. I
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: get emotional just thinking back to that as well. And
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: we still keep in touch with those guys regularly, and
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: you know, they feel like family to us.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: You guys have kind of alluded to Leave's job a
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: little bit. Can you tell us a little bit about
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: your job and how it affects how you travel overland
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: because you're popping in and out, like you said, And
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: how does that work for staff?
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: Does she?
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, I know that she sometimes goes back to France,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: sometimes stays with the truck, But how does that affect
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: your lives? I guess as what I'm wondering, Yeah.
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: It definitely does. So I've worked in this industry, working
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: in the oil and gas industry and offshore primarily for
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: twenty years now. I have taken extended breaks from the industry,
• 43:35
  Speaker 4: so I think maybe I had three years out at
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: one time.
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: So we do it. We have done it for many years.
• 43:42
  Speaker 6: You started working again for at the time of the rebuilt.
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: Yes, since then you've.
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: Tell you to do it.
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: So that was a big change in the way we overlanded.
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: I was actually working. We never used to document it
• 43:57
  Speaker 4: or talk about it in the YouTube videos earlier when
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: we were in Central Asia. I was working then as well.
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: I was working in China, and Stephanie lived in Bishkek
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: in Kyrgyzstan. That was her base because the visas are
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: nice there and we could keep the car there for
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: a year. But it definitely we have to balance that
• 44:12
  Speaker 4: because then we had to think always, Okay, where are
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: we going to end up with the car. Does Stephie
• 44:17
  Speaker 4: stay with the vehicle in that country if the visa allows,
• 44:21
  Speaker 4: if she's comfortable to stay, do we get her a
• 44:23
  Speaker 4: little airb and B or does she.
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: Stay in the camper?
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: A lot of times, as you know, in Central Asia,
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: it's really good because the backpackers, all the hostels, you know,
• 44:32
  Speaker 4: they cater for the Overlanders with the very nice parking
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: area and you can roll in there. So Stephanie would
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: often just live and stay with the camper. She loved it.
• 44:41
  Speaker 6: I've got two very good memories of Bishkek where I
• 44:45
  Speaker 6: stayed in two different hostel and every day I was
• 44:48
  Speaker 6: missing travelers.
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: And it was super social and it was great.
• 44:54
  Speaker 6: So that was one time, and then it was the
• 44:57
  Speaker 6: whole part of the rebuilt, so we didn't have a
• 45:00
  Speaker 6: so there I was staying in airb and bah. Yeah,
• 45:04
  Speaker 6: so it's always different, and we really have to be
• 45:08
  Speaker 6: careful of the duration of the import of the car,
• 45:11
  Speaker 6: how long you can leave the car in one place
• 45:14
  Speaker 6: our own visa. But with legoing to work, it'll also
• 45:20
  Speaker 6: bring some breaks within the old lending and that keeps
• 45:26
  Speaker 6: the passion alive and.
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: You miss it, you're like, okay, it's fun to go again.
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely given us.
• 45:35
  Speaker 4: I guess this opportunity and it is a like I
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: mentioned before, it's rotational work. So if I didn't do
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: this job, then we wouldn't be able to travel like
• 45:44
  Speaker 4: we do or for as long as what we do
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: so that we have done, so it's yeah, it works
• 45:48
  Speaker 4: quite well. It's not for everybody, you know, it's a challenge.
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: Of course.
• 45:51
  Speaker 4: I go away for a month at a time. Sometimes
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: Stephanie stays with the vehicle. Sometimes she returns to France.
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: As you mentioned, we we did recently buy a house
• 46:01
  Speaker 4: as well, so we've got a house in the French Pyrenees.
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: I don't go there very often, but there is a
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: house there, and it's been cool too to have that base.
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: But we still spend far more time traveling out of.
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: Grizzly and Bear than what we do at the house
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: in France, because we love it and we think, well,
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: it's nice to have that base now, but that house
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: is not going anywhere.
