I joined the group, based in the West Midlands, at an early stage in 1974 – the Land Rover body was scattered around the grounds of the house that was rented and the engine was being rebuilt in the garage. In early 1975 we all got together to progress the rebuild of the Land Rover and start getting things organised:
This first image shows the body being assembled on the chassis – the parts painted black is where rusty metalwork was removed and new steel welded in:
This next, night-time, view shows most of the body has been assembled (but no seats yet) and work is being done on the engine:
As we were going to be camping, a tent was obtained; so we had practice runs in erecting it. This was our main accommodation for the trip:
We merged with a second group who had a Transit van. The owner, Steve A., had previous overland experience in Eastern Europe, so we combined our resources. For the departure we assembled at my parents house in Essex on 5th March 1975. This photo shows the two vehicles on the road outside the house the day we left (6th March 1975):
We didn’t leave the house until about 7:30pm as a part was needed for the fuel pump in the Land Rover. That evening we drove to Ramsgate for the ferry and slept in the vehicles overnight.