In this Part 3 of Forty Plus Years on the Wildside, Terence and Ina continue their adventures in the perfect camper. Terence writes about the Land Rover Forward Controls and the trips from 1984 – 1992 they did. To read about how it all started, see part 1 and then the previous post was part 2 their first Land Rover.
THE FORWARD CONTROL
Our second Land Rover was a IIB Forward Control. In 1982/3, several club members purchased FWCs from a dealer who had his premises on a farm near Hartbeespoort Dam. This dealer was buying Land Rovers at army auctions at ridiculous prices. The army was selling off a lot of Series II, Series III and R6 Land Rovers as well as Forward Controls as they were more than 10 years old.
Land Rover had stopped producing the FWCs in the late 1960’s, as they had not proved too successful as military vehicles. Nevertheless SANDF placed an order for a couple of hundred of these vehicles in the early 1970’s. Predictably, they were not used very much and those that were auctioned had very low odometer readings. As these vehicles showed excellent potential for conversion into the perfect camper, LROC members started purchasing the vehicles direct from the army.
We were paying a maximum of R2500 for vehicles with less than 3000kms on the clock; some had not even had a battery fitted. More often than not members requested Ina to do the bidding on selected vehicles. We also fetched the vehicles for Club members from the SANDF bases, which were close to our home. After one sale we had about eight vehicles belonging to various Club members parked in our front garden or on the sidewalk.
A Family of Land Rovers
Over the next 10 years, we regularly attended army auctions. Ina had an eye for turning a quick buck and at these auctions purchased items such as blankets, shoes, boots, camping chairs, stretchers etc. many of which she sold on to Club members.
In total we purchased about 15 Land Rovers, several of which we built up for our own use, others we rebuilt for selling. We kept two SWB’s for Alan and Brian when they were 12/13 years old. These I helped them to rebuild. Brian has recently sold his after having it for 25 years. They helped me from an early age when they could pass me the right spanner.
The Perfect Camper
We fitted out the FWC with four bunks, a kitchen, cupboards, a toilet and loads of packing space. We purchased a Zodiac inflatable boat and a 40hp outboard that we used when we went to the Okavango, the sea, and dams.
We used the FWC for most of the trips over this period. It was fortunate that fuel prices at this time were not too high as he FWC had a consumption of 24-27 litres/100kms. The comfort and convenience of the perfect camper made the cost of fuel acceptable. We had trips to SWA/Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, the West Coast, and the Transkei. Towards the end of this period, we were again permitted into countries that had previously been closed to us.
Botswana
We had one memorable trip in July 1988 to Botswana in the FWC again with the Vorsters. We entered Botswana at Bray in the South and picked up a cut-line that took us 100kms in a straight line directly west to Mabuashehube Game Reserve where we spent a few days. This was before the reserve was incorporated into the Kalagadi Transfronteir Park. There were no facilities or water and no charge.
From here we went via Ghanzi up the west side of the Okavango Delta to the Drodsky caves and Tsolido Hills. We were going to go further north but our vehicle had lost power and we were using an abnormal amount of fuel due to a burnt exhaust valve. Eventually we had to pool all our fuel and Jan went off to Maun 100kms away to get more fuel. We went to the Dandridges house on the Boro River and in no time had the head off and a new valve fitted.
Leaving our vehicles here, we borrowed one of Colin Dandridges large aluminium boats and headed up the Boro into the Delta for a few days. We underestimated our fuel consumption and on our return trip we ran out of fuel. We did not have oars and used plastic plates to paddle. It took us hours to reach the Dandridges as the river was running low and we kept on beaching on sand banks. It was just on midnight when we saw the huge fire Frank had lit to guide us home.
Malawi
With the relaxed travel restrictions on South Africans we took the opportunity in 1991 to go via Zimbabwe and Zambia to Malawi with the Vorster family. I got serious ill, which laid me flat for the return trip. As we suspected malaria I took large doses of chloroquin. I received excellent medical attention at a missionary hospital in northern Malawi who confirmed malaria and supplied us with other medication. As they refused to accept any payment, we sent them a donation when we got home.
