Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Nick Dimbleby on Exploring and Documenting the World by Land Rover

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Nick Dimbleby on Exploring and Documenting the World by Land Rover · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal Podcast. I am
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: your host, Scott Brady, and for today's guest, we have
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Nick Dimbleby. Nick was actually on my very first list
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: of dream guests for the Overland Journal podcast. Nick is
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: a three decade long photographer for land Rover and other
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: premium manufacturers. Nick participated in the last four years of
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: the Camel Trophy and he has traveled to over eighty
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: countries in his explorations of the world. Nick is a
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: consummate professional. He is renowned for his photographic work and
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: video work, so there's a lot of insights that are
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: gained from that both as a photographer and as a traveler.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: We get to talk about Nick's vintage land Rovers as well,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: and we have the conversation in Dubai in the UAE.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Nick and I had just been traveling together in the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Arabian Desert, So please enjoy my conversation with Nick Dimbleby.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: This content is brought to you by Overland Journal, our
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: premium quality print publication. The magazine was founded in two
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: thousand and six with the goal of providing independent equipment
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: and vehicle reviews, along with the most stunning adventures and
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: photography we care deeply about the countries and cultures we
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: visit and share our experiences freely with our readers. We
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: also have zero averatorial policy and do not accept any
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: advertiser compensation for our reviews. By subscribing to Overland Journal,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: you're helping to support our employee owned and veteran owned publication.
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  Speaker 1: Your support also provides resources and funding for content like
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: you are watching or listening to right now. You can
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: subscribe directly on our website at Overland journal dot com. Nick,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for being on the podcast today.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: I have to say that I have long.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Admired your work, and there are so many in the
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: industry that are familiar with your work, and they may not.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Know you as an individual.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: So I'm so grateful that we can take the time
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: today to talk about not only you as a creative,
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: but as an adventure traveler yourself, and as a land
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: rover enthusiast.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: We got a chance to.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Talk in the car today as we were driving the
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: one thirty, the new Defender one thirty from the desert
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: into Dubai here, and we've got a chance to You
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: have a wide and varied story which I think is
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: so fascinating. I think we should start off by kind
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: of talking about why we're both here, which is the
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: new Landover Defender one thirty absolutely Yeah, And have you
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: had any personal insights or thoughts that you've come to
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: on the vehicle.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Well, I think the first thing is I think is great.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: It feels like the absolutely perfect Defender now. I think
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: with that extra load space at the back, the car
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: just feels right. And I think one of the things
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: that is interesting photographing it is the proportions.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 4: Now it looks very much like you know, the sort
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: of the long wheelbase land Drover going way back to
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: the sort of the one I seven's, but there is
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: one that sort of that sort of you know fourth well,
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: five seats in the middle, and then obviously you've got
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: the load space at the back.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: So yeah, for me, I noticed that when I think
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: about the classic Defender that I drive, it does have
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: quite a bit of body after the rear axle, and
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: this new one point thirty is more reminiscent of that.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: And I actually think that of all of the current
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: model land Rovers, this is the most appropriate for travel
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: absolutely because you still have the same wielbase as the
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: one ten. So it's not too long, it's just right.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: It's you know, it's the right porridge for travel, but
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: you've got an extra thirteen inches of space after that
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: rear axle for additional equipment. And one of the things
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: that I liked about the vehicles that I was driving
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: yesterday is it's actually the five seat variant, so you
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: end up with that flat load floor in the rear.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: And have you noticed anything really different about driving it.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 4: I thought I was going to feel like it was longer,
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: but actually, yeah, it feels it's you know, you're looking forward.
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  Speaker 2: It looks like the sort of the normal sort of
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: new Defender.
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  Speaker 5: I guess the interesting thing is here is everything's a
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: lot bigger, same as it is in.
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  Speaker 4: The US of the station. In the UK, we're a
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: little bit more pressed for space. I'm interesting how it
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: works in parking spaces and things like that.
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  Speaker 3: But that's a good point. That's a good point in
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  Speaker 3: the US. It's a right sized vehicle. It's a competitor
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: to the Yukon and the Denali now, and I think
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: it's going to be well suited for I think it's
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: going to be very well suited for towing, and of
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: course the embargo will have left by the time.
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  Speaker 2: This goes live, but there's going to.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: Be a V eight variant of the Defender one point
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  Speaker 3: thirty as well, which I think will be very popular
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: for towing for people who carry a lot more equipment.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: Although personally I think that the Inline six is with
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: the turbo is just a fantastic right.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Engines and we saw that in the dunes yesterday.
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  Speaker 3: The vehicle is power yeah, yeah, and it makes plenty
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: of power slightly and the fact that it's independent front
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: and rear suspension in the dunes, I think they do
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: really well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the car.
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  Speaker 4: I was actually really surprised at how amazing it is
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: in the jeans. Actually, yes, because we had the mud
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: terrain tiles on so sure, which is usually a challenge,
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: a little bit of a challenge, but with the right
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: tar pressures which we obviously add down before we headed out.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: And yeah, you got the SAM mode on the Terranum
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: Response system, which of course gives you that increased pickup initially.
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  Speaker 4: And also this is all the different traction aids that
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: you get.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's.
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  Speaker 3: It really worked the weakest going to get the drive
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  Speaker 3: that's all and that's really all we saw yesterday in
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  Speaker 3: the dunes was just people that were maybe in experienced
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: or took maybe not quite the best line, and that
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  Speaker 3: was the only time that the vehicle really had any challenges.
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  Speaker 3: But it was also nice to see everybody working together.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: And you know, we had to even use it a
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  Speaker 3: kinetic rope to tow out one of the vehicles and
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: it was it was really neat and for me, that
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  Speaker 3: was one of the joys of yesterday is that I
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: had the chance to just spend the whole morning with
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: the drive team and really spend a lot more time
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  Speaker 3: in the dunes driving the vehicle than I would have
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: normally been able to do.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a great team as well as Yeah, it
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  Speaker 4: really is. The guys that look after these events, not
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  Speaker 4: just here but obviously globally.
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  Speaker 2: They're incredible.
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  Speaker 4: It's a great bunch of people, you know, really really
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  Speaker 4: just so experienced they know how to do it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's a pleasure working with them.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, all of you guys are just you're the masters
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: of your craft. And you know, everybuddy from David Sneith
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: who was on the podcast a few years ago and
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: the care that he puts into these driver routes and
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: everything else like that to you. And I learned something
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: new about you today in the car that was so fascinating.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: If I under standard remember it correctly. You were thirteen
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: years old when you publish your first book, that is right, Yes,
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: I was. I was a nerdy teenager.
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: I was working out for you. Yeah, absolutely, that's it. So, yeah,
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: I started. This is where I mean, this is where
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: it all started, really is. I was interested in cars.
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: I was interested in conversions, in sort of special special
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: modified vehicles, and rain drover, the classic rang Drover was
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: back in the seventies and eighties was one of the
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: most modified vehicles ever. Six wheelers, hunting vehicles for the
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: Middle East. Here, convertibles, you know, rally.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: Cars, police, the popemobile, you know, there's ones converted for Queen.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: You know, all these different modifications.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: So as a as a boy, I wrote to these
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: manufacturers and said, oh, please send me some photographs and
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: information and started to create this scrapbook which then eventually
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  Speaker 4: became this book that was published by Haines Publishing back
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  Speaker 4: in nineteen eighty seven.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was, and many of you that are when
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: I wrote it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, many of you that are listening will know the
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: Haines manuals because you've worked on your own land rover
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: or jeep or any and these are prolific Haines manuals.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: Was so they had like a obviously published normal books
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: as well as insurance. So this wasn't this wasn't a
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: technical insurance. This was this was basically a sort of
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  Speaker 3: a scrap book of cool photographs of some of the
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: amazing vehicles that have been produced.
