John's love affair with the Land Rover!

As a young man of 24 years I graduated as a geologist and my first job was mapping in a remote part of northern Kenya. Where I worked was only accessible by 4 wheel drive - and sometimes inaccessible. It was before the days of easy communications and mail was several hours drive away, once a fortnight, and provisions were a day's trip away once a month. When you are almost totally dependant on the reliability and ruggedness of a vehicle you develop an affection – that perhaps has developed into an obsession! The three Land Rovers I had in Kenya are pictured above.

I bought NAJ 217F, a Series 2, in Leeds when I first had a reasonable pay packet and then a new Series 3 when we moved out to Bahrain; it started off as ٦٤٩١٨ (64918) and later as TRN 812X when we brought it back to the UK; that was 30 years ago and it is still going (update Aug. 2016 - most of the Series 3 is now going into the 2B!). Then in 2007, probably contrary to the better judgement of Jean, I bought an ex-military Defender, H468 OEE that started life as a field ambulance (10 KK 06). I am now a fully fledged anorak!

NAJ 217F

٦٤٩١٨

TRN 812X

127

H468 OEE (10 KK 06)

The Land Rover Series 2B - Forward Control

Click HERE to see the progress....