Overland Expedition Show

[SteveS]

I'm going to change my plans and go on the Sunday - there are some speakers that I want to see that day

 

[dyladams]

Evening all.

So has anyone been to the show? Any report backs?

And is anyone going tomorrow?

 

[Chas]

I spent this morning at the Overland Show at Olympia, not much good, just a huge hall full of cubicles about 6ft x 6ft square with overland companies advertising their wares, picked up a load of brochures and a few free pens though, I only saw a couple of stands with anything to do with 4x4 stuff.

 

[StarCruiser]

Sounds like Adventure Overland was better Chas?

 

[Chas]

Sounds like Adventure Overland was better Chas?

Oh yes it was.

 

[GeekOKent]

We were there this morning. Its basically a tour operators show. The sort of travel agencies who do something beyond just hotel and flight destinations. Certainly no overland show even though there are a few escorted type overlanding'ish operators as well.

Since we were there with little ones, all the exibitors were trying to sell us £4k+ custom trips. Wtf.

Regards.

 

[MarkW]

are the tour operators not offering overland holidays? when I looked most of the advertised exhibitors were offering those types of holiday so I decided it wasn't for me although a lot of the seminars would have been interesting

Did anyone catch Chris Scotts talk?

 

[SteveS]

are the tour operators not offering overland holidays? when I looked most of the advertised exhibitors were offering those types of holiday so I decided it wasn't for me although a lot of the seminars would have been interesting

Did anyone catch Chris Scotts talk?

I saw both Lois Pryce's and Chris Scott's talks. Of course they each only have limited time - Lois' talk was pretty good, humorous and plenty of stories. Chris Scott was pushed for time and was basically flogging his new motorcycle book - it was a bit dry but covered the basics for anyone who was at planning stage 0....no value for me. He did however only mention two vehicles - Land Rover (weaknesses) and Land Cruiser (the one to use). Talk was OK but not inspiring like Lois' in my view. Whilst it was mainly tour operators at the show I found it useful to bounce around some ideas - for example, for us talking to the Australian tourist board was useful, the diving outfit in Bali, the guys taking people onto Antarctica (we have an interest), the satellite phone suppliers (we will be buying one soon, and picking the brains of various groups around Africa, making some contacts with self-help groups. Getting to Olympia was bloody painful as the trains were all affected by engineering works.....so were rerouted or busses.

There were a lot of small outfits who have a couple of 4x4s or a few experts in a particular area flogging their expertise in essence - ranged from South America, Africa, Asia, Russia and Far East - all forms of vehicle including backpacking

It was called the Adventure Travel Show......not overland explicitly.....although that was obviously an element

For us £10 well spent

 

[Chas]

Well at least someone got something from it, I didn't go to any of the lectures as I didn't know any of the names on the list. I did say hello to Austin Vince who I've met before but I hadn't seen his name or I would have gone to that one.

 

[SteveS]

Well at least someone got something from it, I didn't go to any of the lectures as I didn't know any of the names on the list. I did say hello to Austin Vince who I've met before but I hadn't seen his name or I would have gone to that one.

We know Lois Pryce because she is a contributing editor in the Overland Journal...given that she has ridden solo for 10 years as a single woman I thought she might have some insight for my girlfriend who will be travelling with me on our world tour......the thing that made us both chuckle was Lois' advice to pick your travelling companions carefully