Thought I’d give my life story a rest for one minute to bring you some wonderful linkage to other sites around the blogosphere that may be of interest to you.

First off is “The Journey Continues“.

I found this blog whilst on Blog Search for anything tagged with Overland. Silama, the author is constructing his very own wagon for travelling across, well, anywhere I suppose. I have to say that this is one of my own dreams, construct (or buy) my own campervan / expedition vehicle.

Unfortunately my off-centre mind has now conjured up the image of me perched atop a truck pointing to the distance and declaring in a distinctly pirate fashion “We be a goin yonder thata way! yarrr”

I’m not sure why the pirates came about, perhaps thats another crazy plan that I’ve secretly got lodged in my mind.

Prepare ye’selves for “Pirate Wannabe” blog… coming soon, or perhaps not, still if enough of you ask then i’m sure I could photoshop something, you weirdos! hehe!

… And then this caught my eye….

Perhaps the mightiest beast of all beasts. Based on the Unimog, but almost completely rebuilt is this monolith.

The description of the MaxiMog sums it up really

“The base vehicle is a highly modified Mercedes Benz Unimog chassis with a custom body, completely new power plant, computer controlled suspension, and integrated electrical, hydraulics and electronics systems.
Many of the onboard navigation, power, lighting, communications, computation and electro-optics systems were developed specifically for this vehicle.”

Hey all,

In a change from the usual links to a.n.other website I have included below some literary goodness direct from the shores of (The) Amazon.

OVERLAND-A Mercedes-Benz Journey Through The Americas

Product Description
Overland-A Mercedes-Benz Journey Through The Americas-is a journey, a year-long road trip from Colorado to Argentina and back covering 34,000 miles through 17 countries. On this incredible journey, the author and his vehicle are faced with military roadblocks, confusing border crossings, high altitude mountain passes and steamy jungles. Not only does OVERLAND describe the hardships, lonliness and daily challenges of being behind the wheel day after day, it also speaks of the wonderfull people met on the road and the incredible beauty of the world we live in.

Sahara Overland, 2nd: A Route and Planning Guide

Happy Travellin‘ Reading

OverlandSi

Argh!

Ok so first of all sorry for the lack of updates.

I will be changing to updating this blog once a week

Life at the moment is crazy busy and I found myself spending more time updating the blog than looking for jobs!

So whats changed?

Well I have hit a slightly large brick wall in the challenge to become an overland drvier – insurance!

Most companies I have spoken to have stated that their policy for drivers is over 25′s only. Being only 22 this has created a wee issue!

So where to now?

Well don’t worry readers. I will not give up at the 1st (or more likely 6th) hurdle.

At the moment I am looking for any job that will involve travel – hopefully to some bizzare country or lands, but anything will do.

If you have any suggestions please leave them in the comments box below. I will promise to check them all out.

However, first of all I must get cracking on packing for my skiing holiday!

Happy Travellin’
Overland Si

I spoke to Dragoman tours today…

Unfortunately for me all staff must be 25yrs or older. I have a feeling that some part of this is to do with insurance. A lot of other normal HGV driving jobs have a lower age limit of 25.

Still – ever onwards as they say.

On a happier note – hello to all my readers!
After spending a while on sites like entrecard.com and feedburner I have finally managed to attract some of you over my little corner of the blogosphere.

Long may that continue. Also, thanks to Feedburner you can now be emailed with all the updates from this page as they come. Simply fill in the form to the right at any time, or – for a limited time only here -

Somebody asked me this earlier today.

“So what the hell will you actually be doing?”

Well, after stumbling about for a bit, the best thing I could come up with was: “Well…. er… a lot!” and laughed it off.

But that got me tihnking – of course, I knew what I thought was expected of Overland Crew, this came from reading blog posts, experiences from ex-crew and a few other collections of stories.

What I had not fully loooked at was what was expected of the Overland Crew from the employees. The little snippet below comes from Overlanding Africa:

“Overland crew are not personal servants. They are there to show you the ropes of overlanding, travelling off-the-beaten track and camping out in the wilderness. Crew will ensure that your overland tour turns into an experience never to be forgotten, whilst working very long days, seven days a week.

