 |
FIRST OVERLAND NEWSLETTER 29The latest news of the 'First Overland' DVD, based on Antony Barrington-Brown's original film footage of the 1955 Oxford & Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition from London to Singapore. |
Peter Townsend's hardtop, the possible re-opening of the Stilwell Road, 3000 miles in a 'write-off', a 1953 family trip from Somerset to Southern Rhodesia, and the final (possibly parallel) episode of 'Operation Enterprise'. But first...
In past Newsletters we've been keenly following the plans of Michael Geary and some modern Oxford & Cambridge students to recreate the original 'First Overland' journey in the replica vehicles Michael so lovingly recreated. Sadly, the political situation and last year's tragic flooding in Pakistan put the Expedition on indefinite hold, and (to be truthful) I guess I wasn't the only one to expect that that would perhaps be the last we'd hear of a very ambitious dream. Well, before I set out to write this Newsletter, I emailed Michael to see what the current situation is. Although I'm not at liberty to give you details of his response — planning is at a delicate stage — it would seem fair to say that the idea of 'FO2' is still alive, if slightly amended. There are also other exciting things afoot. When I am able to say more, I will.
I'm grateful to Khaing Tun (Khine) of CBI Expeditions for pointing me towards a recent article by Sudha Ramachandran in Asia Times Online which reports that Myanmar seems to have finally overcome its longstanding reluctance to reopening the historic Stilwell Road. It's too detailed to repeat here, but you can read for yourself if you follow this link. Beware of the pop-up ad that starts playing a few seconds after you begin reading — scared the daylights out of me!
By the way, I also found on YouTube a 51-minute documentary on the building of the Stilwell Road — based on Allied army footage, it was complied in America, and is sometimes a little gung-ho, but it certainly taught me a lot about the history of the road that I've been so blithely talking about since I first started working with BB's footage. It's certainly work viewing at www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aQdcAd-ERA. And, on a technical note, remember that it was virtually all mute film — every sound you hear (above the 'stirring' music!) has been added in the editing. Those dubbing guys certainly knew what they were doing!
I had an email from David Giguere, who wrote:
I'm reading a book by Peter Townsend, 'Earth, My Friend', about his around the world travels in 1956+. He mentions the Oxford and Cambridge Far East Expedition and apparently received mapping support from Pat Murphy. On page 28, he is referencing Land Rover when he writes "...the Company did loan me some items of special equipment, such as the drum winch — it had already been used by one of the Oxford and Cambridge Far East Expedition cars."
I replied:
I was aware that Peter Townsend wrote the book, although I've not read it. There's been some debate about how much of the OxCam cars were transferred to his — as well as the winch, there was some backstage discussion about the hardtop with the opening hatch... this was when we were querying whether it was Oxford or Cambridge that went to Ascension Island. The discussion was never resolved, and we can't be sure if a new hardtop was made for him with a similar hatch.
|
|
Well, David then sent me some scans of pictures in the book, and one of them clearly shows that this was not an OxCam hardtop, which were the full Station Wagon specification, with the tropical roof, alpine lights, and full-sized side windows. This one is definitely an Export Hardtop — not generally available in the UK because it rendered the vehicle liable to Purchase Tax, but often seen abroad*. The side windows are slightly smaller, and there are none in the rear either side of the tailgate (which would have been a full-height door on a pukka Station Wagon). There are no alpine lights in the curve of the roof side. However, an Export Hardtop wouldn't necessarily have had a tropical roof as standard... but they could be ordered. |
|
Another picture shows the vehicle from the front, and it can clearly be seen that there is a roof hatch very similar to the OxCam ones. My guess is that the knowledge gained from the Far Eastern Expedition was passed on to Peter Townsend when he was planning his trip. [*Rivet-counter's note: UK government vehicles (being technically owned by HM The Queen) weren't liable to Purchase Tax, so were often fitted with the Export Hardtop from new. A prime example is those operated by the Civil Defence Corps, and as my wife's white SXF870 (which appears in the 'First Overland' DVD extra and in the 'Stop Gap' video mentioned below) was originally a CD vehicle, you can clearly see the Export Hardtop, and compare it with these pictures and the OxCam Station Wagons.] |
|
I had an order for the DVD from Robert Robson, now of Hudson, Massachusetts, but formerly of Letchworth in Hertfordshire. He remembered seeing the 'First Overland' showings on the BBC, and had been planning to write to David Attenborough and ask him if that film material was somehow available. He did a Google search for 'Barrington-Brown', and that led him to the 'First Overland' site.
