Poison Spyder Stinger
We missed Overland Expo this year but we were there in spirit. Here's a highlight from last year.
This photo was captured with a Sony a6300.
Improvised Field Bridge
Here's another flashback from Overland Expo East last fall. The Camel Trophy guys built this improvised field bridge to cross this gulch and create a dramatic entrance to the Camel Trophy Expedition Skills Area.
This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.
Anything Scout Hero
The team at Anything Scout build incredible machines... Like this Scout with a 600+ horsepower engine from a Cadillac CTS-V.
This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300 at Overland Expo East in Asheville, North Carolina last fall. I hope everyone is having a great time right now out at Overland Expo West in Flagstaff, Arizona!
Camel Trophy Expedition Skills
In honor of Overland Expo West, happening this weekend in Flagstaff, Arizona, here's a throwback to last year's Overland Expo East on the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina.
The Camel Trophy Expedition Skills Area is always a highlight of the Expo for me. It's where you learn to build bridges across dry river gulches and lift an engine out of a Land Rover with nothing more than a box of toothpicks and some bubble gum.
The Camel Trophy guys are the MacGyvers of the Outback and you get smarter just watching them. And then they put you to work and you realize how little you actually know!
This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.
Expedition Overland Rover
This beaut Land Rover with the pop-up camper top was on display at Overland Expo. Something tells me this one wasn't a garage queen!
This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.
Camel Trophy
One of the standout highlights of Overland Expo at the Biltmore Estate is the Camel Trophy Expedition Skills Area. You can work with experts in the field to rig a system to fuel your vehicle directly from an oil drum or to build a bridge across a gully with logs and rope. The skills the Camel Trophy team teaches are about creative problem solving in the field. You may never need to build that bridge but it sure is empowering knowing you could if you were suddenly dropped into a Top Gear special episode!
This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.
Oz-Bound Defender
An Aussie couple called this Land Rover home at Overland Expo. They were on a journey half-way across the globe, taking it to their native Australia. The kids loved visiting with them and their dogs. If you ask the kids, their favorite feature on this tremendous camper was the gearshift knob that held a redback spider, suspended inside a ball of resin.
This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.
USN M-35 6x6
This camper retrofit from a United States Navy M-35 6x6 was one of the beasts of Overland Expo. Rather than go for clever cubbies and sleeping bays like you see on most overlanding vehicles, this one was simply a studio apartment on wheels. Everything was full-size from the 10-foot+ ceilings to the giant porcelain toilet in the bathroom. The guy who commissioned the build was just trying to make an extremely comfortable and capable home on wheels for a couple of people. And he knocked it out of the park! It even had a rooftop terrace for enjoying the views from 20-feet up in the air.
This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.
Anything Scout
We camped next to the team behind Anything Scout at Overland Expo East. They're a great group of people making tremendous vehicles. This beast was proudly on display by one of their happy customers. This perfectly-restored scout body sits atop a highly-upgraded current-generation Jeep JK Unlimited frame. Under the hood is a fire-breathing 500+ horsepower, supercharged Cadillac CTS-V engine! Madness! And it's perfect!
If your Icon FJ is starting to feel a bit pedestrian, it's time to give the guys at Anything Scout a call!
This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.
Landy Window Decal
The sheer volume and quality of classic Land Rovers at Overland Expo alone make it worth the trip. Nothing captures the spirit of overlanding like a Series II Land Rover, straight from a trip across Africa. I'm not sure of the providence of this particular Landy but it was definitely a keeper.
This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.