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  Speaker 4: So yeah, that's where it all started. And then there
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: was a few of my own photos in there.
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  Speaker 3: I'd started to take pictures as a as a boy,
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: I was sure into photography.
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: It's sort of snowboard from there really sort of. The
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: book came out and it was reviewed in a magazine
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: called Landrover Owner, which again was at the time a
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: very small publication sure, being produced by by three guys
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: in a shed basically in Norfolk. So I started to
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: do a bit of work for them. And of course,
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: you know if you remember.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: That, so you were fourteen when you started working for them.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: I was, yeah, very very young set of photographer and
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: just was just you know, I mean that they were
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: they were keen for content.
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: Sure, and obviously because I was you know, I was
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: keen to do stuff and I was I was still
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: at school with my parents were kind enough to give
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: me lifts to sort of you know, shirt rallies and
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: various different things. So yeah, and then it sort of
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: went on from there, carried on working with Landover Owner
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: for years, and then they were taken over by a
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: larger publishing company, which actually coincided with when I left university,
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: and then it just carried on from there, started working for.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Other magazines within the group.
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: In nineteen ninety six, I had the opportunity to go
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: on Camel Trophy.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: And that was as a journalist or as Yeah, so
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: this was another one of these weird twists of fate.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: So I had a place as a journalist on the
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: ninety six trophy for Landover Owner. But coincidentally, my friend
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: of mine was working at the London Boat Show and
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: he met the guy that was running the photographic operation
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: for Camel Trophy, a chap called Lee F. Farrant, And
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: Lee was at the boat show just as a as
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: a sort of a customer person interested in boats. Got
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: speaking to my mate who was working on one of
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: the stands, and he said, oh, you should speak to
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: my mate Nick. He's he's a keen land Rover photographer.
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: He'd love to do the Camel Trophy. So Lee, they
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: swapped cards and said, going to give me a call,
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: and so I called him and again coincidentally, he happened
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: to live about six streets away from where I was
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: living in London.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Unbelievable.
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: So we met, we met, there was meant we met
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: that we met at the pub and had a chat.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: And obviously because I.
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: Was already going on the event, it was great because
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: he said, look, I'll I'll do you a deal. I'll
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: I'll give you some roles of film because obviously it
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: was all shot on film. Then I'll give you roles
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: of film if you can. If you can, basically let
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: us have first DIBs on all your stuff, will process it.
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: And yeah, that's how it started. And obviously did a
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: reasonable job and got asked to do the event next year.
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: Is one of the official teams. So how many years
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: over the Camel Trophy did you pticize? I did the
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: last four, so you literally saw the last of the
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: last Yeah, so the last land Rovers. So then ninety six,
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: ninety seven, ninety eight event there was no event in
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: ninety nine, and obviously the two thousand event which was
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: in the Ribs in the South Pacific, so very different
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: event again, but to.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: Have experienced all of those for me, I look at
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: Camel Trophy and I just I kind of hear it
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: and see it in hushed tones. And if all this
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: excitement steeped in so much.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Yea like a long time ago. Now it is, you know,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: it is.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: It's The last event was in two thousand, first event
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: in nineteen eighty.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was with jeeps, if I remember it correct.
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: The first event nineteen eighty was was in Brazil with
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: these license built jeeps, Brazilian jeeps, the U fifty it's called.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: And then the next event eighty one was in rain Drover.
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: That was the start of a long association Camel Trophy
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: and Androver, which is amazing.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: It is amazing.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: And the first year that you participated would have been
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: a Discovery one, correct, Yeah, and after that Discovery one, sure, Ti.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: And when you look back on that experience, what were
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: some of the things that you thought were key takeaways
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: about travel, about driving, about setting up a vehicle that
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: you learned from.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was pretty green then.
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: Actually, I've been fortunate to do a few trips because
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: again because I've been working while I was at college.
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: So I had done the Warm Challenge Events Challenge in Morocco. Yeah,
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: that was in ninety four. Transylvania Trophy as well.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: I know that was some of these legendary there were
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: back in the nineties.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, I did that one was interesting.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: Ye, that Transylvania Trophy looked like it was in the
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: entire thing was in the water. It was basically Yeah, yeah,
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: I've seen the photo. I've been down believe the whole
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: a day stage was literally driving down.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: A river, unbelievable, which was pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, very cool.
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: So, yeah, I was twenty one years old. It's sort
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: of funny anything a long time ago. I've done a
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: few trips, but.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was definitely a bit green when it came
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: to sort of travel. You know, you sort of didn't
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: know what to expect. They gave a few there's like
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: a little mini event guide which gave you a few
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: tips of what to bring and all the sort of
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: medications that anti malaria tablets and are any of those
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: still in existence? Those guys, Yeah, I've got I've got them.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: I've still got my guy.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: I would loved I would love to.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: So I did see those part of my research for
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: the book. I actually went through all this stuff and
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: it was I saw that you had some of the
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: lists included in the book exactly.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so all that stuff is all around. But anyway, yeah,
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: so that was that, but yeah, it was it was.
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: I mean, we we we lived out of that car
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: for three weeks and it was in that that trip
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: to Borneo was they say one of the toughest camel trophies,
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: and it felt pretty tough at the time.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: We did.
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: We did five hundred miles and two weeks the first
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: the first two weeks because it was it.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Was just bridge building, Winching, you know, it was. It was.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: It was tough mud, mud mud, you know. It was that.
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: It was classic classic camel trophy, proper hardcore, just slow
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: going getting the convoy through Winching, bridge building, you know,
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: it was. It was it was a track that hadn't
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: been used the years.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Sure, you know the locals, which is what they loved.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: That's on mopeds.
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: Sure, so we were getting like, you know, I think
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: it was forty forty vehicles defends and discoveries through so
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: it was pretty pretty tough.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: They had a road at the end of that, Yeah,
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: pretty much exactly.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: Yes, it was definitely yeah, there was definitely yeah, definitely
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: a good way. And that's and that was always the
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: thing again with camel trophy.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: That was good because there was a legacy that was
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: left quite often with you know, locals that couldn't.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Get through because bridges were broken and else.
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: And actually the trophy would come in and you know,
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: construct these these bridges, prepare them to get the convoy through,
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: leave it for the locals to have and there was
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: quite a few stories of you know, places that the
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: bus couldn't get through and then all of a sudden,
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: because of the trophy, it could so right, it was
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: a very positive legacy in that respect.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: And if if I remember, the media would oftentimes assist
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: but not drive.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: Was that true? No, no, no, we would drive as well.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: I mean in the same there was the competitive sections
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: at the beginning of the end, so media couldn't be
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: involved with that.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: But but in the media you were participating.
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: Media, you were expected to be part of it, very
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: much like help get the car through winch you know, participate,
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: and I mean amidst of the team members didn't want
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: to let the journalist drive because they were too busy
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: having it, but sometimes it was necessary because of you're working,
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: you're driving for twenty twenty.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: Four hours, you know, just so inevitably have to share
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: the driving. So yeah, I drove a few times that
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: and you were you were along with the uk KT Yeah, sure, yeah?
