What is XOVERLAND's 2023 Africa expedition like? — featuring Expedition Overland

0:10 [Music] Africa what an amazing place it's beyond special so special that I had to return and my last experience here was powerful it was deep the struggle was very outward and it revealed that I had a lot of inward work to do so with our trucks still available to us in Africa a new

0:36 trip was pulled together I called six guys to take on a different type of trip one that'll send us back in time to the present and hopefully catapult Our Lives into the next great adventure whatever that looks like in the [Music] future the requirement to be on the expedition was the courage to discuss

0:57 life with each other and with you on the other side of the screen here you go sir the first one to sign up was Eric Olsen a dear friend of mine from college and a returning Expedition member from

1:24 South American expedition he's looking to make moves in life and this trip has come at the perfect time Richard gordano is returning to Africa with the crew after being here just last year with my family he's not only here to document the trip he's here to gain New Perspectives to navigate the

1:43 proverbial road ahead same with Dr Troy noi who is Eric Zack and I's dentist or at least he was Troy has a 20-year Endeavor that has just come to a close 12 hours ago signed via starlink and his path forward is [Music] Uncharted Ryan Erikson returns as the team mechanic and navigator for his

2:07 sixth adventure with X Overland and he has expressed that life needs a little tightening up and needs to ponder Dr John suberg returns as well for his third Expedition and second trip to Africa with EXO and life is rolling pretty well for Doc he's here to pursue reflection during his life's midpoint

2:30 my name is Klay Croft and I'm the voice behind the series and I have a lot of big and exciting things in the works in life but I need to assess the cost we'll shoot that right off the so does my longtime friend and firsttime Expedition member Zack johanneson his lifelong passion for film

2:47 making means his skills are next level but his lifelong career's future is in question we as friends are here to listen joining the crew for the first week is Christoff eer he is our South African fixer and now dear friend Kristoff is a couple years into a big move and his wisdom will be critical to

3:08 our experience on where to go in life and in Africa this dream team is ready to buckle down and get after it it's time to put man and machine into four-wheel drive and tackle the unknown X overland's return to Africa special is proudly presented by General Ty wherever you go General Ty

3:34 delivers and sponsored by Mobile One For the Love of driving and Expedition apparel has been supplied by vertex in season 6 of xoverland we explored across southern

3:59 Africa we journeyed through the okavango delta in Botswana we overcame the vast deserts of Namibia and discovered the incredible coast of South Africa I left knowing there was more to see and do much more and I knew my time in southern Africa was

4:24 unfinished upon getting home a new vision and fresh crew took shape the idea is to take take seven guys load up our three trucks and embark on an epic adventure to look at our lives in Greater detail so I invited the guys up to the ex Overland Ranch to meet [Music] up all of these guys know me but they

4:46 don't all know each other so I thought it'd be great to talk about the trip and do some training as a team just in general get to know each other Richard is overlanding across Morocco and has sent his Blessing for the rest of us to dive in he will catch up with us in South Africa

5:02 dude I want to hear about the trip we are working on this this plan through discussion our plans start with departure from Johannesburg where our trucks are currently being repaired and upfitted from the last adventure from joerg will'll Venture North through Krueger National Park in side quest

5:22 through a completely wild reserved called mcoa from there we plan to head south through eswatini before traveling to the little known in isolated country of lutu where we'll encounter the cliff Edge roads cut through the highest mountains of southern Africa this is true adventure this is

5:41 real stuff this is there's people danger there's animal danger There's real logistic navigation hurdles there's medical hurdles and challenges and dangers there you know malaria and en sephtis and um chicken Goya and Denay fever and things so we've got to be sure we take precautions and treat our

6:03 clothes and we'll take our malaria prophylaxis and try to avoid the mosquitoes as best as we can everybody feel good about what we got going right now any major glaring questions no all right uh tomorrow we'll do our training and then we'll see each other the next time we all see each other we'll be in

6:27 Africa hey classes in session yes sir want to thank you all for being here today to have some discussions and exercises about something that's really important mean we are about to go into an area of the world where uh we could be on our own and not really have much medical support

6:46 and you know there's a chance that somebody could get injured or sick and comboy rolling all right here we go the most dangerous thing we'll do in Africa is drive so getting a training session in on Convoy driving is key especially for some of our new crew members when you are surrounded by

7:05 people who are very competent in their discipline sometimes it's easy to become a little bit complacent and stay in your own lane but it's really important that we all are able to overlap a little bit so that if somebody gets sick or taken out of the equation somebody else can step

