Teddy Landrover

My 1994 Ford Ranger is finally about to give up the ghost and I'm in the market for a new truck.  Moments of automotive transition like this call to mind the first vehicle I ever owned, an early Series IIa Land rover "bakkie" we picked up in South Africa back in 1996.  I was 28 years old, and judging from its electrical system the Landie was at least a year older than me, early 1967 vintage going by what we learned from those familiar with the line.  It was dark green and at one time had its bed and underside rubberized, likely by the South African Defense Force.  We got it for US$ 4,000 through Aucor, the large auction company owned by the family of a friend from grad school  - and I also walked away with an original John Muafangejo linocut, given to me when I recognized and admired the work of this renowned Namibian artist on the office wall.  All in all we considered this a very good deal, given our limited resources and the rigors of the Namibian desert that would be our home during the next year.

We had no permanent address in Namibia and expected to spend our time living in a tent during our  Fulbright research, so we outfitted the Land Rover with those items we deemed essential for living far out in the bush.  We had five Jerry cans for petrol, two big jugs for water.  A large metal footlocker to hold food and valuables.  A heavy #3 Potjie, the ubiquitous three legged cook pot of southern Africa and so indispensable to fireside cuisine that we shipped it and a smaller version home when we repatriated to the States.  And prior experience in the Kalahari had shown us that deep sand required the services of a Hi Lift Jack, the big stick that inspired Viv to call our Land rover "Teddy." 

Our purpose in Namibia was to help those who lived alongside elephants find ways to coexist with big game rather than resorting to poaching, but Roosevelt seemed an appropriate environmental inspiration for our Land Rover nonetheless.  It was big and bulky but persistent and virtually unstoppable.  Roosevelt famously continued to make a stump speech after being shot by an anarchist; Teddy Land Rover was back on the trail with a spot welded frame not once but twice - what our gifted bush mechanic and dear friend Elias Xoagub called "a small problem".  Roosevelt charged up the San Juan Heights; Teddy Land Rover crawled in 4x4 up dry river banks and across fields of broken stone.  And TR's mouthful of gleaming teeth had their counterpart in Teddy Land Rover's spattered grill.

We learned a great deal about the rigors of living off road with an antique vehicle during our time in Namibia with Teddy.  An old Land Rover was a good choice for us, though its top speed was 45 kph and it took two full days to reach our resupply town and return with our month-worth of groceries.  There are a lot of old Land Rover parts scattered around Namibia and bush mechanics who know how to use whatever is on hand to keep a vintage Landie going.  The engine has a limited number of moving parts and one can usually cannibalize an old Rover to keep another going.  This served us very well indeed when our stick-shift snapped off at the gearbox when I shifted into first one morning in the middle of practically nowhere.  Two Namibian friends with the wrong sized spanners had the broken gear shift out and a replacement scrounged from a heap of Land Rover parts back in place in under an hour. 

When Teddy dropped his trannie about 10K from our field station, the first vehicle to come along were the local telephone repair crew, who wired up a phone to a nearby pole and its party line and passed the word that the two Americans who were helping the local Conservancy get off the ground needed some help themselves.  Three men from the government garage arrived and towed us home, staying for the next two days to get us a couple of forward gears and all it cost was a goat to feed us.  We inched back to civilization on tires worn down to the steel belts by the rocks and were back in circulation in less than a week.

When we left Namibia, we gave Elias Xoagub the Land Rover.  It had several parts from his Land Rovers by  this time and weeks of sweat equity keeping it running.  Elias loves these things and it was the finest gift we could have made.  I like to think that Teddy Land Rover, or parts of him at any rate, is still doing his part helping conserve the wildlife and sustain the rural livelihoods of northwest Namibia.  One of these days we will return and find out, but this time, I think, in a newer model.  Maybe a Series III.   

Comments

[Szavanna]

Hi there - happy to let you know that this post is now included in the Beautiful Africa blog carnival's 8th edition : ) ( http://belleafrique.blogspot.com/2008/06/beautiful-africa-8th-edition.html )