Crossing Africa and the Sahara by Truck / RV in 1960 - Documentary

[neoneddy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtG6niRiRXk

It's a full length program here, but I couldn't help but notice how so many topics we talk about were the same struggles these gentleman had.
Overheating, getting stuck, border crossing, making field repairs, etc.

I couldn't find much on the vehicle they used, but I suspect it had a 671  from the first time they had to take off the head.

Anyway, I'm only 1/2 way through it here, but I thought I'd share it.

[Iceni John]

I watched that video a while ago  -  I admire their determination in the face of daunting problems, but I am also sad to see something that can now never be done again like they did.   The world has changed, and not necessarily for the better.   Anyway, the star of the show is probably a Bedford QL that were produced for many British military roles during WW2;  at first I thought it was an AEC Matador, but their radiator grill is different.   The QLs were, like most Bedfords, essentially simple vehicles that could mostly be fixed with a hammer and an oily rag;  the later Bedford TJ was immensely popular in Pakistan and Afghanistan for the same reason, and they became legendary for their flamboyantly-decorated bodies and cabs  -  I travelled in several of them while piddling around the Karakoram of Northern Pakistan in the halcyon 1970s.

There also used to be a long internet article by someone who drove the hippy buses that used to run between London and Katmandu during the 1960s, but that website has now disappeared.   I can't imagine driving some clapped-out old Bedford bus that far, over roads that were more a concept than reality, surviving scorching deserts and frozen mountain passes, fixing everything that broke along the way, bribing border guards and police with bottles of Johnny Walker, and still having the best time of your life.   Maybe the ample supplies of cheap hash helped?   Ah, those were the days . . .

John

[TomC]

Brave souls! I doubt to this day if I could have the courage to do this trip. Including 5 valve jobs on a Bedford Diesel.