NIGEL NEWBERY/THE FIRST OVERLAND
Using the term “overlanding” seems to be fraught with controversy these days. If you do an Internet search using the term “overlanding” you will find a lot of sites, like this, where guys talk about how they’ve transformed their rigs into awesome off-roading machines, their love of exploration, the fact that they do some off-road camping, yadda, yadda, yadda.
This site is no exception. What I stated above is exactly what this site is about. My rig(s). My love of exploring with my rig. My love of remote camping with my rig and accessories.
The controversy with using the word “overlanding” comes from folks that call out site owners, like me, insisting that what we are describing is not really “overlanding”.
If you look up the word “overlanding” in Wikipedia you can read what the article’s contributors wrote on the topic. Their definition really sums up the meaning to me: “self-reliant … travel to remote destinations where the journey is the principal goal.”
Does the content of this site chronicle my intercontinental trips that last months or years at a time? No, it does not.
Do I dream of such an adventure? Do I read about epic 2-week overland tours of Iceland and think “maybe someday”? You bet I do.
Until, or if I, am ever to experience such an adventure, I will pretend that my off-road camping treks through the local state forests and US national parks are all in preparation for my ultimate cross-country or intercontinental overlanding journey that I will take at some point in my lifetime.
So there it is. Don’t come at me about my use of the word “overlanding”. If you do, I will just respond (if the comment dignifies a response) stating that my overarching interpretation of the term is “the journey is the principal goal.”
Why fight over semantics? Let’s all enjoy the journey together.