Overland Travel Blog

Vehicles, Resources and Stories - Europe, Australia and soon Globally...

Overlanding Stories Spanning More Than 20 Years

What is Overlanding

Independent remote land based - often vehicle dependent

Overlanding is the act of travelling in an independent fashion, where the destination is not the primary goal. In Overland Travel the journey, which is often remote, forms an integral part of the overall experience. Travelling this way often means that periods of travel can be extended beyond those typically experienced by the general population.

In most cases overlanders live out of their vehicles or in some form of symbiotic relationship with their vehicles, in many respects Overlanders share some common traits with Vanlifers of the van life culture. Check out common questions here.

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What's the Origin of Overlanding

Overlanding - originally describes droving cattle over long distances

Overlanding is often associated with 4wd touring, where there is a natural association with off-roading. However the term “Overlanding” is thought to have emanated from Australian Outback cattle drovers, moving cattle from remote outback stations to markets in towns, often following established routes which are now well known to modern day overlanders, such as the Canning Stock Route.

More recently overland travel has been associated not only with 4×4 vehicles, but also with bike travel known as bike-packing, and train journeys such as the trans-siberian in Russia or Indo-Pacific Overlander in Australia. We talk about the history of overland travel here.

Who is an Overlander

An adventurous, independent, curious and resourceful traveller

An Overlander is often adventurous by nature, seeks to explore remote places, routes and destinations at their own pace whilst satisfying a desire for the unknown or unexpected.

Overland travellers are normally self-reliant on their vehicle as a support platform and their place to sleep or live. They are generally resourceful and are good at solving small problems as they arise on their journey.

Spectacular Light Across the Yellow Water Billabong

Overlanding Vehicles

Jeep, G-Wagon, Defender, Land Cruiser or Ineos...

Modern overlanders use a multitude of vehicles from classic 4x4s to 4wd and AWD vans, like the Mercedes sprinter or more recently Toyota Hiace 4×4 conversions. That was not always the case thou, early overlanders used what they had and these were often unreliable basic 2wd vehicles.

These days popular vehicles include, the Jeep Gladiator and Toyota Tacoma in the US; Land Cruiser 70-series, Nissan Patrols and classic UTEs (pickups) are popular in the Australian Overlanding seen; In South Africa Toyotas are also popular; Land Rover Defenders are popular in the United Kingdom and Europe; complete industries formed around serving the tight niche. More recently with the demise of the Defender production in around 2017, the Ineos Grenadier has started to emerge as a potential Overlanding Platform.

Overland Routes

Africa, Australia, Pan-american - Historical Routes

Many routes around the world were formed through some form of utility, example of this include Route 66, the Trans-sahara highway, the hippie trail, the Canning Stock Route in Australia and the Pan-american, London to Istanbul, London to Singapore and of course the routes used to service the Balkans. Not forgetting of course the famous cairo to cape town route.

These days those routes form the basis of many overlanders bucket lists. Travellers frequent do the east african route or follow the path of the tran-siberian railway across russia.

Overlanding Remote Isolated Forte Jafferau

4wd adventure travel - Why do we do it

Experiencing the unknown at our own pace.

Our first experiences of travelling overland occurred at a young age camping in the deserts and mountains (wadis) of the Middle East. As young adults, we would travel as a family with our Daughter around Europe on a tight budget. It was not long though before we yearned to go further afield and away from people to explore remote areas and to travel at our own pace. Find out more about our why here.