He's thoroughly enjoyed the expedition footage again, but also had some kind words to say about my 'extra' giving the background story to recovering and re-mastering the film. He said: "My son-in-law is a freelance video/audio editor and he will very much enjoy that aspect as well as the expedition itself. In fact, my whole family and others might appreciate my expedition more – the enormity of the enterprise – as a result of all this."
And what was his expedition? An email conversation across the Atlantic gave me the details of Rob's 1965 'FO-inspired' trip with Pete Smith.
A friend and I decided to drive from UK to Australia by Land Rover in 1965. Plans were well underway when I discovered Tim Slessor's book in the local public library in Letchworth. It was indeed an overlander's bible and was invaluable in our plans. I even took the Land Rover factory training course in Solihull. I vaguely remember TV films of OxCam's expedition when I was younger and wished I could have seen them at the time of our planning. We set out on September 8th 1965, took a North African route (to be a little different). The Indo/Pak war was under way, and in the end prevented us from getting to Colombo to make the last leg to Perth, Australia. We made the most of it by deciding on the return route to UK. What a life-changing circumstance/happenstance that turned out to be. I ended up in Canada/USA and my friend in OZ.
We got to Karachi and returned via Afghanistan and Iran to UK and so travelled in OxCam's tracks quite a bit, so their film brings back a lot of great memories. BB said something in his concluding remarks that really made me say "right on". Michael Palin, Globe Trekker and others, penny farthing riders, etc have/had huge support teams behind the cameras. OxCam were self-sufficient in two Land Rovers, although they did have Rover, Mobil and Dunlop support along the way. Even more appropriate in our case — 2 lads in a single Land Rover — we were entirely self-sufficient and financially fragile.
Our backgrounds prepared us quite well for the endeavour. I had done an engineering student/apprenticeship at ICT/ICL and got my Mech Eng diploma. Pete had been at college with me, built a couple of Austin 7 specials with his Dad, but had changed his mind about engineering and become a chartered accountant. Perhaps I should also say that I had been in the scouts from age 7 to Senior and done a lot of camping around the British Isles and the Continent.
Our Land Rover was a 1960 Series II that we bought for 435 pounds — all that we could afford back then. It had done 6 years on a farm somewhere and we learned later had had body repairs at least from some kind of accident. All the vehicle expedition prep was done by ourselves. Hardtop, tropical roof, roof rack, windscreen visor, water jerries, rear windows installed, 20 gallon tank, piping, instruments, hand throttle, bunks from ex-army stretchers, curtains my mother made.
In the mountains of Pakistan/Afghanistan the clutch started to slip and we had oil dripping from a hole in the bottom of the clutch housing. This was the return journey and 5000 miles from home. Gulp! No way we could fix that where we were. We adjusted the clutch and motored on with fingers crossed. The slipping was more noticeable on steep slopes and not on the level.
Worst was to come but it didn't stop us either. 3 miles east of Gamusane in the Turkish mountains not far from Mount Ararat, we were hit by a 7-ton truck – his fault. The damage was quite severe. Radiator fan chopped the radiator badly and lost all coolant. Chassis was bent badly and broken on 2 of 3 sides. The left front brake line was broken and lost brake fluid. The wheel was buckled and front axle 'realigned'. LF water jerry took a bit hit, passenger door and glass also. We managed to patch things up enough at the scene to 'drive' 3 miles back to Gamusane. We had the radiator 'repaired' at garage to give us 3 working tubes, the rest blocked off, leaks fixed.
It was getting wintry and we were 3000 miles from home. We continued to Trabzon on the Black Sea and on to Ankara and then Istanbul. The chassis damage looked like it was about to break so that was patch-welded along the way. We could not sleep in the vehicle much now because of the cold. The Gamusane police reported in our favour but the truck's insurance coverage wasn't much, or enough to do anything like a full repair. Only 80 pounds. More repairs were done in Istanbul — the British embassy staff helped a lot. Anyway, we made the remaining 2000 miles back to UK. The vehicle was declared a write-off, deemed unrepairable. It says a lot about the Land Rover that it could sustain a hit like that and still get us the 3000 miles home. Bits of it might still be found on a farm near Baldock on the A1. I sold it for 75 pounds to a farmer acquaintance for spares. As modest as I am I do think it was quite an accomplishment.
Indeed, Rob — thanks for re-living it for us.
I also had an email from Alan Stevenson about a website he'd found giving details of an overland trek by Series 1 Land-Rover in 1953. It has an introduction by Diane Stuckey, and is based on her mother Dulcie Beak's account of the family's trip from Bath, England to Salisbury, Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia). I've seen it, and it's a remarkable read. I can certainly recommend a visit to the GREAT 1953 TREK Website.