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: You know. We'll continue doing this while the passion is
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: still strong.
• 46:24
  Speaker 4: But yeah, it is a good job, and we balance
• 46:27
  Speaker 4: it and manage it as it does always.
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: Challenges are always challenges. I'm feeling with where I'm going
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: to work. Will work?
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: Fly me from the random countries I'm in all the time,
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: and I have to tell them, you know, okay, this
• 46:39
  Speaker 4: time I need you to fly me from Salala or
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: and then I need you to fly me back the
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: Reyard in Saudi Arabia, for example, which is maybe what's
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: happening very soon yet. Yeah, they've been very cool with it.
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: But it's definitely challenges. But the benefits that I only
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: have to work six months a year, we get to
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: travel the other six months a year, and yeah, it
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: works really well.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you have stories to share with each
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: other when you're reunited too. Steph has some stories to
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: share about her experiences, and you're spending quite a bit
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: of time together. I'm assuming in a small space most
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: of the time, so having the time apart, I imagine
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: it is good in a way.
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it gives you the Definitely, it's like a honeymoon
• 47:22
  Speaker 4: period every second month, you know.
• 47:25
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I love stories, more exciting stories to share than him.
• 47:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I just go to work, but no, I really
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: enjoy my job too, so that makes it easy. And
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: then you know, I've got my offshore family. And then
• 47:38
  Speaker 4: I come home and I'm then again so excited to
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: get back and continue the journey with Stephanie and the rig,
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: and Stephanie takes good care of it while I'm away,
• 47:48
  Speaker 4: which is which is very nice.
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: And yeah, it's good and we're used to it.
• 47:51
  Speaker 4: I mean, this is when I met Stephanie in Thailand,
• 47:54
  Speaker 4: all those years ago, I was already working in this industry.
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: So for us in our relationship, it's never been any different.
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 48:02
  Speaker 4: It's what we know and what we're used to, and
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: it's given us the opportunity to do a lot, you know,
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: which is which.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: Is very nice, excellent. I have a fun fact about
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: you guys, and you're like mourning people, but like really
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: mourning people, like three point thirty to four am wake
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: up time. I was reading that you're in bed by
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: eight pm, which I should probably let you go in
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: the next fifteen minutes or so so you can stay.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that.
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: Fun.
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: How does that.
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: Impact your day waking up that early? So your what's
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: your routine, what's happening? What does your day look like?
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: In the camper?
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: So we sleep east to west.
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: Let's thank you.
• 48:52
  Speaker 6: So Lee has decide that he can get out of
• 48:55
  Speaker 6: bed because Lee wakes up before me. I don't know
• 48:59
  Speaker 6: what's fun, but my time is a little bit after him.
• 49:05
  Speaker 6: It depends if we need to go early. It will
• 49:09
  Speaker 6: make a bit of noise when in Mexico coffee, but
• 49:11
  Speaker 6: we can get out of bed Mexice coffee.
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: Try not to make any noise better it.
• 49:16
  Speaker 6: Does the email, and then soon after I will wake
• 49:19
  Speaker 6: up and we get ready and we live with the
• 49:23
  Speaker 6: sun and as sunrise we start driving or we go
• 49:27
  Speaker 6: hiking or climbing, and sometimes we come back from our
• 49:33
  Speaker 6: activity and people are not even started that day. They
• 49:38
  Speaker 6: just start their day, and that feels so good.
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we love it. I just love the mornings.
