What's Buzzin, Cuzzin?

What might things have sounded like in 1955?

With a bit of research, I have dug up the two Number One singles in the weeks that the 1955 First Overland Expedition both departed, and arrived home.

Perhaps it would have been the sweet sounds of Slim Whitman playing as the convoy rolled out of London. His 'Rose Marie' was not only Number One that week, it was also the biggest selling single of 1955:



And maybe, the tune that greeted the group as they returned would have been Doris Day's 'Que Sera Sera', which was top of the pops in August 1956 - what a blast!:

Stomach Bugs, Water filtration. 2010 vs 1955.

Tim Slessor's 'First Overland' tells of a remarkable feat: allegedly the First Overland team didn't lose a single day of their expedition due to poor health. Not one day in just under a year of travelling across some of the least developed parts of the world. The things I'd do to make our own expedition so lucky...

Luck, of course, had little to do with it. The First Overland team cooked most of their own meals, and though something of an inconvenience, such thrift probably insulated them from the nastier bugs that might otherwise have made themselves unwanted guests in the 'Oxford' and 'Cambridge' Land Rovers. Credit must also go to 'BB' for being a scrupulous guide to the expedition on all matters medical.

So the First Overland team boiled their own water, avoided raw fruit and vegetables like the plague, and were judiciously overseen by a chemistry graduate masquerading as a doctor. I have no doubt that Chao (our own, qualified, Doctor) will bring scientific rigour to the expedition's hygiene: but will this be enough in 2010? Though we hope to emulate the First Overland expedition in our route, our vehicles, and our 'principles', I can't help but think back to a recently (ruined) trip to Venice when I caught a nasty stomach bug that left me incapacitated for days. And I can barely leave Surrey without noticing a change in the water...

Marie-Claire has already offered some of her own advice on the matter: eat natural yoghurt. But I'm not convinced. That sounds a little too much like 1955 for my liking. I have a constitution of vastly inferior fortitude, and unpasteurised product of a cow (or yak, goat, sheep...) seems liable to induce illness rather than prevent it. Yoghurt seems a risky strategy in my book. So how can one turn the odds against the bugs?

Enter 2010. Enter technology. Enter the Steripen.

The Steripen is a technological marvel that (I hope...) will give us the upper hand against 99.999% viruses, bacteria, microbes and general nasties. As I'm not trying to turn this blog into an exercise in product placement (that is, of course, unless anyone would care to donate equipment or funds to our expedition...), I should mention there are several popular, award winning, innovative alternatives out there (e.g. the LifeSaver ). But I've decided to place myself under the UV care of the Steripen, and having seen the videos, read the reviews, and been given the sales pitch by a gap year student in an outdoor equipment store, I have high expectations for this minitature microbe-zapping light sabre. And if it doesn't perform as desired, I'll definitely be publishing my extended thoughts on the matter.

Being a total kit-geek, the Steripen is just one of the many marvels of the 21st century I plan to champion on this blog and on the expedition itself. But there's an important point to be found buried underneath this personal technology-kit-fetish.

If you're reading this blog post you almost certainly take good eyesight for granted. As we feel particularly strongly about vision, the First Overland 2010 team have chosen to partner with GV2020 and the Oxford Centre for Vision in the Developing World in promoting, testing and distributing their latest technology in self-adjustable eyeglasses. Focussing on the visual problems affecting the communities we pass through, we hope to champion their technological innovation - a product we believe will make a profound and lasting difference to the developing world. Though we look back to 1955 in preparing for our authentic re-trace, we are at heart a forward looking expedition - spreading the technology of 2010 in hope of a brighter future.

So how is this related to water, or to stomach bugs? Well if you're reading this blog post you probably take clean water for granted too. Just as is the case for visual refractive error, the lack of clean, safe drinking water constitutes a major and tragic impediment to development efforts worldwide. It is estimated that 1.1 Billion people lack good, clean water supplies. 2.7 Billion have no access to proper sanitation.

To me, the Steripen looks like a cool piece of kit - something that will hopefully save me from an having an uncomfortable time during our expedition to Singapore. But to that 1.1 billion people, technological innovations like the Lifesaver Jerrycan really can be life savers, and that's something worth remembering.