For many, the LandRover Defender is an iconic piece of engineering and transport history.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35436741I have no idea what folk here think of it, nor what stories you might have of your experiences of them. Here's you chance to share.
My story is both a 'long' and a 'tall' one. One of the early members of the International Nepal Fellowship, with whom we worked in Nepal during the 90s, had worked for Land Rover before joining INF and he managed to arrange a deal whereby Land Rover would supply a new Defender to INF every few years. The result was that, by the time we arrived, they had donated at something under cost price 5 of the vehicles in 40 years. All bar the original was still running, and used to take people around Nepal loaded with medical, personal and project-related gear. I recall travelling from Surkhet - where one of INF's Leprosy and TB project bases was - to Pokhara, where my family were based. This journey is about 500km and usually takes between 9 and 10 hours. This time, however, several bridges and other sections of the various roads had been damaged by floods and heavy monsoon rains. Our driver didn't allow these to delay us unduly, except that travelling through heavily swollen rivers and and the rocks that accompanied them, rather than driving over the bridges that should have crossed them slowed us fairly dramatically. Having left Surkhet at 5am, we finally reached Pokhara at about 10pm. In view of the conditions, we were all bone-dry, though somewhat shaken and hungry.
