Overlanding with Kids, in the ‘70s “Mummy?WhereisDaddy?” “Daddy is studying; he is studying hisAfricamaps.” Yes, my father spent hours studying his next itinerary across the Sahara Desert almost every night. In the 70s, there was no Google for searching, no socials for networking, and only big companies could afford or know how to use a single computer. The search was in libraries and bookshops, and few of them had information about overlanding in Africa. Networking was word of mouth between
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passionates, who somehow got a name and a phone number to get in touch.
new bride, my mother, a city lady, from Turin in Italy to Southern Morocco: 4,000mi in total, about 1,500mi dirt Maps were paper maps only, and roads, on a red Alfa Romeo Giulietta since it was impossible to zoom in, their Spider! He could even get a speed scale was essential. For example, it was ticket on a dirt road by a Moroccan prettyeasytofindtheMichelinMappoliceman of who measured his speed Western and Northern Africa; however, with a chronometer. Just simple physics: it was one single sheet covering an area speed = distance/time. I remember him wider than 4,000 miles! telling me he broke the cup of the oil reservoir and repaired it with a piece of My father went to Paris, where wood that was still in place at the end of heknewhewouldfind2:0, 1scale his journey. ratio (1cm = 200m) paper maps and the precious aerial photos that the French His Africa addiction kept pulling shot in the areas when those were their him to overland Sahara for 40-60 days colonies. In our family home in Italy, each winter until 1992. However, after I still keep his big orange folder with thisfirstcrazyadventure,herealized maps and aerial photos, his opisometer the Giulietta was not the proper vehicle for estimating distances and fuel for this kind of overland trip and bought consumption on the paper maps, his the iconic vehicle for the African compass, and his tire pressure gauge. deserts: a Land Rover series IIA. Other overlandvehiclescameafterthisfirs His intense passion for Africa one: in the 70s, two other Land Rovers started in 1962, after seeing the movie series III, in the 80s, Toyotas FJ45 “LaurenceofArabia,”anepichistorical pickups, then a FIAT OM 75 big truck. dramafilmshotintheJordandesert. Inamedit“Maciste,”anItalianmovie One year later, in 1963, he drove his character of the 10s, a Hercules-like
