Just after editing this video, I found out that I had malaria. Since many strains of malaria, including the one that I contracted come on somewhat slow, you just start to feel more and more weird and look worse and worse over time. I realize now that I never actually wrote anything to go along with this video and that it is one of the poorest quality videos we have on the website. Since malaria attacks your brain and nervous system amongst other things, you have a really spacey feeling and sometimes cannot even compose sentences well. I would guess this is one of the reasons why the interviews I filmed had the wrong mic setup and were out of focus even though I have setup cameras like this hundreds of times before.
Later when we were visiting one of our friends in Pointe Noire, Congo (Where I got Malaria and edited this video), he had also gotten malaria. He speaks french natively, but also speaks nearly perfect English. However, the day we were talking with him, he could hardly form a sentence in English because of the Malaria messing with his brain. It is a crazy disease.
The video was actually shot in the village of Niono on the way to Timbuktu. Steve Bouey wrote a blog about this village with a bunch of photos as well. You can read it here: Everyone should have an Entourage. While Malaria is horrible, Africa still has some incredible things to outweigh its wrath, like these kids we were able to hang out with for a few days. The simple life of an African village…enjoy!
It seems that in the midst of the last year this video slipped through and never made it online for all of you to see. Lately I have been working to get all of our video organized for a new project in the works. So stay tuned, we will be posting more often in the coming weeks and keep it coming again. We are finally back on our feet! It has only taken a year since we returned to be able to begin focusing on the website and TWBR again. I guess that is only expected after an expedition like ours.
So please enjoy this video, we filmed it in Ushuaia, Argentina and watching this video certainly makes me wish that I was still adventuring everyday. For this particular video we had the incredible opportunity to dive with Ushuaia Divers in the 4 degree waters of the bay full of seals, sea lions, giant crabs and more. It was quite the adventure. So enjoy and get ready for more content soon, including more travel guides, stories and videos!
Toyota has been in the headlines a lot lately and you would have to have your head stuck in hole not to know that the attention Toyota has been getting as of late has been bad. It all stems around the recalls of several of Toyota’s popular models due in part because of potentialproblems with accelerators becoming stuck while the vehicle is moving. These perceived problems have triggered one of the largest recalls in consumer product history at nearly 8.5 million vehicles and caused Toyota to halt production on these models until the problem was identified and a solution put in place. It isn’t really the size of the recall involving Toyota that has got me a little bent out of shape recently, it is the hostility that is being directed towards this company, not by consumers, but by the United States government and the mainstream press.
Recalls are nothing new, in fact there is a major recall going on at Ford right now and let’s be honest, Ford has established some notariety for itself in the recall world; remember the Ford Explorders of the late 1990’s, so why all of this fuss about Toyota and why have they been chosen to be raked over the coals?  None of the headlines have focused on Ford current recall or the crappy cars they continuously seem to make.  True the Toyota recall is large, but Toyota accounts for a much larger percentage of vehicles on the road so it is just proportionate. I have my own conspiracy theory here; US economy fails, US government bails out US auto manufacturers, Toyota is main competition for US auto manufacturers, chance to take town Toyota, etc., but I won’t go there just yet.Â
I finally find one media article by Michael Fumento in the Los Angeles Times that takes a view more closely aligned with me on this and it is worth a read as it states part of my point from a less emotionally charged and more eloquent point of view that I can at the moment.
Bottom line, Toyota builds bomb proof and reliable cars and trucks. They always have, and they always will. In many ways I feel I owe my life to Toyota as these trucks got us out of some jams. Mistakes happen and Toyota has taken measures to correct those mistakes just like every other auto manufacturer has since the automobile was invented.   So why the Congressional hearings and the criminal investigations? Why the billions of dollars in class action lawsuits coming out of the wood works? I know Toyota will rise above this but I definitely feel like this thing is a bit of a witch hunt and Toyota is being painted as a scapegoat for other problems facing this country… but hey, that’s the American way… find someone else to blame for your problems and sue them! So excuse me if I don’t take it a bit personal.
The voting ended for the Reader’s Choice Adventurer of the Year Award. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to vote for us. Unfortunately we did not win, however, since the issue that featured us as Adventurers of the Year was the last issue of National Geographic Adventure in print, the prize of being featured in a future issue is no longer to be awarded.
It was truly an honor to be featured in the magazine as one of the Adventurers of the Year and I suppose it is also pretty cool that we can say we were in the final issue as well. So all is not lost.
When we were up for the NGA award, I put togetherthis page with some of our highlighted stories from the expedition. It is a nice walk down memory lane and for those of you who are new to the site and expedition, it is a great way to see some of our favorite highlights.
Unfortunately, both Bouey and I have had to buckle down and get some real jobs since we returned, so the book and documentary are coming a little slower than we had hoped, but we are working away and hoping to have the book ready in the near future. Make sure to sign up for our updates with the signup to the right so you will know when they are available.
Also, we have been doing many more speaking engagements lately and getting a great response. Very soon we will have a page up on the site outlining our presentation options and until then please feel free to contact us for more information about bookings.
