Driving along the line
Everyone who knew Ukraine told us to take a gun. We laughed it off, saying that weapons don’t resolve disputes. Then, on our first night camping in this part of the former Soviet Union, we came face to face with anti-poaching guards armed with AK-47s. It turns out we were in a large government game reserve. A sign clearly stated ‘Strictly No Camping’, but as the notice was in Russian, we didn’t know until it was too late.
We had set up our hammocks between the trees and were getting ready to turn in when the guards turned up. We managed to resolve the situation by explaining that we were unfortunate Englishmen abroad and not dangerous poachers.
Despite having comfy hammocks, we didn’t sleep very well that night. Every twig snap in the darkness was another armed guard, a poacher or a bear. We didn’t know which would be worse. We left before dawn.
Much to learn
This incident took place three weeks into our expedition around the world along the line of 50° North. In January 2008, Team Latitude – consisting of Peter Lovell, David Smith and myself – became the winners of the first ‘Go Beyond’ bursary, sponsored by Land Rover and the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). Our aim was to circumnavigate the planet along this line of latitude while carrying out research into the social impact of climate change through a series of case studies with farmers. None of us had experience of overland expeditions or had driven a Land Rover before. We had a lot to learn.
We took courses in off-road driving with Land Rover and in expedition first aid with Wilderness Medical Training. We also wrote to numerous companies asking for financial
or equipment sponsorship.
Three months later, we were ready, and we drove our kitted-out Defender 110 to the Lizard Peninsula. This windswept area of Cornwall is the only part of the British Isles that the 50th parallel crosses, so we decided that this would be our start and finish point. At Mullion School – the most southerly school on the British mainland – we introduced our expedition to the pupils and demonstrated some of our kit, including pulling the Land Rover across the playground with the recovery winch.
Our drive through the EU was uneventful. There were surfaced roads, campsites and no guards with AK-47s. The route took us through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland.
The expedition began in earnest in Ukraine. We encountered dodgy officialdom at every turn; corrupt policemen lurked by the roadside and stopped us with surprising frequency. They accused us of all kinds of trivial crimes in an attempt to extort money. One official accused Pete of being ‘dizzy’, ‘breaching the peace’ and finally a parking offence.
Overall, we were stopped by police 31 times during the expedition. Usually, they grew bored when they realised we weren’t going to throw money at them, but sometimes we gave them cigarettes just to get away quickly. We only paid 4,000 Mongolian tögrög (about £2) in cash bribes.
Having not seen a hill in the whole of Ukraine, we crossed the border into Russia. The Black Sea coast beckoned before we headed deep inland. Indeed, the Continental Pole of Inaccessibility – the farthest point on Earth from the sea – was close to our route.
As we left Volgograd and headed out across the Kazakh steppe, the landscape and people rapidly changed. This part of Kazakhstan is even flatter than Ukraine, but has a serene emptiness to it. The people were welcoming and helpful.
From Kazakhstan, our route took us through the Altai Mountains in western Siberia and into Mongolia. Mongolia was the trip’s highlight, with wonderful scenery and friendly and curious locals. We travelled to Lake Khövsgöl in the north, the Gobi in the south and witnessed the amazing Naadam festival in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. From there, we drove north back to Russia and Lake Baikal, before heading east along the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway towards the Pacific.
Wheel deal
Our Defender served us fantastically, especially as we didn’t always treat it very well. Despite being heavily loaded with kit, it coped with almost everything we threw at it. On several occasions, we accidentally became airborne, but the chassis and suspension held up remarkably well.
While in the Gobi, a problem developed with the turbo after we had over-revved the engine on the sand dunes. Luckily, just as the engine started to lose power, we encountered a convoy of Land Rovers carrying out a recce for the G4 Challenge, which was due to be held in Mongolia the following year. They invited us back to their camp, where Asif, their mechanic, recognised our vehicle. By pure chance, he had worked on the Defender six months earlier when it had come into his workshop in Solihull to be kitted out for the expedition, and he did a great job of repairing the turbo.
Between Volgograd and Japan, we barely drove a mile on tarmac. The dirt tracks we followed had formed into washboard-like surfaces that took their toll on our kit. The neatly stacked storage boxes in the back quickly became a collection of plastic shards held together with duct tape, while the overloaded roof rack broke regularly. We had it welded back together in both Mongolia and Russia, but it wasn’t long before it broke again.
Being a single-vehicle expedition, we had to literally dig ourselves out of a hole each time we got stuck. Having no off-road experience – apart from our brief Land Rover course at Eastnor Castle – we got stuck regularly when the roads ran out. We became very good at digging in Kazakhstan. The winch proved invaluable and extracted us from many a sticky situation.