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: And who were the who are the two drivers for
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: the UK team?
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: Will Tapling and John Leech? You'p in touch with those guys, yes,
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: so Will Actually he lives in Florida, so he's down
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: down in the US three and John, And then it
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: was kept in touch with John because he actually went
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: off and had a military career, so oh wow, he
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: was about to join the army. So I think when
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: we talked earlier we did about was you were not
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: allowed to be a member of the serving member of
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: the armed forces to throw a camera traphe but he
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: managed to dodge that by not actually joining until after
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: we left.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I still have my I still have my original application.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: And again it was just I was just so grateful
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: that Tom Collins took the time to just let me
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: know that I wouldn't qualify because of being in active reserves.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it was certainly a.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: State learning curve for I was I was twenty three
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: at the time. Yeah, so it was it was it
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: was a state learning curve for young twenty three year old.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: But it was great.
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: It was a really good experience and actually, you know,
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: cemented the fact that that's something that I wanted to
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: do as a career because I was still wavering at that.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: Time about maybe going into television. That was sure, that
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: was something I was looking at doing. But actually that
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: that particular event sort of made me say, actually, do
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: you know what I want to do? This this is
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: what I want to do, and this is what I've
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: been doing ever since. Well, and those those events were
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: just so iconic and I think transformative for the land
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: Over brand. And I think it also really brought Overlanding
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: in vehicle based adventuring to the general consciousness. You know,
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: not so much in the United States because the camel
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: trophy never really gained a lot of popularity there, but
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: in Europe there would be millions of applicants.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So again UK was not really a massive market
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: for camel Trophy. Sure it was only because of the
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: land rover connection out there, but obviously in Spain, France, Germany,
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: huge huge following and in fact, a friend of mine,
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: Moy Torodanna, who was a competitor for Spain in nineteen
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: ninety is.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: Now very much involved with Landrover.
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: And Moy said that, you know he was when he
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: came back from doing that event, you know, he was
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: on TV. It was like all over the place, and
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: he said it was like being a celebrity.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: You're a football story. Yeah, you walk into a bar
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: and say, hey, we know you're the You're the guy
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: from Camel Trophy and you know, he said it was
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: incredible from.
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: Going from like, you know, not being known at all
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: to being suddenly this sort of personality. So yeah, it
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: was a big It was a big deal back in
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: the back in the nineties.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: In many countries.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: And then when you were I'm just curious because photography
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: at that time was quite different and there would have
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: been on film, there would have been you've been shooting
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: on film, and there would be a whole separate video crew, correct,
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: And today you do both quite efficiently between the two. Sure,
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: I mean obviously on primarily a photographer, but did a
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: little bit of video as well.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean that's the thing, isn't.
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: I mean you look at look at camera technology and
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: how things I mean that we all up mobile phones
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: and we do it at our mobile phones are incredible
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: devices for capturing things. Is you know you look back,
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: you know when we first started back in the nineties,
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: you know, it was it was almost inconceivable that this
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: would would be the case. But yeah, this is, this
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: is technology and it's great. I love I love the
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: fact that, you know, technology allows us to do much
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: better things, be more creative. You know, shooting on raw
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: is just an incredible thing to be able to change,
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: you know, pick up, bring bring up shadowys, bring down highlights.
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: You know, it's things like that that really good. But equally,
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: I love the fact that I had a basic grounding
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: in film, you know, because that's something that.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: I think so and it was the same for me.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: I had the eos that I controlled the early I
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: felt like, yeah, that's right.
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: But I'm glad that I did start in film and
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: that I had a dark room and I spent the
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: time to really understand the mechanics of photography. Well that's
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: what light room is. Basically, light room is a dark room,
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: but without the chemicals it is and it's it's quite good. Yeah,
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: I remember, I remember being quite sad when Aperture went
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: away from Apple, But light room is better now. Obviously
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: they finally eclipsed station that Aperture ever did. So when
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: when you think about your photography equipment, because there's no
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: doubt that some that are listening would love to make
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: for a career in adventure in vehicles and being a
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: photographer to do that, what talk a little bit of
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: about what kind of equipment that you do use?
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Now?
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: Of course, all that being said, you know, beautiful images
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: come from talented photographers. They don't come from expensive equipment.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: But I do notice that you're because I've known you
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: for long enough to watch your kit refine and you
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: keep downsizing and you're more efficient in the field down sure.
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: I mean, well, travel is quite an interesting thing because
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: obviously you have to decide what you're going to carry
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: and how you're going to travel. So, I mean, the
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: nice thing about working with vehicle based trips is obviously
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: you have a vehicle to work out of, mostly sure,
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: so that allows you to have more equipment to be
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: able to carry a different variety of lenses. But obviously,
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: if you're you know, other times I'm working in a vehicle,
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: but it may not be my vehicle, because when I'm
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: working on a large event, I'm fortunate enough to have.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: The photo car, if you like, the your car that
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: has me and a driver that we can get ahead
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: and do all the things you need to do. But
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: if I don't have that and I have to be
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: you know, you have a small seat and that's all
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: you've got, and obviously a basic kit of a sort
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: of a couple of bodies, a telephoto zoom and a
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: wide angle to telephoto zoom pretty much all you need.
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: So you'll run two bodies, one of them always to
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: be We'll be on the the Reach twenty.
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: Four seventy with a wide angle to sort of mid
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: mid telephoto. And then on this particular trip, I've had
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: the one hundred to five hundred, which is.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Recent.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm a recent convert to the mirror the system.
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: So I've been using EOS canonios for years, starting with
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: the film days. The EOS ones had all the whole
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: range of those the US one ends the US one
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: RS's which is the semi transparent mirrors.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: If you remember, I remember I loved those. They were great.
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: And then obviously when the digital photography started coming about.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: So initial camera was the D thirty, which was the
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: first Canon owned proprietary digital camera.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Prior to that, we were using.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: The Kodak Canon Hybrids, which were basically converted film cameras
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: which were two and a half megapixels.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Imagine, so amazing how things have come on.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: But anyway, the twenty times absolutely yes, yeah, yeah, and
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: it was slow and the batteries had run out and
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: it was just you know, a different world.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: But yeah, so now for years had.
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: The one d X one d X mart one, not two,
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: Mark three had two one DX Mark threes, which I
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: absolutely loved. And then my friend Dave Shepherd basically had
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: swapped a mirrors and said you've got to try one
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: of these.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: So tried it and I was like, wow, this is.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: This is where it's at, this is where it's going
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: to go.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: And obviously they're more compact and that's it.
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: And so yeah, so I'm now on two R three's,
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: kennon AR three's and basically.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Chopped everything in.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: All my old F lenses went in and I just
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: did a massive part exchange. It was a big bill, Yeah,
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: I can imagine. But yeah, so I'm on that.
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: So that and one of the advantages you get this
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: lovely one hundred to five hundred zoom lens, which as
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: a as a travel lens is just brilliant.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: That's incredible because you have that range, have the range
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: and you know, obviously is a trade off with the aperture,
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: but obviously cheating in these broct conditions.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: There's plenty of light. I mean, it was incredible how
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: much light there was in the dunes.