When we got back to South Africa, I was still not feeling well and went to a local doctor who in spite of having been told of where we had been etc. declared that I had yuppie flu. Two weeks later, I was rushed to a physician after collapsing at work. I was put on heavy doses of quinine. After a few days, I was back to normal and have not had a recurrence of the disease.
A major problem we had in Malawi was the number of local people and the lack of camping facilities. We arrived in Lilongwe in the late afternoon and could not find a suitable spot to camp. We eventually parked behind some bushes on the lawns of the park in front of the government buildings. The next morning a few early workers stared at us in amazement. We left very smartly.
No matter where we stopped in the country we very soon had dozens of gawkers watching our every move. It was almost impossible to take a spade into the bush. We soon discovered that all over Malawi there were large clumps of untouched bush. It was taboo for the locals to enter these areas – ideal spots for us to set up camp for the night.
The Finger of God
We were fortunate to see the “Finger of God” on our trip in July 1987 to southern Namibia. We commented on how amazing it was that such a huge rock formation could be supported on such a small column. It collapsed in December the following year.
SWA/Namibia
In August 1989 we went with Clive and Sylvia Crossman and Doug and Marrianne Miller to the Kaokoveld. The Angolan war had come to an end and we felt quite safe to tour this area which had in previous years been troubled by conflict. As we had planned a long trip over two weeks with limited fuelling points we opted to take our Series ll LWB instead of the FWC. Clive was in his Land Rover R6 (the forerunner of the 110) and Doug in his Series III LWB.
From Windhoek we made our way to the Brandberg where we saw the famous White Lady rock painting. We now travelled via Brandberg West Mine to the Huab River, the Gai- Ais spring and eventually Sesfontein. This route was quite interesting as 25 years ago navigation was not as easy as it is today with GPSs.
We did take a couple of wrong tracks; one led us into a box canyon with a substantial spring and pool at its end, an ideal spot to cool off and replenish our water supplies. We then travelled via Purros and the Red Drum to the Kunene River through the Marienflus valley. On this route we came across the Himba. We found them and their living methods quite intriguing.
From the Marienflus we took the road to the bottom of van Zyl’s Pass. Fifty or so metres up the pass made us realise why its ascent by vehicle was not recommended. As our fuel was getting low we travelled for about 10kms cross country to pick up an alternative road to Opuwa saving about 100kms going back via Red Drum. Instead of taking the main road across Ovamboland from Opuwa we picked up a small track that took us across to Ondangwa. We found the locals to be very unfriendly not even returning our waves. This was the first time ever in all our travels that we found such unfriendliness, so much so that we decided not to camp at sunset but to press on to Ondangwa.
Reaching the town in the dark we asked at a tavern where we could camp. A young black lady told us that it would be unsafe for us to camp out. Namibia was due to hold its first election in October resulting in tensions amongst the followers of various parties. She arranged for us to camp in the grounds of the police station. The next day we went through the Caprivi Strip, and the Chobe Game Reserve to Kasani.
Other Trips
We went with the Vorsters to Lesotho in 1990. It was amazing how well our FWCs performed on the Lesotho roads. A Basotho on horseback looked in amazement when he saw the two large vehicles on a difficult section of a mountain pass. When he saw the Land Rover badges on the front of the vehicles, he smiled broadly uttering an “AahHaa”.
The only problem that we had was with Jan’s vehicle. His front prop shaft disintegrated and had to be removed. He could not get up the Matabeng pass in two-wheel drive. We went up the pass and at the top Brian, who was with us on the trip, removed our prop shaft and took it down to Jan.
We had two trips in the FWC to Namaqualand and the West Coast. One was with Alan and Brian in 1987. The two boys travelled in Alan’s Series II SWB, which he had recently finished. The only problem we had was when we decided to have lunch next to some large rocks on the beach. This was the first time we had ventured onto the Cape beaches. What a mistake – it took us two hours and lots of seaweed and other debris on the beach to extricate the FWC.
The other trip was with Frank and Aileen to see the flowers. It was wonderful to have Aileen with us as she was a fundi on wild flowers and could name all those we saw. Interestingly this was the first time the Dandridges had seen the Namaqualand flowers in over 30 years of Landroving.
In the final part of this amazing story Terence writes about even more Land Rover builds and adventures.
Watch the full video of these adventures in the perfect camper at The Overland Legend on Youtube
