There’s something to “overlanding.”
Defined as traveling by driving over land, it also refers to the culture of living out of a vehicle. I’m figuring out why it’s so enjoyable for us.
Wikipedia: self-reliant overland travel to remote destinations where the journey is the principal goal. 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.
I have also been reflecting on how many overwhelmingly beautiful landscapes we have seen. Just thinking about our beautiful Oregon or the National Parks we zipped through on our way down. It wasn’t enough time to let it soak in, but we were trying to escape the cold. Well, we arrived in Los Coyotes, Bahia Concepcion last night and the setting is just surreal.
White sand ✔️
Calm, clear water ✔️
Perfect 75F temperature ✔️
Steep cactus filled hillsides ✔️
Islands in the distance ✔️
Mountain tops in the distance ✔️
Snorkeling ✔️
Stingrays, jellyfish, pelicans, fishing ✔️
“God this is beautiful.”-Todd said 10 mins after we configured parking Lola to make the best shade and access to our sliver of beach.
Just how much more beautiful can it get?? The Baja Peninsula is a top tourist destination for a reason (the amount of campers on this beach is nuts).
The amount of spots worth experiencing on this peninsula is just incredible. The further south we drive the more amiable the climate gets. One could literally sleep on a hammock and wear shorts and T-shirt year round. (We are here during the most pleasant months and sadly Baja does get hit with devastating hurricanes quite frequently.)
This is my personal favorite benefit of overlanding- having to experience the change in the environment. To understand how you get from industrial border town to seemingly barren desert and then to palm tree fringed white sand beaches.
So much of the time I get excited about traveling because of one photo I saw that evoked an idea of curiosity, peacefulness, or awe. But when we travel with Lola you have to experience everything along the way. The upsetting trash dumping grounds on the edge of town and the dusty gray mining towns as well. It just makes me appreciate the incredible possibilities on our earth. It’s astounding that our earth is so beautiful. It can be so pristine. It can be so perfect it is unbelievable.
More on the unsustainability of tourism in Baja in a future post…
And how do we teach our children to communicate with others to preserve our earth’s resources and delicate ecological balance? We have been given such an incredible gift. It can be so perfect it is unbelievable.