Welcome to the official newsletter of The Last Overland expedition. Here you’ll have access to all the latest news and events before the rest of the world gets to see.
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“Reliving the greatest road trip, ever."
Financial Express (India)
DAYS ON ROAD: 104
KMS COVERED: 15,800
COUNTRY COUNT: 17
A very happy Wedesday from Budapest, Hungary! This will be our last major email update from the road, as in just 10 days time we’ll be parking up for the last time in London. What a ride it’s been…
We’ve successfully completed Stage 2 of our journey (China to Turkey), and are now embarking on the 3rd and final stage bringing Oxford and the team home to the UK. Just over 2,250km to go!
Read on for:
All the juicy details of The Last Overland’s epic UK Arrival Party in Folkestone on December 14th, hosted by Goodyear (and with a very special guest…)
A round up of our adventures since our last dispatch from Uzbekistan(including an almost expedition-ending episode in Turkmenistan)
…and what’s coming next for Oxford and The Last Overland team!
We’ve been overwhelmed with the response to our UK Arrival Party in Folkestone on December 14th at the Folkestone Harbour Arm. It’s going to be the ultimate Christmas Party for any Land Rover fan, with hundreds of Land Rovers both old and new from across the UK and Europe making the journey down to see us arrive on home turf after our long journey from Singapore.
Goodyear's won’t be the only historic reunion - we will also be reunited with our talisman, Tim Slessor, who’ll be joining the expedition for its final leg from Folkestone up to London, accompanied by Oxford’s owner and restorer Adam Bennett.
And it's only right and fitting that our journey will end with one final reunion, with the team from Singapore Tourism Board. Without their vision and support, The Last Overland would never have got off the ground.
It's been a delight to celebrate 200 years of shared history with our friends from the other side of the planet.
Oxford will be flagged over the finish line at The Hilton Park Lane at 16:30 by the High Commissioner from Singapore. Do come and say hi if you're in town!
Now read on for what we've been up to...
THE LAST FOUR WEEKS: DISASTER STRIKES…
The last month has seen the team cover another 4,300km, and endure the highest highs and lowest lows. Somehow the wheels keep on turning on old Oxford!
After leaving the mind-blowing architecture of Samarkand behind, we travelled on through Uzbekistan and into our 11th country, Turkmenistan.
When asked which country they were most curious about, the team overwhelmingly chose this reclusive former Soviet Republic, which lets in fewer tourists each year than North Korea.
After crossing the border we were excited to get to the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat (‘The City of Love’). Sadly, Oxford had different ideas. Just a few kilometres into the country, travelling at 70km/h, Alex and Nat heard a loud crunch in Oxford’s rear after heading over a minor bump.
30 seconds later, Oxford lurched to the left, and the rear-left wheel and axle went sailing past the passenger door. Alex tried to slam on the brakes, only to discover they’d also left the building.
Thankfully the road was wide, flat and most importantly – empty. (Turkmenistan is 80% desert, and has less then 6 million people in an area roughly the size of France.) Oxford eventually ground to a halt in the layby.
We only realised afterwards how lucky we’d been. If the same had happened in the mountains of Nepal or China, Nat and Alex might not have been able to walk away unscathed, or at all.
Another stroke of luck was breaking down not far from Mary, the heart of Turkmenistan’s auto-industry. Although no one had seen a Series One Land Rover before, the local mechanics were quick to get to work under the watchful eye of The Doc and Larry, TLO’s unstoppable mechanical tag-team.
After dismantling Adam Bennett’s pride and joy, the problem was identified as a broken wheel bearing, which thankfully they were able to machine on the spot and patch Oxford up. What could have been an expedition-enderwas overcome by some local Turkmen ingenuity.
Driving a little more carefully from there on out, the team finally made it to the white-marble madness of Ashgabat.
The media, like most aspects of life in Turkmenistan, is tightly controlled, but The Last Overland’s arrival was deemed worthy of headline news.
We were invited on to state television to talk about our adventures, accompanied by newly arrived British Ambassador HE Hugh Philpott OBE(who earlier that day had kindly treated the team to their first full-English breakfast in a long while!)
After the trials and tribulations of the last few days we were glad to be moving on to country number 12, Azerbaijan. To get there meant crossing the Caspian Sea, a 17 hour journey by ferry. This crossing had been forced on us by a late-notice route change cutting out Iran.
Due to the escalating tensions there in recent months, it was deemed too dangerous at this moment in time to try and retrace the First Overland route. It was a strange feeling to be moving under someone else’s steam for the first time in almost 3 months!
From Azerbaijan we crossed into Georgia, country number 13. It was a particularly emotional moment for our expedition filmmaker David Israeli. David’s parents were born and raised in Georgia when the country was part of the Soviet Union, but just before the latter’s collapse David’s extended family had relocated to New York in 1990.
