Guardian readers and Tom Stevens 

Watching the wheels: readers share their Land Rover Defender stories

One week since the last Land Rover Defender rolled off the production line, here are some of your stories celebrating the four-wheel drive vehicle
  
  

My first Land Rover from 1954.This was my brother and I in 1971. One of the most reliable vehicles I ever had.
My brother and I in 1971 in my first Land Rover. One of the most reliable vehicles I ever had. Photograph: davidhawson/GuardianWitness

‘It was able to carry 400 + litres of fuel in extra tanks and jerry cans which we had calculated we would need to cross the Sahara’

“I worked in Lesotho from 1981 to 1986 and then travelled back to the UK overland with a couple of friends. That’s me sitting on the roof in the photo while my friend Richard is fiddling with his camera. Sadly he died last year. The petrol series 3 was manufactured in South Africa and converted and kitted out by us. It was able to carry 400 + litres of fuel in extra tanks and jerry cans which we had calculated we would need to cross the Sahara.

The trip took eight months and we travelled through South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Zaire (now Congo), Central African Republic, Sudan and Egypt. Unfortunately the border between Sudan and Egypt was closed at the time so we had to ship the land rover back to the UK from Port Sudan. We then got to Egypt by boat up the Red Sea and then to UK. We had to register and MOT the Land Rover in the UK, but it was not manufactured to EU standards and was set to fail. The guy felt sorry for us and passed it on the basis it was going back to Africa, which it did after we sold it.

I returned to Africa a year later and got married. My wife Ruth and I lived in Botswana for 10 years and owned several Defenders which were well used in the Kalahari and Okavango Delta. We returned to UK in 1998 and live in the Cotswolds but still visit friends in Africa as much as possible. Sadly they drive Toyota Landcrusers now. I still own a 1981 series 3 SWB which gets used mostly in the snow. Sadly not so much this winter.”

Andy Lucas

‘We made it to the Colonsay shoreline as the exhaust started gurgling under water’

“We bought our Land Rover Defender second hand in 1992 and it was part of our family for the next 14 years. This photograph was taken in 1996 whilst on holiday with another family on the island of Colonsay. That day we drove over the strand to the neighbouring island of Oronsay at low tide. On our return, it must have been my forgetting to take account of British Summer Time that, instead of sand, we were met with a half mile stretch of sea. It wasn’t deep but my wife Susie, who was driving, couldn’t see the track back because of the light reflecting off the water. We found the only way to travel was to have a child standing on the roof shouting directions. From that height it was possible to see firm sand and avoid the deep bits. We made it to the Colonsay shoreline as the exhaust started gurgling under water. That Defender with a large roof deck, on which I’d painted a huge H in a circle, was my third Land Rover. The first two were Series 1. All three of them were thoroughly reliable. There was nothing digital that could go wrong!”

David Hawson

‘Tanzania and Kenya fell out and closed their border just as we arrived there’

“My husband Rob (the young ‘mechanic’ in the picture) and I bought an old London black taxi in 1974. We converted it into a camper van and set off for South Africa from Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire. At that time lots of people were travelling the overland route to Australia, but not many attempted the African journey which meant there was virtually no information available. Our choice of vehicle meant we gained a certain celebrity but the poor old taxi was completely unsuitable. We had no idea how difficult the ‘road’ conditions would be. Rob was amazing at keeping us going and, after six months, we limped into to Cape Town. Rob got a job as Chief Engineer on a salvage tug and the taxi ended her days on the docks becoming, for a while, a stop on the tourist bus route.

We stayed in Cape Town for a year before deciding to go back to Scotland. Flying was pretty expensive in those days and we thought we could drive back, and have another adventure, for much the same cost. Having learned our lesson from the trip south, we bought our Land Rover. And she was brilliant. The trip back was a breeze by comparison. We had a couple of mechanical problems; the broken half shaft which Rob is repairing in the photo, a damaged rear diff which meant he had to swap the front to the back, and countless punctures. Everything had to be fixed by the roadside, usually without access to water for cleaning up other than our drinking water. Even so, it was a dream run compared to the taxi.

