Well if you have a spare moment anyways.

What can you share about Overland Films and Expedition Americas.

I'm sure you will be providing a great ride along trip. What are your thoughts about self-drivers?

Is this going to be pure asphalt pounding?

Anything else you care to share?

Looks like it's going to be a great trip with some motivated people.


thanks.

-Jack Quinlan

Jack,

I'm not Michael, but can answer some of the questions you have about our trip to Belize. I own Overland Films (along with a couple of other Land Rover enthusiasts), and I'm working with Serious One on all aspects of the trek.

When the expedition was conceived, I based the concept on a trip undertaken by SOLAROS some years ago. I wanted very much to introduce the environmental theme to the trek because I think we need to, as a community, change some perceptions about our interest in off-highway recreation. We are all aware of the challenges facing our hobby.

Now, we're aligned to help some really interesting environmental groups that are well-known for finding a balance between conservation and commerce. Because of our dedication to the concept of responsible use and keeping public space open for recreation of all types, Overland Films is the only production company in the world that has been accepted as a media-level member in Tread Lightly!

So, the expedition...

We wanted to keep the trip within a three-week window, and set the start close to the holiday weekend to give participants more breathing room around their work schedules. It is roughly 2500 miles from the Arizona border crossing to Belize City, so we're looking at some long days of travel to get to our destination. Having taken part in a Border to Border event in 2002, I can say firsthand, that we spent 11 days getting from Tecate, Mexico to Alberta, Canada with about 65% of the miles on BLM, logging and private unimproved roads. We averaged 175 to 250 miles per day off-highway and up to 400 miles combined.

We've got some really interesting activities set up for our participants in Belize, so we have decided to keep most of the trip through Mexico on-highway to expedite our arrival. Once we arrive, everyone can take part in some of the structured events we've got lined-up, or break-off into smaller groups on their own for whatever they want to do. The Tawayama Safaris group will likely take a very interesting side trip to explore the ruins in Xunantunich and Tikal in Guatemala.

During this whole thing, my team of about five will be filming the event for two documentary projects. Through the beneficiary organization, we'll be taking to the field with park rangers, tour guides and scientists to film their work and the wildlife of Belize. There should be some amazing things to see here, and we will have a few places open to our participants each time we go out.

We will make some arrangements for camping and group hotel reservations, but everyone is effectively free to explore on their own once we're down there. So, if people are a little timid about traveling alone, they're free to stick with the "expedition team" just about as much as they want.

For the return trip, we have a different route picked out, and participants can decide to return with us or make their way back to the states at their leisure.

Definitely drop us a line if you're interested in the trip - we'll be limiting the number of vehicles to about fifteen to keep from bottle-necking at gas stations and border crossings. Excluding the organizing vehicles, seven people between three Land Rovers are signed up at present, leaving space for another ten or so.

Lots about the trip here, with regular weekly updates:

http://www.expeditionfilmpartners.com
http://www.tawayama.com


Cheers,

e

Yeah...what he said.

:D

Seriously though, I would expect the main journey thruough Mexico to be paved but when we get to Belize all bets are off.

We'll be going to areas within the parks there that may be treacherous if the weather is wet, and honestly the roads in Belize aren't what we might expect here, so who knows what we'll get into. Better to be well prepared than get stuck with all of your recovery gear in a bag sitting in your garage at home.

Since you both are around this thread, I've got an additional question:

I'm considering driving, so other than my $750 registration, food, lodging, and gas, what other expenses do you forsee on this trip?

i.e. what activities are planned or probable that will require money not covered under the registration?

I would put expenses into one of maybe 4 categories.

1. Fuel - obviously the biggest expense, look at the route, distances covered, the mileage your vehicle gets then do a search to see what the average price of gas is in Mexico. Remember to bring enough octane boost to keep your truck happy if it needs it.

2. Food - gonna be relatively inexpensive in Mexico. There are 'Sam's Cub' warehouses in the bigger resort towns (Puerto Vallarta comes to mind, even though we're not going there, they do have one).

3. Gear to get ready for trip - This can be as extensive as you want to make it.

4. Fun money - of course how much fun you can have once your'e down there depends on your budget. There are as many 'extra' activities as you can think of, not knowing exactly what you have in mind there's really no way to determine how much it'll cost. A day of reef diving will be more expensive than a day driving to town and sightseeing. I'm trying to get some group costs figured out for trips to the ruins in Belize and Guatemala.

5. Payoff money - ?????? I figure we'll run into at least one scenario where we'll end up paying off the 'locals'. It has been suggested that a cooler full of ice-cold beer, drinks and water goes a LOOOONG way when negotiating the 'payoff amount'.

As this is really my first trip into Mexico it will be a learning experience. My fee that I am charging gives me a profit cushion that hopefully will pay for my time and also take care of the punishment to the vehicles. We'll see how it all pans out in the end.

Registering as a self-drive participant does not cost anything, and really doesn't commit you to anything either. It just gives Erik and me a 'rough' idea of who is interested, their preparation level and general commitment.

Several from Pirate have e-mailed me expressing interest. Hopefully they are registering and looking at the information available on the Expedition Film Partners site.

Keep asking questions, it's why we're planning this far ahead.

i defenatly wanna go,and am guna drive down to my buddies bar in costa rica (dominical) any one be into drivein the rest of the way down??he runs a surf camp down there.