London to Darwin
15 April - 8 October 2008
The truck
Our custom built Mercedes Benz and MAN overland truck will be our home for the duration of the expedition and is designed to be self-sufficient allowing us the privilege to get right off the beaten track. We use only Mercedes Benz and MAN, as these trucks are proven to be the most reliable and hardwearing, able to handle the rough roads we sometimes travel. Designed with your comfort and ease of use in mind, it incorporates the very best features of all the many overland vehicles I driven and built over the years.
All seats are comfy coach style seats with plenty of leg room. Most are forward facing with some grouped around tables, allowing a greater social interactivity being that having a beer, playing a game of cards or chance to update your travel journal. We have 24 seats on board but only carry 22 passengers for greater comfort. The passenger area is linked to the cab so you can easily chat to the crew. The truck is hard sided for greater safety and security with large collapsible and lockable windows. Great for those must have on-the-move photographs. There is also plenty of storage space for all those extra goodies you buy along the way.
Roof seats allow us to get up on top and experience the wind in your hair and flies in your teeth should the fancy take you. It is a great way to experience an open air drive through the Himalayas or along some beach road in Thailand. Other cool features are the onboard library, big easy to access from the inside luggage locker, below seat storage for your backpack, big lockable safe to safeguard your valuables, a good sound system which allows you to plug in you ipod or MP3, charging points for all your cameras and other electrical goodies and an on board computer to view or write photos to CD or DVD. Last but not least, there's also a large fridge crucial for keeping foodstuffs, beer and soft drinks nice and cold.
We also carry a large selection of spare parts and all the tools we need to keep us going along this amazing route. Sand mats, tow cables and turfor winches to get us out when we get stuck. With years of experience we know what makes a truck work!
The equipment
The equipment on the truck is all proven overland equipment. Designed with ease of use in mind, it sets-up and packs away super-easy. We supply large two man tents, easy and quick to erect. We advise passengers interested in trekking and overnight horse trails to bring their own light trekking tents as the tents supplied are heavy duty and not suitable for trekking. It's up to you to bring a good roll mat and sleeping bag. Our comfy camping chairs with backrests make sitting around the fire in bush camps a pleasure. See the accommodation section for more info.
The kitchen has everything you could want including two large foldout tables and large gas cookers to make it easy to prepare the great local goodies we pickup in the markets as we travel along. The fridge also allows us to keep food nice and fresh. We believe that a truck marches on its stomach and will supply interesting food, but see the food and accommodation section for more details
We also have a large awning to keep us dry if camping and preparing food in the rain. With luck this will not happen too often, but if it does no worries! Its also the other small things which make the difference, like the two bikes, inflatable boat, hammocks, cool board games, hooka pipe and heaps of other things that make the truck a home away from home. Remember we are a small personal owner run organisation: we pay attention to the small details to make it funky.