There is a strange part of preparing for a big overland journey that nobody really talks about.
The lull before you leave.
When I first decided to create Travels With Tau, the excitement was enormous. An idea suddenly became a project, and the project started becoming very real.
I changed my website. I created the Travels With Tau Facebook group. I started planning routes, researching campsites, looking at navigation, recovery equipment, vehicle spares, border crossings and all the other things that come with preparing for a long solo overland journey through Southern Africa.
There always seemed to be something else to research.
And I loved it.
Then Everything Went Quiet
I’m now at an interesting stage.
I’ve done much of what I can reasonably do at this point.
There are still things to buy and preparations to finish, but some of those deliberately have to wait. There’s no point doing everything months—or even weeks—before I actually need it.
And suddenly that initial frantic excitement has been replaced by something else.
Waiting.
For the first time since starting Travels With Tau, I felt as though the project had lost a little momentum.
But I’ve realised something.
Tau doesn’t have to be moving for Travels With Tau to be moving.
The journey has already started.
An Expedition Begins Long Before Departure Day
We tend to think an adventure begins when the vehicle is packed, the engine starts and the first destination appears on the GPS.
I’m beginning to think that’s wrong.
The journey starts with the idea.
It continues through the maps spread across the table, the routes that get planned and changed, the equipment decisions, the mistakes, the advice from experienced travellers and those moments when you wonder whether you’ve completely lost your mind.
All of that is part of the adventure.
And perhaps this quiet period is part of it too.
Today I Did Something Different
There is another part of Travels With Tau that I’ve been putting off.
Writing comes relatively naturally to me. Standing in front of a camera and talking to it doesn’t.
So today I stopped thinking about it.
I took out the camera and recorded a video.
One take.
Just over a minute.
No elaborate production. No twenty attempts trying to get every sentence perfect.
I simply started.
It certainly won’t be the greatest travel video ever uploaded to YouTube—and that’s completely beside the point.
Because there can never be video number 50 without video number one.
Travels With Tau Is About More Than This Trip
I’ve travelled through more than 70 countries during my lifetime, and one thing I’ve learned is that some of the best travel experiences happen when things don’t go according to plan.
That’s part of what I want Travels With Tau to become.
Yes, I’ll share the preparation, the roads, campsites, landscapes, wildlife, border crossings, recoveries and inevitable mistakes.
But I also want to share the human side of travelling.
The anticipation.
The uncertainty.
The people we meet.
The stories we collect.
And perhaps even those periods when absolutely nothing seems to be happening.
Because those are part of the journey too.
The Next Chapter
There is still plenty to do before Tau and I finally hit the road.
Soon the final preparation phase begins. Equipment will be packed, maps and navigation sorted, Tau checked and prepared, and the theoretical route will start becoming something very real.
Until then, I’m going to keep Travels With Tau moving.
Today that meant recording my first video.
Tomorrow it might mean something completely different.
But that’s exactly what an adventure should be.
The journey has already started.
Join Travels With Tau
If you enjoy overlanding, African travel, remote places—or simply following an ordinary bloke attempting something slightly extraordinary—come along for the ride.
Follow Travels With Tau on Facebook,
Follow the journey here on drronvanas.com.
And if you’ve experienced that strange lull before a major trip, I’d love to hear about it.
When did your last great journey really begin—the day you left, or months before?