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: So I've still got my three hundred two eight and
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: the four hundred two eight sure, which I love those lenses,
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: but you know, those are lenses that you know very
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: much use for specific conditions and obviously out in the
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: genes you don't need that wide aperture. So having said that,
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: if I was doing the world, I think yes.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: So then that would be using those those fast aptues. Yeah,
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: you would. From my perspective too.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: It's been interesting to see how well you've bridged the
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: like the visual storytelling, between highlighting the product, which is
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: your job is to highlight the landover, but you also
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: have done a very good job of providing a sense
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: of place as well. And I think that for those
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: that are looking as a publisher. When I look at
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: at photography from those that are submitting stories, I not
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: only want to see the vehicle, but I also need
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: to understand that that sense of place. And one of
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: my favorite photos is actually a photo that you took
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: of me and Namibia. I had gotten kind of down
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: on one knee and there was this beautiful young boy
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: that was in a like a himber right location and
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: I was taking some photos of him, and you took
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: a photo of me snapping that shot.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: But that's the sense of place.
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: Sure, I mean, I think that's the nice thing about
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: So I would ask myself as an automotive photographer.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: Sure, But obviously being an.
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: Automotive photographer actually has so many different disciplines.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: So as well as as well as.
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: Land rover stuff, I also work for some other brands
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: as well, which takes me into the world of motorsport.
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: So I've done a few lemong twenty four hour races,
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: you know, nerburgering twenty four hour races, and obviously capturing
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: that is a very different discipline from doing something that's
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: an expedition in the jungle like camel trophy or challenge.
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: And then equally, you know with automotive. I'm also shooting
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: cars in the studio, so again that's completely difficult. Yeah,
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: and then you know we get to go to some
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: amazing varied places. So you know, you've got the jungle,
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: so you've got the humidity, you've got just the general
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: sort of as you probably know, the jungle is is
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: a hard place to exist.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: It's not a camera.
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: It's not designed for humans, let alone cameras, so you
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: know that's that's a big issue.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: And then obviously you know Arctic conditions, so I shooting
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: I've been in Iceland.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: I mean, we go back to two thousand and fifteen
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: where we did the launch of the Discovery Sports. I
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: was there for that one with you, and you know,
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: only Landro would be crazy enough to do a car
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: launch in the middle of the Icelandic winter, and it
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: was it was tough.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: It was tough.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: I remember that part of the team, part of the
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: drive team, had to just sleep on the floor of
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: the It was a proper adventure.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: I think that's great.
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: It felt like the fact that you know, this is
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: not a normal car room, and it was every day
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: it was different. You'd wake up and it was a
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: storm blowing or you'd wake up and it was a lovely,
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: you know, crystal clear sky.
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: And that's the beauty of Iceland, is It's just such
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: a dramatic yeah place. Yeah, and as a photographer, some
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: of my favorite images that I've ever taken, we're in
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: Iceland just but that that.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Never ending sunset obviously, that's really we were there.
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: We were there obviously in winter, which is again that
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: time when the period of it's I think it's four
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: hours of daylight March, but obviously the daylight you do
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: get is low sun all the way through, so it's
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: basically golden hour for four hours.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: So it's absolutely stunning. We absolutely loved it. Yeah, I
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: did love that. And again it was so vary with.
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: The conditions, but you know, and this is what you
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: have to put your cameras through. The cameras go through
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: all these different different conditions. I was in Sweden two
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: weeks ago minus fifteen and here we are, you know,
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: sort of plus forty two weeks.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Later when we were in the dunes.
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: It was one well, so so yeah, as an automotive photographers,
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: going back to your question, you know, again, another good
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: friend of mine said that, you know, he's not an
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: automotive photographer, he's a landscape photographer.
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: He just happens to put a car in the frame.
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: And I think I think I approach a little bit
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: that as well, that I see that the background is
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: as important as the foreground.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: And obviously, you know, I'm they're working for for Lanrover,
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: so the.
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: Car is the star, but equally the context of where
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: the car is is really important. And again why I
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: love working for Landrover is obviously you've got vehicles that
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: do amazing things in so many different places, and you know,
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: there's there's always something going on, you know, in the dunes,
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: amazing angles, you know, action sound, flying, rock crawl, you know,
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: you axle articulation, wheels, lifting all that sort of stuff.
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: In the mud, you know, going through forwarding through the muddy,
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: muddy waters of Easterner You know, it just looks, wasn't it.
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: And that's one of the things I'm in the way.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: Don't tell anyone that it's actually quite easy to photograph
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: Androver doing stuff because it's stuff's happening, it's.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: Interesting, you know, it's visually very interestingly, very interesting.
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: So you know, that's one of the things that's a
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: real pleasure is actually the variety of terrains, landscapes, places,
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: weather conditions, all these things over my twenty five year
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: career working for Landrover.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because you're all you're getting close to thirty years now. Yeah.
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, First, when I first started, my first job was obviously,
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: but then the first time I actually worked for Androver
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: directly because Camel Trophy was a separate company, was in
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: nineteen ninety seven when Bill Baker.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure you remember that I do God Rest
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: his soul.
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: He actually commissioned me in ninety seven to do some
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: work with the free Lander one when it was announced
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: in the UK, and that was the first commission I
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: had with with Landrover back.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: In amazing twenty six years.
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: Again amazing. Let's pivot a little bit to travel. So,
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: as a professional photographer, you've literally traveled around the world.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: What were some of your favorite trips or what was
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: your most favorite adventure that you've been on.
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean again, it's one of the nice things
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: working with Landrever is the fact that I've been to
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: some many, many different countries. I think about it's sort
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: of upper eighties, eighty five and eighty six countries.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: I think it is sure.
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, in terms of my favorites, I mean the traveler,
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: the travel aspects, I mean Camel Trophy. Mongolia in ninety
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: seven was a long time ago, but it again still
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: ranks up there as being a really quite a special trip.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: And how different Mongolia would have been in ninety seven.
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: You and I were speaking earlier, and you had gone
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: back in two thousand and eight and I was there
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: in twenty ten.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: For me, it was the only time I had been
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: to Mongolia, so it did.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: Still feel very nomadic, and it wasn't a lot because
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: we've traveled the Northern route, which was very remote. There
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: were still very much nomadic family. But I'm sure it's
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: almost completely different now.
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I've not been back, and I would love to
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: go back at you, but it's one of those things
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: that in those ten years that was ninety seven to
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: two thousand and eight, I definitely noticed the difference there
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: that the first year, once you got outside the city,
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: it was you know, there were no cars, right, it
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: was horseback or Russian built old motorcycles.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: That's how they got around.
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: Everyone was in a nomad nomadic people, so they basically
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: have these girls which they pack up and then move
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: and move with their sheep and graze and obviously as
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: the grazing runs out, they move.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: You know, they were all in national dress very much,
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: you know, no English spoken. There was no communication apart
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: from smiles and gestures, which was.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: And they were very great and they are easy to
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: smile people. Absolutely.
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so very well, it's that culture of again being
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: in those harsh environments.
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: I mean, Mongo there is a harsh environment. It's cold,
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: it's windy, it's you know, the sun is very strong.
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: So the stranger is welcomed in because they need to
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: be protected. So there's very much a culture of that. Anyway,
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: I noticed that in the ten years that I was there,
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: or not, sort the ten years in between the first
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: time and the last time I was.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: There, everyone was in national dress. But I noticed that
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: these girls had satellite dishes outside.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: Sure, if you looked a.