Finally, I've been contacted by Martin Worth, who said "'First Overland' inspired me and two ex-school friends (all non-hippy!) to go overland in a VW microbus in 1967-68. My account of the near-disastrous journey of 'The Old Russellian Eurasian Expedition' to India is due to be published by Melrose Books on July 1st, title – 'Overland, Overstretched, Overturned'. Would you like a review copy from the publisher, as it may be of interest — if not a dire warning — to your newsletter readers?"
Well, it certainly would, and I hope to feature it in a future Newsletter, along with some memories from Brian Stewart, who seems to have pretty much been everywhere in North Africa and the Middle East in a selection of vehicles. Not many were from Solihull, but one was a Range Rover, so he can be excused!
In recent Newsletters, we have been serialising extracts from 'Operation Enterprise' — a report described as 'An account of the gruelling 10,000 mile reliability trial over the Sahara Desert, jungles and mountains, undertaken by the Turner-Diesel Trans-African Test Team.' This was in 1954/5, and they were test-driving (for reasons explained in Newsletter 23) a Turner-powered Land Rover (107" NUK952) across the Sahara to Kenya and on to Rhodesia. The leader, Ken Hill, wrote 'Operation Enterprise' as a record of the event, and has allowed me to quote from it. Now we have the final extract:
We meet the Pygmies
On Sunday, the 29th May, we took the forest road through to Beni, and saw several groups of Pigmies, these people grow no more than four feet in height and a great number are less. They are like animated little dolls and very shy, but we gave them a few tins of Nestlé's milk, some cheese and tobacco for being photographed. They hunt all manner of things, even elephants, with bows and arrows (poisoned) and spears. Their clothing is practically non-existent, but adequate for their surroundings, they also paint weird designs on themselves with what appears to be white paint, but is probably a plant dye.
Snaring a husband
Later in the morning we came across a group of women going through the forest. Two of them were dressed in straw from head to foot, with holes for eyes, nose and mouth, and in their mouths they held a wooden skewer, on to which had been threaded a 10 franc note in the case of one of them, and a 20 franc note for the other. The rest of the woman were dressed in brightly coloured cloth, and sung and chanted as they went along the road. As far as I could make out these two girls were being taken to another village where they hoped to find husbands, and the 10 and 20 franc notes represented either their respective dowries or the price required by the parents. A most interesting and pleasant stretch this, with the little people rushing to the roadside to wave and cheer. We passed through Beni being unimpressed with a bill in the local hotel of 5shillings & 6pence, I think it was, for some very inferior orange-juice ,and proceeded to Kisindi. Here we said goodbye to the Congo and passed into Uganda, running through part of the Game Reserve, where we immediately saw ten elephants and two small ones. But although we waited on the side of the road hoping they would pass in front of us to the river, they heard us at once and stayed quite still some half mile off. Eventually after 15 minutes, we had to drive on.
Wild life in Uganda
The Uganda Customs point is some miles inside Uganda, and on arrival there we found that the Asian in charge of this small and somewhat isolated post, had gone 19 miles off to a village to do weekly shopping and we had to wait from 4.30 p.m. to 9.15 p.m. before he returned. We pushed on at 9.30 p.m. to Mbarara, and in the moonlight I saw on the edge of the road by a tree, a large buffalo, so close I could almost have touched him. As we rumbled past he shook his great head, pawed the ground and turning, lumbered off into the bush with no regrets on my part, as these animals are more dangerous than rhino or elephant. A few miles on, we saw disappearing into some tall bushes the rear end of an elephant, his odd little tail whisking from side to side.
Later, we passed between Lake Edward and Lake George, their surfaces shimmering in the light of the moon like great irregular silver discs. The road climbs several thousand feet from here to Mbarara, which we reached at 1.30 in the morning, and we were constantly on the watch for buffalo and elephant asleep in the road. Some African policemen procured for us the key to the local rest house, and we slept until 6.30 a.m., when we went along to the local hotel for a much needed bath and breakfast.
It was now Monday morning, the 30th May, and once again I was foiled at the bank. I had no idea it was Whit Monday, and in any case, this day is not a public holiday in Kenya or Tanganyika. However, the proprietor of the Anakole Hotel very kindly allowed us to owe him the cost of our breakfast, so that we could continue to Kampala, which we did via Masaka, climbing up to high ground near that place to get a lovely view of the edge of Lake Victoria.
Crossing the Equator
A few miles on we re-crossed the Equator, having first crossed it the previous afternoon near the Congo-Uganda border. We arrived in Kampala early afternoon, spent the night there and next morning, the 31st May, set out for Kisumu, calling at Jinga, attractively set out on the most northern tip of Lake Victoria, and Busia, the Uganda-Kenya Border Post.
