Expedition News

Greetings all,

We have a few new exciting destinations for the tents as I write this newsletter; namely Grand Cayman Island, Ambergris Cay (Turks & Caicos), Turkey, Greece and Baja Mexico.

To note, the 3-tent pavilion mentioned in the previous newsletter is no longer available.

Most important to note is that the prices on all raw steel rocketed up 22% about a week ago with murmurings that there might yet be more increases to come in the near future.
This unfortunately means that all quotes made prior to this will no longer be valid and if required, we can re-quote anyone upon request.

We would also like to use this newsletter to introduce our new tent, the Shawu Tent, which can be seen in the drawings above. This tent will be 53 M² (570 Ft²) in area and will be available for production in May ‘08. There will be an extended version of this Shawu Tent as well, which will be 64.5 M² (694 Ft²).
The Shawu Tent is another of our tents, named in the memory of one the “Magnificent Seven” elephants.

Things are moving forward at a very rapid pace with the planning and logistics for the Exclusive Tents Central American Expedition.

The response back has been very exciting since our last newsletter and we already have over 40 appointments set up with just more than a month left before we get underway.
We leave this Saturday (March 29th) for Costa Rica where we will spend a week kitting out our ‘antique’ 1979 Diesel Land Cruiser in preparation for the expedition.

The expedition start date will be based on when the vehicle will be ready but we are still hoping and targeting our departure for the first week of May.
As the vehicle is in Costa Rica, the expedition will start in San Jose and then along the Costa Rica Pacific Coast from Jaco and head towards Panama City.
Once in Panama City we will be taking a week off the Expedition, to visit with clients in Ecuador.
When back in Panama City we will travel backwards towards Costa Rica again but along the Caribbean Coast via Bocos Del Toro and then continue on to Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize and finally through Mexico to Arizona in the USA.

We must mention and thank the numerous people who have made appointments for us to visit with them during the Expedition, who have ever so kindly and graciously, offered us gratis accommodation in their establishments and those who have offered us the same in the expedition just passing their respective locations. We are very grateful for this genuine kindness and generous hospitality extended to us and we will be sure to thank you all personally when we finally meet up.
This kindness will be much appreciated because we will mainly be making use of a specially made, small custom made “Rooftop Tent” that will fold forward from on top of the cab roof to over the hood (bonnet) of the Land Cruiser.

Be sure to keep up on the expedition progress once we get underway, from our Expedition Blog.

Those wanting to contact us once underway on the expedition, please check on the Expedition Blog Page for our E-mail, Mobile Phone number and Skype contact details.
Even though we will be in many very remote parts with no service, we will still be able to check mail and make calls via our Bgan Satellite communications system.

We have been asked many times how long the Expedition will be and take us to complete but there is no clear answer. We do however expect to be doing about 6000 miles (9600km) and take about 2 months to complete the Expedition.
We may also have to break away from the Expedition for a week or so, to set up tents in Morocco and Turkey.

Sponsors:
Dave Mason
Polar Bear Coolers
Overland Experts
Bocas Breeze News
Be sure to let us know if you wish to become a sponsor of this expedition.