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: Bit close to the people that were still wearing national dress,
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: but if you look at the bottom of their robes
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: you could see that.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: They were actually wearing jeans underneath.
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: This is the sort of the Western culture starting to
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: come in, and you know, you sort of hope that
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: there's they haven't lost their own sort of cultural identity,
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: but it.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: Seems to be happening rapidly, and it's in the end
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: you want you want them to have whatever access to
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: modernity that they.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: Want as a culture.
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, but it is it is still a sense of
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: loss for the traveler that a lot of these incredibly
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: diverse and unique cultures are homology look very Western.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah.
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: In terms of places, some of the most memorable trips,
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: I mean, there's been some some incredible ones, and I
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: think I've been fortunate enough to do three really long
• 32:15
  Speaker 4: range trips with land Rover A while ago, now, so
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: nineteen ninety eight we did the Discovery around the World trip,
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: which was the launch of the Discovery too. In the
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: first phase of that was London to Calcutter in India. Okay,
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: so I did. I did that, which was twenty five days.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: I remember that trip. Yeah, that was another Bill.
• 32:31
  Speaker 6: Baker one that was that was a that was a
• 32:33
  Speaker 6: pretty amazing trip, you know, just going through all of
• 32:37
  Speaker 6: eastern Europe and then dropping down into Turkey and we
• 32:41
  Speaker 6: went all the way across Turkey, then into Iran.
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: Across Iran, I mean again this would be a trip
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: that would be under and then into Iran then Pakistan.
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: We were skirting the Afghanistan border and then into India
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: and then across into Calcuta.
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: So that was a that was a pretty amazing experience
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: that would be. And then let's think it was twenty
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: twenty eleven.
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: I think it was did another trip, what's wrong, I'm
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: thinking about another trip with Discovery one which is another
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: one in two thousand and two, which was again with
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: the back end of Discovery too, and that was Norway
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: to Jordan and that was a following a rally. So
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: again that was another unrepeatable trip because it was the
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: exactly Yeah, through Damascus. I'm so glad that you were
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: able to see Damascus in its amazing I didn't go.
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: I had an invitation and I didn't go, and it'll
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: never be the same.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: No, no, exactly.
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: I mean one of the things I remember about Damascus
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: was was driving through the city. Everyone there was on
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: their hall, so literally it's like a It wasn't like
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: it was almost like another It wasn't like an aggressive
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: sure thing.
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: It was just like I'm here, and it was like
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: once you got into the zone, you just like dip
• 33:55
  Speaker 5: in the horn and it was just like a friendly,
• 33:57
  Speaker 5: little sort of game that everyone would play, I've got
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: my little space and then they're going to go through.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: It was great fun. Yeah, an incredible country.
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: And then the last one another trip to India, which
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: was twenty thirteen with the rain drove hybrid, and that
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: was across a similar sort of route, but instead of
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: going south into Turkey this time we kept north and
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: then went through the stands.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: So Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Andistan, yeah, exactly, and then we did
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: a drop down across the Tourigap Pass I think it
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: still goes into.
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: China from Kyrgyzstan, and then we then drove all the
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: way down the western side of China, sort of very
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: close to the Indian border, which was on the Sinyang Highway.
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: I think they said at the time we were the
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: first Westerners to actually complete the whole north and south
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: of the Singyang Highway, which then takes you into Nepal.
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: And again you've got this amazing obviously a very high
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: altitude for most of the time, and then you drop
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: down to this border town which is sort of the
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: funnel where everything goes from China into Nepal and obviously
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: across Nepal which in itself is a it's yeah, I
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: really enjoyed it. Yeah again, I mean, I mean, this
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: is one of the things, isn't it. When you're when
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: you travel. One of the most memorable things for me anyway,
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: at least is the people, the smiling faces that you know,
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: just those human interactions and it might be a split second.
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: You know, you might see someone and think you take
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: their photograph and you know sort of have that interaction
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: and it's it's a it's a really nice thing. And
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: then Nepal then into India. Again it's just the experience
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: of actually just driving through these places and people waiving,
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: you know. I mean, that's one of the things that
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: particularly if you're doing a trip where you've got a
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: number of vehicles, which often these are. So that particular
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: trip we had three range of A hybrids, plus for
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: discovery for support cards, so we were seven vehicles, all
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: silver with decals and logos.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: I remember that.
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And so you know when we come through the
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: town and in the middle of nowhere.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: It's quite service.
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: That's great because you know, people come out and they're
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: waving or interesting to know what you do is you know,
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: I mean, that's one of the things I think which
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: if anyone's doing a type of obleland trip that's a
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: long distance trip, I would recommend having a map of
• 36:23
  Speaker 4: your route on the bonnet, on the door, whatever, because
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: that's the easiest way when someone says, you know, where
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: are you going?
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: What are you doing? You say, right, have a look
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: at this.
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: And we had these maps on the bonnet of the hood,
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: I should say, of the cars, so you could show
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: people and say, well, look we started here in Birmingham,
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: in Solihull and we've been all this way and you
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: could actually show and that that was a visual way
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: of people understanding the journey that you're on.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: That's right. So yeah, definitely a recommendation.
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: And I think one of the things that I like
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: most about the trips that you're referring to is that
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: they were all done in stock vehicles.
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they weren't.
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: They were factory and that's one of the key things
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: with with obviously the eland Rover trip is that it
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: has to be in a stock vehicle because it's you know,
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: in theory, it's a trip that you could go to
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: an android of dealership by the car and go off
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: and do it. Well, and you did, I mean you
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: think about you cross the Silk Road, you went from
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: Jordan to Norway, and I mean these are significant overland
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: trips that we're done in totally stock stamps.
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: Yes, and obviously we had a lot of assistance in
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: terms of people helping with logistics and the like. But
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: the car, but the car is, you know, it's it's
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: a stop vehicle, you know, with maybe a little bit
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: of you know, the mud terrain tires, a stronger tires,
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: an extra spare wheel, a winch.
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: But apart from that, but those are all factory optional,
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: factory options.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And that was also what was so impressive about
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: Camel Trophy.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: They did they did have some locations, so there.
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: Were many for safeties things that's okay, which obviously was important,
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: and then they tied it into the rough rack and
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: exactly kind of think but everything else was I mean,
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: even the bumper and the winch you could get.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: From a land that just bolted on you know. Yeah.
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: I think it's just such an important reminder that you
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: don't have to spend all this money modifying your vehicle.
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: You could buy the right vehicle to begin with, and
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: that may be a land over that maybe a land
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: cruise or whatever is the brand of your choice, but
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: by a good vehicle to start off with, and you
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: can in most.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: Cases drive around the world without doing any real modifica.
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: I think that's one of the things again we were
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: talking about earlier, I think is that vickle modifications are
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: good to make your life more comfortable, you know, maybe
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: make it a little bit more capable in the sense
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: of being able to recover yourself.
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: And have safety things like roll cages. That's something that
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: is actually quite a good thing. But you know, at
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: the end of the day, the more stock it is,
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: the more easy it will be.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: If you have any issues. So if you if you
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: break down or have a I mean, you hear about
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: these things. People have these tricks suspensions and actually you
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: know that's the bit that actually breaks and for sure
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: of a sudden you can't get that particular component in
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: wherever you are in that area. So you know, it's
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: it's good to keep things as I think anyway is
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: sort of as stand as as possible, but obviously with
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: a you know, maybe a few little subtle modifications for safety,
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: and I agree that enhance performance in certain areas. What
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: other takeaways if someone was to sit down with you
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: like we are now and say I'd love to start traveling.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: The world by vehicle.
