Breadcrumbs

Snow covered village
Snow covered village

Background

 

Hello, and welcome. My name is Ivan Hurst and this travelogue is a collection of stories, photos, videos, and facts about my overland travels. It also includes holidays and short breaks. The stories start in the early 1970's, with occasional reminisces even further back in time. The initial year of writing this page is 2012, with updates in 2016, so there is a considerable gap between the event and writing it up.

Helvellyn after striding edge.
Helvellyn after striding edge.

Family trips and holidays as a teenager

 

In no specific order, here are a few photos of family day trips and holidays whilst I was a youngster, in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. We never travelled abroad as I was growing up. My parents did go to Italy together after I had left home. Their only venture overseas together.

Encounter Overland truck in the Sahara with the EMs preparing for lunch
Encounter Overland truck in the Sahara with the EMs preparing for lunch

Encounter Overland Ltd

 

Encounter Overland’s workshop was located in rural Bedfordshire. The address was Wren Park Hitchin Road Shefford Bedfordshire SG17 5JD. Between trips this is where the trucks were stored, repaired and prepared for the next trip. There was a small permanent staff, headed up by Bill Wallace, managing the workshop and the rest of the workforce was made up of drivers between trips. Whilst looking for Encounter Overland’s Shefford address I found info on Working for an Adventure Travel Company. It states;-

  • What Will the Work Entail?
    • Long hours.
    • Mechanical knowledge required.
    • Low pay but travel formalities are taken care of.
    • Essential to get on with people in claustrophobic conditions.
    • Stamina and endurance a must.

Not a lot has changed since ‘79 then.

Encounter Overland at 280 Old Brompton Road, London
Encounter Overland at 280 Old Brompton Road, London

How I joined Encounter Overland Ltd

 

I can't remember the exact details of how I was wandering along Old Brompton Road, suffice to say that was what I was doing. I saw the Encounter Overland shop front much as you can see it in the photo above. I climbed the stairs to the office asked for a brochure, had a quick flick through, and then I asked for a job. I did not have an appointment, so knew I was trying my luck. I explained that I had just returned from Asia, Europe and North America. I was shown up another flight of stairs. I met with Tony Jones, and I think it was Ian Way, if he was the occupant of the hot seat at the time. We chatted for a while and then he said he had to go up to the workshop, did I want to come. In truth I can't remember whether it was that afternoon, or the next day, and if the next day whether I stayed in the company flat or with my brother. Either way we went up to the workshop at Wren Park, Bedfordshire.

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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.

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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.