We Out.

So it looks like the kinja-verse is being killed off for real this time. Before it goes, I just wanted to make a last post.

(I’ll share it to rufant.com for prosperity)

I discovered Overland.kinja after a HHFP post got shared to the front page of Jalopnik. I haven’t frequented Jalopnik in a long time, but that post led me to a small community that continues to this day.
I read Pat’s post and thought ‘that’s what I do’ . So I wrote my first trip report on my latest adventure at the time. He liked it, made me an O&E author, and that was how I got involved.

Being part of that page definitely drove me to bigger and better adventures. It attracted people who went about things, and with a similar attitude to myself. A focus on unsupported remote area travel, as opposed to being part of a scene or club.
I honed my set up, seeing what others had done. To the point we could go anywhere, off grid for many days at a time, quite comfortably. Which is pretty cool when you stop and think about it.

This place made me realise the importance of documenting these adventures. You just forget the details otherwise. Its a real joy to look back on these diaries, and relive the adventure a few months or years later. If other people enjoy reading it too, bonus.

This place has been pretty quiet the last few years. Real life has a payback to big escapades. However there was a time when new posts were coming thick and fast, and several of us were planning, and executed, really big thinking adventures and expeditions. Which is also pretty cool, as we are all just blokes with ‘normal’ lives, no trust funds here.

Mostly though it’s all the great people who posted, and the friendships I made here. Of course we have other ways to stay in contact, and who knows what is next? Till then…

Cheers,

 

Anthony

ps; some photos from my adventures that happened during the time of O&E.

 

 


I’ve copied and pasted the final comments for prosperity:

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Here are the copy/pasting of the others guys final posts…

 

What do?

 

hammerheadfistpunch
HammerheadFistpunch

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Filed to:THIS IS THE END
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Illustration for article titled What do?
Photo: hhfp

I leave the place for ONE weekend and it gets taken away…smh. Seriously though, this is a real bummer and I am sad to even have to contemplate the death of this place. It’s been a fun place, but more than that I’ve met and made some great real friends on here, and it’s given me a voice to share the things and places I hold dear. I’m going to miss that.

I’m not really sure what the future holds. I don’t program and so I can’t throw the kind of resources that others are into “project Moses” for relocating oppositelock. I’m hoping that maybe we can piggyback there for a while…wherever there ends up…until we figure something out.

I know Bloody is working on archiving the posts here, and bless him forever for that.

In the short term, I want to hand out my personal email so that if you want to stay in touch, and I don’t already have your information. I would like to stay in touch with so many of you.

Spokemaster82 on gmail.

It’s not a solution but if I can at least get your information I can keep everyone apprised of solutions as they arise.

The thing I’m glad about is that, as I’ve said before, I’ve already made meaningful connections with so many of you that this won’t be a goodbye at all, merely a relocation. Please reach out to that address so we can stay in touch. Thank you for all you’ve done for me and for this place. You’ve been the best part of the internet.

HHFP

p.s. I don’t have details on when and how this will all end, or what tools the overlords will be providing for migration, I will try and keep you informed.

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  • TimHammerheadFistpunch

    11/10/20 2:20pm

    Cheers to the good old days. I hated my job, but I loved logging in and chatting and bsing with everyone. Come on over to DriveTribe and although it’s a shitshow feel free to swamp the Dirt Sunrise DT page with posts.
    The site is not user friendly, but hopefully it’s a safe place to put posts for a while.

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  • HuzerHammerheadFistpunch

    11/10/20 2:52pm

    I wish I was a programmer. I have a zombie pbpbb automotive forum site that I own. Problem with forums is that they’re forums and not *makes arm waving gesture* all of this.

    While not a true rover of the earth, I definitely have enjoyed reading what’s been out down here.

Well, Crap.

 

mtdrift
mtdrift

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Illustration for article titled Well, Crap.
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Quite a year, eh, compadres?

It’s just all so exhausting.

So in spite of the world’s bullshit, it’s helpful to remember that there are good things and good people out there. The far flung bunch of good people that have contributed to O&E over the years have always been a good thing for me.

Remember when Rufant mailed us his All 4 Adventure DVDs from frickin’ Australia, and we successfully passed them around all over North America, and got them safely back to Adelaide a year later?

I think that’s a pretty good indication of the kinds of folks that make up this little community.

I’ve learned a lot from you guys. It was this group that inspired me and Julie to really, seriously take adventures that we only previously went on in our heads, and turn them into reality.

I honestly don’t think I would have had the confidence to drive a creaky old Land Rover across two-thirds of Africa without the knowledge and inspiration I sponged up from O&E. It didn’t hurt that the writing, photography, and video were always top-notch.

And look at us now! As a collective, we’ve done some pretty impressive shit out there – both in our backyards and in remote corners of the globe. But, I think we’ve done it without losing the plot, without forgetting why we do this, without becoming raging assholes online.

It’s pretty awesome, if you ask me.

