we are out here in rainy Grabouw in the western cape and i've got my second
guest on the overland inspiration show Juba from Jubas journeys and we're gonna
be having a deep dive into his land rover defender 110 this thing is awesome
you do not want to miss this welcome to a special episode of roam
over landing called Overland inspiration I take time to sit down with Overlanders
and outdoor enthusiasts who inspire me and I hope that sharing their stories
with you will give you ideas for your own vehicle
build will give you the courage to head out to somewhere special on your next
adventure
on this episode we get to take a look at a classic Land Rover Defender 110 with a
couple of special tricks up its sleeve and see what its new owner juba has been
up to over the past couple of years by the looks of it this defender has seen
more of the world than most and I'm sure it still has many more epic Overland
trips in it so we decided to brave a rainy day out on the trail see the
defender in its natural environment
it really started to pour down so we figured it was time to stop for the day
set up this beast of a rig and dig into Jubas journey but not before some hot
coffee
first things first jube has just been on a seven-month journey around southern
Africa so there's gonna be a lot to unpack that questions that I have how
you've managed to do this why you've done this and I mean that's a big move
that's a really big move it's a big inspirational move I remember seeing one
of the first videos you made where you kind of announce that you guys were
quitting your jobs and you I mean you'd already committed to the trip by then
so tell me a little bit about what went into are you thinking what kind of head
space were you in what was happening in your life that made you decide shit I
have to I have to do this I have to do this I think it's a little bit of
everything so the initial plan was to take an
entire year off my wife and I just to spend time for ourselves and then we
kind of split the year up into two Sigma or three segments the one being this
overland trip in Africa and then some time with friends and family and some
time abroad that means you get to really enjoy your time in places you do not
like Jan jumping from place to place everyday to squeeze it into a two week
time frame you if you like a place and you're like cool it's been four days
yeah you know what was the longest time you've spent in one place I think the
longest time was was about five nights in one place but then again also we
spent a month in the Kalahari alone and a month in the Kruger alone so the
objective in the beginning was to spend as much time in wildlife parks filming
wildlife and so that's how the tour was kind of structured we booked pockets in
parks and then the stretches in between was unplanned okay and then obviously so
you kind of had a point to get to yes yeah except for yeah except for when we
left Namibia and went into Zambia Malawi we we had no plans because that was not
directed at being in wildlife it was a little bit more
going to experience cultures and different countries with South longer
and Zambia being the wildlife component your setup is so simple and it's really
like your house on wheels I mean you out of the elements you out
of everything this is such a special setup let's let's maybe talk about a
little bit because I mean how did you find this vehicle so when I when I
started searching for a vehicle I've kind of always had this idea in my head
that it would be great doing it in the defender but initially the defender
wasn't the goal was the ultimate goal but I would have settled for something
else so I spent a good four or five months just searching for vehicles and I
wouldn't go and look at a vehicle if I weren't hundred percent sure and this
was the first vehicle I waited market and yeah after the first day it was also
from the previous owner it was there was kind of an interview process you know he
didn't want to sell the vehicle to someone who's just gonna drive it and
resell it again so you kind of had to fit a certain profile before you would
let go of the vehicle yeah yeah I think that's cool but I mean I mean
considering that you've bought this thing done up I mean you you could
essentially drive it from there and go straight on your trip or did you have to
do a little bit of work on it and make some modifications or some changes I
could I see if you drive it from this straight the only thing that I did is I
installed a bigger second battery and the solar system and I read it some of
the wiring okay yeah that's I mean that's lucky that's really lucky because
look for me personally my favorite thing is the build it like I mean I I'm just
I'm such a geek when it comes that I'm sitting there online and I want this
thing and what that thing and we can do this thing and they'll do that and I
love that transformation process but I mean for you you more about getting out
into the bush and being living and experiencing you know being out there is
you're not so really I mean the build stuff is it doesn't really faze you too
much or yeah look if I bought a vehicle that wasn't as key to
disease I would have built a lot of things myself would you have had fun
with it I definitely would I mean I enjoy working little things little thing
that can make things comfortable for you the hoop here something there a ratchet
that do you have any plans for cooler going forward do you have any things you
want to work on or after I've got minor things like changing the category system
on the rear door small small things like that but the inside I mean it just works
oh nice this there's nothing I would really change I think the only thing
that might change is if at one stage you start having a family and I mean this is
a two seater they might look at converting it back to a four-seater but
yeah that's in the future you've had a lot of experience doing over land travel
but doing seven months is something else I want I want to know what are some
things you thought we're gonna be so important to bring with you but then you
got out there where you got to the end of your trip and you're like these
things were useless we never use them or you ended up throwing stuff out I've got
an episode coming up on that but I think it's it's difficult to say like I carry
two spare wheels the entire trip and I didn't use one of them but that's
something I would carry with me again so I think a lot of my recovery gear I
didn't use and that's that's a good thing
but generally there was almost nothing that I didn't use
except for my fishing rod right I had this ambition and I thought I was gonna
sit next to a river somewhere and I'm gonna fish a bit but I just never got to
it so I mean that's pretty impressive because austell I go away for a weekend
and they stuff where I'm like why the hell did I bring this like I get so I
but I think that's the geeky thing about me is that coming home and need this
thing I'm gonna have to do luck what if I get stuck then I've got to do this
recovery or I got to do this thing that's a plan a lot of things and I
don't have a lot of space in my car but now with you obviously having a lot of
space you've got a lot of stuff you're doing a lot of traveling now how are you
storing all your stuff because this is not a traditional kind of build
especially of Africa you know maybe more in Europe people will see a lot of
defenders in things like this but now for you how is
everything stored in here how do you access everything you know run over
you're kind of set up you're you know kind of get to camp and set up the easy