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: What are some other things that you've learned along the
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: way as a traveler that you would give recommendations to
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: if you were talking to your fourteen year old self
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: or your twenty one year old self.
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: Set an itinery, but don't don't have to be like
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: stripped and sort of say we need to be at
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: this location at a certain time. Particularly with a long trip,
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: you know, you don't know what's necessarily going to come about.
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: So for example, you know, you might be stuck at
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: a border crossing, you know, acrossing that you think is
• 39:55
  Speaker 4: going to take two hours might take you two days,
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: sure because someone somewhere decide then you're not going to
• 40:00
  Speaker 4: get through. So that's an extreme example, but that happen,
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: of course. And also never you might end up in
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: an area or somewhere where you actually just you like them,
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: feeling it, you like the vibe, and you think, actually,
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: I'm going to stay here for a little bit longer.
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: So if I was planning a trip personally that.
• 40:17
  Speaker 4: I was you know, on a on a on a
• 40:20
  Speaker 4: long long range travel, I would I would have probably
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: key spots where I would end up wanting to be,
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: but I would actually the bit in between, I'd leave flexible. Sure,
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: you might want to spend a bit more time somewhere,
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: and you might actually think somewhere it's not not really where,
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: it's where it's at for me.
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: So I'm sure I'm going to keep going so and
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: then maybe bank those days for a few traps.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: That's what reminds it. Yeah, I think I like, don't
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: be too rich in your planning. I like to call
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: it a strong planning, loosely held exactly. Yeah, that's good because.
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: You want to start off being methodical and know where
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: you want to go and have good information, know where
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: those beautiful campsites are, but be open to certaindigiously, and
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: you know, you meet people and against this people think again.
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: You know, you meet people along the way and they'll open.
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: A door for you that you had no idea was that,
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: And then all of a sudden you want to be
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: able to go and make use of that.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good.
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: So let's talk about you have an impressive fleet of
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: land rovers yourself, and let's talk about your favorite one
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: to begin with. Oh gosh, I've got to pick a
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: favorite we won't tell, you won't tell. Well, I guess
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: probably my favorite has to be the one that I've
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: had longest, which is my one hundred inch Defender.
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: It's a V eight.
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: We did laugh earlier about about you assumed that it
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: was going to be a diesel.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: I did.
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: I said, it's the classic thing where you always want
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: what you can't have. So whereas we have lots of
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: diesels and you have lots of petrols, we.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: Want the V eight and you want the TDR. That's
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: that's the way it works.
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: But yes, I have a three point nine eight hundred
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: inch soft top Defender, which is my sort of fun car.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: I've had that.
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: Since nineteen ninety eight, and I've rebuilt it twice. When
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: I got married in two thousand and two, that was
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: the car that we drove away from the church and
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: all this sort of thing. So yeah, that's probably my
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: my sort of, as you said, the car that I'll
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: be buried in. But I also have, yeah, a couple
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: of I have three Classic Range Drovers, which are just
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: they're just exception amazing. Yes, nineteen seventy nine, which has
• 42:20
  Speaker 4: got forty four thousand miles from New all original, no
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: replacement tailgate.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: It was one owner car.
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: The guy had it basically just to tow his caravan
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: once a year, so it's very fortunate. As not planned
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: to buy it at all, but it was one of
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: those things. It was offered to me and I was
• 42:35
  Speaker 4: like a little drive.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: I drove it. I'm like, I cannot not buy this car.
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: I couldn't afford it, but I had to buy it,
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: so so thank goodness I did.
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: And then yeah, retirement plan, Yeah, exactly, that's it, exactly.
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: The nineteen ninety five Soft Dash, a short wheelbase with
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: a four point two factory fitted B eight, was the
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: first of the autobiography series, so it was well produced
• 42:59
  Speaker 4: by factory to showcase the autobiography, so sure had a
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: special paint, had Brooklyn's bumpers.
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: The spoilers.
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: I remember that, so I actually changed those with chrome bumpers,
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: so I don't my own it or modifications to it.
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: I did hold on to the originals, yeah as well,
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: so I may put those back at some point.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So there's those two. I've also got another Soft.
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: Dash which I've had since two thousand and six that's
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: in Mothballs.
• 43:23
  Speaker 4: That's a that's a that's probably my going to be
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: my retirement project to rebuild that. But also I got
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: I had a CSK and so I had to sell
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: last year just to make some space for it was
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: getting to the point where I couldn't I couldn't.
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: Drive or anything because I couldn't get anything out.
• 43:37
  Speaker 4: Of the lock up and I was so so the
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: CSK that I had was sold. And then I also
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: have a Citron two CV then, which is my that's
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: my carbon offset program.
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: Against the five V eights that I own. But the
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: two CV is such a class Yeah, absolutely, it was
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: now as yours is, because didn't they make one that
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: was also small little van as well?
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: Yes, as the van the foger Net as they call him.
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So so Matt Scott, my my co host of
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: of of the podcast that you've I believe you've met
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: him on other programs.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: But he just bought one of those for his wife.
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: Perfect corrugated and yeah, it's so, it's so great.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: It is. It's a SoC character thing. Oh absolutely doesn't.
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: It doesn't go very fast. You had to drive it
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: flat out all the time. So it's it's a great
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: it's a great photo.
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: Oh absolutely, so, Now if you were if you were
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: going to leave tomorrow to drive around the world, what
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: what vehicle would you take? That's an interesting question. Actually,
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: I think it depends where I'm going. But actually, and
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: I guess it depends what sort of journey I want
• 44:41
  Speaker 3: to have as well, because you get to pick. Well,
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: I know, But the thing is, it's a difficult one. S.
• 44:45
  Speaker 4: If I want to go for like an easy trip,
• 44:48
  Speaker 4: I'd probably take a new Defender very so much the
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: ones that we've been driving the last one thirty with
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: with the just the basic equipment refrack, Winch, serious guitars
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: and then that's pretty much the main modifications you need really,
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: So if I was doing an easy trip like over that.
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: But actually there's something in me that actually I quite
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: like the idea of taking a serious vehicle. I can't
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: fancy getting a like a long wheelway Series two and
• 45:14
  Speaker 4: just having that and just taking.
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: That being in the moment every yeah, because you are
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: at the moment, you know, it's it's you're living.
• 45:20
  Speaker 4: I've done I've done a few trips with with our
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: goss and the team out we did it. We did
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: a trip in the in the Black Desert, but eighteen
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: months ago in three Series ones.
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: Wow, and it was great. I mean it was just pure.
• 45:34
  Speaker 4: It is it's just you know, you are but it's
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: it's you know, it's it's not as comfortable, clearly, but
• 45:40
  Speaker 4: it's just a completely different.
• 45:41
  Speaker 7: Say you're in the moment, you're in there, you're driving
• 45:44
  Speaker 7: the car. You know you've got to you've got to
• 45:46
  Speaker 7: code the plane for your change in anymore. And it's
• 45:48
  Speaker 7: the simplicity as well that I really enjoy. I think it's,
• 45:51
  Speaker 7: you know, in in today's complicated life of tech and
• 45:55
  Speaker 7: being connected and everything else, actually having that sort of
• 45:58
  Speaker 7: analog experience of just you know, there's no gadgets, there's
• 46:02
  Speaker 7: no nothing to help you.