Welcome to Kenya
We were welcomed to Kenya by a heavy storm and great black clouds gathered in the direction of Mount Elgin, ringed with vivid flashes of lightning. The murram road became a treacherous quagmire, and coming out of the hills down into Kisumu we were as near to leaving the road as we have ever been on this trip. Two native lorries slithered in the mud and very nearly had us in the ditch.
Mau-Mau Country
We stayed in Kisumu over night, and on the 1st of June left for Nairobi. In the vicinity of Landiana we were in likely Mau-Mau territory, the guns came out, and I took the precaution of having my automatic loaded and in my hand. The road climbed to the top of Mount Summit and so on to Nakuru, the countryside is most beautiful, rich farm land, soft green undulating terrain generously wooded with lakes set like jewels in a green sea. One felt the real tragedy of the civil shadow hanging over this country today.
From Nakuru the road climbs steadily to Gil Gil (6,673 ft.) and then down to beautiful Lake Naivasha (6,227 ft.) with its towns and hotel. Then up the escarpment to Limuru (7,341 ft.) the view from this road is absolutely magnificent, the world seems spread out at one's feet, thousands of feet below, a flat plain with the sun picking out the lovely reds, gold and brown of the bush, with hazy blue mountains on the distant horizon.
I regret it was quite impossible to photograph here, but every half mile large notices warn against stopping for any reason as terrorist gangs are constantly on the watch for any unwary traveller getting out of his vehicle. From Limuru we started to run into the outskirts of Nairobi, and houses and buildings became more frequent until we were in the city itself, on a pleasantly cool afternoon, driving down Delemere Avenue.
Journey's End
We arrived here yesterday afternoon, and as I drove down Delemere Avenue we saw the 10,000 miles come up on the meter and felt it was 'journey's end'. We had done it! England to Kenya, 10,000 miles of the worst tracks and weather in the world, an ambition I had nursed for some years and initially planned last August, 1954. The maps, drawings, figures, mileages, water bags, all now became objects of interest, for meditation in retrospect, about which to conjure up odd stories or recall particular incidents. I felt quite sad as I stopped the engine for the last time at the end of phase one of 'Operation Enterprise'. Tomorrow would bring another day and the beginning of a fresh chapter.
Our thanks to Ken Hill for allowing us to share in his report of a journey which, although not as long as the 'First Overland' one, was still a mammoth undertaking, particularly as it was primarily to demonstrate the Turner diesel engine, which was not a standard Land-Rover fitment. The invevitable question now will be "What happened to NUK952?" Well, I understand that it didn't come back to the UK, but stayed in Southern Africa. I've asked my contacts there to ask for news of it, and posted queries on the Series One Club international Forum, but so far no news has come forward. Scrapped? Who knows? There's a lot of 50-year-old Series Ones still clocking up the miles in Southern Africa, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for eventual news.
In the last Newsletter I mentioned my current DVD project, featuring the Project Engineer of the original Land-Rover — the 'midwife' who turned the ideas and drawings into working, driveable vehicles. Arthur had been 'discovered' living in Brisbane, and still (at the age of 89) putting in a 5-day week on his retirement project... now one of the leading manufacturers of rugged trailer components suitable for the Australian Outback.
In May last year Arthur came back to the UK, and was welcomed by the enthusiasts' clubs, and Land Rover. I offered to document his return, and so had the privilege of being able to follow him with my video camera for a fortnight, as (amongst other things) he toured the Solihull factory and found his old office. We also recreated some of the very earliest publicity photos in their original settings, with authentic early vehicles.
The DVD, named 'Stop Gap', has been nearly finished for some weeks, but unfortunately there were background issues regarding the rights to use certain vital historical images, and I had a very frustrating time leading up to the official 'World Premiere' of the film, scheduled for May 1st at the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon (where Tim Slessor so memorably drove Michael Geary's 'Oxford' replica a couple of years ago). In the end I had to launch a film that I couldn't sell — particularly frustrating as Arthur had come over from Australia again for the occasion, and people were anxious to get their copies signed by him. In the end Plan B was put into action — Arthur signed empty DVD boxes, which I then sold with a promise to forward the disc when it's finally signed off!
However, thanks to Roger Crathorne and Land Rover, the issues are now solved, and I can complete the DVD. I am running another online Newsletter, parallel to this one, giving news of progress — if you'd like to sign up, please do so via my subscription link.
GRAEME ALDOUS
Previous Newsletters are available here
To subscribe to this Newsletter, and receive notice of updates, please visit the 'First Overland' Home Page
