Introducing: Supply Run
Update: The first Supply Run is complete! Click here to view their trip.
Big adventures have the power to change the traveler; they offer a new perspective, lessons learned, a deeper connection with oneself. But… what if big adventures also provided something good along the way?
This is the premise behind Supply Run, a new high-stakes international travel reality show by the team at Uncharted Spirits. Concocted by brothers, Jake and Chad Vanags, the first season of Supply Run starts in late March 2023. You’ll be able to follow it live as a featured trip on Wayward. In the meantime, you can get involved by supporting Supply Run on Kickstarter and following them on instagram @unchartedspirits.
Read on below for our full interview with Jake Vanags of Supply Run
Follow the first episode live on Wayward
WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY
Wayward: What is Supply Run?
Jake Vanags: Supply Run is full of layers, but here’s the summary:
Supply Run is a completely unique, high-stakes, international reality tv show that follows a team of four (three “couriers” and one cameraman) while we attempt to complete a mission to acquire, deliver, and integrate a list of uniquely important supply items into an extremely remote community.
Season No. 1 will take place across Nepal and India with the final remote community we hope to deliver supplies to located in Sural Bhatori in the Indian Himalayas.
The idea is for the show to be both positively impactful for the remote community as well as action-packed, dramatic, and eye-opening to the audience that follows along with the mission while it’s being filmed and when the final episodes air a few months later.
What do you hope the audience will gain from this story?
We hope Supply Run provides the audience with two major outcomes:
Outcome 1: The audience gets to watch a truly entertaining travel show - one that is action-packed, dramatic, and impactful. Unlike much of travel media today, it’s not a pensive documentary, a flashy youtube vlog, or a traditional travel show where a travel host acts as an unrelatable middleman to the culture they’re describing.
If we succeed with Outcome 1, then the audience will hopefully witness…
Outcome 2: The power of transformative, unguided, unscripted travel. We feel that if the show is entertaining, the audience will be more receptive to how other people, places, and cultures are often misunderstood by headlines on the Internet. And that while we don’t have to live like these other cultures, we can accept that - underneath the different language, foods, and societal habits - we all want the same core things in life.
Photo by Uncharted Spirits
Where does the adventure start and end?
Supply Run No. 1’s mission officially starts in Kathmandu and ends in a remote village called Sural Bhatori, which is located somewhere in the Northern Himalayas.
However, the team will first gather in Ventura, California and depart from LAX a few days prior to the mission to make sure we A) get our collective shit together and B) start out strong by boarding the first plane at the right time.
We’ll also depart from an airport in Jammu (in Kashmir) a few days after finishing the main mission in Sural Bhatori.
What “Supplies” are you delivering on this first edition?
The supplies for the main mission to Sural Bhatori has been evolving since we started planning this 6+ months ago. We have a local contact in northern India… who knows a respected village leader in Sural Bhatori… who is helping us determine this strange list and making sure the items we integrate will actually be welcomed and useful in the long-term.
The idea is two deliver and integrate as many items from this core list as possible:
1. Solar-heated showers to improve hygiene in the village during winter months when hot showers a hard to come by (which therefore keeps the community from showering adequately)
2. Climbing rope and gear to keep villagers from slipping into gorges and dying while traveling from village-to-village (especially in the winter)
3. Crampons for the same reason as above
4. A yak for dairy production (and they’re also the main animal that can survive the rough winters in the himalayas)
5. A machine that helps turn the yak milk into dairy products
6. A handloom to help the women in the community create their own income source
7. A toilet (this one is new to us this week! - we need to ask more questions about it haha)
You’re launching a kickstarter right? Tell me more about that.
Yep! The link to that is here.
Currently, we’re self-funding Supply Run through our own savings.
However! If we’re able to raise funds through Kickstarter, Supply Run can:
1. Be more impactful to the community we serve (by being able to afford bigger and more impactful supplies)
2. Be better produced and distributed through larger media channels (for a greater reach)
3. Be extended to season 2, 3, 4, and beyond (by reducing cost in season 1, we’ll be able to roll our personal funds further into future seasons to keep the seasons coming)
Photo by Uncharted Spirits
Who’s the “4th Man” and how did you convince him to do this with you?
The team is made up of 4 people - 3 “couriers” and 1 cameraman
2 of the couriers are me and my brother Chad. We’ll be on every season of Supply Run as recurring characters and Supply Run facilitators, so to speak.
But the real story we hope to tell is that of the 3rd courier (and 4th total team member). This team member will change with every Supply Run season and is essentially an X-factor for the mission and the show because they are someone that is not at all experienced in the type of shitshow that will likely go down.
Their experience, reactions, and transformative moments are what we hope relates with the larger audience who watches the season.
The season’s “applicant courier” is JD Snyder who currently lives with his wife and son in Florida.
Finally, to answer the second part of the question, JD was selected from 10+ applicants who voluntarily signed up to join Supply Run - no convincing necessary.
We had broadcast an application page promising an unknown adventure, a humanitarian mission, and a pattern-interrupt to the monotony of their day-to-day life.