Our route was mainly determined by the political spats of the day and could change at short notice. Tanzania and Kenya fell out and closed their border just as we arrived there. We stupidly thought we would be able to talk our way through an infrequently used crossing behind Mt Kilimanjaro, but ended up under arrest and escorted back to the closest major town. They let us go after a day. Bureaucracy was rife and we spent much time and sometimes quite a bit of money arranging permits to travel. Our eventual route was through Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda,Zaire, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, Algeria, Morocco, Spain and home! We covered all types of terrain from deserts to jungles, mountains to plains. Travelling was generally safe apart from the major cities. Outside of the towns people were intensely curious. Driving through villages all the kids would come out and run alongside us and when we stopped, even in what we thought was the middle of nowhere, people would materialise out of thin air and sit in a circle around us for hours just watching.

We have never been back to Africa and consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have been able to make the trip. It would probably be impossible to do so safely nowadays. We kept our Land Rover for four years in Scotland before selling her, when we moved to Australia. Since then we’ve had a Range Rover, and currently have a Discovery, but my heart will always be with the Defender. We quite often discuss the possibility of driving the Australia to UK route. Who knows?”

Catriona Morrison

‘The game warden had to walk back to the park headquarters, avoiding a very large herd of buffalo’

“My father Bob Marsh was a priest and in charge of the Anglican Church in the Tanzanian town Arusha between 1953 and 1957. Once or twice a year we would go on safari and visit parishioners. This also provided an opportunity to visit places such as the Ngorongoro Crater. We travelled in a Ford Anglia and climbing the various escarpments and hills to the Crater is a separate story. On this occasion we stopped to visit the game warden of the Manyara National Park, based at the Park HQ in Mtu wa Mbu. He had just taken delivery of the Land Rover and was keen to show it off and take the family for a spin. He was somewhat embarrassed to get stuck!

For rescue he had to walk back to the park headquarters, avoiding a very large herd of buffalo, and maybe lions and elephants. It was dark before he returned with a truck to rescue us. The photo was taken by my father, and features my mother Elizabeth. I’m the boy with the camera, and the other two are my younger brothers Paul and Colin. While we’re admiring classics, the Clarks sandals must surely get a mention.”

David Marsh

‘We sold the house, used the profit to buy a LWB Land Rover, upped sticks with a young family and headed for Kenya’

“I worked in Kenya in the late 1960s/early 70s training biology teachers at Kenyatta College. I started out as a teacher in UK, where I had a Series 2 (2L) diesel for several years which I used for outward bound work, mostly in North Wales. When no one was looking I also trialled it with the Land Rover Owners Club and have a cup to prove it! The offer of a teaching job came up in Nairobi while I was looking for a Teacher Training College post in UK. So we sold the house, used the profit to buy a LWB Land Rover, upped sticks with a young family and headed for Kenya. That Series 2 LWB took us to some pretty wild places in East Africa for four years. It was sold to the Nairobi National Museum when I left. During my time there I regularly took students to the Nairobi National Park as many of them had never seen any “big game.”

I managed to find an old 1954 Series 1 when I returned to the UK and for many years this towed horse boxes around the country. It is presently in pieces in my son-in-law’s barn undergoing a major rebuild, hopefully to pristine original specifications. I wish I’d kept it!”

Mark Boulton

‘I picked up a job as the temporary leading lady in the English repertory company The Donovan Maule Theatre Company.’

“Very soon after I started dating a South African dentist in 1979, he popped the question (no, not that one); “How would you like to drive through Africa?” Quite a chat up line, I’m sure you’ll agree.

We set off in the Land Rover that he had owned since 1974. It was a huge decision on my part. On his, not so much! The planning and packing was a logistic nightmare. It was a long way from my native Essex. But I was totally seduced by the romanticism of the whole idea.

The trip took several months driving the route outlined. It was of course totally amazing. And actually at times really really hard. At one stage we had to drive 2800 kilometres without being able to fill up with petrol. We had to carry it in jerry cans on the roof rack which was dangerous of course. We also had to skirt the war zone in Uganda and avoid Zaire because they had closed the borders.

We had planned to work when we arrived in Kenya. The dentist had been fairly itinerant and thought it would be easy to pick up casual dentistry. In the event, surprising to both of us, he couldn’t find any work. I on the other hand, as a trained actress, picked up a job as the temporary leading lady in the English repertory company The Donovan Maule Theatre Company.

As to whether we are still together, the dentist’s response today is ‘”only just.”
But, astonishing to both of us, we have two adult daughters and a period of living in South Africa for nine years behind us. The Land Rover died in 1983.”

Judy Jarvis

You can view all your Land Rover Defender photos and stories via GuardianWitness

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*