THIS IS a story that covers twelve months and thousands of miles from Gaydon to Canada to the Balkans. It has countless contributors, many, but not all, within the Land Rover fraternity. It has lots of smiles, tears too, some on my birthday, much of which was spent in a Bosnian minefield with some dedicated Land Rover owners, the Dutch army, and a bunch of underpaid, unsung local heroes.
This is also a tale of kindnesses, unsolicited generosity and masses of behind-the-scenes dedication from more than a few, of last-minute frustrations, of hours that stretched to days on the telephone, fax, photocopier and word processor, all culminating in a manic month where Bosnia and Land Rovers seemed to supersede all else in my life. The story has a happy ending, and a big bang, a giant marrow, a few rainbows, and Camels, convoys and a day at the supermarket along the way. Read on, it’s an adventure that only happened because so many of you made it so.

In 2001, a man in Bosnia Herzegovina told me he needed a Land Rover to help him save lives. My girlfriend, Alison, was doing Voluntary Service (VSO) there, and I was delivering books and blankets and looking for a story. This man, Martin Pavic, the regional director of mine clearance operations, was using his old car to coordinate de-mining. Bosnia is littered with thirteen million killer devices following four years of bitter ethnic conflict – half a decade later, two or three children every month are still being blown up.
I came back with my story, showing the vital role of Land Rovers in ordnance disposal. A lot of people read it in LRM last December, including the magazine’s appeal for cash or a vehicle to help Martin.

My goal was around £4000. Then, after that, I needed a big-hearted dealer willing to forgo much of his profit. I also needed to reach the Balkans by November to beat the snow. When a total stranger at a Dartmoor exhibition scribbled me a £40 cheque, then, sympathetic friends in Salisbury gave me £50 and a Devon neighbour raised another £140 at a Tavistock folk cafe, I knew we were on our way. Further support came by telephone from Canada where Robin Craig saw LRM and persuaded his Ottawa Valley club to send a healthy donation.
I then wrote begging letters to every 4x4 outfit in the land; a commendable few replied with money or advice. One such call pointed us towards the Land Rover Marque Day at Gaydon, where we were generously allotted a plot to sell my Camel Trophy photographs, except we couldn’t exhibit from my big Citroen! Into the breach stepped Scotsman Alan Clark, lending his robust expedition Defender that did a Bosnia run last year. Diana Andrews helped me auction donated items to a very receptive crowd; Land Rover Collections and Rimmer Bros put up merchandise, and a strong bond with Tavistock’s Superwinch began when the Customer Service Department gave a reconditioned winch to sell.

It was bought by Mike Robson who has the new Camel Trophy Museum on his Shropshire cattle estate, where the winch now lives. At the museum’s inauguration I was invited to show slides from Mongolian and Patagonian Trophy adventures and seventy guests dug very deep into their pockets to bid for auctioned Camel memorabilia. I drove home with a promise of £2,500, a crowd of new-found friends and the realisation in June that I could be driving to Bosnia before Christmas.
Soon, the funds began accumulating from a variety of often unexpected sources. Folks in my Devon village, Horrabridge, chipped in as did many in Ottery St. Mary. Staying local, the Cornwall and Devon Land Rover Club made us the official charity at the Plymouth ARC National Rally, also donating vehicle parts to sell. LRM allotted us half their stand space, plus a Defender roof rack for the final auction, conducted again by Diana. Here we also sold members’ books donated by my Outdoor Writers’ Guild and two signed editions sent by Col. John Blashford Snell who rafted Range Rovers through the Panamanian jungles of the Darien Gap back in 1972. I was once his photographer in Mongolia. Round the world yachtsman Pete Goss also gave his signed book.

In July, with money in the bank, we went to LD and TC Willett near Grantham to look at ex-army Defenders. Tom had earlier promised an old Series III and, true to his word, gave us an equally attractive discount on a slightly dented, left-hand drive, squaddie’s 90, which logically was more appropriate as the Bosnian de-miners already had three Defenders from a German charity. The deal was struck at £2,500. It also seemed expedient to let Tom’s paintman undertake the refurbishment, adding a few items like roofrack, ladder, worklight and chequerplate, for which we had funds.
Now adopted by the Camel Trophy Owners’ Club, on their Billing stand we displayed big pictures of our new purchase, still in army camouflage, but proof of progress, and people kept giving. Such was the warmth of the Land Rover brethren.
Aware that aid was also needed in Bosnia, whispers of a possible autumn convoy now began to germinate around Camel campfires. Tripping over Freelanders in the Billing dusk landed us in an unlit tent and helpful conversation with drivers who’d done the Bosnia run before. Then we ran into the BARF guys – Neil Newitt’s Balkan Aid Relief Foundation, who already have several aid runs under their cam-belts, from whose convoy protocol we were allowed to lift valuable paragraphs for our own itinerary. Here, too, Yorkshireman David Spirett displayed his tireless supportive efforts by forging a link with David Sneath’s Land Rover Experience. They presented the Appeal with an 8500lbs Superwinch Husky from an Experience Defender and items of Land Rover clothing that would eventually find their way to the mine clearance personnel. Through his Leeds agricultural engineering business, David backed us and also campaigned suppliers, resulting in generous boxes of LR parts, and pieces for the vehicle from RU Motoring and Border Supplies.

