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FIRST OVERLAND NEWSLETTER 40The 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, and the subsequent 'After
Overland' adventures of the two cars. |
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 | In Newsletter 39 I included a picture of SNX891 ('Oxford') under wraps in a secret location in Singapore. Now the wraps have come off. In a few weeks 'Oxford', with Tim Slessor at the wheel, will be setting out on the journey that he's been dreaming of for years — to recreate the part of the journey that the 'First Overland' expedition didn't do in 1956... to drive back from Singapore through the Burmese jungles. |
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 SNX891 no longer under wraps |  The 'Last Overland' logo |  Larry Leong (left) and Marcus Allender with their support Land Rovers |
To save time 6 decades ago, the two cars and their graduate students were shipped by sea to Rangoon and Calcutta to complete their academic studies, before reuniting for the overland return to London. For Tim, this was 'unfinished business', and although he will celebrate his 88th birthday on the journey, he will attempt to make his dream come true, as he and a team of two other Land Rovers leave Singapore and drive back to the UK. They won't be retracing the original route in full, of course — the changing politics of the world have made that decidedly inadvisable in places — but SNX891 (which was shipped to Singapore in December last year) will be completing the journey (and some!) first begun on September 1st 1955.
And we will be able to join them on their journey as it will be filmed by Alex Bescoby's Grammar Productions for later broadcast, and there will be the inevitable regular social media updates as they travel.
 | On the left is a link to the official 'Last Overland' trailer, filmed in the UK before 'Oxford' left for Singapore. On the right is the main team of those setting out on the journey — from L-R: Larry Leong, Marcus Allender, Dr. Silverius Purba, Tim Slessor, Thérèse-Marie Becker, Alex Bescoby. |  |
 | Tim has just spent a few days in Singapore undertaking some preliminary filming (left), and while he was there he and Alex were interviewed by local television (click on the image, right) |  |
To follow the journey online, the social media links are @thelastoverland / #thelastoverland. Alex also has an email newsletter that you can sign up if you click here
I can only admire Tim, setting out on this adventure at 87 — most people would have been more than content with being in the original expedition! But as he says in the CNA interview, "I have a whisper in my head which says 'if you don't go now, you'll never go... so go before it's too late!'" For me, I'm very envious of Alex and his team in being able to capture this remarkable journey on video, and I very much hope to be at Dover (or wherever) with my camera running when SNX891's wheels hit UK soil again.
And a reminder of my DVD titles still on sale, priced at £22 (including postage) worldwide — you can order them via the DVD sales page, where you'll also find the Vimeo download details.
GRAEME ALDOUS.
Previous Newsletters are available here.
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The 'After Overland' web page is afteroverland.co.uk, and 'First Overland' is teeafit.co.uk/firstoverland.