What does everyone consider an "expedition"?

[cruiser_guy]

We travel with our '82 BJ60, registered in British Columbia, Canada, to Central America most every year. Is that an "expedition"?

http://www.4wdtrips.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4414
http://www.4wdtrips.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3901

What about the travels around Central America? Are those an "expedition"?

http://www.4wdtrips.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3342
http://www.4wdtrips.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3558
http://www.4wdtrips.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3590
http://www.4wdtrips.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3808
http://www.4wdtrips.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3927
http://www.4wdtrips.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3945

Have a look at the trips and vote in the poll. You can chose several options since several may apply to your definition of an "expedition".

[SOCALFJ]

I would say... None of those IMHO. Those to me are just adventure/overland/touring trips.

A expedition by definition is:a journey organized for a particular purpose

Yes, you can make ANYTHING your purpose. So, every trip out can be a expedition if you wanted to call it that. I think that a expedition would mean, research, gathering information, taking people food/shelter/clothing, some type of greater goal than just arriving at a destination and making it back from it. Maybe going to a land that no other 4 wheeled vehicle has traveled. Documenting your travels and relaying that back to educate other people. Maybe raising money for a cause along the way.

Heck i don't know, that's just my $0.02. However, i do understand why people use the term all the time. I use it just as much. I just don't look at myself as anyone that has ever completed a 'expedition' per say. I think my partner and I just barely have a grasp at what real expedition type enthusiast really do. Is our rig setup for Expeditions? hell yeah. Are we ready for one? Maybe, but we still have a boat load to learn.

[roscoFJ73]

Everything in Oz is just "a trip" ,no one ever says "Im going on a expedition" unless your a weirdo or you lived in the 1800s

[e9999]

to me an expedition has to have 2 elements in significant amount:

- an element of unknown and seeing new stuff
- an element of challenge

otherwise it's just a trip (sorry, Oz) or wheeling...

and yes some distance from your base and some primitiveness of environment and self-sufficiency thrown into it for good measure

[roscoFJ73]

Originally Posted by e9999

to me an expedition has to have 2 elements in significant amount:

- an element of unknown and seeing new stuff
- an element of challenge

otherwise it's just a trip (sorry, Oz) or wheeling...

and yes some distance from your base and some primitiveness of environment and self-sufficiency thrown into it for good measure

Ok ,Ill play the game.
It should have an element of self reliance

[brownbear]

I think an expedition is a trip with no end goal. It's leaving your home and going someplace far away.... Self sufficient , shelter and more incase your broken down outside civilization.

What is an expedition...? Anything you want it to be. IMOP somewhere far away and an element of exploring.

Like the chubby cruiser, or whatever that was called. Or the guys in the blue FJ60 who have like a million miles under there belt.

It's just exploring. Wheeling on trails is not IMOP expedition.

[kim]

Well, not to get pedantic but... here is the definition and some synonyms.

Entry Word: expedition Function: noun
Text: a going from one place to another usually of some distance <they were hungry and tired after their long journey>
Synonyms journey, passage, peregrination, travel(s), trek, trip

I think this whole discussion is highly subjective. An expedition to me is a long journey through relatively unpopulous areas. A trip is spending a short amount of time doing the traveling like a flight or a days drive.

[GarnerFJ40]

If you've driven in Costa Rica, I'd say everyday is an expedition. Potholes that you can lose your car in, 4 cars wide on roads where only two "should" fit, rainy wet mountain roads where the runoff is cutting the road out on the shoulder, bridges that may or may not be there when you set out. I would say an expedition vehicle would have to be pretty self sufficent in case of the unexpected.

[BC_FJC]

For me it's taking the road less traveled (remote location) and being self-sufficient. I also feel that it there needs to be a destination/goal before it can be called an expedition. With out a destination/goal its just exploring.

[brownbear]

Originally Posted by cruiser_guy

Is that an "expedition"?

I think what your doing is an expedition. Your seeing far off places. Traveling with gobs of spare parts/food/water and whatever you need to survive.

Like I said it traveling far away, or heck you could have an expedition in Canada alone......

An expedition is really just a long trip IMOP. But one that is self sufficient if need be.

[Mickldo]

x eleventy billion on the self sufficiency and self reliance.

I also think it is also to do with taking the road less traveled. If you stick to the main roads everywhere you go it isn't really an expedition IMHO. I'm not saying you need to bush bash and make your own roads but taking the less traveled road where possible.

[84yota4x4]

My thought of an expedition is the Camel Trophy Challange. I mean traveling 1500 miles throught the Amazon or through the deserts of Austrailia, that's an expedition! Few tools, no garages, no houses or hotels, no stores, nothing but nature, some trucks, shovels, and axes.

