Well would you believe it??? It’s seven years since we set off overlanding in Cuthbert! Seven whole years!!! Blimey, doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun!! Here’s the route map, some geeky (and not so geeky) facts, and some highlights of our trip so far…

Geeky (and not so geeky) Stats

• Countries: 48
• Distance: 232,534km/144,490miles
• Engine starts: 11,555 times
• Engine running: 5,154 hrs
• Glow plugs on: 6,219 times = 18.9 hrs
• Cooling fan on: 100,992 times = 1,317 hrs
• Engine running above 2,000m: 665hrs
• DPF regeneration injections: 1158 = 10.9hrs (using 25.5 ltrs diesel)
• Engine revolutions: 524,269,000
• Av speed: 52kph/32mph
• Av engine rpm: 1,695
• Sets of tyres: 5  
• Sets of coffee mugs: 3  
• Windscreens: 2
• Blog posts: 150
• Sets of skis acquired: 3
• Days skied: 52
• Lockdown days: 80 in The Yukon, 69 in British Columbia (so far… )
• Longest park-up: 4 months at Overlander Oasis, Oaxaca. Mexico with Calvin & Leanne McKenzie waiting for a new windscreen Dec 2018 – May 2019
• Litres of diesel used: 37,336 (av 16l/100km, 6.2km/l, 17.6UKmpg, 14.7USmpg)
• RORO shippings: 4
• Arctic Circle crossings: 1
• Scariest road: F25 to Cochabamba, Bolivia
• Coldest night: -31C, Whitehorse, The Yukon  
• Visa renewals in-country: 5 (Malawi, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Canada)
• New teeth: 2  
• Boats acquired: 1 Boaty McBoatface
• Guinea Pigs eaten: 1
• Panning for gold attempts: 2
• Ounces of gold found: 0
• Equator crossings: 8
• Winched self recovery: 4
• Winch recovery of others: lost count
• Highest point driven: 4,982m/16,346ft Altiplano, Chile  
• Lowest point driven: 282ft/85m below sea level, Death Valley, California
• Police bribe attempts: 2 (Zimbabwe, Perú)
• Bribes paid: 0
• ‘First Ever’: British to enter the EU from Brazil by road
• Worst night-stop: 4,800m on Chimborazo Ecuador. Not our wisest decision  
• Worst border: Costa Rica to Nicaragua (Uganda to Kenya a close second)
• Best wildlife: close tie… gorillas, Rwanda penguins, Antarctica and grizzly bears, Canada
• Gas/propane used: 272.15kg (533 litres)
• Water filters used: 14
• Geiger counters added to the dashboard: 1
• Deepest water crossing: a bit over 1m, Lencois Maranhenses, Brazil  
• Most northerly: NWT border, Arctic Circle, Canada (N 67 02.825)
• Most southerly: Antarctic cruise (S 65 02.783) (with Cuthbert, Tierra del Fuego (S 54 58.538))
• Most easterly: S/E of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania (E 039 21.708)
• Most westerly: Top of World Highway, Yukon Territory, Canada (W 140 42.643)

Highlights

So what have our highlights been? Well, there’s way too many to mention, but if you have a bit of spare lock-down time to waste, these few little nuggets spring to mind…

• Gorilla trekking, Rwanda
• Himba people, Kaokoland
• Antarctica
• Easter Island
• Galapagos Islands
• Sleeping on a cliff-face, Peru
• Bolivian altiplano/Salar de Uyuni
• Arianne 5 rocket launch, French Guiana
• Maroon jungle people, Suriname
• BR-319 mud road across the Amazon
• Panama Canal – crewing on a yacht
• Monarch Butterfly migration, Mexico
• Flying to Kluane Icefields, The Yukon

Africa Highlights, South America Highlights, Timeline

Into Year 8!

We’d love to be able to say at this point that our overlanding is moving along nicely… but if we did, you’d be able to smell our pants on fire. We’re actually in ‘rona virus lock-down in Canada. No complaints though. Unike many overlanders, we haven’t had to abandon our vehicle in an uncertain jurisdiction and fly home; neither are we stuck in a place we don’t really want to be. If you were unfortunate enough to have to sit-out a pandemic somewhere in the world, Canada wouldn’t be a bad place to do it.

Canadians are nice people. They’re famous for it, and it’s true! They’ve made us very welcome and been kind enough to extend our visas. So yes… we are stuck in one place, but for now that place just happens to be Big White, a ski resort in British Columbia. We’re skiing our socks off, celebrating our 7 year anniversary and wondering whether we’ll still be here at the end of year eight