Breadcrumbs

EO truck on dirt road
Encounter Overland truck on dirt road in the Sahara

Africa - Encounter Overland Expedition 1979 Southbound

 

 

A story about my overland trip from London to Johannesburg, Southbound, with the layover in Southern Africa, and back to London covered elsewhere. The first chapter.

 

EO London to Johannesburg departure 3 Feb 1979

On board WBH 646S in orange

I was one of the Expedition Leaders/Drivers, L/D for an Encounter Overland trip from London to Johannesburg in South Africa. The trip left London on Saturday 3rd February 1979 and was planned to take 16 weeks. At the time Encounter Overland operated a single staff member with an expedition team of about 20 people. Otherwise known passengers, customers, punters, or officially Expedition Members, EMs. Whatever they are called they are most definitely not passengers. Having only one staff member ensures that the L/D has to fully engage with the Expedition Team and not able to bump along with with another staff member. Another advantage of course is that there is an additional seat to sell. Our trip was something different from that norm, just as well.

The Expedition Leader was normally therefore, driver, mechanic, navigator, guide, concierge, facilitator, medic (unqualified), confidant, aide, peacekeeper, negotiator, and many other things as well. The Expedition Team had to make camp, cook, wash up, shop for food, assist the Expedition leader in most things, as required, apart from driving. On top of that they had to look at the scenery, engage with each other, and the locals and generally enjoy the adventure. They were normally in the age range of 18 to 30-40. There was no formal upper age restriction, but trips like this are tough both physically and mentally. Pushing a heavy truck through soft sand, and running round from back to front with sand mats before the truck loses momentum, is not an easy task.

Some of the team were couples, others small groups of friends, and frequently they were travelling on their own. It is very interesting and challenging whichever group you fall in, to suddenly be spending 24/7 with either your partner, friends, and people you have never met before. It makes for some very interesting dynamics. The Expedition Leader has to help all of the different temperaments get along with each other and resolve any areas of friction. A collaborating team can be a happy and safe team. A happy team makes for a happy and memorable trip. Something to remember and be proud of for life.

The date was 3rd Febuary 1979, a Saturday. It was not long before everyone had arrived. It was time to get underway. However, not together. I would drive the truck down to the ferry and the EMs would travel by coach. English Public Service Vehicle laws were difficult for a truck in those days and near impossible these days. For instance, how do you construct a truck that has both a low skirt, like a coach for UK roads, and a high ground clearance for the off road segments? We would join up again on board the ferry.

 

Tom Coville accompanied me to Tunis, as Alan was ill. We met up with Alan in Tunis and Tom returned to London. Alan stayed with the group until Zambia.

I arrived with the Expedition Members, albeit in a different truck than left London, in Johannesburg on Tuesday 5 June 1979, a mere 11 days late, with a happy and contented group. The trials and tribulations together with the excitement and awe of those 123 days can be read about in the following articles. Eighteen weeks of uncertainty, change and challenge. The stuff to change a person and give memories that last a lifetime.

First time routes for Encounter Overland, wars divert us to roads not traveled by foreign trucks for a decade or more, or to leave our trusty truck and take to the air. Animals we are there to watch decide to charge. Spies and intrigue, death and destruction, mabey, and a lot more besides. However, no sex and salacious gossip, this is not a kiss and tale.

The motley crew

Our group consisted of;-

Encounter Overland staff, Ivan Hurst, Tom Colville and Alan Dougall

Expedition Members;

Annabel
Bill
B.J.
Collin
Ellen
Ernst
Jerry
Jim
Lukas
Mike
Steven
Trudy
Wolfgang

Anybody missing?


 

 

 Contents

 Links to Articles;

General;

Cliques during expeditions

Camping in the desert

 

Links to Articles;

The trip;

Europe;

      Great Britian. France, Italy;

Europe EO 79 SB

 

North Africa;

      Tunisia;

El Jem, the Roman jewel in Tunisia

Snow in the Sahara and Star Wars

Our attempt at a new route

        Algeria;

Grand Erg Oriental

Water trough in the Sahara

Oil exploration in Southern Tunisia 

Tassili N'Ajjer National Park

Djanet and rock paintings

Hoggar Mountains

West Africa

        Niger;

On into Niger

 

 

        Nigeria;

 

Central Africa

        Cameroon;

 

        Central African Empire;

 

 

North Africa;

      Sudan;

 

 

East Africa

        Kenya;

 

        Tanzania;

 

        Zambia;

 

Southern Africa

        Botswana;

 

        South Africa;

 


 

 

Photo galleries powered by SmugMug logo horizontal Light

To see the photos of this article in HD follow this link to my photo gallery site. Click here.

The photos of this trip are divided into the following areas; Europe, North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, and Southern Africa

 

Europe

Click for full screen in a new window

North Africa

Click for full screen in a new window

West Africa

Click for full screen in a new window

Central Africa

Click for full screen in a new window

East Africa

Click for full screen in a new window

Southern Africa

Click for full screen in a new window

 


 

 

Maps

 

 

 

 


 Record of Trip

Record of out trip in spreadsheet form, with some dates and places estimated. All assumed mileages are based on approximate routes and Google Maps, or similar, mileages between places and not based on odometer readings.

No SatNav tracking available.

The timings, start and finish of the day, and lunch time are purely guesswork. Doing the trip again, I would fill the spreadsheet in daily, but things have changed since the trip.

The country column is the country you wake up in in the morning.

Navigate using the arrow keys, and look at the menu icons on the bottom right corner.

I reiterate, this is not contemorary, it is compiled more than 40years after the events. It is bound to have some errors.

 

 Also I have created an ESRI StoryMap. Thoroughly recommend that you look at this.

If you can't drag yourself away from this site, the StoryMap is also below, but better by following the link above.

 

 

 

 

 

Related Articles

Police raid

In the beginning two

Hoggar Mountains

Counter

 

 

Free counters!

 

 

 

 The flag counter below is for my original travelogue, which is slowly being replaced by this one, but can still be found here.

free counters

 

 

News Flash

Change of host Sept 2023

 

Change of host Sept 2023

 

In the begining of August 2023 I transfered my ivanhurst.me.uk sites, including this one from 123-reg to IONOS. It was meant to be a simple task. However, that was to to be the case. The reason for the move was primarily the hugh increase in price that 123-reg was applying regarding email boxes. Previously, the upto 500 of the boxes were included in the various hosting packages I had. Now they were going to charge for each mailbox based on size, and as far as I could make out, this was going to cost me nearly £2,000. This was not acceptable, and I did not get satisfactory answers from support. So I turned of all the auto renews and stated to move sites and domains accross to IONOS.

Travel data problems

 

Travel data problems

This is where it starts to get a little technical.

The site is built on a content management system, CMS, using Joomla. Joomla is moving forward and version 3.10.?? is being discontinued. Future developments are for version 4.??

Similarly, PHP 7 is being replaced with PHP 8.

Part of the migration is relatively simple, I have already changed to a new template which works on the new platforms.

However, some of the helper applications, which work within Joomla are not yet ready.

Fabrik is one of those applications, if fact a significant 'Joomla Custom Website Application Builder'.

Refresh 2021

 

Site refresh Easter 2021

I decided to give the site a bit of a refresh over Easter 2021 and install a new template and some additional functions. One of the things I didn't like about the old site was the delay in text appearing which probably meant some people left before the content appeared. This has been corrected now.