Expedition Defender X. Smooth Roads, Deep Fatigue
Five hours sleep. A little more than five if I’m being generous. That’s the rhythm of Defender X.
From the outside this relocation leg looks easy. Smooth roads. Beautiful hotels. Fantastic food. No tents. No storms. No altitude.
But inside the convoy it’s a different world. A moving film set on wheels. Constant input. Constant people. Constant responsibility.
London to Reims. Reims to Munich. Budapest. Bucharest. Bulgaria. Istanbul.
Two Defenders with names. Princess and the Mothership.
Silence for hours, then late nights with hard drives, backups, and that low-level anxiety of not losing a moment that can’t be repeated.
And the strange truth: I can feel more tired after a short convoy leg than after a Greenland crossing — not in the body, but in the head.
I wrote the full story here:
https://explorermikaelstrandberg.substack.com/p/expedition-defender-x-smooth-roads