• 49:43
  Speaker 4: I like to train in the mornings too, So get up,
• 49:45
  Speaker 4: have a coffee, like Steph says, and then I might
• 49:48
  Speaker 4: go for early morning run or do a little training
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: routine if we're not climbing, you know, try to try
• 49:53
  Speaker 4: a little bit to keep fit, because it is it's
• 49:55
  Speaker 4: challenging to maintain a routine when you're traveling, you know,
• 50:00
  Speaker 4: you know, and so you've got to be disciplined. So
• 50:02
  Speaker 4: I like that the very early morning starts and I
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: don't know, like I can't sit up till midnight because
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: I'm like, well, what do I do when the sun
• 50:10
  Speaker 4: goes down? I can't There's nothing for me to do anymore,
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: so I may as well just go to sleep, wake
• 50:14
  Speaker 4: up early, get some things done. I often am running
• 50:17
  Speaker 4: in the dark though, or training with my head torch on.
• 50:20
  Speaker 4: But it has affected our journey in the fact that
• 50:24
  Speaker 4: we can't really travel with others. It sounds rude, but
• 50:27
  Speaker 4: our time is just so far out from most other
• 50:31
  Speaker 4: travelers that we haven't been able to ever do convoy.
• 50:34
  Speaker 4: So we've always traveled alone. And that's the reason is
• 50:37
  Speaker 4: because I can't. I'm up at like between three and
• 50:41
  Speaker 4: three thirty in the morning. I wake up and then
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: and sometimes we're ready to go. We'd prefer to start
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: driving and be driving watching the sun come up, and
• 50:49
  Speaker 4: then stop early and enjoy the afternoon, explore the region
• 50:54
  Speaker 4: we're in.
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: There's some people that maybe.
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: Like to start later, most people, I think, and then
• 50:59
  Speaker 4: drive and then they finding their camp at night, you know,
• 51:01
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, no, no, no, I want to.
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: Be already set up.
• 51:03
  Speaker 4: That doesn't always work out that way, but that's that's
• 51:06
  Speaker 4: the idea, and I can't. I don't set an alarm
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: for that time either. It's just the body clock. I
• 51:12
  Speaker 4: think I've always been an early riser, even since I
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: was younger. But yeah, we've only I think in the
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: nine years we've been on the road, we've a couple
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: of times actually traveled with others, you know. And every
• 51:24
  Speaker 4: time I'm sitting around in the morning waiting for them
• 51:26
  Speaker 4: to wake up. I'm like, I'm ready to go, and
• 51:28
  Speaker 4: then six hours later they're ready.
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: To go, So it's yeah, it's affected.
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: I guess the journey that we've been we've been very
• 51:35
  Speaker 4: solo overlanders for all those years, although recently we did
• 51:39
  Speaker 4: travel with an awesome Australian troopy convoy and military position.
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he's ex military guy.
• 51:47
  Speaker 4: He was early riser, packed up the same time as
• 51:51
  Speaker 4: us every morning.
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: It was a pleasure to travel with them. We traveled
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: on the same time frame.
• 51:56
  Speaker 6: Ah, engine off, Yeah, five point fifty eight engine is on.
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, always every morning waiting.
• 52:06
  Speaker 4: But yeah it does. Yeah, we like it, and I can't.
• 52:09
  Speaker 4: I can't change that. There's no way where And I'm
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: lucky that Stephie doesn't want to sleep in until ten
• 52:15
  Speaker 4: o'clock because it wouldn't.
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: Work fair enough.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: Have you found like for working out, Like it's difficult
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: in some areas because of wildlife in Africa, or it's
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: just like so hot or I don't know. Obviously the
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: dark doesn't matter too much for a work on it.
• 52:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, definitely, I guess in Africa, for example, you can't.
• 52:40
  Speaker 4: Although I did, excuse me, I did run quite a
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: bit but depending on where you are, it's in the
• 52:45
  Speaker 4: back of your mind. But again, like Africa is like Australia.
• 52:49
  Speaker 4: I think when people talk about wild animals, you know,
• 52:51
  Speaker 4: and it's these days, there's not many places in Africa.
• 52:56
  Speaker 3: Where the animals are still in the wild.
