How Expedition Overland's co-founders are fostering the spirit of adventure.
Southern Africa, with its wild landscapes and no shortage of off-road opportunities, almost begs to be the destination for an overlanding adventure. But it was time with the graceful, slow-moving elephants in Botswana that Rachelle Croft cherishes most after returning from a month-long trip with her husband, Clay, and their three sons aged 18, 15, and 13.
“These elephants would just walk through our campground and not pay any attention to us. That was my favorite part — it felt like we were camping in a big zoo,” says Rachelle, one half of the husband-and-wife duo at the helm of Expedition Overland, a film production company that’s evolved to a lifestyle brand and guerilla marketing business, based in Montana. Through episodic films that “showcase the adventures, struggles, and unique people and places they meet along the way,” the company’s mission is to inspire people to explore the world by showing “ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”
Overlanding is traveling to remote destinations where the journey is the principal goal. It’s usually accomplished with off-road transportation — from bicycles to trucks — with self-reliance being the name of the game. Traditionally, overlanding involves crossing international borders, such as the Crofts’ most recent trip to Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, but it has now evolved to travel within one’s own country thanks to its increasing popularity.
We believe that travel makes you a better human. It pushes you out of your comfort zone and that usually has an impact on you for the better.
For the Crofts, their adventure started when Clay, a self-taught cinematographer, read about the world of overlanding in a journal. Inspired, he asked Rachelle’s father to join him on a trip to Moab, Utah, from their home in Montana. To help pay to outfit his truck, a Toyota Tacoma, he called 4x4 equipment outfitter ARB and made a proposal: If they could provide a fridge and buffer to finish out his truck, he would provide photography for their magazine. The company agreed. That first sponsorship deal would allow the Crofts to travel while building a business. Two years later, Rachelle joined Clay, along with a film crew, on her first overlanding trip to Alaska to shoot their first overlanding adventure series.
“I loved being able to talk to locals and find out what they loved about their part of the world and then go see those things for ourselves,” remembers Rachelle. But the biggest takeaway for her was learning how to rely on herself (and communicate with her team). “I learned just how capable I was, to live that long outside. If you get into trouble, and get stuck in the mud off-road, you have to be able to get yourself out of the situation. It built a lot of confidence in me as a person as well.”
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Since that first series, the couple and their crew have been to Central America, South America, and the Nordic region: Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland. Clay can also add Australia and Russia to his adventure-packed trips. More than 10 years into their overlanding expeditions, the Crofts generally take one international trip a year with smaller trips across the United States throughout the year.
Rachelle says overlanding is for anyone who has a bit of adventure in them and wants to explore it. Want to get started? Consider taking a shorter trip closer to home as a practice run. This will serve as a dress rehearsal of sorts, prompting you to pack essentials — like a first aid kit and enough food — and learn to become more self-sufficient in inconvenient situations, like losing cell service when you need it most.
To help others prepare for and enjoy overlanding trips — everything from properly building out and outfitting your vehicle, to camp cooking, to dealing with bears and other wild creatures — Expedition Overland created a series of blogs and YouTube videos to accompany their films.
“We believe that travel makes you a better human,” says Rachelle. “It pushes you out of your comfort zone and that usually has an impact on you for the better.”
As for what continues to inspire the Crofts? “It’s a curiosity for other cultures and to explore and experience the world, to learn about the world around us,” says Rachelle.
You can catch their Africa series on their app, Overland Network, in early 2024.