The crew have the added responsibility of looking after the vehicle. In-between repairing that flat tyre, getting your lunch organized, navigating through a treacherous bog hole and identifying that bird making that particular noise, they are also your companions on your overland tour.”

That kind of makes my inital answer correct – Crew and Drivers are expected to do a lot!

Also – link whore that I am – new post added to the Thorn Tree Forum over here – Link!

Cheers, Overland Wannabe.

overlandwannabe.blogspot.com

Pic of the today comes from ThisFabTrek and the best description of what he is doing comes from the guy himself:

“I am Manfred. On 22nd of July 2004 I set out for a journey. A voyage that may last a long time, maybe my entire life, a trek to discover planet Earth.”

I think I may have to upscale my own plans

Ok so today hasn’t exactly been the most amazing.

Odyssey Overland have no opportunities for me at the moment but will take file my details – They were courteous enough though so can’t complain. Would have been nearly perfect though as they are based not too far from where I am currently living.

So today, rather than wallow in misery (it was tempting trust me), I thought that I would finally get round to creating the new header that you can see above. I was rather impressed with myself hehe.

I have been using the GIMP – Graphic Image Manipulation Program, not the guy locked up in my wardrobe.

This is basically a free version of the infamous Photoshop. Yes I am aware it probably doesn’t have this feature and that feature, but hey it works for me.

The main thing I have been doing today is creating the “Stamp Effect” in Gimp. There is a tutorial of it over at this link here for any of you who are interested.

So this has now officially beome the OWB – Overland Wannabe Blog. Break out the champagne!!!! I’ll have the baby sham of course – I’m driving.

Also today I have been checking out me stats – and apparently I have some readers! Well I suppose I shall have to write something worthwhile soon. And get onto the mountain of application forms sat next to me.

Oh and while I think of it – this blog’s official soundtrack can be found here.

Cheers, Overland Wannabe
http://overlandwannabe.blogspot.com

Another link to a rather valuable resource for today’s near midday post – Overlanding Community

http://www.overlandingcommunity.com/

A reasonable site with news articles, vacancy opportunities and other such info. They are also trying to gain information on all the companies that are out there providing overland trips.

If you have been on an overland adventure then you can upload your own comments to this site, recommending a company or tour or just sharing your trip with others.

They also list all of the holiday discounts available from certain operators and a calendar for events that be happening in the Overland World.

Cheers, Overland Wannabe
http://overlandwannabe.blogspot.com

Ok, day 2 or 3.

Have now realised that it simply isn’t going to be a case of apply for job, apply for PCV license and off ye go.

I had never really thought it would be, but there was a dream of it being so.

There are a lot of stories of drivers getting into the trade this way. Most of these are unfortunately back in the early uears of the 60′s – 80′s, where the Old Bedford trucks were commonplace, these being merely convereted British Army trucks and nothing like today’s purpose built monoliths.

So my first post will most likely be some sort of adventure leader of sorts.

Not the dream I hear you scream!

But hang on – I’ve just checked the Blog title and it just says Overland Wannabe – So I guess that its still covered!

Still I’m off to fill in the 5 page application now for Toucan Travel – I suppose it’s good that they vet people thoroughly, on their knowledge of regions as much as everything else. Meaning if you are travelling you will recieve a good service.

Still – not sure if my GCSE knowledge of slavery really counts as true “history” for the Africa section!

Yer – end of blog update, must go write to more companies – for a list of them I’m currently loking at this list (link) on go-overland.com

There’s quite a few there, I have a feeling my Inbox may be full, or completely empty – which would be rather dissapointing.

I’m really going to stop writing this blog now.

Just a Quick Link for any of you thinking of taking an overlanding holiday or for any of those that are crazy like me and wish to staff these tours.

Check out www.overlanding101.com, from Mark Fittal

Written by a former / current driver. There are tales on there of a whole host of experiences and you can buy or download the book for £2.50 (or £4.44 for the actual book). Purchase now here: http://www.lulu.com/content/928170

This is a damn good (and hilarious) read. And I can certainly recommend it to anyone who is thinking about this kind of life.

Anyways… back to the office work. (for now)