• 52:59
  Speaker 4: You know, they're unfortunately because of you know, human expansion
• 53:03
  Speaker 4: and population growth. The animals now, the wild animals, the
• 53:06
  Speaker 4: dangerous animals are mostly in national parks.
• 53:09
  Speaker 3: So you know, if you're.
• 53:11
  Speaker 4: In some places I have gone for runs and stuff
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: like that, and yeah, you're thinking about it, but then
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: you're telling yourself, no, there's no there's no lions here,
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: there's nothing here. But it has affected us for sure,
• 53:22
  Speaker 4: where we could go for a run or sometimes when
• 53:25
  Speaker 4: we did the extreme Yeah, dogs was actually in Taiwan.
• 53:29
  Speaker 4: Taiwan was a problem going for I used to go
• 53:32
  Speaker 4: for my early morning runs there and I used to
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: have to take a stick because the dogs would attack
• 53:37
  Speaker 4: me all the way that I was running through the
• 53:39
  Speaker 4: mountains in Taiwan.
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: That was that that affected me there for sure, and
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: for me, I.
• 53:46
  Speaker 6: Will be except if it's hiking or rock climbing. I
• 53:50
  Speaker 6: don't do workout so much anymore. Based on the car
• 53:54
  Speaker 6: because when League goes to work, this is the time
• 53:58
  Speaker 6: where I focus and I do some like YouTube programs
• 54:02
  Speaker 6: of like weights or something, and when we're traveling, I I.
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: Don't so much.
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: Pep active, you know, Like this morning.
• 54:15
  Speaker 6: We went swimming in the ocean and we try to
• 54:19
  Speaker 6: keep active.
• 54:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's important because that's I think it's a it's
• 54:22
  Speaker 4: a big question and it comes up a lot from
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: other Overlanders, and we're always interested in how other overlanders,
• 54:29
  Speaker 4: long term overlanders, keep fitting healthy, if that if they
• 54:32
  Speaker 4: would like to.
• 54:32
  Speaker 3: You know, it's not for everybody.
• 54:33
  Speaker 4: Again, some people don't travel to do that, but I
• 54:35
  Speaker 4: think it's something you need to think about if you're
• 54:38
  Speaker 4: going to travel long term overland for sure, because.
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: The position as well, Yeah, you can.
• 54:44
  Speaker 3: Sit in a car lot.
• 54:46
  Speaker 4: And also too, we're not so strict with what we eat,
• 54:49
  Speaker 4: like we like to enjoy our food, you know, when
• 54:51
  Speaker 4: we travel. I think it's that's an important part of overlanding.
• 54:54
  Speaker 4: I'm not I'm strict when I go away to work,
• 54:56
  Speaker 4: but when we're traveling, I want to try everything, you know,
• 54:58
  Speaker 4: whether it's sweets and all the good food that you
• 55:01
  Speaker 4: can experience when you're traveling overland. You might get invited,
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: which is a big one that happens all the time.
• 55:06
  Speaker 4: And I'm not going to say, oh no, I don't
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: want that beautiful looking piece of cake because I want
• 55:11
  Speaker 4: a strict diet.
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: You I want to eat it.
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: So if you do eat all the food that's offered
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: because people are just so generous all the time, and
• 55:17
  Speaker 4: you're not working out, then that's going to be a problem.
• 55:20
  Speaker 4: So I think it's important to try and find that
• 55:22
  Speaker 4: balance of overland travel with a basic bit of active lifestyle.
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: I guess.
• 55:30
  Speaker 5: Han Cooked, Dinah pro Tire welcome to you to visit
• 55:33
  Speaker 5: Expeditionportal dot com and enjoy a series of adventures from
• 55:37
  Speaker 5: the Cheap Beach Event in Florida, the Broncos Stampede and
• 55:40
  Speaker 5: Jeep Invasion in Tennessee, and the off Road Expo in California.
• 55:45
  Speaker 5: Thanks Han Cook.
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: Yes, very important movement and it's interesting like the different regions.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: I feel like sometimes you're more active in some areas.
