It would be one of the longest of all overland journeys, from the English Channel to Singapore. Several expeditions had already tried. Some had got as far as the deserts of Persia; a few had even reached the plains of India. But no-one had managed to go on from there: over the jungle-clad mountains of Assam and across northern Burma to Thailand and Malaya.
Over the last 3,000 miles, it seemed there were "just too many rivers and too few roads". But no-one really knew... In fact, their problems began much earlier than that. As mere undergraduates, they had no money, no cars, no nothing. But with a cool audacity, which was to become characteristic, they first coaxed the BBC to come up with film for a possible TV series. Then they gently "persuaded" Rovers to lend them two factory-fresh Land Rovers (it helps when you went to college with their cheif press officer). A publisher was even sweet-talked into giving them an advance on a book. By the time they were ready to go, their sponsors (more than 80!) ranged from whiskey distillers to the makers of collapsible buckets.
In late 1955 the six strangers, of which they were to each other had completed thier exams and had managed to plan an expedition in their spare time, they set off from Oxford and Cambridge and met just outside of London, enroute to Kent, but before crossing the channel they decided to stop for "one for the road" at the Grenideir on Hyde Park Corner (a small back street establishment still in business today) where they enjoyed scotch eggs and beer before saying final good byes to family and close friends and posing for the last press pictures.
They boarded their very own aircraft, a posh Silver City Airways flight kindly paid for by Rovers and half an hour later they were touring northern france. It wasn't long before they found their selves surrounded by press again in Paris. A part of their Rovers deal was that they were to seek as much publicity as possible, on this particular occasion all the French wanted them to do was something typically English, so they brewed up tea on the steps of the Eifel Tower.
Onwards west, into Germany where they experianced super brand new freshly tar-macked highways that were empty apart from the odd truck and into Yugoslavia where they learn't the valuable lesson to have a spare pack of cigaretts in your top pocket so they could be handed over to the border official for a sleek and swift signing of the papers. Down into Greece where the roads began to get poor and dusty and the going became slower, even camping was not much fun as one night they had all their forks and spoons stolen by scruffy village children who wouldn't leave them alone, but why didn't they take the knives ??? any way after a well planned ambush and a small bribe the managed to get all there kit back even if it did mean that in all the confusion they had mistakenly put the knives in one car and the forks and spoons all in the other.
Turkey was where every thing changed. Certian food became "advisable not to eat" and the way people lived was an eye opener. It was like being shown real destressing poverty but on a sort of breaking in scale, Espically once they were across the Bosporous. They didn't hang about in Turkey as they had a filming deadline to meet so it was striaght down to Syria to film the tremendous forts and castles that stood empty for thousands of years, battle scared and bruised.
From Syria there was no real road east but there was an Oil Pipeline that ran from Syrial to Iraq though so the decision was made to follow this and anfter a short while they discovered they were not alone. The brother's Nairn had designed a special type of bus that could cope with heavy loads and rough roads but its passengers could travel in relative comfort so they decide to tag along side - just incase any thing unfortunate happened, and its just as well they did as after a short period the Land Rovers rear suspension prooved to be to weak for the rough going so it was back to the Nairn bus workshops where the mechanics fitted extra leaves to the back springs. Something Rovers had said they wouldn't need. Perfect and off they trundled heading for Iraq, again,
The Oil Pipe line ends in Baghdad and from there after some brief filming they headed for Iran, a place calling their name. The Perians Army, (Iran was formerlly known as Persia) had insisted that if the Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition were to make it as far as Persia they were to stop by and show off their vehicles. So they did and after several days of showing off and putting the cars through their paces the Persian army turned round and placed an order with Rovers for 500 Land Rovers, however the old general still drove around in his war time Jeep....
Pakistan was hot and this is where for some of the expedition members their research plan started. The Thal Desert is a typical dry, dusty plain with nothing much more than tumble weed blowing around, but some how the Pakistani government had agreed to set up an irragation network spanning from the north to the south thus supplying water to families living in the Thal, A wonder still in practice today.
The Cambridge team - the non geographical lot decided to go on ahead and in Delhi they requested permits to drive on up to Kathmandu. Yes they could be granted the permits but Tim's name was on the log book of the Oxford car and they would not let it pass with out him present so a telegrem was sent for him to get a train to Delhi pronto. The First Overland team were the first people ever to drive to kathmandu and they were certianly the first ever people to film it. The roads were hand made and very poor and occasionly blocked by trucks who's operators had mistaken the bends and spun them out over the edge whilst the rest of the truck balanced like a pendulum. The people in Kathmandu acted like they had never seen white people before and were amazed by the teams zip up jackets, shaving mirrors and boiled sweets, which are handy when it comes to filming native children.
Back down to Delhi and onto Calcutta where it was now Christmas Eve. Brooke Bond Tea had kindly offered them the top floor of an office block for a few days to rest and celebrate. The Oxford lot arrived (late) claiming they had just navigated a complete new route across India.
They wanted to reach Darjeeling by New Years so they pointed the pair of cars, now back together, North and set off. Like in Kathmandu the tempreture began to drop and by the time the were in Darjeeling they had all donn'd pull overs and the heaters had been switched onto full.
Walking back Tim noticed a young white man studying the writing on the side of their cars, his name was Tim Mayhew and he owned a small tea eastate in the Teesta Valley to which he invited them all to stay, after a quick call to his wife. Over fresh hot tea, Tim Mayhew informed the team of the tigers that roamed in the jungles and valley's below, but i think they were more worried about the situation which lay ahead. Nigel wanted to see the infamous Tiger Hill sunrise at dawn, so he set off in the wee hours but sadly didn't make it due to not being able to negotiate the road alone. Brooke Bond's main Tea Estate was their next stop off, the had set this as their main base camp prior to leaving, it was where they could finally prepare for Burma.
They emptied the cars of all un nessacary kit, threw out the radios, and took aboard spade's machetties and rope. Now alot can be said for the successful crossing of Burma, i think the main fact that help them achieve this was the fact that it was an unusually dry and hot year and the rivers had not swolen to their normal size so fording them wasn't as bad as was expected. They saw ruby's being mined in Mogok and were given an escort from Lashio to Thailand, i say escort but i think it was more of a case of "your clapped out old jeeps keep breaking down so give us your guns and then you catch us up"
Thailand and Malaysia are two places that have changed the most since 1955. Where there once lay a freshly carved elephant track there is now a super highway. Major towns were not chocka with traffic and polution and as for sky scrapers, well what were they.
On through Kuala Lumpar and into Singapore city where six months, six days and 18,000 miles later, two very weary Land Rovers rolled into Singapore to flash-bulbs and champagne. Now, fifty years on, their bestselling book, First Overland, is republished with an introduction by Sir David Attenborough. After all, it was he who gave them that film.
They enjoyed 3 weeks R&R before shipping one car back to Rangoon and one to Calcutta en route back to London, after some fieldwork. They arrived back in August 1956. The same year Group Captain Peter Townsend set off on a repeat trip, ending in a round the world jaunt, thanks to much help from the Ox Cam team. Incidentally he also chose to use a series 1 Land Rover but had considerably more trouble.
