Profiles of the presenters:

Will and Amy - Caesar's Roam

Travelled 36,000km in 7 months from UK via central and Northern Asia to Thailand. Now totalling 19 countries in Caesar, our Land Rover Defender 110.

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Steven Snaith & Gilly Snaith - Overlanding Family

Steve, Gilly, Alisha and Lucy Snaith – Travelled for four year around the world to all 7 continents, through 58 countries, driving 180,000kms in a MAN truck camper.

Website overlandingfamily.com

Francesca Campbell - Robin Hood Overlanders

Francesca and Mark, we travel with our two bin-lids Henry (12) and Ruby (10). 10k miles and counting in Alice, our 1991 110 200TDi with Robin Hood Overlanders. Currently planning a 10 country expedition to The Arctic Circle.

Andy Hickson

Andy. 23,000 miles UK-Mongolia-UK with children. 1960’s Landrover FC.

Peter Middleton

Retired. Trans Africa: Cape Town – London. North and Central America. Recently 3 years exploring Southern Africa. Planning for South America. Vehicles: Defender 110, 1996 300Tdi (pictured), Defender 110 2.4 Tdci Pop up roof camper 2008 ( see below) and Defender 2.2 Tdci 90 for running around in.

Paul Crittenden - Going Overland

Paul Crittenden, 15,000 km in a Suzuki 413 from UK to Mongolia in 2007, and a 4.5 year 100,000 km true circumnavigation of the world through 5 continents in a Land Rover Defender from 2010 -14 . He also recently ‘Overlanded’ the length of mainland Britain on a pushbike! Website GoingOverland.com

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Tony Borrill

New to overlanding, and inspired by last years speakers, at the end of 2016 Tony set off from Boston to Banjul (UK, France, Spain, Morocco and the Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal & the Gambia) travelling 6400km in a Citroen Xantia. Bigger trips are now being planned in his more spacious Land Cruiser.

Haydon Smith

Travelled over a 2 year period from UK to Cape Town, Around Southern Africa, and From Walvis Bay to Dar-Es-Salaam. Retired in March of this year and now in the last year of planning a 10 year RTW trip with Kareus, formally Matilda.

Kevin and Heike

Kevin and Heike have travelled  for three and a half years throughout Europe, Turkey, West Africa (North to South), India and Nepal. In total 90,000km crossing 40 countries and they are still going!

FB page Kevin Heike

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Nelly Byrd - Overland Birds

Travelled throughout the Americas from Alaska to Argentina and the length of Africa from Cape Town to Egypt in a Land Rover Defender. Nelly has a second overland trip in the planning in a converted Land Rover Ambulance – He is also an administrator of Overland Sphere and a founding member of the Overlanding Association.

Website: OverlandBirds.com

Martin & Nicole - My Overland Adventure

Travelled for 6 years around the world to 70 countries across 6 continents in a Land Cruiser Colorado, covering over 220,000km. Martin is the founder of both Overland Sphere and the Overlanding Association. Website: MyOverlandAdventure.com

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Brenden Bithell

The post The Map Room – Adventure Overland Show 2017 appeared first on Overlanding Association.

Present

THE MAP ROOM

A room dedicated to overlanding brought to you by the volunteers of the Overlanding Association and Overland Sphere at the Adventure Overland Show 24-25 September 2016.

Registration is not necessary but please show your interest in the discussion(s) of choice facebook.com/OverlandingAssociation/events

 SCHEDULE

 Fri 23th Sept. 2016

 Sat 24th Sept. 2016

 Sun 25th Sept. 2016

 Profiles of the presenters:

Websites
OverlandSphere.com – Overlanders Blogs
OverlandingAssociation.org – Overland information and maps
Overlandsphere.com/overland-forum/ – Forum
 
Facebook Groups
Overland Sphere: facebook.com/groups/OverlandSphere/
Africa: facebook.com/groups/OverlandingAfrica/
Asia: facebook.com/groups/OverlandingAsia/
Australia: facebook.com/groups/OverlandingAustralia/
Europe: facebook.com/groups/OverlandingEurope/
North America: facebook.com/groups/OverlandingNorthAmerica/
Travel Writers: facebook.com/groups/OverlandTravelAdventureWriters/
Buy & Sell: facebook.com/groups/overlandingbuysell/

The post The Map Room – Adventure Overland Show appeared first on Overlanding Association.

