The namesake of British explorer Ernest Shackleton is suitably the stuff of legends. This wheeled Sir Shackleton, who we’ll call “Shack” for brevity’s sake, is a 1966 Land Rover Series 2a Marshall ambulance. But we’ve already entered a shrouded realm of mythology. Though Shack’s registration papers designate his build year as 1968, the error in year is due to a bribe. At the time, officials in Georgia—the eastern European country, not the US state—were routinely induced to increase the value of vehicles by listing them as newer than they were.
Veiled in Legend
That bribe didn’t take place until the early 1990s, so we must rewind the clock several decades to Shack’s beginning. The year was 1966, and a costly war was raging in Vietnam. We know the British military was Shack’s first owner, and oral history tells us he was sent to serve at the front (despite the fact Britain did not play a large role in the Vietnam War). According to an old Marshall ambulance brochure, Shack was fitted with four convertible stretchers in the rear. He could accommodate up to four severely wounded soldiers or six seated wounded, plus a medic. He could also carry four deceased on his roof through the jungles of Southeast Asia.
Sometime around 1975, when the war concluded, Shack was donated or sold to the Red Cross. Painted white with the internationally recognized crimson symbol, he toiled over the next decade and a half in unknown parts of Africa. We would likely be astonished to learn of Shack’s exploits during this era, but they are lost to time.
In 1991, Shack appeared on paper, and from this moment on, we can verify his whereabouts with a measure of certainty. Carved from the wreckage of the crumbled Soviet Union, Georgia was founded on April 9 and endured a tumultuous two years of civil conflict. The Red Cross sent 10 of its Marshall ambulances (now nearly 30 years old) into the war zone. In 1993, a tenuous peace arrived, and the vehicle was decommissioned to enter a quieter season of life—what would be twilight years for any vehicle other than the legendary Shack. A privately owned Georgian factory purchased the fleet of Red Cross vehicles. But when the factory faced bankruptcy a year later, Shack was sold to curtail the debt.
Now, someone who performed work for the factory owned Shack, using him as a bus to transport workers between job sites in the fledgling country. But with Shack’s hungry fuel consumption, this plan wasn’t feasible for long. Off the books, Shack was sold to a farmer in a small village near the capital city of Tbilisi and repainted a pale green color. With mechanical failures mounting, the villager donated his elderly Land Rover to the Shio-Mgvime Monastery around 2007.
The monks gave Shack a new lease on life, getting him running again with help from the community. After several years, what was considered an irreparable brake issue signaled the end of the road. Shack was placed on blocks behind the monastery, and his spacious cargo area was used to store firewood out of the elements.
This could’ve been a tranquil, quiet place for Shack to fill out his final days. But it wasn’t the end. In 2019, an avid car lover named Viktor Buachidze visited the monastery to assist with tidying up the grounds. When he stumbled on Shack, the monks were ready to sell the vehicle as scrap metal. Viktor emptied his wallet of its contents, the equivalent of about $300. His intention was to restore the vehicle to its 1966 British glory with as many original parts as possible, then sell it to a collector. But the uncertainty of the pandemic times in 2020 led Viktor to make a fateful choice. Forced by circumstances to sell, his first call was to his good friend Sean Walker, who Viktor knew to be a Land Rover enthusiast. Sean lived and worked in Georgia from 2010 to 2012 and had become a great friend.
I’ve lost count of how many lives Shack lived to this point. If you can believe it, at 56 years old, having participated heroically in some of the harshest environments in modern history, Shack was about to begin again.
Restoration
Sean Walker became Sir Shackleton’s faithful first mate. Rather than restoring Shack to 1966 specs, Sean envisioned using the vehicle as a live-in camper. Viktor had already stripped Shack down to the frame, so it was the right time to start fresh. Shack’s paint layers indicated his storied history, working down to his white and red Red Cross markings, then farther down to the original Land Rover bronze green. The ambitious restoration, which took place in Georgia, required a full crew. In addition to Viktor, Sean’s friends Dima, Soso, Shota, and Otari were essential to the project.
Sean used his mechanical engineering background and extensive travel experience to outfit Shack for overland travel. He already owned a 2010 Defender 110, which he purchased new while living in Germany. Not only was it his daily driver until he began traveling in Shack, but he also used the 110 to travel extensively throughout nearly every country in Europe and Baja California, Mexico. From all that experience, Sean and his partner, Alicia, knew what they needed for long-term overland travel.
Sean admires the look of the early Series 2a, including the inset headlights, doors, and capping. So as much as was practical, he sought to retain the 1966 Series aesthetic on the outside of the vehicle, down to the limestone roof and another legendary Land Rover color, marine blue.
Exterior appearances aside, the emphasis is on comfort and functionality—not classic specs. Due to exorbitant shipping costs into Georgia, Sean bought a donor vehicle for parts. The 1995 Land Rover Discovery 1 supplied Shack with a 2.5-liter turbo-diesel engine, front and rear axles, a transfer case, a wiring harness, an instrument cluster, a power and steering pump, aluminum wheels, and more. Some Disco parts were customized to fit Shack, like the front sway bar engineered to work as a rear sway bar.
