INDIA OVERLAND
PART ONE

India over land, with Ibrahim Leadley, Rafza Hussainali and 'Nosey'

Man's quest for knowledge, and his insatiable appetite for horizons new has long fuelled a migration of our species that has led mankind to populate even the most remote and inhospitable reaches of our planet. Indeed, in recent times that same spirit of adventure has brought us all a wealth of knowledge of our own planet and even a limited knowledge and experience of the Universe, of which we occupy a tiny and insignificant corner.

It is that very spirit of adventure and a personal quest for knowledge that has inspired my wife and I to embark upon our latest project. To buy a 4x4 truck and to travel in it from Northern Europe to the Middle East and on to the Sub Continent of India.

We have always dreamed of making the long overland journey to India, (die hard romantics, the pair of us) but various wars and revolutions always seemed to get in the way, or the money situation was never quite right. You know what it's like...mortgage, new baby, six months in Pentonville for not paying the VAT...

Today, however, we are happy to announce that the money, the revolutions, the wars and all the other details that thwart the plans of intrepid explorers, have moved aside to let the planets align with the Inland
Revenue...and Hey Presto... we're going!!

Great! Fabulous! But what on earth are we going to go in? My wife's Renault Megan Classic is very nice, but I can't quite see it hacking it with the camels across the Iranian Desert. My '87 Granada is even less of a prosect! So what can we buy? Landrover? We're going away for about 12 months, and having slept in the back of a 'rover in the past, I don't rate it as a mobile home!! So its gotta be a bigger one!

How about an ex-army Bedford four tonner? If you read past issues of Difflock (issue 5), you may remember an article called 'Convoy to Sarajevo' which featured the old Bedford. They're a tough, (virtually) unbreakable 4X4 biggie that can REALLY 'go anywhere'! Cheap too, so they tell me, and easily obtained from UK army surplus dealers....until you actually come to try and purchase one!

Then you are faced with a whole bunch of ageing leftovers that the Kuwaiti or Kazakhstan oil companies turned their nose up at. And at £4-5000 each, no bargain!

So now what? No problem. Spend dozens of hours on the phone, the 'net and scouring magazines and the answer jumps up and bites you on the backside. All it entails is jumping in the car, driving to Mr. van Dam's yard in Bennekom and you can have your pick of Bedfords, and much cheaper too. Problem solved! Excuse me, but where's Bennekom? Northern Holland of course. Didn't you do geography at school?

Friday lunch time in Bennekom. Late April. Bright sunshine and a gentle breeze. The delicate fragrance of rusting Wehrmat cast offs drifts across the gently ripling concrete of Mr van Dam's 'surplus' emporium. Polite introductions all round, and then we are led past a collection of military vehicles that defy description! Enough to say that the Assault Craft were lined up in front of the Ambulances, and the Zundap despatch bikes were a long, long way back!

Eventually we are confronted with three ageing Bedfords that the Kuwaiti and Kazakhstan oilmen had rejected...and at 17,500 guilders each, (£4-5000) no bargain!

If only we could find a truck like the one in the picture on Mr. van Dam's office wall. Got a 'radio box' on it, just right for converting to a big camper.. Sorry, thats a MAN 630 L2A, a one off, very rare, no others available. Pity. That one went to China and back with five guy's from Apeldoorn. Oh, really? Well, thanks for your time, we'll just go home now then... we wouldn't want a cup of coffee or anything anyway...

It all seemed like a waste of time. The 110 Defender looms large on the horizons of our worst nightmares!
Weeks later, thumbing through the ads of 'Caravans & Campers' a vaguely familiar picture catches my eye. MAN 630 L2A, 1969... almost new tyres ...Apeldoorn-China...

Now there's a coincidence! Back to Holland...

At the end of May we are the proud owners of a most unusual 4x4. Say hello to 'Nosey'! We took one look at him, and just HAD to own him! Come on, admit it, you would too! Our planned journey will inevitably be over-shadowed by Alexander the Great's journey of conquest across Europe and Anatolia into India. It does put us just a bit in the shade, but on the other hand, Alexander the Great didn't have such a great truck, did he?!!

Spec's.