Sam Watson

Thanks to economic and Coronavirus-related issues, many UK-based readers will be contemplating taking their 4×4 on the NC500 or similar trips within the British Isles this summer. With that in mind, it might be worth talking about a couple of issues that affect wild camping and vehicle-based camping around the UK – campfires and “wild…

Perhaps the thing that worries most folk when planning a big overland trip is interacting with authority whilst on the road in developing countries – police and border officials. Will they expect bribes? How will I know when to bribe, and when it could get me into trouble? Will they try and rob me? The…

Travellers are resuming trips to Morocco from mainland Europe and the UK. It might be worth sharing a tale of a similar trip I made a few years ago. This is NOT representative of Morocco trips generally!             The Sahara is at the back of the mind of many 4×4 owners – the biggest, hottest…

            A major area where 4x4s suffer from their reputation is in load carrying – especially on overland trips. We’ve all seen the pics of some poor battered vehicle somewhere, laden up to the eyeballs with all manner of kit – people, goats, hay bales, ammunition, you name it. Many 4x4s (“traditional” Land Rovers especially)…

Egypt is a wonderful place. A bit like an onion, if you peel back one layer of Egyptian history, you find another, and another, and still another. Walking along a street you might pass a Pharaonic statue, next to a 1920s belle epoque villa, abutting a 1960s Soviet-era brutalist concrete façade, all overshadowed by a…

Over the years I have collected several LRDG artifacts from various places, especially North Africa. One of the most unusual is a bone knife with a fox-paw handle and silverplate crossguard. On the 12.5cm blade is the inscription “Presented by Long Range Desert Group, Capt H. J Bennett, Cairo 1944”. It came to me from…

I’ve lived in North Africa and the Middle East for over half my adult life, and I’ve been spoiled by access to wide open wilderness like the Sahara as a camping destination. Whenever I return home to my own crowded islands I am forced to recalibrate the way my “outdoor head” works – all land…

The world of 4x4s in general, and overland travel in particular, is becoming particularly kit-focussed. What roof tent have you got? What boots do you wear? What drawer system do you use? What, you haven’t got one?! And so on. This, of course, quickly followed by the Harry Enfield quote “ooooh you don’t want one…

As regular readers will know, Lebanon is one of my favourite places to be. Friendly, vibrant, relaxed, fascinating, with great traditions of cuisine and hospitality, and a rich depth of history, it’s a place I could easily and happily live. Not only that, from my point of view, the Lebanese are great lovers of the…

Overlanding contains several areas that make travellers pause for thought, and one of these is medical care on the road. On overland trips I’ve needed to think about this issue a few times – examples have been treating severe heat exhaustion on the Algeria/Morocco border, dealing with a broken leg (with six inches of bone…

One of the biggest eye-openers for overlanders travelling outside their own country is, surprisingly for many, the driving style in different countries. I don’t mean necessarily that the driving standards are in any way worse – just – different!             Adjusting to them is one of the biggest changes of mindset for a traveller, and…

These might be handy to enliven the menu when camping or on a long trip….. Tomato and Onion Salad You need; 2tbsp white vinegar 1tsp sugar 1 onion, thinly sliced 4 sliced tomatoes ½ cucumber, sliced 1 green chili, deseeded and chopped finely 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped Juice of one lemon 1tsp salt Coriander…

I ran across this diary entry which I thought might be worth sharing…… “I’m writing this in a tiny mountain lodge 4000 metres up in the Himalayas, at the entrance to the Thorong La Pass in Nepal. My friends Miles, Tom, Tek and I have come up here in a Defender Puma 110, passing through…

Recently I was lucky enough to travel through Syria for a week or so, taking in ancient sites I’d wanted to visit since childhood and taking a Land Rover through the Syrian desert. Syria, as you might expect, currently shows examples of both the best and worst of humanity. A beautiful and varied landscape holds…

So much of Land Rover ownership is to do with being within the law – obeying the law, what to do when you fall foul of it, and so on. Overland travel, however, often occurs in areas outside the law, or beyond it – places where the police cannot, or will not, reach you –…

I was on the road in Oman a few years ago with my girlfriend and she had an upset stomach. Not, I hasten to add, as a result of my cooking, but as a result of a hotel stay beforehand that was the tradeoff against an overland trip that we’d agreed in a bargaining session!…

Many of the queries I receive from readers concern bribery of officials. A couple of summers ago I ran across some examples of it on a trip through East Africa, and I thought it would be worth mentioning one as an attempt to allay readers’ fears about the topic.             It’s often the case that…

As an ‘exotic’ destination, Morocco is perhaps the most reachable by 4×4 from the UK. Three or four day’s drive across Europe brings you to the southern Spanish ports, a quick hop across the Med and you are in Africa, and the Sahara looms.             I’ve been lucky enough to have the time to explore…

One of the biggest factors when considering equipment for an overland trip is that of fuel. It can cause all sorts of issues, especially when travelling in developing countries. Living in Cairo there were many times when I found decent diesel unobtainable, thanks to the woeful economic policies of various Egyptian governments (that of Morsi…

It happened at the tail end of a long Saharan trip. I’d taken my Land Rover Defender from my home in York in the north of England across France and Spain to North Africa, intent on tracking down some prehistoric rock art in southern Morocco and Algeria. With me were two friends from the U.K.,…

Needless to say I’ve been out in the desert a lot lately in Bumblebee, my ’96 v8 “Camel Edition” Discovery. The old roof tent died a death, the fibreglass top deteriorated after too much exposure to intense desert sun and the fabric sides were becoming brittle for the same reason, so I replaced it with…