Overlanding Micro Trips – Getting out little and often while fuel prices continue to skyrocket…
Overlanding micro trips, what are they and are they worth it? What we call a micro trip is a local run of around 20km, usually through the countryside or nearby woodland. Importantly, the fuel spend is minimal, the longer trips of 2021 would today cost us 40% more in fuel making a 250km weekend too expensive just for the juice…
While it would be possible to save up, fill the tank and do longer trips less frequently we prefer to take the little and often approach, just being outdoors is the main thing, sure, exploring an area we’ve never been to before is better but when the cheapest diesel we can find is €2.11 euros a litre it makes sense [for us] to stay local.
Switching things up
Surrounded by Andalucian hills and woodland our local village is in a great situation, we’re lucky and are reminded just how fortunate we are everytime we open the door. When we first started overlanding all of the local spots were our first port of call, keeping things closer to home to stretch the legs of a vehicle we essentially knew nothing about, if the Shogun was going to break, better break close to home.
As a result we found quite a few locations in the hills, quiet places, cracking views and nice locations to visit even if it were just for a couple of hours to cook your breakfast or have a late one to watch the sun go down.
As a result we found quite a few locations in the hills, quiet places, cracking views and nice locations to visit even if it were just for a couple of hours to cook your breakfast or have a late one to watch the sun go down. It is these places that we’ve been spending time at recently, overlanding micro trips in the hills without spending a small fortune fuel.
There is also another reason why we’ve been sticking to certain areas closer to home…
At some point this year prior to April 2022 some kind of freak weather event tore through around two square kilometers of hillside and woodland leaving behind what can only be described as destruction. There is however something very odd about it and that is that there is no consistency…
Following a storm you’d expect damage to the woodland, a trail of felled trees perhaps or something obvious that created such damage. In this case it’s all very odd as we never heard of any storm or weather event which caused such random damage, almost too random in fact, this is all less that 10km from where we live.
Pine trees suffered the most, big trees with limbs snapped, twisted and torn off while all the trees around it would remain untouched… Smaller trees also appear to have suffered the same way but very random, the first tree we saw we immediatly thought ‘lightening strike’ until we came across dozens then hundreds more.
Anyway, it’s wood and there is a lot of it making our overlanding micro trips even more worthwhile and with a purpose – prepping for winter, firewood is one of those things that never comes in wrong when you live rural and with this much of it just lying there it makes perfect sense to fill up the back of the Shogun and take a load home every time we go out, it soon mounts up when it gets stacked back in the warehouse.
Conclusion
So overlanding micro trips serve a purpose, at the moment it’s getting us out three times a week and the wood stack is getting higher at a rapid rate. Early starts at 6.30am means getting the majority of the wood collecting and sawing done before it gets too hot stopping for breakfast [usually ‘huevos rancheros’] and coffee mid morning.
Taking time to enjoy the outdoors too there is never any rush no matter which day of the week it is, the trails are far from a challenge but the overland driving experience is still there especially when your laden on the way home. All in all we enjoy the shorter trips, they help us achieve something, help in fitness and recovery, keep the overlanding juices flowing and help us appreciate how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful part of the world.
Leave a Reply