Illustration for article titled Well, Crap.
Image: ME

So, I guess back to the exhausting part. I agree with Pat that we shouldn’t give up staying in touch, give up writing blogs, give up on sharing our adventures. I think maybe with some dim light emerging at the end of a very long and dark tunnel, and the possibility of getting back on the road again starting to feel like less of a pipe dream, we’ll all have more stories to share soon.

It feels exhausting to have to log on to yet another online platform, to start over when we’ve done so much here over the years, but I think it’s worth it, whether that’s DriveTribe, or some other solution. Maybe a change of scenery will actually inspire us to get on the content train again?

So, get on HHFP’s email list!

And, of course, feel free to reach out to me anytime – on the Instas, on our blog, the Twitters, or just an email. Even if it’s just to shoot the shit, a little human outreach does us all well in these times: anthromt  @ gmail

This song leapt from the recesses of my brain last night as I was doing the dishes and thinking about the fate of O&E. Nothing like a little L.A./Irish post-punk ballad for moments like this. It is, admittedly, a little maudlin, but the sentiment is nice.

We will definitely “be here when it all gets weird.”

Good luck friends! I’ll leave you with a snowy shot of the Defender at our friends’ cabin on Ninemile Creek just outside of Huson, Montana. Dreaming up the next adventure, out there, and online.

– Steve

Illustration for article titled Well, Crap.
Image: ME

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    • mtdriftHammerheadFistpunch

      11/11/20 4:33pm

      Thank YOU for keeping the lights on around here. We couldn’t have done any of this without your labor and commitment. Seriously.

      The Emperor is dead! Long live the Emperor!

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    • mtdriftRufant

      11/11/20 3:54pm

      Thanks A., doing ok – lots of upheaval here, ups and downs, but muddling through as best we can. It’ll be nice to get re-centered some day, and be able to make some concrete plans for the future. It all just feels like a holding pattern right now, just one Groundhog Day after another.

      So, and I think you’ll understand this particularly, a cheap-ass mountain bike totally saved me this summer. I should really write something about it – back in July I just felt beaten down and depressed, and I was drinking too much, and a friend of mine said “didn’t you used to ride bikes a lot? Why not get back into that?”

      I bought a $300 FS mountain bike off Facebook (2005 K2 Razorback), rebuilt the shock and the fork, replaced the chain, took it to my local shop for a thorough tune, and hit the trails. It helps that Missoula has world-class mountain biking just a few minutes from my home. I’ve been riding every. single. day. up until now – winter has truly set in here.

      But the bike, even in its old-school 26″, 27 speed configuration, is a sweetheart – well cared for, hardly a ding or a dent, lightweight, XT and XTR components. It was a $2000 bicycle brand new back in the day, and it still feels like it. It fits me like a glove. It’s exactly what I needed, and it brought back some normalcy and some discipline into my life, not to mention physical and mental health.

      I’m going to have to figure out something else for the winter, though…

      I hope you and N. and the doggos are well. One of these days we’ll meet up for real.

      PS: I’ve been listening to this podcast a lot lately, and the eight-part series on the Burke and Wills Australia expedition is very, very well done.

      https://explorerspodcast.com/burke-and-wills-expedition/

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    • Rufantmtdrift

      11/12/20 4:57am

      Yeah I’m sure the US has been a pretty unsettling place to live since you came back. Especially for a thoughtful chap like yourself. It was upsetting and draining to watch from afar, let alone being there.

      I’m glad you found relief in the simple pleasures of a bicycle. Like many things, great to rediscover that passion again later in life. That bike looks sweet. I’d like to rebuild a couple my old 26 inch wheeled bikes.

      I rode my bike all through winter here. Getting ready for the bikepacking exp. Doubling up on the gloves makes a big difference, but our winters aren’t like your winters….

      We are all good here. Enjoying some aspects of ‘normal’ life with no big plans on the horizon (because why would you plan an overseas trip now?) so just making the most of the current situation. Plus getting another job at 40+ wasn’t plain sailing, so just thinking about what I’m doing for ‘career’ (whatever that is) is on my mind a bit.

      Thanks for the podcast recommendation. I’m big into podcasts, and love the early Australian explorers. B&W is an amazing tale of British pomposity, and what became Aussie grit. I’ll check it out for sure.

      Cheers

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    • mtdriftBloody, the resident shitposting Saffa.

      11/11/20 3:27pm

      Likewise, sir. And, thank you for doing this – I think it’s a great service, and a ton of work. A couple of years ago, when the local corporate newspaper in Missoula bought out the free independent weekly, they literally deleted everything ever published by the indy from the online public domain. 25 years of journalism – poof – just gone. There’s a paper archive at the local library, but that’s it.

      It’s mind-boggling to think about the many, many terabytes of essentially free creative energy poured into the Kinja platform since, what, 2007? I can’t even remember now. And, again – poof – it’s all just going to vanish.

      But we won’t! P. O. R.

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