Gibson’s Gab In praise of Alex Bescoby

I WAS 17 WHEN I FIRST HEARD OF TIM SLESSOR. His name was on the cover of a book my parents bought me for Christmas, thinking it would be right up my street.

They were right: First Overland was just the sort of thing I loved reading as an adventurous-spirited late-teen, when, to mis uote another of my favourite authors (Mark Wallington), I thought anything was possible if I could just get out of bed earlier.

Slessor’s understated bestseller told the story of the Oxford and Cambridge expedition to drive a brace of Series Ones from London to Singapore. Leaving in 1955, they passed through a landscape still bearing the scars of the Second World War. They visited the last outposts of empire and experienced the joys of wildly unfamiliar cultures that are now commonplace to many in our globalised society.

David Attenborough was so impressed by their plan that he commissioned a BBC documentary about the trip, giving Slessor and his contemporaries ust the profile to make a real splash. They certainly did, with the record-breaking expedition becoming the stuff of overlanding legend.

64 years later, another adventurer who clearly has no trouble getting out of bed in the morning took on the challenge of recreating the expedition. In a manner of speaking, that is, since the filmmaker Ale escoby chose to undertake the journey in reverse: from

Singapore back to London. That he did so in the original “Oxford” vehicle, restored after a period languishing on a tiny South Atlantic island, simply added to the mysti ue.

Forget the fact that changing geopolitics meant escoby’s route couldn’t possibly retrace the e act route. ut to one side that the 21st century journey was inevitably less pioneering than its 20th century blueprint, with far less new ground broken. And withhold your sense that, occasionally, escoby’s book and TV series make the trip feel like just a little too straightforward (though there are some tense moments involving militias in far-flung places . Because, in Bescoby, Land Rover fans have found a new embodiment of the spirit of adventure. For many of us, the appeal of these overpriced, uncomfortable, unreliable vehicles is the feeling they give us that, if we wanted, we too could head off to the great unknown with only a change of Craghoppers and a bushman’s hat for company.

That’s certainly how I felt while reading his lovely book, ast verland. And the feeling’s been reinforced by watching the documentary on All it’s a programme with real heart, capturing a sense of the camaraderie and sheer fun of hitting the road on a big adventure.

So (bushman) hats off to Bescoby and his gang, I say. Just as Land Rover gets ever more corporate (I give you the launch of a £250k Range Rover as exhibit A), this immensely likeable fellow reminds us of the essence of our enthusiasm. It’s no wonder Tim Slessor was impressed enough by him to consider joining the expedition, even at the age of 87. His health let him down at the last minute. ut it’s a testimony to escoby’s status as his natural heir that the ourney didn’t suffer in conse uence. Slessor was there in the adventurous spirit pervading the expedition (and in another way that you’ll have to read the book/watch the doc to discover). It certainly reignited the flame that had been slowly guttering inside me. I just need to set my alarm for a bit earlier in the morning, and soon enough I fancy I’ll be making an overland trip of my own.

The £250,000 Landy is not a single truck

Would I have the new Range Rover Lansdowne Edition? If you’re offering, I’ll take it off your hands, but give me £250,000 to spend on a garage full of Land Rovers and I certainly wouldn’t be blowing the lot on one Mayfair-mobile.

There’s a very nice Wolf in our classifieds this month and I’d do the first sixteen on that. And a low-mileage 80, and a lovely 109” IIA with a roof rack so big you could have a garden on it. So that’s the first, er, , taken care of. Three Landies up and I’ve only spent a fifth of my budget.

Maybe I’d better leave a bit to one side to build a hangar.

My fantasy garage would have a Range Rover Classic in it, done up in full off-roading regalia, and I’ve always thought the Bordeaux edition of the was a top looker. There’s probably enough in those two to take me up to about a hundred grand, if we base the off-road build on a nice enough Rangey.

I’d go looking for my old efender and buy it back, because I’ve always regretted letting it go. And having recently learned a bit about the hot rod scene, I uite fancy a bagged, chopped 107” pick-up with a 383 stroker, chrome everywhere and a metal flake glory coat. one right, we’re knocking on for about £175,000 now.

Which leaves about enough for the token new vehicle in the collection. After all, sometimes a man needs to just get from A to B.

What’s it going to be? I can’t afford a Range Rover and I don’t want one anyway. I do like the Disco but what I really want is a Defender.

Which one? Let me think. Actually, I can’t afford most of those either so it needs to be a low-speccer. Happily, I think that’s the best one steelies and coil springs make it a better truck.

h, but what’s this? I’ve ust looked at the configurator on Land Rover’s website and it seems those versions of the Defender station wagon have disappeared. I like the vans but I need passenger model, so it turns out the new vehicle in my Land Rover garage is the other new Defender. The Ineos one.

Alan Kidd, Group Editor alan.kidd@assignment-media.co.uk

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