7:22 in so we're going to practice the E7 maneuver so what it is is we have three cars three trucks in Convoy that needs to reverse order immediately prepare for an E7 execute we're going to go right like this go to reverse back up and now P3 is P1 P1 you are now calling the

7:47 shot I really care about this because if something happens to me I mean you guys will be caring for me and I want everybody to be spot on [Music] those of us that like to hunt and fish and Offroad and travel internationally um you may be all that there is for you or your family so and I would let any of you

8:12 take care of me my sincere hope for this trip well there's two things I have hopes for them and that this period of time will help set trajectories for the rest of their life but I also have a selfish reason I want

8:38 the same thing man it's just a this is a new mix of guys and uh we're all kind of at the same period in our life and uh you know trying to figure out what's next and I'm looking forward to some of the conversations in the truck and around the campfire when you spend 28 days no further than this you're

8:58 sleeping this far from somebody you're going to truck this far from somebody we're going to be forced into those conversations like we just have nothing but time there's the aspect of just seeing a whole new part of the world the scenery and landscape and just the beauty that comes with then there's the

9:15 aspect of being in a new country um uh meeting new people and getting ourselves into precarious situations that's just sounds fun I find myself struggling sometimes because I am am very blessed to have the job that I have and I get the opportunity to be able to do trips like this but I also have to leave my family

9:41 and I really like sharing this kind of thing with them so that that can be a little bit of a challenge I've been an ER doctor for 15 years I teach at the University I've been teaching some Wilderness medicine classes and working for a law firm really enjoy writing and uh I just I enjoy it all so much I've

9:59 taken on so much in the last couple of years that I've kind of run out of free time and I just need to choose which of these paths am I going to go down I can't keep doing them all even though I like them so I'm going to figure that out in Africa since I was 12 um I've had to be the man of my

10:17 house didn't have a dad growing up and uh had a had a really hard childhood and so I missed out on being adventurous went right into college first one to get a degree I went right into dental school first one to become a doctor own a business and life caught up to me and I've never had the

10:40 chance to pursue something crazy and the thought of being in Africa is it's energizing I've spent the last 15 years traveling the world looking for the wildest places and the craziest experiences and through all that I've realized time and time again the greatest Mysteries and Adventures are

11:04 found when you look inward to do so on this trip we will need to navigate our past triangulate our present positions and hopefully chart a course for our futures it all starts right now with our first night in Africa just outside the border of Krueger National Park

11:32 [Music] [Applause] the adventures already kicked off big time we had our first night we headed to Krueger tonight to uh put ourselves into a position to tackle makuya I think is what it's called it's going to take us two solid big days of travel to make our way through this nature conservancy that

11:58 Kristoff has uh the rights to be able to take us through kind of like a guide privilege and it's going to be intense I think uh so yeah Adventures already kicked off big [Music] time we're packing [Music] up the trucks have been stored in

12:23 Johannesburg for over 6 months waiting for us to begin this trip and the great team at Mega World 4x4 ensure that they were Mission ready for this next leg got Raven out today Kristoff leads the way in a 2023 Toyota Hilux that is on loan from aluc cap it has the allnew mod cap camper on it and this is a

12:46 prototype test run so it needs to be returned in one piece and it looks good next up is oan our 2022 Tundra Ryan will be Manning the passenger seat as Navigator in this proven rig it was pretty hard through there I didn't have any uh any wheel slip at all so you should be good Simba our 2023 Sequoia

13:06 pulls our fuel trailer with the powerful I force Max engine lastly our 2020 Tacoma is our mobile production vehicle packed with entirely too much camera gear as per usual yeah you get this Sandy bit where you have to put a bit of momentum and then you've got to keep we're finally on our way and with

13:27 Camp still in sight we've got a problem whoo he's spinning it could be a Max trucks question Kristoff there's a little track to the left of that Pokey Bush it looks a lot rockier there I don't know if it makes sense like right where Zach is standing reset here and then I'm going

13:53 to try the left line sorry Al you chance Another [Music] Day

14:25 always it took a bit but we're on our way now to crew National Park a 7,500 M expans of bush it's not only enormous it's one of the best places in the world to get up close and personal with Africa's Big Five it's our first long day on the trucks and we have recognized that jet leg affects people