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: It's you and the machine. Yeah that I quite like
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: that idea. Well maybe that'll be part of the retirement.
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but you don't want to be in a hurry. Yeah,
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: it comes back to what I was saying about the time.
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, you've.
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: Got a no particular itinery just you start where you
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: start and you finish where you finish.
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: Well one of that appeals to me.
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: It does, and I think most people find those trips
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: like Ray and mary Anne Hyland that took kind of
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: recreated the first overland trip and they did it in
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: a nineteen fifties series one a few years ago, and
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: that was just so incredible what they what they did
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: as a family, and they're yeah, their sons and everything
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: else like that all in a in a eighty.
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's say so incredible.
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: But it makes also that focuses your mind on what
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: you're taking. So for example, going in an eighty, you
• 46:52
  Speaker 4: haven't got much space, and you don't and in reality,
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: you don't need much really, just don't.
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: In life.
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: You just need shelter, food, and you know sort of
• 47:02
  Speaker 4: and company. Really those are the three things that you need.
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: And you know, there's a lot to be said for that.
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: Isn't it. You know?
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And you've totally got limited amounts of stuff to
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: take totally, so you know, it's you know, you take
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: a few clothes and you wash them when you can,
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: and you know it's just just basic needs, which I
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: think there's a lot to be said for that.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: There is, and I think you have a better experience oftentimes.
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And as you get into countries with lower GDP
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: per capita, then everything gets cheaper, even accommodations.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: Get more simple. Yeah, that's right.
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So you've had a really significant recent release of
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: a book. So your your career started with a book, yeah,
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: and then hasn't ended yet. Yeah, COVID hit sure and yeah,
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: did you just wake up one day and decide to
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: write a book?
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: So well, you say, COVID so fat, funny enough that
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: Namibia trip, that's right.
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: It was in February.
• 47:56
  Speaker 4: It worked early March twenty nineteen, and then we came
• 47:59
  Speaker 4: back from that and obviously as we were there, it
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: was just starting to kick off globally, wasn't it. Yeah,
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: we got to the end of March and I had
• 48:07
  Speaker 4: three months worth of work which was booked, and then
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: all of a sudden it was no longer booked, as
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: it was for all of us, you know, in the
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: base of the world went on hold and on pause.
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: So it was that thing of like, right, what am
• 48:20
  Speaker 4: I going to do now? So, as you said I had,
• 48:22
  Speaker 4: I had the idea to do a Camel Trophy book.
• 48:25
  Speaker 4: Could always been something that I've had in my mind,
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: and it was maybe going to be a retirement project
• 48:30
  Speaker 4: or something to do, you know, when I had some
• 48:32
  Speaker 4: spare time, and obviously with COVID, I suddenly had lots
• 48:36
  Speaker 4: of spare time. So exactly, so yeah, I decided to
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: make the most of it and actually go and start
• 48:42
  Speaker 4: interviewing people, start trying reaching out to try and find
• 48:47
  Speaker 4: the original photography, and did.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: So much work. Yeah, well it was.
• 48:51
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's funny because it's something that I think
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: when I look at the you've seen the book, it is,
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: it's quite it's quite comprehensive.
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: It is after you, if I say some myself, is
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: one of those things that once I.
• 49:01
  Speaker 4: Started, you know, it just became an absolute obsession, a
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: labor of love, and it was an absolute pleasure to
• 49:09
  Speaker 4: be able to dedicate the time I did dedicate to it.
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: I mean it was I mean literally months and months
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: of work. You can see it, and that in my mind,
• 49:17
  Speaker 3: it is such such a way to honor all of
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: those people who work so hard to make Camel Trophy
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: a possibility and just the event itself, all the competitors,
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: and yeah, for those that are listening, take a look
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: the name of the book called Camel Trophy, The Definitive History.
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: The last time that I was on Amazon, I did
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: see a few copies that were still available. I'm sure
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: that there are some on eBay. There's no question that
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: they'll start to get more and more expensive as time
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: goes on. It but a couple of isn't it has?
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: And it is.
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: It's the only book that I have on my coffee
• 49:52
  Speaker 3: table at my office, and it's just awesome.
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: It's a heavy thing.
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: It's I think it's three hundred and something pages, perfect
• 50:00
  Speaker 3: bown and one hundred and fifty photos. I think it
• 50:02
  Speaker 3: is one hundred and fifty thousand words.
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: It's a a lee comprehensive volume, but it is. The
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: point is there was a lot to write about. You know,
• 50:10
  Speaker 4: Camel Traphy was on for forty years and amazing a
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: number of stories. And I spoke to all the sort
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: of main people that were instrumental and delivering Camel Traphy
• 50:20
  Speaker 4: over twenty years, right from Andreas Bender was the first
• 50:23
  Speaker 4: guy that sort of started it back in nineteen eighty
• 50:26
  Speaker 4: through to you know Duncan Lee, who was the American
• 50:30
  Speaker 4: that worked for R. J. Reynolds basically developed the event
• 50:34
  Speaker 4: from being a German event through to a more global event.
• 50:39
  Speaker 4: And then you know Ian Chapman who was obviously the
• 50:42
  Speaker 4: event director for many years and Nick Corn who took
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: over at the end.
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: Sure you know that was it was amazing to be
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: able to speak to these people. And of course these
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: people are in their.
• 50:52
  Speaker 4: Seventies and eighties and Duncan Lee's in his eighties now,
• 50:54
  Speaker 4: and you know, as sad as it is to say
• 50:56
  Speaker 4: these these stories are not going to be you know,
• 50:59
  Speaker 4: total forever. So and that was one of the things
• 51:01
  Speaker 4: I really wanted to do. I mean, sadly, there were
• 51:03
  Speaker 4: quite a few people that I knew on Camel Trophy
• 51:06
  Speaker 4: that have already passed and you know, I think some
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: of the stories they could have told and sadly they've gone.
• 51:11
  Speaker 4: So that was one thing I really wanted to do,
• 51:13
  Speaker 4: was to get those stories down and to paper before
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: they were gone forever.
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: And likewise, the photography again, you know, that was something.
• 51:19
  Speaker 4: That it was all shot on film, so trying to
• 51:22
  Speaker 4: get hold of particulars early years, the nineteen eighties, you know,
• 51:25
  Speaker 4: trying to get hold of those original pictures.
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: So I actually managed to contact some of the.
• 51:29
  Speaker 4: Original German photographers again while in their eighties now, and
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: they still had some of their original film left and
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: I was able to get hold of that and scan it.
• 51:37
  Speaker 4: It was great, you know, I think that's where I think,
• 51:40
  Speaker 4: you know, I'm proud that I managed to achieve that
• 51:42
  Speaker 4: it was I mean, obviously COVID was a tragedy in
• 51:45
  Speaker 4: many respects, but obviously the ability to actually have that
• 51:48
  Speaker 4: time and dedicate that time and not have any I mean,
• 51:51
  Speaker 4: obviously it was worrying in the sense that obviously I
• 51:53
  Speaker 4: didn't have an income. We all did because I was
• 51:57
  Speaker 4: as a freelancer. Obviously, clearly if you're not working in earning,
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: so that was that was a bit stressful. But actually
• 52:02
  Speaker 4: that was then able to focus on doing the book
• 52:05
  Speaker 4: and having that as my as my sort of pandemic
• 52:09
  Speaker 4: focus was really good.
