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43SET29  -  First Overland Set

                                                                                                  1:43 Scale

In 1955, six students – one from Oxford and five from Cambridge – drove two Mk 1 Land Rovers in convoy from London to Singapore. It was the idea of a Cambridge undergraduate Adrian Cowell, one of the eventual team. The Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition – First Overland - as it became known - set off from London, first stopVienna. Their route then took them through Belgrade to Salonika; then through Turkey, Persia (now Iran), Iraq, Pakistan, India, Burma and then on to Thailand, Malaysia and finally to Singapore, arriving there in 1956.
The Land Rover was relatively new at the time, having been launched in 1948 as the first rough all terrain vehicle on the market, It was to become the workhorse of the era and the most suitable, if not the only vehicle, capable of undertaking such a challenge.
Our 1:43 scale set of two Series 1 Land Rovers recalls the legendary expedition in authentic miniature, down to the roof racks and tarpaulin-covered equipment and supplies. In the appropriate colours of light blue (Cambridge University) and the dark blue (Oxford University), the models feature a list of the countries the adventurers drove through – each model shows them in a different order. The decoration also includes the sponsors of the day who made the journey possible.
Another of the team members, Tim Slessor, wrote a book – First Overland - about the expedition. Although the book is now out of print, used copies are available via the Internet. However, there is a DVD on the expedition, which is readily available – also on the Internet.