Seeing as though no one knew what Supply Run even was when we sent the application page out, it apparently struck a chord with enough people to have 10 people sign up for it (and the application even required them acknowledge missing work for at least 24 days and signing a waiver about the unknown outcomes of the mission).
I think a lot of people (Chad and I included), feel like we’re either drifting through life or running on a hamster wheel at times - even if we’re really grateful for how things are going! But sometimes, we almost crave for someone to throw a stick into that hamster wheel just to shake up our world a bit to help re-discover a personal spark that may have faded along the way.
Photo by Uncharted Spirits
Do you have a route or are you winging it?
It’s all half-wung!
Because it’s a mission-based show, we know our starting point and date, ending point and date, the community we’re trying to reach and the date we want to reach them by, and the supplies we hope to integrate into the community.
But besides knowing a general direction and timeframe, everything else is completely unknown.
Where will we get the supplies? Can we acquire them, afford them, carry them, and transport them? Who will help us find them? How will we get from point A to point B to point Z? Where will we stay? At someone’s home? In a village or a city? In a tent?
We will also take on Side Quests during the main mission for anyone we meet along the way, which will be decided upon on-the-fly. Basically, if we meet someone and we can help them by delivering something for them to a place or person loosely along our route, we’ll try and make it happen.
So once we land, most of it will be a test of how well we can wing it.
Photo by Uncharted Spirits
BACKSTORY
How did you and your brother think of this idea?
Supply Run is what feels like the billionth (but by far the best) iteration of a show we’ve been developing for over a decade.
In 2010, we had our very first discussion of making a show or webseries that “took viewers by the hand” around the world with us to experience different places and cultures (vague, we know haha). But we thought it was important to show more people how others lived in different places - and not just show the tourist attractions.
We also knew from our own personal experiences that the best way to really know another place or culture was to actually attempt a common project, goal, or mission that forces us to engage directly with our environment without any certainty of a positive outcome.
Not having all the answers, solving problems on-the-fly, and challenging ourselves to overcome physical, mental, and cultural obstacles was what made the experience transformative.
This idea permeated through our many show iterations - from our first YouTube channel, to signing with two travel tv production companies, to a big test show run in 2019.
All of these iterations taught us the lessons that eventually turned into the formula and objectives of Supply Run, including:
1. The overall mission of delivering and integrating needed supplies to a remote community
2. The idea to start in one country and end in another
3. The inclusion of a 4th, relatively travel-inexperienced team member
4.The attempting of Side Quests (i.e. mini missions)
5. The time frame, the locations, the rules and parameters, the importance of seeking local help and fixers
Photo by Uncharted Spirits
Tell us about the test run of the Supply Run concept in Mongolia. When was it and what did you deliver?
In June and July of 2019, we ran the test trip that ultimately helped us figure out the details of Supply Run. It was called The Moto Run because it was all completed on motorcycles. (Note: Supply Run won’t necessarily be completed on motorcycles.)
It saw me, my brother, our cameraman Dave, and a 4th member attempt to buy cheap(er) motorcycles in Ulan Bator and ride them to Kazakhstan via Russia.
The 4th member in this test happened to be our Pops. So the trip served both as a test run but also just a really cool experience for our family that I’m not sure we would’ve ever done otherwise!
And actually, we had absolutely zero plans to deliver anything at the end of this test run. The goal was simply to go on a difficult adventure over a long distance with our dad and film it all.
Our only mission was to make it to Oskemen, Kazakhstan with our motorcycles before our flight departed, which was - frankly - a pretty lame and arbitrary goal. But we knew it was a test for this exact reason. We didn’t know what we didn’t know.
It wasn’t until the last two days when we decided we should give away our motorcycles instead of attempting to sell them or ship them back.
We asked a local who hung out with us those last two days if he knew anyone who could use the motorcycles. He did.
We ended up giving them to some farmers and to another man who had been wanting one for his family but couldn’t quite save up enough to purchase it. (They were also only going to use them on the farm and not on major roads - since we didn’t officially transfer the registration.)
You could tell how much these motorcycles meant to them. It might improve their lives dramatically for years to come.
When we look back at these episodes, it was these last two days that ultimately created the idea of Supply Run.
If we knew the mission of the motorcycle trip was to deliver and integrate the motorcycles with Kazakhstan locals in the middle-of-nowhere from the very start, we would’ve had a more purposeful reason to reach our destination in time and the audience would be more invested in seeing if we would succeed or not.
Photo by Uncharted Spirits
On a scale of 1-10, how likely is your Dad to do another Supply Run with you?
Unfortunately (but purposefully), Supply Run is about taking new members each season who haven’t experienced a mission like this before - so we’ll continue to only take new applicants for future runs.
But that was one hell of a trip we took and we can always go on another unofficial adventure with our Pops!
So on an official Supply Run? 0 (sorry Dad!)
On another insane adventure that isn’t for the specific purpose of Supply Run? 7! But it really depends on if he is down for another one too!
Regardless, he’ll always have the honor of being the first unofficial 4th team member Supply Runner.
Have you always been this adventurous, or what caused you to want to put yourself in crazy situations in remote parts of the world?
