The Vehicles

The road to Bagdhad, Syria 1998.
Photo D Romano

Crossing the continent of Africa is not to be undertaken lightly. This expedition is hampered by the fact that it is a private journey. Two vehicles are involved. G873VTL a 1990 model 110 Landrover with a 300 Tdi engine and G a 1990 model Land Rover Discovery with a 200 Tdi Engine.

Due to the slight difference in engines and driver opinions each vehicle has to be able to operate completely independent of the other. They recently required extensive re-furbishing and servicing.

Richard Clow eyes up the mess during a Weasel clear out in Kampala Uganda 1998
Photo F Jah

Both vehicles have been fitted with supplementary fuel tanks under the front seats, inverters, spare batteries. The vehicles carry additional water and fuel jerry cans. Due to the personalised nature of the conversions, the exact layout of the vehicles is not re-produced here.

For further details, the reader may contact either owner of each vehicle. Save to say that the minimum requirement was to be able to cross 1600 kms of desert terrain without refueling.

There is no reason to treat any expedition differently because it is not a sponsored journey with specific scientific tasks. Safety is paramount and must be addressed at all times. This entails the carriage of certain items of equipment. It is however, the opinion of this author that the primary reason for any vehicle encountering difficulties in harsh terrain is overloading Any expedition vehicle should be as light as possible while carrying the essential equipment.

Equipment carried on the Goblin will be:

• Recovery equipment (including ropes and cables, spades (2)and sand ladders)

• Comprehensive vehicle spares, (clutch parts and seals, brake seals)

• comprehensive vehicle tool kit.

• First aid equipment including Diclofenac, Pethadone derivative and IV fluids.

• Photographic and cine equipment.

  • One Panasonic digital video camera. (30 hours of tape)

  • 1 Chinon super 8 cine camera

  • 1 Nikon FM2 camera

  • 1 Nikon F100

  • 1 Nikon F70 1 Leica M6 Lenses Various

  • Kodachrome filmX 20 rolls

  • Kodak 400 CN x 20 rolls Fujichrome 50/100 x 30 rolls

  • Medium format camera

• Apple Laptop computer.