With all the organizations and people we met and talked with around the world, often it felt like people were just wasting time and money with silly ideas for aid. Often these ideas provide little to no real lasting help to people in the world in need. This story is genius. Using technology, design and innovation to improve people’s situation is truly the best way to go about helping the world, and these guys are giving people just what they need as a tool toward a better life. Not only that, Bamboo grows quickly and inexpensively, so Bamboo Bikes are nothing short of genius. Check out this video and when you are done watching it you can visit their website to learn more about this cool project: http://www.bamboobike.org/Home.html.
Come celebrate with us at Division West in Cherry Creek on Friday December 11th. Since we were just named one of the 2009 Adventurers of the Year by National Geographic Magazine, we thought it was only prudent to have a rockin party at this sweet shop.
There will be free cocktails and we will be showing photos and even a new video clip. The party will likely move over to Tambien later, but get there at 7:30 to say hi and have some drinks.
Also, if you have not already, don’t forget to vote for us in the readers choice award, if we win, we will get an even bigger feature in the April issue next year!! Just go to http://www.tinyurl.com/ngavote. Be sure to give us a ten and the others a one, because there is a glitch in the voting system and it is the only way to make your vote really count. Thanks for your support!!
Most importantly for those of your voting, you need to vote a 10 for us and a 1 for all of the other adventurers. This has seemed to be the trend for all of the other adventurers and why the highest score is below a 7. While it sounds somewhat wrong to do this, it is unfortunately just the limitation of the voting system. So if you want your vote for us to count, please make sure to give us the 10 and 1 to the rest, kind of like a set of pins, the one standing is your vote.
Thanks to everyone supporting us with their votes for the Adventurer of the Year Reader’s Choice Award. Due to the somewhat limited voting system, you can only vote one time per computer, so if you have a whole family you all only get one vote unless you have more than one computer. But you can go to the library and vote on each computer if you are a real die-hard fan! 🙂
Thanks again and just click the link here or and send it to everyone on your list. It really means a lot to us to have your help!!
How do I get started on obtaining visas for my adventure?
The first step and often one of the most up to date places to start searching for more information is on the Department of State Travel website. Here you can find travel advisories, which are often a little misleading in terms of the level of safety in the country. The US government often tells of the worst case scenarios in the places you might travel, so do not let them scare you with the advisories and warnings. This is the best place to start your research as it will let you know about visa requirements, health issues and more, giving you a base to do better more in depth research. Regularly the visa requirements change, so remember that while this site is often correct in its information, you need to make sure that requirements have not changed and calling your destination country’s embassy in Washington DC is often a good idea to get the final word on what you need to do for your visas.
I am going to multiple countries over the course of my adventure, do I need to get all of my visas upfront?
If you are going to multiple countries and spending a lot of time on the road, obtaining visas is something you might need to spread out over the course of your trip. Since we were gone for over two years, if we obtained all of our visas before we left, many of them would have expired by the time we got to a particular country. Most visas have a shelf life of six months but some may only be valid for as little as one. Most major cities around the globe have a decent representation of foreign embassies and consulates and often, it is easy enough to apply for visas while abroad. For example, we got most of the visas we needed for Central Asia in Beijing. If you are going to be traveling for a while, take note of what major cities are on your route and check to see what embassies are located there.
You may have to spend a few extra days in these cities, but we found in some places the turnaround on visas at consulates in other countries can be a lot quicker and the cost might actually be cheaper, especially if you are getting a visa at an embassy or consulate in a neighboring country. In some parts of the world, such as southeast Asia, there are even companies that for a reasonable fee will get you all of the visas you need for countries in the area for a fee, just ask taxi drivers or hostels where one of these companies are. Based on the amount of time it takes to run around town to multiple embassies, the fee might be well worth it.
Check back soon for more information, or post questions in the comments.
When Steve and I were planning this trip, we spent a lot of time simply trying to find useful information about overlanding and planning an expedition. Overlanding is obviously a big commitment and takes a good deal of time, energy, funding, and other resources, all of which can serve as decently formidable barriers for embarking on an overland adventure. The lack of clear and accurate information presents even more obstacles to getting something like this off the ground, but is part of the adventure.
There are a few good resources out there where you can gather information specific to overland vehicle travel. Two of the better ones include Africa Overland – a collection of websites from people who have completed or are in the process of completing overland trips in Africa and beyond, and Horizons Unlimited– a resource board and forum aimed at overland motorcycle adventures but also contains valuable information for overland vehicle travel in general. There are also countless individual websites from people who have done everything from country specific trips to large-scale, long-term travel.
Realizing how much time we spent trying to get our own research done and seeing the demand for some sort of resource with more information, we are in the process of redeveloping and reorganizing our own website to serve as a valuable resource for people planning their own expeditions. We receive many e-mails asking questions ranging from logistical issues, to what type of trucks to use, to recommendations on the best places to go. While we try to get back to everyone who sends us an e-mail, at times it can be difficult, so we are working on a Frequently Asked Questions page which will continue to grow and evolve as more and more questions come in.