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: Richard and I lost like over five pounds doing the
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: premiere and we have no idea why elevation or muscle
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: muscle loss or whatever, and we still don't know. But
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: then of course, you know we've come back to Canada
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: for a bit and gaining muscle back and oh the
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: treats you know at Christmas all that, and so it's
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: like regional and yeah, like food and more active in
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: some areas and less active in other areas, and different
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: factors in different countries and regions have different things to offer.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: So it's kind of like adapting in all those different
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: ways they're always doing. But who inspires you and why.
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: It's gonna be tough For me?
• 56:45
  Speaker 6: A big, big inspiration was the Kun East Kun and
• 56:50
  Speaker 6: Karen from the Land Cruising Adventure for the long distance
• 56:55
  Speaker 6: hiking pot and then lead. They I discovered through them
• 57:03
  Speaker 6: when they stayed with me in Bishkek twenty eighteen maybe
• 57:09
  Speaker 6: something like that. We watched together the movie World, I
• 57:14
  Speaker 6: think that's the name of the movie and they were
• 57:17
  Speaker 6: telling me about that long distance hike and how that
• 57:22
  Speaker 6: twosbrush has to be cut in half to have this
• 57:27
  Speaker 6: way to remove and how they don't take pillows and
• 57:31
  Speaker 6: how all those things, and I was very fascinated.
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: And the Bigginning's ray definitely.
• 57:39
  Speaker 4: I think also Coon and Karen from Lan Cruising Adventure.
• 57:43
  Speaker 4: I mean a lot of Overlanders have inspired us.
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: Over the years.
• 57:46
  Speaker 4: But those guys, like Stephanie said, for the hiking, but
• 57:49
  Speaker 4: another one for me that I think I learned from
• 57:51
  Speaker 4: them was the art of slow travel, because they're big
• 57:56
  Speaker 4: believers in that, you know, they did. I remember speaking
• 57:59
  Speaker 4: to Kun because I Stephie, he had stayed with them
• 58:02
  Speaker 4: already for weeks or maybe even a full month before
• 58:05
  Speaker 4: I arrived back from work, and of course met Coon
• 58:08
  Speaker 4: and Karen. We had a fantastic time, the four of us.
• 58:10
  Speaker 4: We went rock climbing in the morning and then snowboarding
• 58:13
  Speaker 4: and skiing in the afternoon in Kyrgyzstan, so we got
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: to do both in the same day, you know, and
• 58:18
  Speaker 4: just had such a great time with them. And I
• 58:20
  Speaker 4: remember Coon telling me a story how you know, when
• 58:23
  Speaker 4: they started, it was a similar story to every overlanders beginning,
• 58:27
  Speaker 4: you know, the unknown, how long are we going to
• 58:29
  Speaker 4: do this for? Are we going to have a deadline? This,
• 58:31
  Speaker 4: that and the other. And their original plan, you know,
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: was to do the full Pan American. They were going
• 58:35
  Speaker 4: to start in South America and drive all the way
• 58:38
  Speaker 4: to Alaska, as everybody does. And then I think, what
• 58:42
  Speaker 4: nine years later, they still hadn't left South America, you know,
• 58:47
  Speaker 4: and they just loved it.
• 58:48
  Speaker 3: They're just like, why what we love it here? Why
• 58:51
  Speaker 3: should we?
• 58:51
  Speaker 4: And they just went around and did squiggly lines all
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: over South America And yeah, they never And his initial
• 58:57
  Speaker 4: plan was to move rapidly, was to go all the
• 59:01
  Speaker 4: way to Alaska and do it over a couple of years.
• 59:03
  Speaker 4: I think that's what I remember him telling me. And
• 59:05
  Speaker 4: then I was just I was blown away. And then
• 59:07
  Speaker 4: like nine years later, he's still in the same on
• 59:11
  Speaker 4: the same continent. He hasn't even moved on. And it's
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: I thought it was so inspirational.
