First Overland

Details: Category: Series I; Last Updated on Tuesday, 14 December 2010 20:35; Written by Graeme Aldous; Hits: 3353

On September 1st 1955 a young lad in short trousers was standing beside the A20 Dover Road in Lee Green, SE London, and was thrilled to see a pale blue Land-Rover Station Wagon go past. It was lettered 'Oxford & Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition, London to Singapore', and was one of a pair setting out to attempt something that hadn't been done before, and has only been done rarely since - to drive the longest overland journey on the planet. They didn't know if they would get through, because their route would take them through the jungles of Burma, using the abandoned wartime military roads.

They DID get through, and Tim Slessor's book 'First Overland' has been a Land-Rover favourite for half a century. And that young lad in short trousers became the video producer who rescued and restored the colour film footage that had hardly been seen for 50 years, and has made it available on DVD for the first time, with commentary and interviews with the 5 surviving members of the expedition.

For details of the 'First Overland' expedition DVD, click on www.teeafit.co.uk/firstoverland .