Breadcrumbs

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.

The map below shows the two locations. The route between the two will have varied over the years following roadworks.


View My first day with Encounter Overland in a larger map

Along the way we talked about opportunities in Kathmandu and other areas of Nepal. Looking for value added schemes such as white water rafting and trekking. These could be optional extras to add to the end of a trip. Run by a combination of drivers waiting for their homebound trip and locals. The King of Nepal was still considered a deity at the time and there were numerous restrictions, including foreign involvement. The maximum allowable foreign ownership of a Nepalese company was 49%. Only Nepalese companies were allowed to trade in Nepal. So, effectively you had to find a partnership, but you could never be in control. This was a risk.

It was a very fruitful journey as we got on well and shared views on a lot of the things discussed. Tony Jones ran the company. He was either the sole owner, or co-owner at the time. Before the end of the day I had a job as a driver for Encounter Overland. One of the best companies of its type in the day.

And that is how I joined Encounter Overland.

It is coincidental that the photo of Ian Way with the truck has an inflatable on the cab.

 

 

 

 

 

Related Articles

List of Articles

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.