part is just popping the roof and then generally we get a fire started and our
setup and on the inside is you are a central like a little passage of you'd
court you have a bench and you have the the fridge and then you've got cupboards
so we basically in this distort of the trip we kind of divided our cupboards up
into rather have our food we've got some spices we've got all your what we called
flour for bread all your oils all those same things so a full kitchen and then
there's a small section where we had our clothes and the rest was recovery gear
camping equipment and peg stuff like that yeah just kind of divided up among
states in order would you have preferred having an outdoor set up on your trip I
like the setup inside because then what we had outside was if you just a small
little table and chairs so and most of the time we spent outside so we also
very clean campus so we like a very minimalistic type thing outside where
you get sometimes especially in your view in a group people can just pile
stuff on tables you know just a lot of stuff but I'll set up is if things got a
fixed place and so you work out of the vehicle you've got very limited stuff
outside and especially if you're traveling long-term you must know you
you can't make a mess you know you can't leave your mace for the next day so hate
it otherwise just get every day you make sure you wash your cups you get
everything back into its place because otherwise it's yeah anything you'd add
to the space will take away not really I mean we've got two plates
in there as well we've we've only used it once or twice I could you could maybe
just do with with one little plate but then again that's pasted on top there
it's sufficient so it's not like you need to take something away to make
space for something else and I mean we got a water system so how many liters of
water do you take about 60 eaters of water 60 and you keep that all drinking
water do you just keep that river water whatever water you have you're just put
in there look.we throughout the whole trip we we kept it drinking water some
of the campsites it's got potable water so then I fill up
the tanks with that but otherwise I'd buy in bulk in the cities okay and then
I mean in others other liquids your fuel stuff like that how many liters are you
carrying with you also is this three tanks the one is a gravity feed into the
main tank and I've got a third tank underneath the driver and that I've got
a little switch with a pump that pumps back into the the main tank okay now if
it's you add wine put it 150 litres yeah that's quite a lot and this is their two
point five two point four two point force is it a spoon Marcus Wow okay
that's that's nice that's this thing's value must be climbing yeah okay so
that's not so how do you find your fuel consumption I must say throughout the
whole trip and we have reached an about seven and a half kilometers per litre
that's really not bass that's really not bad especially if you considering the
the roof rack was full yeah and but then obviously I very this isn't a charge day
yes is turbojets Wow and the worst fuel consumption was
five point five kilometers per litre and that is was in the Makua section heavy
sand because I mean I think I'm getting I'm getting 12.5 liters per hundred
that's around 8 KS per litre somewhere around me
considering what you're carrying considering where you can go and what
you can do with this vehicle that is phenomenal fuel consumption yes but you
must also take into account that you know you're not doing the two weeks trip
we rush between campsites to get to all the places you want to be so I generally
had a rule that we wouldn't do more than four hundred kilometers per day and we
try to stay at each place at least two nights unless it's really a stopover so
we were traveling very slow III I almost never went about 100 km/h so we were
just crawling away taking it very easy stopping taking pictures and I think
that that helped a lot with the few points I mean that's nice because and
that's something that I would love to try and do I just don't get enough time
to be able to travel like that but the four hundred kilometer rule is a
big thing because especially if you're stopping and forming I think it's
something that a lot of people don't understand when you when you when you
traveling content creator everything takes longer you need to plan things to
be slower but at the same time were you filming every single day or did you give
yourself a break every now and then I always made sure that the cameras were
charged and ready to go every morning I was quite religious about that being
that dropping all my footage getting it stalled in the right format and and the
next day that you could start again I think it's important if you're doing a
long trip like that and you want to fall and because as soon as you start lacking
that then you just do it the next day or do it cards fool you know you miss out
on footage battery state and miss the Lions especially especially with
wildlife you have to be ready every single second so that's also why the
lenses between Jackie and I would switch it so you'd have one with you know big
lanes on and one that you could film right here so that when you get that
moment you ready ready for action we are to dslr's two GoPros and one drone I
mean it's really it's a journey of a lifetime
it really is a journey of Allah so summing story that you'll be telling you
know people for years to come and I think you know now it's a bit of a
tricky thing now because it's what do you do next will you go from that and I
think that's something that like I wonder now also as a content creator
you've kind of like set this boom this level and obviously you've got all this
content that's gonna be coming out all of these videos that are unreleased
still I mean once you run out of that runway what's next for dubas journeys I
think for the near future it'll be adventures you know around Cape
Town in the Western Cape I mean this there's so much to do here and not
everybody can go and do an old land trip like this so I'd like to show people
what you can do maybe in a day or two days weekend adventures weekend warriors
but there's there's lots of good things that you can do but it's it's getting
out of the city getting into the bush you know when people get into over
landing or you know camping or just adventuring in general it's a it's a bug
that bites you that's so difficult to explain to people who aren't interested
in it carrying your house and everything that you need with you the whole time
there's a great sense of comfort in that knowing that you can you can stop
anywhere and you'll be fine for the evening off yeah hopefully next time we
can go and camp somewhere do some overlanding definitely yeah thank you so
much for kind of sitting down with me and you know sharing some of the
information about your trip about your vehicle and all that stuff and really
hope you guys will go through and check out more of his stuff his YouTube
channel you know this is gonna be a lot of videos coming up so it's definitely
worth hitting over there subscribing to his channel checking out what he's been
up to and yeah there any other places where people can find you on social
media I'm with the handle Juba's Journey
Instagram Facebook and YouTube if you enjoyed this episode of Overland Inspiration
please comment down below and let me know who else you'd want me to sit down
with and have a chat to but as always thank you for tuning in don't forget to
like the video and we'll see you on the next adventure