14:48 in different ways have we're so childish

15:23 dude we're staying in the game okay so in the Krueger National Park gift shop Richardson decided he wanted to buy a slingshot so he bought a slingshot Dr John decided he wanted to buy an apron he bought an apron I I think he's got a something planned okay I decided to buy

15:49 a four kids what I see sticker you paid money for that I had borrowed money 50 Rand borrowed it's a Canadian way of saying it did you borrow it okay I borrowed okay oh yeah you can hear him did you hear that what no oh dude I just talked to that thing oh here it comes heads up oh

16:15 snap that is a weird sound it was kind of weird dude you scared him off of course elephant 12:00 ell check it out oh hey that is awesome and a ton of them

16:41 and a ton of them bizarre I can't even Zoom dang oo holy no way wow hey if one of those that is awesome baby never seen I've seen in one other time there in Namibia that had that many that is a all those babies are cute what that

17:09 must be like 30 elephants wow that we've seen big daddies at the back there that's crazy that was awesome that was cool yeah that was a lot of them that was hit me right here we got it boom 30 we should go put a lot of little dots

17:35 [Music] there it only took 24 hours for Africa to leave us speechless and we're ready to set up camp and get some food cooking with the sun just behind the Horizon we have finally made it to teny Camp a camp

18:01 located directly in the middle of Krueger National Park we're also glad to see that there's an 8T High electric fence running the perimeter right up to my chest right here keep coming looking good looking

18:26 good looking good keep on coming as we're setting up camp we have found ourselves in that classic part of the in trip where you're trying to figure out where we packed everything and who is responsible for [Music] what but our Dr Duo of Camp Cooks do seem to know exactly what to do mostly

18:49 they need a lesson from our guide Kristoff on how to BR and that's spelled b r a a i Bri traditional method of cooking over the fire a few years ago Kristoff quit his corporate Tech job so he could spend more days out in the bush and leave the corporate stress behind hey you better

19:08 get some gloves on those soft hands you know my hands are pretty soft it's the profession now he's a full-time overlanding guide and has an awesome YouTube channel we're lucky to have him for the first week of our trip while we get our bearings [Music] feels really good to be moving again

19:32 today was really special to be out traveling with the guys and to see the animals that we saw already is spectacular uh yeah it feels good to be back in Africa this when we left it was we told to us that Africa gets in your blood you're going to want to come back and that's 100% true so

19:59 here we are back and it's just like oh feels so good so great day great day with the guys here Brian couldn't be better who's Brian like that's Z that's what we just said Brian who's Zach Bri who's Brian there's not a Brian here

20:25 [Music] I I think it's you're going to have a great time it's as simple as that getting together with friends you don't have to have the best of everything but you know be equipped safety wise for what's relevant of what you're doing but don't let all the kit all that stop you just get out there um you know when the

20:51 going gets tough that really brings out the friendship I think it's it's so go out there you know put yourself outside of your comfort zone because that's really the only place where you grow cool okay there you are take out of the way [Music]

21:19 smells to those of you here the first time welcome to Africa and to those of you back welcome back sorry not sorry sorry not cheers good to be back thank you welcome I am descendant of Rolo though so I'm celebrating my Barbarian yeah there you go Heritage so

22:05 [Music] I mean one thing I'm uh pretty nervous about is I haven't had the time to dedicate to go over the route yet I've never been to South Africa before I've never been to any of these places and I know that every country is different the one one thing I've learned is that you

22:30 can't count on [Applause] anything we're getting faster at Camp already today was a low Cals morning where you don't get to chat much and it slows you down but the guys did great was fast was it l Tundra front back seat

22:55 there no it was in back here I don't think it'll survive today oh yeah probably not's Up's up s's up and [Music] roll all right gentlemen not a bad start for our first real morning we did leave 20 minutes late um so we got some tightening up to do no hard feelings or anything it's

23:23 just good uh we'll get faster and faster every day we have a big day ahead and have opted for an early start we've got miles to cover and hopefully nothing gets in our way unless of course it's the things we are here to see the last trip that we were on we never encountered anything of this scale

23:50 animals moving to this water hole we had probably a 100 Cape buffalo walked down to the water there's even more more right now then we got a bunch of zebras passing in front of us right here wilderbeast mixed in and it's happening right in front of [Music] us two hours into the day and we have

24:16 already found ourselves caring a whole lot less about the schedule something kind of new for most of us [Music] dude that's a freaking [Music] [Music]

