Our vehicle

We originally owned a Land Rover Td5 but we decided that this would sadly have to be sold for our African trip because we needed an earlier model that did not have the complicated electronic system.  Perhaps it was fate, but we discovered our Land Rover advertised in one of the Friday ‘Ad’ papers, which Rosemary used to pick up from from the local shop in one of the picturesque Kentish  villages where she used to teach. It was the first time however, that we had decided to look at the vehicle ads. and the white 1995 110 at a 4×4 garage looked a good buy, with only 19,000 miles on the clock and only 2 owners. We bought it that weekend and have never looked back!

For our African trip we had a Hannibal roof rack, awning and roof top tent and this worked really well in most of the African climate.  We found the tent surprisingly spacious and very comfortable. We often looked out to amazing views from its large front window and thankfully the lions never discovered how to climb up the ladder! Inside the rear of our Land Rover we used a  pull-out drawer system from Mobile Storage Systems plus 6 large storage boxes from Staples. One of the best pieces of kit that we took was our Kelly Kettle which was great for boiling  water without using gas. We saved all our unwanted bits of paper and cardboard and collected wood on the journey. We also had an Engle fridge and our cooker was fixed to the rear door. Our Michelin 235-85R-16 XZL mud tyres did us proud, with only one puncture due to driving over a nail and we had a second set of these fitted when we reached Eldoret in Kenya. We had an extra fuel tank  which gave us another 40 litres and a water tank which also provided the same amount.

    

After experiencing cold, wet and windy weather on a number of occasions whilst camping in Europe, we decided that it would be really nice to be able to live inside the rear of our vehicle if necessary. We visited the 4×4 and Overland Show at Bad Kissengen in Germany where we discovered that Land Rover conversions to a push up roof were the norm rather than the exception and we came away with many good ideas.

   

We decided that this was the way to go and after making a number of enquires we took our Land Rover to Landy Camper in Germany to have the roof conversion done. We also had the interior fitted out with storage cabinets, seating and a pull out table.

We have now had this conversion for a couple of years using it for camping in Europe and we are very happy with it. See pictures below