We also have well over 500 blog entries that we compiled and posted on the road in our journal. These blog entries cover a wide range of topics and can be translated into 40 different languages. To make it easier to search through the content available on the blog posts, you can use the search options on the right hand side of the screen in the journal to search by key word or list the blogs that are related to certain categories in the drop down menu.
As we continue to remodel, organize and develop this website into this overland travel resource, we are certainly open to suggestions for how to best accomplish that. If there is information you are looking for but can’t find, let us know. Chances are, you are not the first person to ask us that question. If the content on the website is not intuitive, let us know, maybe other people are having problems finding things. Ultimately, the planning aspect of an overland expedition is still going to be a lot of work and require a decent amount of your time, but hopefully this website will help to take some of the bite out of that task so you can actually start to focus on the fun part of the expedition – getting on the road!
Don’t forget to sign up for email updates be submitting your email in the form in the sidebar on the right. We will email you each time we have new info up.
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When we first came up with the idea for this adventure, often we would hear from people, “That sounds like one heck of a vacation.â€
“How lucky you two are to be able to do something like this,†many would say. Breaking the stigma that we were going on some easy road trip vacation to exotic places proved to be near impossible. We knew, and every day with more and more research, we were absolutely positive that an adventure of a lifetime preceded us. Still, rarely would we find someone willing to listen to our pleading that this was a true expedition that would go far beyond the limits of what even we believed was possible.
Potential sponsors regularly responded to us with, “Plenty of people who embark on around the world trips come to us for sponsorship, what is different about yours?â€Â Obviously it is hard to get the point across that we are not jet setting to the next beach party in Thailand, instead our goal was to go overland to the farthest reaches of the globe, crossing each border in our trucks, meeting the locals in the middle of nowhere and getting into some true adventure. Even after video footage, photos and stories, some of our sponsors would ask, “Why haven’t you sent more video footage to us?†The truth is that editing video is much harder than you might think from the back of a truck covered in mud stuck in the middle of the jungle. The first opportunity to navigate with a set of binoculars and a compass is a little more difficult than one might think, and after the seventh time getting lost in a place where there has not been a road sign for 1000 miles doesn’t leave much time in the day for the little stuff.
When we completed the journey, for everyone involved, it was straight back to work since we had all drained every last bit of our money just trying to get home. With over 30,000 photos and over 100 hours of video footage, we settled back into work and Denver life, but the validation that we had done something extraordinary did not seem to be there. Sure, we were in the local papers and on the national associated press. The expedition was newsworthy, but it was not enough. Still, often our expedition was called a trip or a vacation by many. Then out of nowhere and email dropped into our inboxes. Ryan, an editor at National Geographic Adventure, wanted to talk to us about our “epic adventure.â€Â Now we are getting somewhere, I thought. Ryan said, “EPIC ADVENTURE,†not “EPIC VACATION.â€Â After a series of phone calls, emails, photo editors and fact checkers, our wildest dreams came true…we were nominated as one of the 2009 Adventurers of the Year.
The issue of the magazine has been put in the mail to subscribers and will be on newsstands shortly, but it can be viewed online right now. If there was ever a point where we were wondering if someone would come to our rescue and put the record straight, I think it would be the 30 some adventurers on that panel that chose us. It is a true honor to know that we were selected by a panel including names that I have always revered like Conrad Anker, David Holbrooke, Dean Karnazes, Peter Hillary, and Peter Miller. Until late last night, I did not have a chance to read the article about us. While the article is short and does not explain much about the expedition, we are still ranked and displayed right next to others, which makes it almost impossible to believe are our peers, including Dean Potter, Hubble Astronaut John Grunsfeld, big wave surfer Maya Gabeira, and war veteran Marc Hoffmeister. So with that it seems reasonable to say that our expedition, still noted in their story as a road trip…hehe, was much more than just a couple of years of Bouey and I hiding from reality or running fancy free along the beaches of the world.
Thanks to National Geographic and all the people on the advisory board for their time in putting this all together. Of course we would like to thank all of you who have supported us since we started, this award is yours too, because it never would have been possible without all of your help. I cannot imagine a better way to answer the question, “What in the world have Steve and Steve been doing for the last two years?â€Â That validation might have just arrived.
I have put together a small highlight reel for the competition that has now begun. You can watch the video below. While none of the honorees were chosen as one standout, there is a competition that allows readers to vote on the one they think should win. So we would appreciate your votes, and hopefully a 10! Please take the time to review the other adventurers, as they are all outstanding people. You can vote for them too, but since it is a sliding scale, don’t forget who your favorite is!! 🙂
When Steve and I were planning this trip, we spent a lot of time simply trying to find useful information about overlanding and planning an expedition. Overlanding is obviously a big commitment and takes a good deal of time, energy, funding, and other resources, all of which can serve as decently formidable barriers for embarking on an overland adventure. The lack of clear and accurate information presents even more obstacles to getting something like this off the ground, but is part of the adventure.
