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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“A marvellous piece of history"
BBC Breakfast News
DAYS ON ROAD: 111 / 111
KMS COVERED: 19,000 / 19,000
COUNTRY COUNT: 23 / 23
THE END (for now):
Welcome to the final dispatch from The Last Overland team, for 2019 at least! On December 14th we finally reached the end of our historic cross-continental journey from Singapore to London in a very special 64 year old car.
Since touching down on British soil 2 weeks ago, Oxford and her human companions have been taking a well-earned break for the Christmas holidays (and eating far too much.)
However, we have been back behind the wheel a couple of times – some of you may have seen Oxford, Tim, Alex and Nat making headline news on BBC Breakfast, appearing live from Salford Quays…
While our Singapore to London adventure may be at an end, given the incredible response we had to The Last Overland from all over the world, we’re excited to say 2020 and beyond will hold more exciting and groundbreaking adventures!
Read on for the full story of the final leg of Oxford’s journey home, and for what the future holds for this extraordinary car and The Last Overland Team.
THE LAST OVERLAND: JOURNEY’S END
On Saturday December 14th, Oxford and her 8 human companions from 6 different countries touched down on British soil to an incredible welcome. We’re still glowing, it’s a day we’ll never forget!
Fans from as far afield as the Netherlands, Spain and Poland had driven their Land Rovers to be part of a 200 car Guard of Honour awaiting the team at The Folkestone Harbour Arm.
Others from as far away as Indonesia, Singapore and Australia had flown in just to be there at the finish line in the shadow of the white cliffs of Dover, and be part of the UK Arrival Party kindly hosted by Goodyear. Thank you to everyone who came and waited patiently in the howling winds and drenching waves!
Among the waiting crowd was The Last Overland’s talisman, and the inspiration for this whole project – Tim Slessor. Tim - veteran of The First Overland of 1955/6 – had harboured a dream to relive the greatest journey of his life, a dream sadly denied him as he fell ill on the start line in Singapore. But as you all now know, fate had a final hand to play with the last-minute inclusion of Tim’s 21 year old grandson, Nat George.
Tim and Nat’s emotional reunion on the Harbour Arm was just the first of many that day, as families and loved ones were reunited, and it was the perfect end to what’s been the journey of a lifetime for Nat and the team. Despite his absence from the journey itself, we know that without Tim setting the wheels in motion The Last Overland would never have happened.
Even as we stood on British soil at last, it was hard to quite grasp that after almost 18 months of work we’d pulled it off. Addressing the crowd at Folkestone, Tim said:
“If someone had told me in 1956 when we pulled up at Champion Motors in Singapore, that a grandson of mine would be driving the same car back to London 63 years later, I’d tell them they were talking nonsense!”
It was the perfect closing scene to what had been a hectic final 10 days of driving since TLO’s last ‘Tales from the Road’ dispatch from Budapest in Hungary on December 4th. Once we’d scooped some of the Hungarian snowdrifts off Oxford’s windscreen, we headed on to country number 18 – Slovakia.
A real treat lay in store for The Last Overland team in the town of Nitra, where we’d been invited to tour one of Jaguar Land Rover’s newest production facilities. We thought we were just getting a sneak peek of the factory; what we hadn’t expected was the entire workforce to be waiting there to wave us in!
What we also hadn’t planned for was the Prime Minister of Slovakia to be waiting in the wings to greet Oxford and the team. Quite the honour! We took the chance to sign Mr. Pellegrini up to Team TLO, of course.
One final treat was in store for team TLO on this whirlwind day – we were to be given the chance to take a ride in the latest addition to the Land Rover family, the New Defender. The car doesn’t hit the streets until early 2020, so it was a good chance to get up close and personal with what’s sure to become an icon in its own right.
Cheered on by thousands of excited and sometimes bemused JLR factory workers - who were mid-assembly of brand new Land Rovers for delivery across the world - the TLO team chugged and clanked Oxford through this vast, spotless facility. An extraordinary, unique and historic sight – and had it been any other car, it wouldn’t have been quite so warmly welcomed!
Leaving Nitra behind, we headed for country number 19 – Austria. After taking in some of the iconic sights of Vienna and the world-beating Christmas markets, we scooped up our old mate and founder of our supporter NG Architecture, Nick Gowing, who was joining us for the last leg of the journey. (Huge thanks to Nick for helping keep this show in the road!)
We were really picking up the pace now as the December 14th deadline loomed – we couldn’t be late. The team sadly had to sprint across Germany (country number 20) in a single day, really putting Oxford through her paces on the autobahn. Safe to say she rarely strayed beyond the slow lane!
We did have a good reason to rush, however, as country number 21 – France – awaited. TLO’s resident Frenchman, Leopold Belanger, had been complaining about the quality of croissants for 18,000km, so it was finally time for him to show us how they were done properly.
Welcomed at the border in Alsace by a squad of Land Rover fans, we began our culinary tour of this wonderful country. Even though the country was undergoing a series of major strikes, Leopold’s friends and family pulled out all the stops to make us feel at home.