David had been raised in the US on tales of Tblisi and incredible Georgiancuisine, but he’d never had the chance to see where generations of his family had called home. It was a privilege (and a gastronomical delight!) for all of us to be a little part of this reunion – many of us are already planning our return to this wonderful corner of the world.
Saying goodbye (for now) to Georgia, we crossed into Turkey (Country No. 14) and at long last back on to the same roads the First Overlanders had crossed 64 years earlier.
Oxford’s triumphant return to Turkey hadn’t gone unnoticed by the local Land Rover community – one diehard First Overland fan, Servet, drove over 1,000km from Istanbul to meet us at the border. He’d be our guide for the next 7 wonderful days, as we endured (!) our most pampered stint yet on our long journey home.
Fed, homed and entertained by Land Rover enthusiasts from across Turkey, the team quickly fell in love with this land bridge between Asia – our home for the last 80+ days – and Europe. We were even given free fuel for our entire stay by the team at Aytemiz.
On our way towards the capital, it turned out the Land Rover fans had one more surprise for us – a visit to the Istanbul Formula 1 Circuit!
There we weren’t only treated to a tour of the incredible facilities and fascinating museum; we were also given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to put Oxford through her paces on the circuit.
Want to know how Oxford fared? Well you’ll have to wait until next year! (See below.)
When we arrived in Istanbul, things only got better as we continued in the tyre-tracks of Tim and his friends. 64 years earlier, The First Overlandershad arrived in Istanbul almost on the same day as the opening of the first Hilton Hotel outside of America – an iconic building that more than six decades still dominates Istanbul’s skyline. There they were treated to dinner, a rare treat.
Tim noted in his diary at the time: "Without any doubt, the most impressive hotel I have seen anywhere. American thru and thru."
The Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus team, celebrating Hilton’s 100th birthday this year, were delighted to see history repeating itself! They gave Oxford and the team the most wonderful welcome, and homed these grubby overlanders for a long weekend.
It was a wrench to leave the luxury, incredible hospitality (and in Nat’s case the breakfast buffet), but Europe and the third and final stage of our journey lay ahead.
Crossing into Bulgaria (Country No. 15) the terrain began to change to be ever more familiar to the Western Europeans in the team, and minds began to turn to home at last.
From the border we headed into the Bulgarian Alps, where we were joined by some familiar faces from our friends at Opihr Gin – one of TLO's Key Supporters who’ve made this whole journey possible.
Cruising Oxford through the autumnal wonderland surrounding Plovdiv, we shot a little film celebrating the local cuisine and flavours to mark the launch of Opihr’s delicious new European edition.
We can’t wait to share the film - and the blend! - with you early next year.
The next country on our list was Serbia (No.16), a country which for centuries has marked the hinterland of the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian empire, and a country whose politicians are still deciding whether to look East or West.
Moving at speed now with our 14th December deadline pressing, we crossed into Hungary - Country No.17 - and back once again into the EU. This time it was the turn of our Expedition Manager, Marcus Allender, to trace some family history.
Marcus’s dad is Hungarian, so this was a true homecoming – and what a homecoming! At the Serbia-Hungary border the expedition was waved through by the guards and then, after having been greeted by Land Roverfans, officials from the Hungarian Motoring Association and Allender family members, the team were led 180km by a fleet of police cars in a convoy of over 60 Land Rovers, the most we’ve had alongside us since Singapore. On-ramps were blocked off and red lights duly ignored!
Following this incredible welcome, the weather duly did its part and caked beautiful Budapest in a wonderfully festive layer of snow – and the team stuffed themselves at the city’s wonderful Christmas markets.
STILL TO COME
We can’t quite believe The Last Overland – an epic adventure that has consumed so many in happy toil for so long – is close to an end. Ahead of us lies the final leg, and a welcome at Folkestone that we simply can’t wait to experience.
But before then comes Slovakia, and a treat for team TLO that’s going to turn many Land Rover lovers green with envy… (we’re sorry!) Tune into our social media channels tomorrow to find out what we’re on about!
Want to come and see us before we cross the Channel back to the UK?Well please do in Brussels, Belgium on December 12th. We’ll now be featuring in the So British! Exhibition at the annual Autoworld Expo with our partners from JLR, come and say hello! We’d love to see you.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
For Oxford and The Last Overland team, December 14th will mark the end of one chapter and the start of a few weeks well-earned rest. But we won’t be putting our feet up for long!
From January 2020 we’re going to be hard at work bringing you a TV seriestelling the full story, a book from Alex Bescoby, and many more chances to hear from behind the wheel of this historic adventure.
Although this is our last ‘Tales from Road’ for 2019, we’ll be using this mailing list to keep you posted on all things Last Overland related for a while to come, so we hope you’ll stay with us.
And perhaps, just perhaps, this won’t be Oxford’s final adventure after all…
Until then, keep on rolling,
Team TLO x