Dedicated to planning your next overland adventure, a brand new free-of-charge attraction entitled The Map Room will feature this year at the No.1 ‘alternative’ travel show in the UK –
The “Adventure Overland Show“, Stratford-upon-Avon Racecourse, Warwickshire on the weekend of 24-25 September 2016.

Hosted by Overland Sphere & The Overlanding Association, The Map Room’s unique format (provided by the community) to all day visitors and campers at the show will include:-

• Unique Q&A sessions on the following overlanding topics – Africa, Asia, The Americas, Shipping, Finances, and others.
• Experienced members will provide One-on-One advice about your next trip, walk you through information and resource sites, show you how to load maps and POI’s to your GPS, plus even help you to set up your first blog!
• The attraction will include photos from the community, a display of overlanding books/media, with walls decorated with fantastic maps and images from the OverlandingAssociation.org

Martin McGowan, founder of the Overland Sphere & Overlanding Association remarked, “We are very excited to be part of the Adventure Overland Show. Being able to share overlanding information and experiences is what the community is about, and there’s no better way to do this than in person at this event”

Tom McGuigan, Event Director of AO`16 (Adventure Overland Show 2016), also commented on the uniqueness of the attraction. “Forming part of a ten-year plan, this will be the fifth edition of the show … an event that is increasing both in size and content as the years roll by … but to include such a major attraction as The Map Room at this stage in the event development is an incredible leap forward. I therefore must applaud Martin’s vision for suggesting such an informative and let’s face it – innovative feature. Likewise the same could be said of the community itself, for without their backing the feature just wouldn’t be possible. Overlanding is special, made only by the people themselves. I am looking forward to witnessing for myself what can be achieved by like-minded enthusiasts. The Overland Sphere & Overlanding Association are creating history within the show scene, it will never be the same!”

Profile of the Overlanding Association
The Overlanding Association is a not for profit organisation and community, providing inspiration, help and advice to overland travellers. Comprising two websites (OverlandingAssociation.org,OverlandSphere.com) and a number of Facebook groups and forums (Overland Sphere, Overlanding Europe, Overlanding Australia & NZ, Overland North America & Overlanding Asia).

About the Adventure Overland Show
An annual gathering of convivial like-minded folk, as mentioned the event is all about the outdoor enthusiast, those with an interest in bushcraft and survival, adventure motorcycle riders, owners of 4×4 campers and expedition trucks, etc. … basically wanderlust-type people who like the appeal of ‘alternative’ travel.

To our members
All members are invited to camp with us and join in around our fire-pit in the evenings. So we have an idea of the number of people attending, please sign up in advance

If you are interested in participating in one of the Question & Answer sessions – or you would like us showcase your book / media – or you just want to help out on the day, then please contact either Martin McGowan or one of our admins.

We will list details of participating members and their blogs on our main website (overlandingassociation.org/events)

If you wish to register your interest in any of the events please signup here:

*All pre-registered volunteers / speakers will be eligible for complimentary day admission and camping to the event.

‪#‎overland‬ ‪#‎overlanding‬ ‪#‎travel‬ ‪#‎adventure‬

The post Adventure Overland Show 2016 appeared first on Overlanding Association.

• To allow overlanders in the EU to use any Carnet issuer without restriction.

These changes were made by the FIA and incorporated into their global Carnet Guarantee agreement.

Further to this the RAC decided it was not in their interest to continue issuing Carnets. The ceasing of the RAC to issue Carnets was not our goal, we would have much preferred that they continued to issue them in line with other European issuers i.e Security amounts required.

Carnet Issuer for the UK
As most of you are aware, we had publically expressed an interest in becoming a Carnet issuer in the UK, after several months of discussing our options with both the HMRC and FIA, we have decided to withdraw our interest in becoming a Carnet issuer.

We felt that by becoming a Carnet issuer in the UK we would not be able to provide competitive services to those issuing them currently in Europe, and therefore it would not be beneficial to the community as a whole. In addition to this there were other factors which we are not able to disclose, that also weighed on our decision not to pursue it any further.