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it's impressive, it really is.
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: It was a pleasure to write it, to be honest,
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: I really I did enjoy doing it and hopefully that
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: comes now. It was a gift to the whole community
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: and those are that love the Camel Trophy and and yeah,
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: it's just a really impressive volume.
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: And I can't wait to see what book you come
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: up with next, because yeah, works have been a part
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: of your life.
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I'm thinking I'm thinking about doing another Camel
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: Trophy book actually, but more just based on the photography.
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: So we'll see if that if that happens, and I
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: might actually just go full circle because the range of
• 52:43
  Speaker 3: a conversions book I told you about beginning. So since
• 52:47
  Speaker 3: obviously I was thirteen, I've learned an awful then, and
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: I think there's a lot of other stories that I'd
• 52:53
  Speaker 3: like to sort of look because whereas that was more
• 52:54
  Speaker 3: about the scrap book side of things. Sure you know
• 52:58
  Speaker 3: that the ooh and the wow moment of the moment
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: about the vehicles, there are actually some interesting stories about
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: the vehicles and how they were built and who they
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: were built for. So I'm quite keen to tell some
• 53:09
  Speaker 3: of those stories. So it's really the Footbok girl, Yeah, exactly,
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: that's it. Yeah, I mean, that's it.
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: So that's my sort of thing that you know, hopefully
• 53:18
  Speaker 4: there won't be another pandemic, so let's talk. So I'll
• 53:21
  Speaker 4: have to find some time other ways.
• 53:25
  Speaker 3: But speaking of books, one of the things that I
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: love to ask, and this is a purely selfish question
• 53:31
  Speaker 3: that I ask of all of our guests, is are there.
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: Any books that you love?
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: You know, and it can be of any any genre,
• 53:39
  Speaker 3: it doesn't have to be about travel. Do you have
• 53:41
  Speaker 3: a favorite book or a favorite couple of books, And
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: it's okay if you don't as well.
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm pretty rubbish actually, because I do.
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: I go through phases of actually reading loads of books,
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: and then I don't read books for a long time,
• 53:52
  Speaker 3: and it's I think it's tied into sort of work
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: and you're busy. Yeah, exactly, because it's quite nice. I
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: have read of an evening.
• 54:00
  Speaker 4: But yeah, so I can't really think there's any sort
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: of particular I mean, I enjoy I enjoy all sorts
• 54:05
  Speaker 4: of books, you know. I enjoy novels, I enjoy books
• 54:07
  Speaker 4: about automotive I enjoy photography books. Sure, so I wouldn't
• 54:11
  Speaker 4: always say there's any particular book that I would sort
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: of I wish I could sort of go, oh, yeah,
• 54:15
  Speaker 4: everyone needs to read.
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: This, Well, they need to read the Camel Trophy book. Exactly.
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: Well, Nick, thank you so much for being on the
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: podcast as a genuine pleasure. When I first started the
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: podcast with Matt Scott, I made a list of what
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: we considered to be dream guests to have on this podcast,
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: and you are on that list, So we have very much.
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: We both have.
• 54:45
  Speaker 3: Tremendous admiration for the work that you do. The quality
• 54:48
  Speaker 3: of your photography is inspiring for me as a photographer
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: and then you're also very well traveled, and you've you've
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: become a master of your craft. And to have such
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: a storied, a storied career, starting with Landro while starting
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: at thirteen writing your first book, which is so impressive
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: in and of itself, to participating in the Campbel Trophy
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: and driving around the world with Layer Over, what a
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: gift your life has been, for sure. Yeah, it's funny.
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: I think we were talking. So I'm fifty this year. Yeah,
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: and I mean, for a start, I can't I can't
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: believe I'm fifty. I can't believe I've got two children.
• 55:21
  Speaker 3: It'll be okay, Yeah, yes, I would think that I
• 55:24
  Speaker 3: would do that. It's December of last year, so I
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: two children, seventeen and forty.
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: Where that went? You know, I remember when they were.
• 55:31
  Speaker 4: This, Yeah, this is this big and yeah, I mean
• 55:35
  Speaker 4: life do just go That which is I guess is
• 55:37
  Speaker 4: a reminder just to make the most of it, you know,
• 55:40
  Speaker 4: you do those do those travel dreams. You know, I'm
• 55:42
  Speaker 4: obviously very fortunate and I've been been able to go
• 55:45
  Speaker 4: and travel and explore it, you know, sort of and
• 55:48
  Speaker 4: do many things.
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: That you know, people that's right would love to do.
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: But equally.
• 55:53
  Speaker 4: Now, I always feel there's something else reaching out there.
• 55:56
  Speaker 4: I think, you know, everyone's a bit restless to go
• 55:58
  Speaker 4: and see more in the world. Even though the world's
• 56:01
  Speaker 4: a small place, it's a big place.
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: And it shows a lot to see. People should definitely
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: make the most and explore.
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: Like we just did actually in the deserts of the
• 56:11
  Speaker 3: Uee looking out into ormand to the side.
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: They're amazing. How do people find out more about you?
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: You have a great Instagram account? Yes, so, yeah, I have.
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: I am pretty poor on social media. I've just basically
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: got Instagram. That's good. So yeah, Nick, what's your account?
• 56:29
  Speaker 3: So Nick dimbleb at Nick Dimbleby is my accounts and
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: I c K Dimblebee, d I M B L E
• 56:34
  Speaker 3: B Y.
• 56:36
  Speaker 4: I have a website which I should really update. It's
• 56:39
  Speaker 4: quite old now, it's about probably seven or eight years old.
• 56:43
  Speaker 4: But there's lots of other work there, some of the
• 56:46
  Speaker 4: non land Rover to the what's your website, it's also
• 56:51
  Speaker 4: it's Nickdimblebee dot com. All right, perfect, and yeah, that's it. Really,
• 56:54
  Speaker 4: that's that's well.
• 56:55
  Speaker 3: I would suggest online presence. I would suggest that people
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: follow your Instagram account, just watching to the lead up
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: to this trip. Seeing these images of the one thirty
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: in the dunes, it certainly got my appetite built.
• 57:09
  Speaker 4: So yeah, it's always I always find it difficult to
• 57:11
  Speaker 4: know what to put on there because I've obviously got
• 57:14
  Speaker 4: a huge back catalog of stuff. Sure, but it's that
• 57:17
  Speaker 4: thing I think, well, maybe I need to be putting
• 57:18
  Speaker 4: on some my current stuff, but that sort of occasionally
• 57:21
  Speaker 4: bring out some of the old stuff as well.
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: I think it's one of those things and just sort
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: of I just need to mix and mix it up
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: a bit. But I think people enjoy that. Ye seeing
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: a little bit of.
• 57:31
  Speaker 4: Some of the stuff I shot on film, you spend
• 57:33
  Speaker 4: that in and put it on. So yeah, I guess
• 57:35
  Speaker 4: if you if you like land rovers, then probably my
• 57:39
  Speaker 4: instagram is probably a good place to day it will be.
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: And thank you again so much for being on the
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: on the podcast, and we thank you all for listening
• 57:47
  Speaker 3: and we'll talk to you next time.
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: Thank you excellent. Thank you Micha