Sam Watson

As mentioned here elsewhere (Nov 2023 I think – sorry!) life has been somewhat disrupted for me of late. I came home in summer 2023 to care for both my parents – and as time went on, both slipped away, in fairly quick succession. Unsurprisingly this has disrupted my life, quite a lot. It was…

“The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley” ….. they do indeed. My desert life has been cut short by the need to sell Bumblebee and return home in a hurry. Family First, and due to circumstances my family has come first. So there have been no updates here since summer and…

Recently I’ve just come back from a long trip through central and eastern Zimbabwe in my Series One 107″ and also a Freelander 2, and, given that folk are now starting to plan overland travel abroad again, I thought it worth passing on some pointers for first-time car travel in African countries.                 Police roadblocks…

Recently I’ve mentioned thoughts about desert camps and camping in hot, arid valleys (as you might find in Morocco) on these pages, but given the dark nights and cold which prevails for much of the year in Europe it might be an idea to look at camping and travel in the winter months in the…

Preventative maintenance is a big deal, especially on older Land Rovers. They are big, tough vehicles, but things wear out. Things get loose. It’s something we as owners need to keep on top of – especially if we have older trucks.                 As an example, as soon as Covid lockdown was lifted in the UAE…

Maybe the easiest meal when on the road and campfire cooking? Certainly one of the most fun, and versatile. How to Make Kebabs: 1. Cut the ingredients into similar-size pieces and prepare as the recipe directs. If marinating, refrigerate 1 hour for fish and up to overnight for meat and poultry. 2. Preheat a grill…

One of the most fulfilling ways you can adventure with a 4×4 is to link your travels with those in a canoe. I use my Land Rovers to get as far into the wilderness as I can – and a canoe is a perfect way of doing exactly the same thing, in almost complete silence.…

Note – this is a trip report from 2015, before the UK suicidally jumped from the EU. So border crossings are a lot simpler here! My friend Ben Stowe who runs overland and restoration specialists Black Paw 4×4 in York had taken a year to rebuild and restore his 1949 Land Rover 80” soft top,…

After yesterday’s discussion about how to scout and set up a camp in an arid rocky valley, it might be worth extending the view and talking about actual desert camps. Typically an overlander’s first experience of a desert camp might be Morocco or Tunisia and, though the “real” desert is fast vanishing from those places,…

Over the last 7 years most of my overlanding has been travelling around the southeastern parts of the Arabian peninsula, where I’m based for most of the time – in the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Many of these areas are mountainous and therefore many of my overnight halts have been in steep-sided rocky valleys,…

Learning languages to help communication when traveling overland is a multi-sided issue. On the one hand it opens doors and makes friends if you can chat to someone with even a few words of their own language, on the other hand it can get you into trouble fast, and then leave you high and dry…

(With apologies to Don Henley) Given a clean sheet of paper, how would you go about creating your perfect overland truck? Gather ten overlanders and you will get twenty opinions. Everyone has different ideas and experiences; different needs and tasks for the vehicles, varied expectations of terrain and difficulties to face, different ideas of ergonomics…

The eastern edge of Arabia holds the countries of Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Both are a beautiful mixture of mountains and desert, and both have a fascinating and adventurous history which supports them as they move into the 21st Century. Both countries count the Land Rover as the first motor car that they…

Tyres are always a source of discussion amongst travellers. Many folk have their favourite brand and tread pattern, and woe betide anyone who questions it on Social Media! Sometimes this is a case of “First World Problems” – after all, if you travel in the developing world you realise that for many folk, tyres are…