|
Episodes On to Run For Your Life Back to Home |
High Road to Kathmandu
Khunjerab Pass (15,446 feet) on the Karakoram Highway between Pakistan and China. |
With expert guidance from James Bellamy Productions, Jet City JimBo takes a shot at reality television programming.
Series Synopsis "Overlanding is like a mad scientist's experiment. Take 21 strangers. Stuff them in an 8 by 16 foot box on wheels. Isolate them from everything familiar. Cover them with dirt and sand. Buffet them with wind and rain. Feed them endless cans of tuna and don't let them bathe. Add friendly parasites, unfriendly governments and temperatures ranging from 32 to 115 degrees F, and watch what happens over time." Karen Arnold-veteran overlander |
The High Road to Kathmandu is a ten part travel series that follows the fortunes of 21 adventurous souls, of varying ages, nationalities and backgrounds traveling overland by truck from London to Kathmandu. Eighteen weeks of adventurous travel across 20,000 miles of road the journey takes us through Europe to Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Pakistan, and China, crossing mountain passes up to 17,000 feet high and forbidding deserts of swirling dust devils, on the way to Nepal through its backdoor from Tibet. It is a classic journey of discovery governed by only one rule: you will get out of it what you put into it.
The High Road series is a character driven account of life along 'The High Road' for 18 travelers and three guides. Over ten episodes we will get to know the characters intimately, witnessing the joys and pitfalls of truck life and juxtaposing it with a colorful exploration of diverse cultures, geography and history, bought to life at every stop, as the characters interact with their new surroundings. Local people the group meets along the way will play cameo roles to add further knowledge and insight into a featured region or country.
Overland tour companies such as Exodus Travels UK publish irresistible sales brochures, filled with color images that would make Marco Polo drool. Using specially designed vehicles with devil-may-care drivers, these companies make tempting promises with big caveats. The itinerary is invariably fascinating but the schedule is usually tentative, and there are always disclaimers talking about attitude and flexibility. Overlanding is not for everyone because to feel a country, you must be there long enough for it to get under your skin, whether it means getting pelted with stones by small boys or invited into a stranger's home for dinner. Multiply both of these by the time and effort necessary to cross a continent (or two) by land and you have an overland journey.
Quoting Karen Arnold: "On the truck, everyone is on equal footing. Everyone must pull his or her weight; it's a lot of work. Each night after a full day spent traveling, you unload the tables and tents. You drag out cooking equipment and stoves. Then, after you have peeled a mountain of vegetables (because you are cooking for a crowd), you sit on a campstool in semi darkness eating a supper that's perched precariously on your lap. And, somewhere between darkness and bedtime, you find time to put up your tent and share a warm beer or two. Even on a good day, overlanding is nothing like Club Med."