Overlanding

Typically, but not exclusively, it is accomplished with mechanized off-road capable transport (from bicycles to trucks) where the principal form of lodging is camping, often lasting for extended lengths of time (months to years) and spanning international boundaries.

[2] In Australia, overlanding was inspired to a large degree by Len Beadell who, in the 1940s and 1950s, constructed many of the roads that opened up the Australian Outback to colonizers.

In the early 1920s, John Weston and family travelled from Britain to Greece and back in a converted US built Commerce one ton truck with a Continental N engine.

At the time, the Weston family was based in Europe but returned to South Africa, their homeland, in 1924, taking the vehicle with them.

In 1975, following renovation, it featured in the International Veteran and Vintage Car Rally from Durban to Cape Town and was then donated to the Winterton Museum, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, where it can be seen today.

[8][non-primary source needed] Overlanding has increased in recent history, and is getting ever more popular in large part influenced by the Camel Trophy event run from 1980 to 2000 with routes crossing some intensely difficult terrain.

[15] From the mid-1950s to the late 1970s, this route gained popularity among the hippie culture and adventurers who sought to explore these regions affordably while interacting with locals.

route covers more than 10,000 km (6,200 miles) and currently usually follows the Nile River through Egypt and Sudan, continuing to Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia along the way.

[19] The route started in the 1970s and became popular with small companies using old Bedford four-wheel-drive trucks carrying about 24 people each, plus many independents, normally run by groups of friends in 4x4 Land Rovers heading out of London from November to March every year.

The usual route was from Morocco to Algeria with a Sahara desert crossing into Niger in West Africa, continuing to Nigeria.

This was followed by a month-long journey likened to Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" through the forests of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), surfacing into the relatively modern world in Kenya via Uganda.

As more tourists look for adventure trips that fit into their annual holiday, shorter sections of overland routes have become available such as two- to three-week round trip from Nairobi taking in Kenya and Uganda and the very popular Cape Town to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe (travelling through the highlights of Namibia and Botswana).

Backpackers discovered it in the 1970s and 1980s, with hippies searching for spiritual peace who departed to Jerusalem from Istanbul instead of going to India via Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.