Amie & Matt Leichtfuss, The Overlanders
Location: In Motion
Stats:
- Models paddled: AdvancedFrame Convertible.
- Water that they paddle: Lakes, Bays and Estuaries, Coastal, and Slow moving rivers.
- What they use their yak for: Overlanding, Adventure Travel, and Fishing.
Matt and Amie met in Nicaragua working at a surf camp in 2010. Amie was the cook, and Matt was a surf guide. He had the job for the whole season, but sadly Amie only signed up for 3 months. She left to go back to the United States to pursue yoga teaching courses and massage school, while Matt stayed. Through the years they kept in contact, but did their own thing.
Just as Amie was about to move to Maui to attend Massage school in 2013, she drove to Southern California, where Matt was living, and asked him to take a chance and move to Maui with her…he showed up in Maui 3 weeks later. Maui was good to them. In the three years that they lived there they made some good friends, Amie got her massage therapist license, Matt got his captains license, and they got married! But they both still had a desire to keep traveling and eventually it was time to get off that little rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
So, they got rid of nearly everything except their 13 year old dog Jaeger and set off on a new adventure together to drive from California to Panama. Living out of their truck, turned four-wheel-drive home on wheels, they wake up in some incredible places and have plenty of misadventures along the way. They have created The Traveling Together Journal as a way of sharing their experience as a couple traveling with their dog and hope that you find it very entertaining, somewhat informative, and maybe even a little inspirational.
You can catch up with Matt & Amie on their latest overlanding adventures via their YouTube Channel: The Traveling Together Journal or via Instagram @the_traveling_together_journal ,and learn more about overlanding via their blog at: www.thetravelingtogetherjournal.com
A little more about each of them:
Amie is an adventurous world traveler and head cinemaphotographer and photographer for The Traveling Together Journal YouTube channel. She is from Washington State and lived in Oregon and Maui, Hawaii for many years at a time.
Amie enjoys various water sports activities, kayaking, surfing, snorkeling, river rafting. One of her favorite activities is to kayak out to a tropical reef and go snorkeling. The best kayaking and snorkel spot to date was on Big Island, Hawaii at Kealakekua Bay & Captain Cook Monument. Her favorite thing about kayaking is the chance to get up close to wildlife.
When she is not photographing wildlife or hiking to waterfalls she can be seen at camp cooking up a delicious meal or playing with her dog Jaeger.
Matt is an avid waterman from Southern California who enjoys traveling and exploring coastlines around the world through his favorite activities, surfing, spearfishing, kayaking, and hiking. His favorite kayaking location to date is Playa Agua Verde, Mexico, where many delicious fish can be found under the beautiful headlands and islands surrounding the area.
Favorite AE Story:
While traveling through Baja California Sur, Mexico we stopped to camp on a picturesque, white sand beach in Bahia de Concepcion. The shallow sand bottom near shore made for relaxing swimming conditions, but poor fishing grounds, so Amie and I paddled our AdvancedFrame Convertible kayak around the backside of a nearshore island on a calm morning and found a beautiful section of reef with a nice 25 foot drop-off.
I dawned my mask and fins and rolled into the water with my spear gun. Meanwhile, Amie pulled her camera out of her StashPak dry bag and captured some great images of the local wildlife, occasionally paddling over to receive a fresh sea bass or trigger fish.
After a couple of hours, I climbed back into the kayak and we rounded the north end of the island, cruising back to shore with an increasing breeze. We returned with enough fish to feed the camp for days and the satisfaction only felt after a good adventure.