Alex Bescoby, Adventurer
In 2019, filmmaker and presenter Alex Bescoby drove 13,000 miles in a 64-year-old Series 1 Land-Rover from Singapore to London, recreating the historic ‘Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition’ of 1955.
A documentary, The Last Overland, shown in autumn 2022 on All4, followed the journey as he reversed the original route immortalised in the book The First Overland by one of the expedition’s six intrepid drivers, Tim Slessor. The book became the overlanders’ bible and has never since been out of print.
“Eight of us drove three cars, and believe me we felt every bump in the road. The Series 1 has no heating, no insulation, no disc brakes, no synchronised gear box…we drove through 23 countries over 111 days. ”
“I was living in Myanmar when I first stumbled across a reference to The First Overland while trying to find the last person to drive the Stilwell Road. The story of the expedition had such charm and our resulting adventure really became a series of escalating dares.
On its 50th anniversary, Sir David Attenborough described The First Overland as “a journey I don’t think could be made again today” — which was an irresistible challenge.
Yorkshireman Adam Bennett had discovered “Oxford” – one of the two original Land Rovers used — on the small South Atlantic island of Saint Helena and brought it back to the UK to restore. When we met at the 70th Overland anniversary celebrations, he suggested I retrace the journey and put me in touch with Tim Slessor who immediately said “Great, I’ll come with you’”
From there, it all happened rather quickly. Very sadly, at the start line at the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix, Tim fell ill on the start line, but we took his grandson Nat George in his place.
Eight of us drove three cars, and believe me we felt every bump in the road. The Series 1 has no heating, no insulation, no disc brakes, no synchronised gear box…we drove through 23 countries over 111 days.
The hardest part was in Tibet, driving at altitudes of over 5,000m where it was freezing cold, down to -15c and the altitude sickness was really bad.
We felt most at risk in Tajikistan, driving on the Pamir Highway just south of the capital Dushanbe, where some tourists had been mown down a few months before by the Taliban.
I’d never been a hugely passionate driver before — my father and grandfather were really interested in Land Rovers but I hadn’t grown up yearning for an epic drive, it just happened. Before we left, I had a crash course in off-road driving from 1989 Camel Trophy winners Bob and Joe Ives and learnt a lot about car maintenance along the way – we once had a tyre fall off at 50mph. We had an amazing mechanic Doctor Silverius Purba (‘Doc Sil’ to his friends) from Indonesia, who kept the vehicles on the road as well as being the team’s doctor.
Even the boring bits of the journey, the motorways in Europe, were memorable…being overtaken at great speeds on the autobahn in Germany while we were doing 62mph downhill.
The most meaningful memory was Burma — or Myanmar. It was my home for ten years on and off, so it was amazing to share its beauty with the team as we drove through, but the country has changed so dramatically since with the coup and the civil war going on there now. It’s bittersweet; a strange kind of grief.
But I think for me, Tim and Nat’s relationship is the heart of this story. The grandson getting to relive his grandpa’s great adventure, while his grandpa looked proudly on. I lost my own Grandad to dementia, he died while we were on the road. I’d have loved to have that bond with my Grandad, but to be able to help another grandson/grandfather bond in that way is more than compensation.”
The Last Overland was supported by Battleface Insurance.
Words Abi Butcher Twitter | Instagram
Photography Léopold Belanger / Grammar Productions
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