What does this mean for UK Carnets?
Currently any UK individual or business may apply to any other Carnet issuer in Europe and worldwide, until such time a new Carnet issuer has been appointed in the UK. However, every Carnet issuer has the right to assess your application on its own merits and to decide whether or not to issue a Carnet. You may find in some instances that due to legal reasons like “insurance” they may not be able to issue you with a Carnet.

Following the appointment of a new Carnet issuer in the UK, you may apply through them or other Carnet issuers in Europe, these were the rights we won with the petition (you can find a list of Carnet issuers herehttp://overlandsphere.com/overland-forum/threads/a-guide-to-carnet-de-passage-overland-travel.8/)

At the moment we do not know who or when the new Carnet issuer will be appointed in the UK, nor do we know what the costs, security rates or options will be. But we would hope that they would be similar to those currently being offered by issuers in Europe.

Overlanding Association
We set up the Overlanding Association, so that we may provide help and information to all Overland travellers, in addition to working on cases like this. Although the Association will not be issuing Carnets, we have already set up some really cool tools for your travels, and we will be expanding these continually over the next few years.

Any further news and updates regarding Carnets will be posted through the Overlanding Association and related sites.

The following websites and groups fall under the Overlanding Association:

OverlandingAssociation.org
facebook.com/OverlandingAssociation
OverlandSphere.com
facebook.com/groups/OverlandSphere
facebook.com/groups/OverlandingNorthAmerica
facebook.com/groups/OverlandingAustralia
facebook.com/groups/OverlandTravelAdventureWriters

Thank you to everyone who has supported this cause and petition, in the end, working together we were able to make the changes we set out for..

Thank you again and safe travels.

This Petition is now closed

The post Update 8 – Carnet – Latest & Final update – We won! appeared first on Overlanding Association.

The ADAC acts as the “official” carnet issuer for a number of countries, however the UK is not one them…

We are still progressing with our application to issue carnets in the UK, however the talks with the HMRC are being drawn out and are not expected to be resolved until March 2016 at the earliest.

The post Update 7 – Carnet update UK appeared first on Overlanding Association.

At the time we did not feel it was right to share this news as it may have had an impact on jobs in the RAC.

Today the RAC have started to confirm publicly that they will cease issuing them before the year end.

During the last update we detailed that the FIA had completed their legal review.

They had come to the conclusion that the Letter of Non objection was not enforceable in the EU, and it is their belief that anyone in the EU should be allowed to apply for a carnet from any other issuer without barriers.

We believe the pressure we have put on these organisations to review the Global carnet agreement, and remove these barriers has hugely influenced the decision for the RAC to pull out of the market.

Going forward we do not have confirmation as to who will issue carnets for UK residents in the short term but hope to have some clarity in the near future.

We are also still pursuing our application to become carnet issuers in the UK and with the RAC withdrawing, it should make life a little easier. As mentioned before we will only issue carnets if we can provide comparable / cost effective rates…

Thank you to everyone who has supported this petition.

Once people start obtaining carnets from other sources we shall mark this petition as won!!

The post Update 6 – RAC Stops issuing Carnets!!! appeared first on Overlanding Association.

The FIA have completed their legal review of the global carnet guarantee agreement, and are ready to start consulting with their stakeholders & government organisations to implement the changes. The amendments have to be agreed by the associations (issuers) the AIT and the world customs council, only then will the changes be fully implemented. We expect this to be completed before the end of March 2016.

Once these changes have been implemented, any EU Citizen may apply for a carnet from any EU issuing organisation (note this does not mean they will issue one). Discussions with the FIA were positive that other issuers would be willing to issue carnets to UK citizens.

We now fully believe that the clause under discussion/in dispute is not enforceable i.e The requirement of a letter of non-objection in the EU is NOT required.

We believe where an association is preventing or denying EU citizens access to public services they may also be breaking EU laws, we are happy to raise this with the associations on behalf of our members in the hope that we can gain some traction before the changes are fully implemented.

As mentioned in the previous update we are currently speaking with both the UK & Irish governments so that we may be able to issue carnets in the future. If the financials make sense and we can provide carnets to people with a reasonable and comparative level of security we will move forward with this option. We hope that by becoming an issuer, we can ensure that overlanders are never put in this situation again…

Regular/small updates will be posted in our FB Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/OverlandSphere .