[Blue 60]

This is an expedition. http://www.expeditionoverland.com/ I felt that all of the poll choices were part of a true expedition at some level. Look at what this couple did. Travel great distances, yep; Visit different countries, yep; Exotic places, yep; Hard to reach places, yep. All of those things together are part of an expedition. I could travel 3000+ miles across the U.S.A., but that is not an expedition. (Unless it was in a yugo or something like that and only on dirt roads... maybe...) I think that a decent definition of an expedition is traveling to a unique place or places with a particular purpose or goal in mind. Anyway, plan on losing a couple of days to the above link. (They wouldn't have had near the problems in a Land Cruiser.)

Blue 60

[Scoot Jockey]

What do you folks mean?!?! Every day I hop into my Cruiser is an expedition! Honestly though, expedition does sound like something reserved for Lewis and Clark, or trips to the north and south poles. I feel that most people are just out "travelling" today, experiencing the world. I've noticed that many world travelling vehicles/parties refer to each other or that type of travel as RTW or round the world. As for me, hopping on my motorcycle and going to Inuvik, or climbing into the Cruiser and going to Ushuaia, I would not call them expeditions, but they would certainly be trips of a lifetime!

[kim]

I consider the trips I have made from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast in Canada expeditions. Granted, most of the roads were paved, well, except for the transCanada in Saskatchewan and a few roads in Quebec.

A lot of the time you are in fairly remote territory and the trip is 6400km/4000miles, one way.

[VTFJ40]

Anytime I leave my home town with food, gear and a plan....it's an expedition.

These have ranged from an overnighter on a lake with a canoe, to 4 weeks in Gates of the Artic NP with a backpack and a map.

I think intention determines what is an expedition or not.

[Ducks]

I think a vehicular expedition is a trip of some length that has challenges in it that require a vehicle. If you can backpack through it or bike through it easier than drive through it, then I wouldn't call it an expedition.

If you can get there in a Honda Element then I don't think it is an expedition. It could be a fun trip or tour or exploring but not an expedition. Just my subjective $0.02.

[Bad Voodoo]

Extended-stay overland trips.

-voodoo

[LandCruisers4Life]

Originally Posted by BC_FJC

For me it's taking the road less traveled (remote location) and being self-sufficient. I also feel that it there needs to be a destination/goal before it can be called an expedition. With out a destination/goal its just exploring.

Yeah that's more or less it. You have to have some sort of idea where you want to go, and it HAS to be remote where nobody may find you for days, weeks or months. Your vehicle has to be in top condition and prepared for self extraction from difficulties.

As well as the vehicle, I like to bring along a serious backpack, just in case there really was an emergency where I had to hike out. I bring lots of water for us, and fuel for the Cruiser, as well as a lot of food. I also bring backpackers food which doesn't need refrigeration and a backpacking stove which can run off white gas or unleaded gasoline.

[LandCruisers4Life]

Originally Posted by Mickldo

x eleventy billion on the self sufficiency and self reliance.

I also think it is also to do with taking the road less traveled. If you stick to the main roads everywhere you go it isn't really an expedition IMHO. I'm not saying you need to bush bash and make your own roads but taking the less traveled road where possible.

Right, and it cannot be accessible by a regular vehicle, or at least part of the expedition cannot. For instance using main roads to travel to the edge of the remote location, and then it would require 4 wheel drive thereafter for the remainder.

[Brian894X4]

I use the term on my website pretty regularly. I wouldn't say the places I go are particularly challenging and in fact, aren't really that far. Sometimes only a few hundred miles, but they definately involve a purpose. And that is to study, explore, research and report about remote and abandoned historical sites.

I use the name "In Search of History Expeditions" because that's exactly what we do. We go on expeditions searching out history. I think taking a vehicle, and exploring old relatively remote places and searching out previously abandoned sites probably qualifies. Even if its not in the depths of South America or Africa, but rather our own back country.

Plus "expeditions" just sounds cool. And it looks good plastered on my rig.

[alia176]

Expedition means to me is the exploration of uncharted territories - which we don't have too many of in this country. Wheeling far away from home and camping is just that - camping far away from home! Even if it happens to be obscure areas of this country, it's still camping!

A very subjective term!

[OursSauvage]

I think An Expédition is Traveling a great distance and/or Traveling to hard to reach places.
But, it is not reciprocal.

Not all great distance travel and/or all hard to reach places travel are expeditions.

Also, expedition mean specials cares and specials preps (not obligatorily for the car)

[ats4x4dotcom]

We call our trips I run each year "expeditions" because we are a group who get ourselves set up for the particular trip, to remote places we want to explore, that require planning, and carrying of fuel, food and water to survive, into area's we havent been before.

I organise these as part of my job, taking good cutomers out with us on these expeditions each year.

I also organise at least 3 other 'trips" a year, i wouldnt call expeditions, hard 4wding, and camping, but not as remote, and to area's we have been to previously.

[Mickldo]

I think an expedition should have a degree of adventure in it.

I had adventure explained to me once as an experience that has the risk of death associated with it.

For most of the true expeditions the risk of death is a real possibility if proper preparations aren't made. I think this forum is all about setting our vehicles up to minimise the chance of anything going wrong or if it does go wrong then having the resources to get yourself out.