Back in time, when overland was called adventure.

[Max trails]

Hi everyone, I just finish listening to that documentary and it’s amazing. In 1959 a group of friends that decide to buy an ex military truck to travel to Africa and the Sahara desert.

Enjoy!





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[1leglance]

Very cool and neat that they brought this story forward in time for us to enjoy now.

 

[Ace Brown]

Pretty good adventure. Though I think a bit foolhardy to set off across Africa solo in a $160 truck.


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[TripLeader]

Good stuff. I just watched it.

 

[Foy]

Nothing less than amazing to me. The truck looks like an early 1940s Bedford, maybe a Bedford QL. It was a 3-ton 4 X 4 with a 215 cubic inch straight 6 cylinder producing a whopping 72 (Seventy two) horsepower. Looks like they made the entire trip with a bald left front tire. And they pulled the head and ground the exhaust valves five times?

There's a good look at a US military Jeep in the Atlas Mountains, and a WWII era Dodge WC (weapons carrier) in the French colonial city in more central sub-Saharan Africa. The front end on the ground beside the burned out chassis looks like a Dodge WC, too.

The credits at the end answered a question I developed during the early part of the video: How on earth did they cross so many borders without substantial problems? Credits say much of Africa descended into political chaos within the year following their trip.

I wonder what else there is in terms of video or written content regarding this event?

Foy

 

[TripLeader]

It looks like the man went on to be a boat builder:

Guest Interview – Tony Fleming of Fleming Motor Yachts and his boat, Venture

I did some quite extensive cruising – mainly in Norway and other parts of Scandinavia - in an early Fleming 55 owned by the person who is now our agent in Australia. But I presume you are more interested in the cruising I have done in my own boats.

www.powerboat-world.com

 

[AbleGuy]

Pretty good adventure. Though I think a bit foolhardy to set off across Africa solo in a $160 truck.
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1959 prices tho....in today‘s dollars it’d be worth, oh, ? mebbe $4-5,000?

 

[billiebob]

Hi everyone, I just finish listening to that documentary and it’s amazing. In 1959 a group of friends that decide to buy an ex military truck to travel to Africa and the Sahara desert.

Enjoy!





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This was such an important flashback. Unfortunately since WWII we westerners have destroyed our welcome in countries around the world. The 1950s were the end of an era. A favourite exotic destination for Americans in the 1950s was Iran. 60 years ago we could travel anywhere with relative security and comfort. Often welcome as visitors.

An amazing adventure. I often think I was born 50 years too late.

 

[billiebob]

I wonder what else there is in terms of video or written content regarding this event?

There MUST be a book.

 

[Christian P.]

thanks for posting. I will watch it with my wife.

In 60 years people will watch the XOverland series and think - "wow the world was a very different place back then"...

 

[Ace Brown]

1959 prices tho....in today‘s dollars it’d be worth, oh, mebbe $4-5,000?

Nope, more like $1500.


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[AbleGuy]

Nope, more like $1500.


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yeah, you’re right, closer to $1500 most places.

i was thinking of Left Coast prices i guess ?

 

[luthj]

The original overland by car in the USA.

Watch Horatio's Drive | A Film by Ken Burns | PBS

Ken Burns and Florentine Films put viewers in the front seat of Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson's historic — and hilarious — journey to be first person to cross the United States by car. Now streaming.

www.pbs.org

Horatio Nelson Jackson - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

In the spring of 1903, on a whim and a fifty-dollar bet, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson set off from San Francisco in a 20-horsepower Winton touring car hoping to become the first person to cross the United States in the new- fangled "horseless carriage." Most people doubted that the automobile had much of a future.

Traveling with his co-driver Sewall K. Crocker and a bulldog named Bud, Jackson's trip would prove them wrong. Using a treasure trove of photographs, and relying on previously unpublished letters, Ken Burns and Florentine Films put viewers in the front seat of this historic — and hilarious — journey.

 

[Ace Brown]

Neat story. I’d like to read all of it. But did I hear the narrative right, 6600 miles? They must have done a lot of meandering around but maybe they had to to connect existing roads.


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[DaveInDenver]

1959 prices tho....in today‘s dollars it’d be worth, oh, ? mebbe $4-5,000?

Just started watching it and that jumped to mind. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI inflation calculator says $160 becomes $1,417 and the $400 they had becomes $3,544. So their whole trip budget was $4,961 in December 2019 money. It sounds like Mobil covered quite a bit of their fuel expenses.