Welcome to the official website for the Drive Around the World LONGITUDE expedition, which will follow a team of nine explorers as they drive four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys through 34 countries.

Departing from the Drive Around the World headquarters in San Francisco, California on November 1st, the team will head south into Mexico, following lines of longitude on a route that will eventually circumnavigate the globe on a north-south axis. From Mexico, the expedition will delve into the heart of Central America, then travel by container ship from Panama to Ecuador (thus avoiding the Darien Gap). In South America, the team will travel south along the Andes and the western coast of South America all the way to Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost part of the Americas. From here, the vehicles will be shipped to Australia, where the expedition will explore the legendary “Gunbarrel Highway” before continuing on to a Southeast Asia loop that includes Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. Using seldom-traveled roads, the expedition will then continue across Myanmar and Bangladesh to India and Sri Lanka before returning northward through Nepal, western China, Kyrgyzgstan, and Kazakhstan. Entering Russia, the team will then travel over some of the most isolated parts of Siberia en route to the Kamchatka Peninsula, where the vehicles will be shipped to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. From there, Drive Around the World will travel full-circle to San Francisco via Alaska, Canada, and the Pacific Northwest.

In addition to the basic task of circumnavigating the world overland, the expedition aims to raise money and awareness for Parkinson's Disease research, and promote global awareness among schoolchildren by providing a free geography, natural history and social sciences curriculum for use in schools throughout North America and the United Kingdom. The team will visit field centers maintained by the Royal Geographical Society and the British Museum, providing virtual links that afford students the opportunity to interact with researchers around the world. While the four expedition Land Rovers are traveling around the world, a fifth expedition-ready vehicle will travel to schools across the United States, giving students a hands-on demonstration of expedition life. The mission of Drive Around the World is to seek exploration and adventure while encouraging people to actively learn about the world and creatively act to understand global humanitarian and environmental problems.

In order to help facilitate humanitarian projects and raise awareness for the expedition, Drive Around the World is also offering a limited number of “ride-along” seats on the journey through its “Take Me With You Program.” More information about this innovative way of temporarily joining the expedition can be found through the link at left.

The planned time for the LONGITUDE expedition is nine months, covering nearly 35,000 miles. The expedition will depart with an official “launch” event on November 1st. The online journal on this website will update twice a week as the pre-expedition planning period progresses. Daily travel dispatches will debut once the expedition is officially underway. Expedition team members (listed below) will take turns writing these journals, giving a multifaceted perspective from the field as the journey progresses.

Stay tuned in coming days for a Drive Around the World dispatch from Land Rover’s 4WD training session in Hollister, California, as well as a report from the Parkinson’s Institute fundraising gala in San Francisco, which will be attended by actor and Parkinson’s Disease activist Michael J. Fox.

A rundown of the nine-member LONGITUDE Expedition Team is as follows:

Nick Baggarly, FRGS
Executive Director, Expedition Leader
Los Gatos, CA

A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Nick is the executive director and expedition leader for Drive Around the World. A successful Silicon Valley quality engineer, Nick took a sabbatical from Network Associates in 1997 to lead an expedition on an 8,000-mile drive through Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. The team delivered medical supplies to remote villages for Rivers of the World, an international aid organization. Drive Around the World was then founded with the goal of using these expeditions to promote cross-border understanding and goodwill as well as to raise funds for charitable causes. In 1999, the team completed LATITUDE, a 16,000-mile expedition through 16 countries, from Beijing to San Francisco. During the journey, the team worked with teachers throughout California and interacted with middle school students.

While Nick's charitable work has always been a labor of love, the LONGITUDE expedition will have special purpose for him because his 37-year-old sister was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Chanda Baggarly
Field Research Director
Los Gatos, CA

Chanda works in the computer industry as a technical writer and web developer at a Silicon Valley software company. The LONGITUDE Expedition will be her third expedition with Drive Around the World. She’s in charge of country research and route logistics and is currently developing the education website for the expedition. She is coordinating with CARE, an international humanitarian organization, to deliver school supplies and care packages to several orphanages and centers for women along our route.
She has studied Spanish, first aid, acupressure and GPS navigation.

Nancy L. Olson
Field PR Coordinator
Arlington, VA

Nancy graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1995, and served in the military as a naval aviator, and a public affairs officer for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Currently resigned from active duty, Nancy is building up an impressive resume as an endurance racer who has competed in such expedition-length races as the 2002 Armed Forces Eco Challenge, the 2003 Eco Challenge North American Championships, and 2003 Land Rover G4 Challenge, where she represented the United States in competition with athletes from 15 other nations.

Justin Mounts
Assistant Director/Volunteer Coordinator
Los Gatos, CA

Justin is a 7-year veteran of the software industry. He has been a delegate for the sister city relationship between St. Paul, MN and Novosibirsk, Russia. He is a pilot, a mountain biker, and a trained emergency responder. A self-proclaimed 'adventure capitalist', he has motorcycled through the Alps, climbed to the summits of mountains in Colorado and California, and always has a bag packed for the next trip.

Todd Borgie
Expedition Eductor/Take Me With You! Program
Berkley, CA

Bringing an eclectic background and a wide range of experiences to the team, Todd draws from 5 years as a teacher, a US Peace Corps volunteer. Todd has developed curriculum and conducted training sessions for at-risk youth at Big Help, Inc. Co-founded by Todd, Big Help trains, mentors, and employs low-income youth and young adults for hi-tech positions. An experienced expedition traveler, Todd's leadership skills and "get it done" attitude make him an invaluable asset. Todd's father was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Rolf Potts
Travel Writer
Ranong, Thailand

Rolf is a travel writer, and his work has appeared in National Geographic Adventure, Conde Nast Traveler, Salon.com, Best American Travel Writing, and on National Public Radio. His first book, Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel was published by Random House in 2003. He has been living and traveling overseas for the past seven years -- mainly in Asia -- and his previous adventures include hiking across Israel, biking across Myanmar, playing elephant polo in Thailand, and piloting a wooden fishing boat 900 miles down the Mekong River.

Adam Burgess
Producer/Director, Flip Flop Productions
UK

Adam has created social commentaries that have been shown at film festivals in California and New York and has just received his Masters of Arts from Stanford’s elite documentary film and video production program. He will be producing and directing the filming of the LONGITUDE expedition.

Neil Dana
Sound Technician, Flip Flop Productions
Moss Beach, CA

Neil graduated from U.C. San Diego in 1996 with a music degree and has been playing music and involved with sound since his childhood years. He has been working alongside Adam Burgess with Flip Flop Productions for over a year. Neil embodies the spirit of adventure and has lived the majority of the last seven years abroad, four of which were in Latin America, where he started and ran a surf tour company for three years. His fluency in Spanish and passion for surfing and music has brought Neil to many corners of the globe, and continues to do so.

Colin McAuliffe
Videographer, Flip Flop Productions
New Paltz, NY

Colin has been working with video since he was a very young child. Passionate about film, he has shot more than 20 short documentaries, including a film about livestock in New Zealand and a surfing film shot in Australia. Specializing in landscapes and time lapses, Colin has developed a keen eye for good shots. He has taught a college audio production class, and there isn't a DV cam on the market that he can't handle like a professional. His innate spirit of adventure has taken him cycling, hiking, hitchhiking, driving, and flying through such exotic lands as the Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Budapest, and the Yucatan Peninsula.