cbradley
Adventurer
"Freedom is the oxygen of the soul." ~Moshe Dayan
This post marks the beginning of something I have been after for quite awhile, real freedom. Those that may have seen my contest entry know that I have been living life "imprisoned" in an office cubicle for a number of years. As a kid, I once had big dreams of adventure, but somewhere between high school and career those dreams were replaced by much less satisfying desires. Following these latter desires resulted in me shackled to a computer desk for most of my waking hours. The Expoordition will be my taste of freedom. The trip itself may be short in duration, but my hope is that it will be a springboard into a bigger change.
I. Background and Goals
For those not familiar with the concept of the Expoordition, it is a trip intended to demonstrate that overlanding and its attendant adventure, exploration and escape is possible on both a tight budget and limited time frame. Though the expensive vehicles and gear are often lust-worthy and make such travel easier or more comfortable, they aren't necessary and sometimes become the priority over the travel itself. The Expoordition focuses on travel over truck.
The Expoordition started two years ago when Nathan (Alpine Hoo Ha) set out on a multi-week adventure in his '95 4Runner and a budget of only $21 per day. The resulting travel and prep thread ended up with nearly 33,000 views as much of the community cheered him on and eagerly awaited updates from the road.
Given the wide appeal of the original Expoordition, Expeditions West decided to sponsor another one. Through what can only be some kind of divine intervention, I was selected for this year's sponsorship.
:wings:
This thread will record the trip and vehicle prep, the adventure itself and hopefully a great deal of discussion and advice from the ExPo community. I'll be the first to admit that I'm still pretty green when it comes to overlanding and can use all the input I can get.
Both out of necessity and in the spirit of the trip, I plan on doing all my preps in true Expoordition style: on the cheap. My motto for this trip is going to be "beg, borrow and steal." Well, not really that last part, but I do want to make this an experiment in prepping well, but on the cheap. That will mean buying stuff used, borrowing or renting gear, and maybe some DIY solutions. Any ideas off the bat would be greatly appreciated. I'll be posting a summary of my vehicle and gear in the coming days and hopefully can get a good discussion going on where I ought to go from here.
This post marks the beginning of something I have been after for quite awhile, real freedom. Those that may have seen my contest entry know that I have been living life "imprisoned" in an office cubicle for a number of years. As a kid, I once had big dreams of adventure, but somewhere between high school and career those dreams were replaced by much less satisfying desires. Following these latter desires resulted in me shackled to a computer desk for most of my waking hours. The Expoordition will be my taste of freedom. The trip itself may be short in duration, but my hope is that it will be a springboard into a bigger change.
I. Background and Goals
For those not familiar with the concept of the Expoordition, it is a trip intended to demonstrate that overlanding and its attendant adventure, exploration and escape is possible on both a tight budget and limited time frame. Though the expensive vehicles and gear are often lust-worthy and make such travel easier or more comfortable, they aren't necessary and sometimes become the priority over the travel itself. The Expoordition focuses on travel over truck.
The Expoordition started two years ago when Nathan (Alpine Hoo Ha) set out on a multi-week adventure in his '95 4Runner and a budget of only $21 per day. The resulting travel and prep thread ended up with nearly 33,000 views as much of the community cheered him on and eagerly awaited updates from the road.
Given the wide appeal of the original Expoordition, Expeditions West decided to sponsor another one. Through what can only be some kind of divine intervention, I was selected for this year's sponsorship.
:wings:
This thread will record the trip and vehicle prep, the adventure itself and hopefully a great deal of discussion and advice from the ExPo community. I'll be the first to admit that I'm still pretty green when it comes to overlanding and can use all the input I can get.
Both out of necessity and in the spirit of the trip, I plan on doing all my preps in true Expoordition style: on the cheap. My motto for this trip is going to be "beg, borrow and steal." Well, not really that last part, but I do want to make this an experiment in prepping well, but on the cheap. That will mean buying stuff used, borrowing or renting gear, and maybe some DIY solutions. Any ideas off the bat would be greatly appreciated. I'll be posting a summary of my vehicle and gear in the coming days and hopefully can get a good discussion going on where I ought to go from here.
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