The Story Of My First Overlander

The year was 1993, and I had just returned from a year exploring Africa by backpack.  The one iconic vehicle that I repeatedly saw throughout that dark & mysterious continent was the Land Rover. Growing up in America, it was not a sight that I had ever really seen- well outside of maybe a  National Geographic magazine. I had to find one of these fascinating trucks!

After nearly a year of searching I located an all original truck on a potato farm in Idaho. The farmer had purchased this truck brand new in 1965 at Homedale Tractor & Supply company, and after a life of working around the fields and dirt roads of this farm for nearly 30 years it was time for both of them to retire. 

The 1965 Land Rover Series IIA 88 came to me in near original condition. The classic elephant hide style vinyl seats, the safari roof & even a kodiak heater were all in great shape. 

I immediately began to make plans to travel with this amazing vehicle. Everywhere I went, it brought smiles to peoples faces and constant references to Africa. After completing a number of East Coast events and some trips to remote parts of New England my gaze turned back to Africa and with it came a plan to attempt a Vintage Land Rover Expedition across that continent.

After years of planning, the trip finally came to fruition in 2001 when we shipped 4 old Land Rovers to Europe and the Vintage Rovers Across Africa Expedition was officially kicked off.

My truck, was the oldest in the group- at that time it was already over 30 years old. 

Three months, 13 countries and nearly 8000 miles later the journey saw our team of 8 men and four vehicles ship home from the Ivory Coast. We had visited so many amazing places from Timbuktu to Dakar, from the Sahara Desert to the jungles of Benin.

Upon its return to America the truck was sadly in pretty rough shape. The endless wash board roads, the grossly overloaded vehicles and the brutally hot conditions in the desert had all taken their toll.  I eventually began to disassemble and completely rebuild the truck- attempting to restore it to as close to its pre Africa condition as possible. This took nearly 8 years, and by mid 2012 was complete. 

The past dozen years the truck has largely become a “Sunday” vehicle, occasionally doing some light off roading and attending Land Rover events on the East Coast.