West Country passion?
One June evening I got a message from a Dorset man who had read about me and wanted to help the Appeal. I’m certain Kevin Salter was weaned on Solihull manuals as a child; he owns the Shrubbery Garage near Lyme Regis, lovingly administering to every Land Rover in the district, from the Coastguard to the lord of the manor. His yard is an elephants’ graveyard of practically everything since 1948 and, as usual, he was working on three when I located him. To summarise what is a story in itself, he enrolled considerable local conscripts for a weekend cavalcade of sponsored Land Rovers, distributing collecting jars to prominent 4x4 locations from Axminster to Exmoor. Kevin’s supporters brought in a magnificent £1600... and he renewed his passport with the intention of being convoy mechanic to the Bosnia trip.

Summer seemed to vanish as Alison trawled through east-European bureaucracy that dogged our efforts to help people who we knew needed it. She was used to the anomalies of Bosnian politics but a recent seven year age limit on imported vehicles, and humanitarian food aid being declared illegal were unexpected frustrations. Then there were border manifests, tax waivers, driving documents, export papers and diplomatic letters in Serbo-Croat to assist our passage... even matching the paint colour for our Land Rover seemed a massive hurdle. Worst of all, Martin Pavic, for whom the vehicle was intended, found himself unemployed, again through politics.

no going back
But there was no going back and advice is always available if one looks for it. From a programme on Radio 4, we tracked down Operation Florian, another bunch of Samaritans like BARF – serving British firefighters who are taking decommissioned appliances and equipment to Bosnia and training the local personnel to use them. Station Commander Mike Doherty made the magnanimous offer to include us in their next convoy, and they’d even cover us with their insurance!
In mid-September Tom Willett delivered our 2.5-litre diesel Defender to Exeter, having sorted all the paperwork to give it a brand new identity, complete with Q-plate. Its pristine blue and white livery gleamed in the Devon sun as it reversed off the trailer, fulfilling another moment that I never dreamed would happen.
With so much still to do, we moved the October 4 departure forward a week and threw ourselves into a last-minute local press campaign to fill the vehicle with aid – items needed by elderly Bosnians trying to restart life in bombed villages, with neither roof nor electricity in many cases. The Centre for Civic Cooperation in Livno, where Alison worked, was our local link, run by two intrepid ladies, Sonja Garic and Zulka Baljak. They told us that the villager’s needs were for food, toiletries, bedding and clothes.
On a single Saturday in front of Tavistock Safeway we amassed several trolley-loads of provisions, nearly £200 in cash and a donation from the store. We were full to bursting and things kept coming... bedding delivered to my house, and a clockwork radio and a cheque from Plymouth pensioners.

enough for a Comer shop?
Our public crusade was paralleled by four other far-flung vehicles pledged to accompany us. Two were Camel Club members Lance Dow and his ex-Mundo Mayan Discovery from Cumbria, and Bristolian Tim Cann with medic Paul Brett in a 110 Defender Hi-capacity pick-up that also did the Kalimantan epic. Tim’s 25-box inventory, collected by Scouts, schools and Red Cross, from shampoo to sleeping bags, would easily stock a corner shop, while Lance, similarly inundated, was even offered an entire operating theatre!
Navigating beside Lance was Alison’s ex-VSO colleague, Peter Roberts, who relished the chance at short notice to return to Bosnia, his local knowledge enhancing our team. Kevin Salter enlisted ex-soldier Steve Mackinney in his red 90 and Londoners Don Potter and Dale Shearer with lots of carrying space in their County 110 completed the deputation. Kevin gathered cash and blankets from garage customers and Axminster Primary School while Steve extracted considerable monies from patrons in his girlfriend’s pub. Don meanwhile had firms paying him to name them on his vehicle. In the same way, Exeter main dealer, Matfords, paid our fuel costs and a Norwich Union Direct underwriter, who loves Land Rovers, gave us free insurance cover.
Every adventure has a cliffhanger and ours came in the shape of a cracked cylinder head a week before departure. Tom insisted on recovering the vehicle to Lincolnshire. What seemed like an eternity was in fact five long days for all of us while a replacement head was sourced, fitted and tested – necessary work, but a dilemma for those who had to be back in England to meet job commitments that couldn’t be deferred. Tom redelivered the vehicle at daybreak on Saturday and we postponed the ferry yet again.