Anthony and Bryon Take on the Maya Rally

I first heard about the 2012 Maya End of the World Rally on the Expedition Portal site. It was billed as a fun adventure rally that would take place in Mexico this December, conveniently just before the predicted end of the world. While at Overland Expo this year, Maya Rally creator Christian Pelletier had a small but tantalizing display set up to lure in participants. It looked very tempting, so when Anthony of Overland Nomads told me he planned to go and invited me to join him, I was more than ready to go.

Unfortunately, since I’m currently job hunting (love that tech industry!), I just couldn’t justify the time away. Not that I didn’t try… But very reluctantly, I had to decline the offer and Do The Right Thing, and stay home while Anthony – and Bryon of Exploring Elements – went off and had a blast at the rally without me. Bastards.

They would be leaving at o-dark-thirty on the Tuesday morning after I got back from my Oregon trip, so on Monday I drove over to Santa Cruz to have a last chat with them and see them off. I brought my camera and took a few photos, and quizzed them on their trip prep and details.

While I was in Oregon, they’d scored some sponsorship from Triple Aught Design, Warn Industries, and LED Lenser USA. In addition to the sponsor decals, Anthony’s Land Cruiser – “Hank the Tank” – was also adorned with Maya Rally and rally-style driver/co-driver stickers. There were also large pink decals for their team name, Team Astrid (Twitter hashtag #teamastrid), dedicated to the other half of Overland Nomads duo. Unfortunately, Astrid is still going through a lot while she recovers from her bone marrow transplant and wouldn’t be able to join the guys either, but they were sure to be bringing her along in spirit.

Besides the flashy new stickers, Hank the Tank looked mostly the same, with the notable exception of some stout new home-made limb risers. I’d never had much need for risers myself (add your own adult humor here) but there have been a couple of times they really would have come in handy. See this photo from a Slate Mountain shelf road as an example! I think if I were heading to the jungles of Central America, I’d certainly consider a set of limb risers. One thing is for certain: they look pretty cool.

Besides the obvious additions, I quizzed Anthony and Bryon about the vehicle prep that had been don in anticipation of the long drives and the rally. They’d replaced the brake pads (which hopefully fixed an intermittent brake fade issue), rotated the tires, changed & topped up the fluids, and put in a fresh air filter. They’d also had the AC fixed at Mudrak’s. As an already well-modified Land Cruiser series 80, there wasn’t really anything else that Hank needed.

While on their rally trip, the guys plan to make regular updates via social media. A lot of that will probably take the form of Instagram photos which will also be cross-posted to Twitter and Facebook. They were a little skeptical about making blog posts to their sites, but Anthony’s actually got his first border-crossing post up on the Overland Nomads site already. As I write this, they’re driving south through Mexico.

While in Mexico, my friends will be doing some good volunteer work for several days prior to the start of the rally, which I think begins on December 11th, and ends on the 21st. After the rally, the guys plan to join some of the other participants enjoying Christmas on a beach in Belize (IIRC) before making their way back to the U.S. I suggest that you follow their adventures online… I certainly will be!

Anthony: Overland Nomads website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.

Bryon: Exploring Elements website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.