According to Sean, “It is incredibly comfortable, even luxurious, to live in Shack because we [designed] it to our exact needs and wants.” A cursory glance at the long list of camper modifications makes this clear. A filling water pump loads an 80-liter custom water tank, passing through a 10-micron filter. A separate distribution pump directs the water through another round of filtration, this time a 5-micron charcoal drinking water filter with an integrated UV treatment. The water can be used from the outdoor pressurized shower or gooseneck faucet sink inside.
The couple can cook indoors on a two-burner propane stovetop, but instead, they find themselves using the Partner Steel Cook Partner two-burner stove secured on one of their rear doors. It connects to a propane tank mounted on the exterior side. A fold-down prep table occupies the opposite door, making it convenient to prepare meals outdoors. A spacious 90-liter National Luna dual-compartment fridge/freezer holds perishable food until mealtimes.
For all of Sean’s previous travels, this is the first vehicle he’s owned with a bed; he says it’s a game-changer. A pop-top roof uses four 12-volt electric actuators to vertically extend the entire roof. Surrounded by the resulting Seams So Fine custom canvas material, there is a Nectar queen-size memory foam bed. Inside their wheeled home, the couple can be comfortable in the tropics thanks to a Dometic RTX 1000 24-volt air-conditioning unit. Two roof-mounted Maxxair Maxxfans supply even more circulation.
These devices are powered by a 160-amp-hour lithium-ion phosphate battery bank with a Victron charging system, feeding into a 3,000-watt inverter. There are three USB-C high-power device charging points throughout the camper, as well as LED puck lighting with dimmer switches on separate circuits for upstairs and downstairs. If only Shack’s 1966 military cadre could see him now.
Voyage of Shack
Sean Walker and Alicia Shull share their adventures on Instagram as Life of Shack. To date, they’ve driven the vehicle through about three dozen countries, including parts of Turkey, Europe, and Morocco, then down the entire coast of Western Africa.
As the couple set out from Georgia, Sean admits parts of Shack were breaking constantly. “I often joke that I took this time off work to learn how to really travel, but instead, I have learned to become a mechanic, a plumber, an electrician, and a carpenter.” By the time they reached Africa, most of the gremlins had been ousted.
Driving Shack is a remarkable adventure of its own. “Visibility out the back is terrible,” Sean confesses. “His top ‘comfortable’ highway speed is about 90 km/hr. Suspension is improved from the original but still quite stiff without much travel. He is also top-heavy and just heavy in general. He is quite capable off-road, but you also need to drive super slow. In all, driving a vehicle like Shack forces you to slow down the entire trip and encourages you to get off the highway and take the side roads.”
However, where livability is concerned, Sean has proven his intricate design works. His one regret is ignoring payload during the build process, and he intends to find ways to shed weight.
Following their journey to South Africa, Sean and Alicia plan to import Shack into the United States. They’ll work and save, anticipating two years on the Pan-American Highway. They look forward to having fewer time constraints next time around. The not-so-distant future may also include another project vehicle and living overseas.
When Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, became trapped in Antarctic ice and sank in 1915, the leader and his crew drifted on ice for five months. Every member of the expedition survived the ordeal. Shackleton had the audacity to return to the Antarctic, passing from a heart attack on his ship at 47 years of age. Now nearly 60 years old, Land Rover Sir Shackleton is boldly honoring the explorer’s legacy. We chroniclers eagerly await the next voyage.
Dreams are only dreams until you make them happen. Taking that first step into the unknown is always the hardest. Even if you think you have the ‘perfect’ everything, the perfect truck, the perfect plan, the perfect route—everything will change when you hit the road. So just go, and you will figure out whatever you need to figure out on the way. –Sean Walker
Specifications
1966 Land Rover Series 2a Marshall ambulance
Power
Rebuilt Land Rover 300 TDi from 1995 Discovery, 2.5L turbo-diesel engine
Ashcroft R380 5-speed, stumpy version transmission
Suspension and Drive
Open front and rear axles from Discovery
Custom coil “helper” springs on rear axle
Custom HD front leaf springs
Land Rover 1-ton rear leaf springs
Custom rear sway bar using Discovery front sway bar
4-corner disc brakes
Custom power steering conversion
Wheels and Tires
BFGoodrich KO2 AT 235/85R16
Discovery 1 aluminum wheels
Recovery and Armor
Warn Zeon 10-S winch
Custom welded steel from winch bumper to match original style
MaxTrax
Aluminum diamond plating on front wings, side tank guards, rear steps, running boards
Custom armor under fuel tanks
Safari snorkel
Accessories
24V 160AH LiFePo auxiliary battery bank with Victron charging system
3000W 24V inverter
LED puck lighting with dimmer switches
Reading lights with integrated USB chargers
USB-C high-power device charging points
Custom push-button pop-top roof with 12-volt electric actuators
Seams So Fine custom canvas tent
Nectar queen-size memory foam bed
Maxxair Maxxfan rooftop fans
Dometic RTX 1000 air conditioner
Webasto diesel heater plumbed into vehicle fuel tank
Custom 80-liter water tank
Separate filling and distribution water pumps
Partner Steel Cook Partner 2-burner stove
National Luna dual-compartment 90-liter fridge/freezer
Nature’s Head composting toilet
BMW driver and front passenger seats
Twin 70-liter fuel tanks with push-button switching
Eezi-Awn Bat 270 awning
ARB air compressor
LED headlights, light bars, rear work lights, fog lights, indicator lights, parking lights, brake lights
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal’s Spring 2025 Issue.
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