We think the origin of the adventurous spirit came from the fact our parents were both teachers growing up, so our whole family had 3 months off every summer. Some years, we’d hop in the ol’ Dodge Caravan and drive around the country exploring the entirety of the US.
Then, that idea of just… going and exploring… kept branching out into more and more unique, weird, and extreme challenges as we got older (both separately and together).
For me it was trips with adventurous college friends to Peru, Puerto Rico, and Guatemala where we rarely did anything super touristic… we just plotted some points and wung the rest of it. All of our best stories and experiences happened in the in-between moments - not at the major sites. I think that’s when I started realizing that transformative travel was about more than a pre-planned itinerary.
Chad also had his own adventures, like riding a bike unsupported down Australia on a, basically, a glorified dare.
This evolved into future adventures together like:
1. Living out of a car in Costa Rica for 3 weeks with no plans (but many stories)
2. Building a treehouse in South Africa with some friends
3. Competing in The Adventurists’ first official Ngalawa Cup sailing race without knowing how to sail just three months prior to competing
Among many many more.
Photo by Uncharted Spirits
ADVENTURE QUESTIONS
As you’ve been planning this out, how have you gotten connected to locals?
First, you just have to cast a super wide net. We have no proof of concept for this type of Supply Run, so you just have to start broadcasting it and see what comes back.
By doing this we found our main fixer in northern India (who is the brother of someone Chad used to work with). He’s an American who has lived there with his family for the last 6 years. He’s been absolutely invaluable in our developing this first Run - both with general logistical information, but more importantly, helping us determine the remote location and what supplies would truly be useful for them.
Furthermore, thanks to previous test trips, we’ve created a sort of local fixer networking system.
Basically, I broadcast the details of what we’re doing on a “public trip post” on Couchsurfing.com in some of the more major towns and cities along the rough route of our mission.
Incredibly, we’ve gotten a ton of responses from locals all along our route who are really interested in helping us in any way they can when we might be in their area.
So now we basically have a rolodex of local fixers standing by for a message from us in case we need help.
What do you think will be the biggest cultural difference you’ll encounter on this trip, and how do you plan to adapt to it?
While there are always a ton of common cultural differences on this type of trip (like food, language, societal norms, etc.), the ones that will likely cause us to adapt the most will be when it comes time to acquire, transport, or deliver/integrate a supply.
Possible negotiations, paperwork, border-crossings with supplies, and simply making sure we deliver and integrate the supply without imposing our cultural tendencies on theirs will all require moments of patience and acceptance that things might move more slowly or less organized or simply in a different way than we expect.
Photo by Uncharted Spirits
Do the team members bring any unique or complimentary skills to the adventure?
We bring a lot of nice intangible skills to the table. Will they be as helpful as more tangible skills?? Who’s to say!
But in general:
Chad’s best skill is communicating well with strangers. He’s an expert in sales, which is helpful when it comes to smooth-talking our way through difficult red-tape moments or during a supply acquisition.
My best skill is in logistics and on-the-fly problem-solving. We’ll hit a lot of bottlenecks that will require workarounds and plans B, C, D and beyond and that tends to be my strength.
JD is an unknown factor in this regard, but from what we can tell on our weekly team Zoom calls, he’s extremely resilient, super positive when things go poorly, and will unabashedly communicate with any stranger to solve a problem.
Dave is our multi-talented cameraman. Not only will he get every shot - no matter how extreme the circumstance - but he’s also got mechanical skills the rest of us don’t have.
How do you plan to deal with unexpected situations, such as bad weather or mechanical issues?
Mental fortitude!
No but seriously, that’s usually the main way to prepare to solve unexpected situations. If we expect them to come, they won’t surprise us.
So, we expect weather to be poor at points or something to break down. Figuring those moments out is basically a pillar of the structure of Supply Run.
How do you plan to stay motivated and focused during the long, grueling days of acquiring, transporting, and exploring?
The mission.
In our 2019 test run (The Moto Run), it would’ve been easier to give up when things got hard - there was no real stated goal outside of reaching an airport.
But with Supply Run, there is a real mission that - if we don’t succeed - we will be extremely disappointed in ourselves, the viewing audience will essentially watch us fail, and most importantly, the remote community will not receive the supply items that could crucially help them to live incrementally better for years to come.
So we will have personal, internal motivation to succeed, we will have an audience following and rooting for us to succeed, and a community that would be extremely grateful if we succeed.
That is plenty of motivation for when the days become a grind.
What is something in your pack that people might not expect you to bring on a trip like this?
Probably two products called Dude Wipes and Fresh Balls.
Never underestimate the importance of a clean, fresh, and dry body to one’s overall mood, motivation, and mental health on an adventure like this.
That and maybe a little tequila to level out the mind on certain days.
What would have to happen for you to bail/cancel/go home?
A lot.
Sprained ankle? Bad weather? Poor team morale? - Nah.
Broken leg? A strange rash? Fever? - A quick pit stop to the hospital, but nah.
An extreme emergency either on the trip or back home? - This is probably the only circumstance that would cause us to bail.
~
Photo by Uncharted Spirits