24:47 monster Bingo yeah this is a pretty good day in life guys pretty good day in life and the chart is filling up quickly fing it I wasn't expecting to see anything today so I know [Music] we're on our Final Approach To The mccoa Reserve and the thermometers in our rigs have been climbing all day it's well

25:10 into the 9s now and humid I agree after some additional animal sightings and a couple of gas stations and a pile of paperwork we have finally made it to the secret entrance to the mcal reserve this is the Mia Nature Reserve boundary and this is the m gate on the other side is a Nature Reserve it's fenceless uh with

25:32 uh the Krueger national park though so um the only thing separating the krer National Park is the lau River we may have to make some Lim risers to he to he think so let's get some scratches on some trucks start your engines this could get quite exciting we have a long ways to go and even just getting into the gate the

25:56 brush is so tight especially for these big trucks this could be a lot of work and because of Kristoff's guide concession we have all 40,000 acres to [Music]

26:21 ourselves when I was signing that book back there the last vehicle that was through here was April of 23 and right now it is April of 24 it's been a full year yeah that's why it's so overgrown this is do we have a chainsaw uh I don't know it feels amazing to be back on TW TR

26:47 Kristoff estimates that it will take two full days to travel the estimated 60 km and just a few hundred yards in we all agree [Music] we 550 M away from the yeah this is completely well same as

27:14 you I I had no idea what we were I had no idea what we were getting into but definitely was not expecting this m whatever I thought it was going to be I I think I was still thinking more like wide openen desert Landscapes ran what this is not that same initially cut for much narrower

27:40 African vehicles our wide American rigs are pushing the edges of the Bush couple that with the fact that it's incredibly overground and you find yourself pushing down brush on every corner putting the CBI front bumpers to New Uses [Music] oh we just I mean the trail is so narrow it just it's impossible to

28:06 stay in between the trees and we look down our antenna's broken off and it can be really hard on these things to transmit when there's uh no antenna so we got to figure out how to fix this and we can't put on the long one cuz it's just too too narrow so that wasn't even a real antenna it was a stubby it's a stubby I

28:26 mean the branches are just [Music] tight let's put your normal antenna back on do we want some 550 cord lizers on there to protect that in the future we should let's put some limers on the this one cuz we got to go back to a real antenna this Trail is incredibly tight it's even tighter than Kristoff

28:51 remembered from the last time he was in here just had a real big growth season it's just scrap in down the sides of the trucks and it's really thick heavy thorny brush so these trucks are just it's what they're for though get used so we're putting some lizers on trying to mitigate some more problems in

29:12 the future we're also going to put some of these on seed Nets uh we're driving through a lot tall grass and these come off and they pop all these little as your grill goes over them it pops in and fills in your radiator and pretty soon your radiator is not doing its job we're going to put

29:32 those on see if that helps too I just took this one to anyone else sweating more than usual cool that that'll help I was on the trans Amer trail with Richard stopping at every coffee rooster

29:57 between the east coast in Montana and I had to try avocado toast to see what all the rage was about and I discovered it was overpriced I don't want you dripping sweat on my tomato my guy my guy right here

30:24 [Applause] what I'm digging about this already is how fast we got into some pretty cool trails Big Adventure right off the bat and it's high contrast for from our last trip where it was days it felt like I mean it was 11 days before we even got on the road this one we like been thrown

30:50 straight into it John are you driving Simba sorry I had both hands on the wheel and was really thinking about what I was doing here which there really wasn't a whole lot of on the other trip I mean I gu I guess there were a few sections that were pretty difficult but oh man oh sorry that was a branch on the

31:17 paint we'll just poke our way to camp tonight I look forward to getting set up and being out here in the middle of nowhere with the trucks with the guys pretty cool [Music] we're now deep in the African bush and closing in on our camp these river banks are crocodile infested and it's the only

31:37 thing that sits between us and the Krueger National Park [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

32:11 [Music] [Applause] so once you're done there there's a little section here where it's also quite steeper then comes around the corner camps right at the bottom here be 500 me away from it

32:36 yeah and this is Camp albeit a little overgrown at the moment a truly special Campsite in fact legendary may be the right word it has been a mountain of work to get here but it's already worth it the guys are jelling the trucks are thriving and the sightings of Africa's beasts are

32:58 stacking up it's all the perfect recipe to help us tackle our own Beast of sorts the ones Within

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34:35 far through the [Music] mountain Whispers of [Music] night Beyond The V sea May