The start of a new adventure is not easy as the Overland vehicles are held up at a port in Kerala due to complicated Indian bureaucratic procedures. So to make the most of their time, the team gets into the Hindu spirit and takes part in Arattupuzha Pooram, India's oldest and largest temple festival featuring 60 elephants. It's an eye-opener for the team and a taste of things to come.
Finally, the vehicles are released from customs and Overland is ready to start its journey. The team travels through colourful nature reserves and India's famous tea plantations and spice farms. In Madurai, they visit the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Museum and learn about India's history through the life of its founder and his philosophy of truth and non-violence.
The team visits the markets in Mysore before heading to Goa, a colonial port created by the Portuguese and still imbued with their culture, religion, and history. Here they decide to deep-sea dive in search of wreckages of old English merchant vessels. Overland then explores India's most developed city, chaotic Mumbai and visits a surprising slum where a million people live in extreme conditions.
The city of Mumbai, also known as Bombay, is, without doubt, India's most commercial, busy and advanced city. Overland visits the beautiful sites of this multicultural metropolis where Hindu temples and mosques sit side-by-side, living in harmony with one another. Back on the road, the team heads for the Rajasthan and the Thar Desert, also known as The Great Indian Desert.
The State of Rajasthan is the region where fairy-tale visions of India meet reality. Here the Overland team encounters the extraordinary colours of the blue city, Jodhpur, and discover the Bishnoi, an ancient and environmentally-friendly religious sect. They then head to the capital Jaipur, also known as the pink city or the city of Victory, before finally reaching the capital, Delhi.
Walking through the streets of New Delhi, the Overlander team becomes aware of the enormous contrast between the imposing newly-built tower blocks and old Delhi. They meet street kids living in a train station and hear their heart-wrenching stories of suffering. Then they visit the glittering Golden Temple in Amritsar, before continuing their arduous journey to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir.
Overland reaches the most northerly point in the expedition in India: the spectacular Ladakh region, which extends between the stunning peaks of the Himalayan mountain range. The challenges for the team and their vehicles continue as they drive along roads that snake up to passes at an altitude of more than 4000 meters, where they are surrounded by lunar landscapes.
Leaving behind the Himalayan mountains, Overland visits one of the Wonders of the World, the magnificent Taj Mahal at Agra! Then the last stage of this incredible journey is the sacred city for Hindus: Varanasi on the holy Ganges River. The team delves into its daily life, encounters spell-casters, and witness rituals for funerals, purification, and thankfulness.
We reach Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, travelling along desert roads that appear to have been forgotten by time. We take a break to discover habits and customs, markets and food, smiles and colours, and also use the opportunity to have some fun with a spot of off-road driving on the dunes of the relentlessly advancing Sahara Desert.
The Mauritanian shell asphalt accompanies us towards Senegal: we choose to leave the country via a secondary border crossing to avoid a lengthy wait. This ends up being a very shrewd choice: the border is in the heart of the Diawling National Park, so we get to enjoy the natural beauty from our windows.
We are surrounded by a luxuriant forest of baobab trees inhabited by African wildlife in Senegal, in the Bandia Reserve: giraffes, gazelles, bison, warthogs, zebras, rhinoceroses live in a natural state in one of the parks of the "Great Green Wall" project. We leave the mainland to visit the Island of Fadjouth, a special place made entirely of shells.
The turbulent Guinean roads continue to pose a stern challenge and reveal precious fragments of local existence. As we travel along these arduous trails at a snail's pace, we come across trucks crowded with people: these are some of the most disastrous and busy routes for illegal migration.
Benin City greets us with the contrasts that characterise Nigeria: armed escorts to keep us safe from terrorists and smiling faces. Despite continual suicide attacks by Boko Haram against the Nigerian people, many still believe and hope in their hearts for a better future.
As we find out more about the history of Liberia, the Civil War and misrule, the degradation we observe with our cameras becomes easier to comprehend - especially the issue of waste management. Everywhere around us - on streets, by the seaside, in courtyards and squares, we find piles of rubbish.
Surrounded by the lush vegetation of Sierra Leone, a short distance from the capital Freetown we discover the Takugama chimpanzee sanctuary which nurses, protects and rehabilitates young chimps who fell victim to poaching. We realise to our dismay that the dense vegetation beyond the park's boundaries is suddenly interrupted and that deforestation is taking place at a critical rate.
We indulge in a final bit of off-road driving in the Agafay Desert and contend with the usual issue of freeing a vehicle from the sand. Then, as we travel the last stretch of modern motorways back to Italy, we think back on the incredible adventure that is coming to an end.