• 59:16
  Speaker 6: And the fact also that it's okay to take break, yeah, stop,
• 59:22
  Speaker 6: pause to enjoy it again, like yeah, and it's okay
• 59:27
  Speaker 6: to do that.
• 59:28
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, Yes, there's.
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: No set rules. It's not like you're or Alando.
• 59:33
  Speaker 6: You should not stop, you should not stay in the
• 59:36
  Speaker 6: cabin four months or no, you can and you can
• 59:39
  Speaker 6: go on a long distance hike and you can go
• 59:42
  Speaker 6: and visit your family for months if you need.
• 59:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, there's no rules to this. We learned that from
• 59:47
  Speaker 4: them as well, you know, there was there's no rules.
• 59:49
  Speaker 4: There's nothing to prove to anybody. We're doing what we love.
• 59:52
  Speaker 4: We're not playing out of some rule book or textbook.
• 59:55
  Speaker 4: You know, there's no we don't have to live in
• 59:58
  Speaker 4: this camper twelve months a year, three hundred and sixty
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 4: five days a year.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 3: And they they, yeah, they.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 4: Taught us so much, big inspirations about this life, work
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 4: balance and overlanding and keeping that passion strong for the
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 4: long term.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 3: You know how I love those guys.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: Shout out to land Cruising Adventure. They are an inspiration
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: and it's it's such a wonderful thing that we have
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: those people that we look to for inspiration and it
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: changes our lives. And then we pass that along and
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: people are inspired, and you know by your journey, Lots
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: and lots and lots of people are inspired by your
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: journey as well, and who knows how that's affected them too.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: So yeah, so that's a great place to let you
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: guys go, so you can at least get to bed
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: before nine pm. And I wanted to say thank you
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: so much for joining me and congratulations and where can
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: we find you online?
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 4: Oh, we've got the Stepy that puts in a lot
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 4: of hard work in making her videos on Grizzly and
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 4: bear Overland, and we can mentioned too.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 3: I think maybe you.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 4: Already said something, but Grizzly is the camper and Bear
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 4: is our vehicle. We often people asking, so who's Grizzly
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 4: and who's Bear? We said, no, no, I know. Quick
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 4: fun fact. The reason why that was Bear was called
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 4: Bear because when we bought the first Defender, the one
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 4: that was unfortunately in the accident in Portugal many years ago,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 4: which you can see on Steppi's video way way way
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 4: back twenty seventeen, it came with a Bear bumper on
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 4: the front of it, and our original plan after we
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 4: did our little warm up with the new setup was to.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 3: Ship from Belgium to Halifax.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 4: We were coming to Canada and we bought this fullwell
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 4: camper which was also a model Grizzly model, So we
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 4: had Bear the Defender, we had Grizzly, the campo was
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 4: well and we're going to Canada.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 3: Let's just call this set up the Grizzly and Bear.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 3: So that's how that came about.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: So we can find you online on YouTube, Instagram.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Bear, it was what we used to be, I
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 4: guess on the Instagram and Facebook.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 3: But we do post a little bit of stuff, but
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: the videos keep rowling.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 4: That's where we like to share the story the most
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 4: I think, and yeah, keep it amazing about the people.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much for continuing to share your
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: journey and we have been honored to come along for
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: the ride. So I wish you guys all the best
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: in the next stage of your journey, and I hope
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: that we could see each other in person one day.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: And yeah, thanks for taking the time to come on
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: the podcast.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 4: So I'm thinking you guys all the best also with
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 4: your future travels, and we might catch you in a
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 4: year or so, maybe next year, end of this year.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: Fingers crossed.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 3: Yay.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, Thank you so much too, to
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: the Overland Journal podcast listeners for tuning into this episode.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: You can find more podcasts on all the podcast apps,
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: and we will catch you next time.