After an unforgettable stay in Champagne with the living Land Rover legend, Sebastien "Land Vintage", we headed on to Paris to be wined and dined in finest French style by the Belanger contingent.
Sadly our attempts to recreate a piece of First Overland history by posing with Oxford under the Eiffel Tower were (pretty reasonably) stopped by the Parisian Police, but we did manage to recreate another famous photo just a little outside Paris.
The warmth and hospitality of France made it a wrench to leave, but ahead lay the penultimate country on our journey – Belgium. In the last of a series of emotional homecomings for various members of our team in Europe, this time it was the turn of Therese-Marie to be reunited with her homeland.
Looming thoughts of the final stage in the UK were temporarily parked by the incredible welcome we received at Autoworld Brussels, where Oxfordand the team were invited mark the opening of the So British! Exhibition, celebrating a century of British automotive history.
Dozens of Land Rovers from across the country turned out for a glimpse of these grubby globetrotters. But amongst the crowd was a familiar face – Oxford’s owner and restorer, Adam Bennett.
Adam had driven through the night from his native Yorkshire to surprise the team, just one of the many huge gestures of kindness this man has made to make this adventure a reality.
Dusting ourselves off after a night of reunions and celebrations in Brussels, we now had just 24 hours to go before our Arrival Party in Folkestone. The race was on. Howling gales and major strike action in France put both our options for crossing the Channel – the Eurotunnel and ferry – in jeopardy. Would we get home in time?
Thankfully on our way out of Belgium, our pals at Goodyear made sure all three expedition cars had a brand new set of tyres to get them safely across the final leg!
Rising before dark on Saturday 14th, we packed up the cars formed into convoy formation for almost the last time. The tension and excitementwere rising as we headed to the ferry port, only to discover that our ferry was delayed until the winds died down.
With no time to spare, we U-Turned and dashed for the Eurotunnel, who in a final twist of happy fate had just enough spaces to squeeze us in. Crossing into the grey dawn light of England (country number 23) we were washed with a tide of relief – we were going to make it to Folkestone on schedule!
Finally, the Brits in the team breathed a sigh of relief, as we were able to return to driving on the left after last doing so back in Thailand. As we stormed towards Folkestone, our weary little convoy was joined by a special edition of Land Rover’s New Defender, bedecked in Oxford and Cambridge colours. We couldn’t have asked for a better or more glamorous escort on our final leg.
Folkestone will always remain a happy blur for the team, as we were battered by sea spray and reunited with old friends and new who had followed the journey since the start.
Tim Slessor and the team were joined on stage by Mike Rytokoski from Goodyear, Mike Bishop from Jaguar Land Rover and Carrie Kwik from TLO’s title supporter, Singapore Tourism Board. It was a treat to be joined by so many of those who’d made this adventure possible.
But our journey wasn’t quite over. The First Overlanders had begun their journey at Hyde Park Corner in 1955, and our job to bring Oxford home overland from Singapore would not be officially complete without taking onthe final leg back to London.
Oxford and the team made their final journey to the finish line in a phalanx of Land Rovers from all across the world. They were old and new, fastand slow, but all enjoying this moment of motoring history – it was a sight we’ll never forget.
After making a very quick pit stop at our old haunt of The Grenadier (the pub from which we’d officially launched our journey back in August), we travelled the final few yards to The London Hilton on Park Lane. Thank you to the Michael Shepherd and his team for giving us the best expedition base camp we could ask for!
In a mirror of the start line in a steamy Singapore almost 4 months ago, The High Commissioner from Singapore – Ms. Foo Chi Hsia - was waiting flag-in-hand to call an end to our 19,000km odyssey. The moment was made all the more special by the bagpipe escort we were given by our charity partners at The Gurkha Welfare Trust. It took us back to our arrival into Kalimpong, NE India, months ago!
Celebrations went on long into the night at the Royal Geographical Society, kindly catered by our friends at Opihr Gin and Fortnum & Mason. Thanks to the generosity of our guests we also raised thousands for our three nominated charities – you can still chip in if you'd like to!
The only bum note was waking up to find Oxford with her first and only parking ticket of the entire journey. Luckily though, as all good fairy tales do, this one has a happy ending. After some kind reflection, the parking team from the City of Westminster later cancelled it. Huzzah!
WHAT NEXT?
It’s a question we’ve been asked ever since we set foot back in the UK. The honest answer is “sleep, hopefully.” But we can’t rest for long, as 2020 holds some busy times for the TLO team.
From the start of January we’ve a TV series to make – which we hope to have on your screens in late 2020 – and Alex has a book to write with all the behind-the-scenes stories we couldn’t share on the way!
As those who were at the RGS also heard, it seems as if Oxford has not made her last journey after all. The USA and Africa await, but more on that soon…
So please stay tuned to our social media channels, and we’ll be sharing major updates before the rest of the world finds out on this newsletter as always.
To all of you – a huge and hearty thank you for being there with us throughout our journey, and for helping to make it an adventure we’ll never forget.
Keep on rolling into 2020,
Team TLO x