The post Update 5 – Carnet appeared first on Overlanding Association.

We have been in communication with the FIA over the last few weeks, and are very happy to say that things are progressing.

The FIA are currently working on changes that will ensure that the rules and regulations of the FIA:
1. Will not prevent people from applying for Carnets from any other Carnet issuer in Europe
2. Remove the ability of issuing clubs to prevent consumers from engaging with other carnet issuers in Europe by eliminating any misinterpretation that consultation or a letter of non-objection is required.

I believe that the changes proposed will remove the barriers from using other Carnet issuers in Europe.

The changes are expected to be drafted and put forward for acceptance to FIA members sometime in December 2015, I therefore believe it is not likely that we will see these changes implemented until sometime between March 2016 and June 2016.

The Next Problem
The changes being implemented are moving us in the right direction, however, it does not mean that other issuers will agree to issue UK vehicle owners a Carnet.

Currently every Carnet issuer in their own right is free to assess each Carnet application, and may choose whether or not they wish to issue that person a Carnet or not. Some Carnet issuers may also not be legally able to issue consumers in the UK or other European countries a Carnet due to the limitation of their insurance coverage.

Once the new changes have been implemented, we will have to test the water and see if alternative issuers are willing to issue Carnets to UK vehicle owners. If they are not, we will have to consider what action we can take. If they do demonstrate though their actions that they are being discriminative towards UK vehicle owners, we will look at our options for taking further action and which organisations would be best to work with to solve the issues.

Possible Long Term Solution
We have expressed an interest to the FIA about setting up our own association to issue Carnets in Europe through a new organisation called “The Overlanding Association”.

The FIA have said that they would have no objection to an additional carnet issuer in Europe.

We plan over the coming months, to continue our enquiries with the FIA about the legal and financial requirements of becoming a Carnet issuer, in addition to assessing whether we would be able to offer the service to Overlanders at reasonable cost whilst mitigating any potential risks.

If the enquiries are positive and we are able to offer Overlanders Carnets at reasonable cost i.e the security required in terms of a deposit or insurance premium, then we will move forward and see how best we can achieve this.

Overlanding Association
The Overlanding Association http://overlandingassociation.org/ is being set up to continue discussions with the FIA and to be a voice for overlanders on similar matters going forward. Over the coming weeks, we will be finalising the legal structure and objectives of the association and would like to invite those who are interested to join us at an early stage to help us shape the association for the benefit of all Overlanders. The Overlanding Association offers us a great opportunity to build a community working for and on behalf of Overlanders around the world.

This is the Association’s FB pagehttps://www.facebook.com/OverlandingAssociation

More news on the Overlanding Association will be released in coming weeks, but if you were interested in becoming founding members or committee members please feel free to contact me, or discuss this through our Facebook Grouphttps://www.facebook.com/groups/OverlandSphere . (This will be an international association, not just for the UK, and will be open to all Overlanders regardless of mode of transport)

The post Update 4 : Good News appeared first on Overlanding Association.

The post Update 3 – Carnet Update appeared first on Overlanding Association.

Over the last 4 months we have a had a couple of positive calls with the FIA regarding the issues with the RAC and the restrictions on using alternative carnet issuers in Europe.

In general the FIA appear to working on finding a solution however progress has been slow.

Below is the last update i had from them (2 April 2015),

The FIA has raised these issues with our member, RAC Motoring and Services. We have discussed a number of options with the RAC and I understand that these are under active consideration.

I should also note that we are reviewing aspects of the AIT/FIA Guarantee in an effort to ensure that it is not misinterpreted and that it appropriately reflects the FIA’s objectives to facilitate the movement of motor vehicles internationally.

We are planning on having another call with the FIA in the next couple of weeks to understand in more detail what progress has been made and potential solutions that have are being considered by the FIA / RAC.

Once i hear more i will post another update.

If you have recently been refused a letter of non objection from the RAC could you please let me know.

If you wish to contact me or discuss the issue, please feel free to join our FB gorup
https://www.facebook.com/groups/OverlandSphere/

Martin McGowan

The post Update 2 – RAC Carnet FIA Update appeared first on Overlanding Association.