Why not? After all, no one had ever done it before. It would be one of the longest of all overland journeys, from the English Channel to Singapore. Several expeditions had already tried. Some had got as far as the deserts of Persia; a few had even reached the plains of India. But no one had managed to go on from there, over the jungle-clad mountains of Assam and across northern Burma to Thailand and Malaya.Over the last 3,000 miles, it seemed there were "just too many rivers and too few roads". But no one really knew. In fact, their problems began much earlier than that. As mere undergraduates, they had no money, no cars, no nothing. But with a cool audacity that was to become characteristic, they first coaxed the BBC to come up with film for a possible TV series. Then they gently "persuaded" Land Rover to lend them two factory-fresh vehicles. A publisher was even sweet-talked into giving them an advance on a book. By the time they were ready to go, their sponsors (more than 80!) ranged from whiskey distillers to the makers of collapsible buckets.
In late 1955, they set off. Six months, six days and 18,000 miles later, two very weary Land Rovers rolled into Singapore to flash bulbs and champagne. Now, 50 years on, their best selling book, First Overland, is republished with an introduction by Sir David Attenborough. After all, it was he who gave them that film.