Tech headaches
The lack of a back-up vehicle meant that we also had to deal with any kit failures on our own. For every mission-critical piece of gear, we had a back-up and regularly needed to use it. Two of our three GPS units failed in southern Mongolia, so we were glad that we had packed the third device, as well as maps and compasses, as a back-up.
Electronic gadgets inevitably caused the biggest headaches on the road. It seemed that everything that could break, did, and usually sooner rather than later. The inverter gave up before we left Europe, the laptops we used to update our blog were a nightmare to charge, and we lost count of how many times the fuse for the cigarette lighter socket blew. However, a solar panel lashed to the roof delivered a reliable trickle charge to our satellite phone and camcorder batteries.
I used a Canon EOS 400D camera to photograph the expedition. It’s efficient on power, but I always had several fully charged batteries close to hand. Changing lenses in the field is a surefire way of getting dust on the sensor, so I opted for a single 18–250-millimetre lens. Its wide focal range meant that I kept it on the camera for the duration. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a one-size-fits-all lens.
We also carried a small photo printer, which we powered directly from the Land Rover’s cigarette lighter socket. This enabled us to give photographic souvenirs to people along the road. The CompactFlash card from my camera plugged directly into the printer, which produced a ten-centimetre by 15-centimetre print in under a minute. Such images transcend all language barriers and helped to cool some heated situations with local people. The apparently magical production of a photograph just minutes after it had been taken was often rewarded with a bottle of vodka or some freshly caught fish.
When there were trees around, we slept in our Hennessy hammocks, which have an integrated flysheet and mosquito net to keep the rain and insects at bay. You sleep diagonally across the centre line to keep your spine straight. You would be amazed by how comfortable these hammocks are – and waking up and looking out over the camp in the early morning light is infinitely better than being cooped up in a tent.
Completing the circle
On the beautiful Russian island of Sakhalin, we reached the exact point where the 50th parallel hits the Pacific Ocean. We celebrated on the beach with some spear fishing and champagne, before heading south to Japan. We shipped the vehicle out of Nagoya to Vancouver and spent a few weeks working in each of these cities to earn some more money to complete the expedition.
After clearing customs and insuring the vehicle – a ridiculously bureaucratic process – we continued our journey across the vastness of Canada to the island of Newfoundland. We returned to the UK by sea via New York and Southampton, from where we drove to the Lizard Peninsula to complete the expedition on a blustery winter’s day, seven and a half months after we had started. We returned where we began, at Mullion School, where we spoke about our expedition and the findings of our research.
Climatic variation along the 50th Parallel
We wanted to bring the reality of climate change to life for the schoolchildren who followed our expedition. Along our line of latitude, we put together15 case studies, interviewing farmers who are on the front line of climate change. Our subjects included dairy farmers across Europe, horse farmers in Kazakhstan and nomadic herders in Mongolia.
Every farmer we spoke to had noticed major changes in the weather in recent years. Although these changes weren’t consistent in different regions, all of our subjects said that the weather had become far less predictable. For example, in Mongolia, one family had suffered badly as a result of a harsh winter seven years ago. Snow had nearly completely covered their ger (a traditional tent used by most Mongolians) and 90 per cent of their livestock had died.
Spike Reid was responsible for communications, navigation and photography on the Latitude Expedition. A keen climber and photographer, he has undertaken a range of expeditions on four continents. www.spikereid.net
Go Beyond
The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) has a range of grants available for fieldwork and expeditions. A total of £180,000 was awarded to 89 projects around the world last year. The deadline for this year’s ‘Go Beyond’ bursary is 24 September. For more information, visit www.rgs.org/grants
To help them negotiate the many countries along the 50th parallel, Spike and Team Latitude packed their vehicle with camping equipment, navigation gear, audio-visual kit and communication gadgets. But the star of the show was the Land Rover Defender itself, which coped admirably with the journey across the varied off-road terrain:
Don’t forget…
… a Nerf and an Aerobie. These throwing games provide limitless entertainment and a well-needed stretch of the legs after driving for hours. The only problem is getting the Nerf past border guards due to its resemblance to a mortar shell
We had set up our hammocks between the trees and were getting ready to turn in when the guards turned up. We managed to resolve the situation by explaining that we were unfortunate Englishmen abroad and not dangerous poachers.
Despite having comfy hammocks, we didn’t sleep very well that night. Every twig snap in the darkness was another armed guard, a poacher or a bear. We didn’t know which would be worse. We left before dawn.
Much to learn
This incident took place three weeks into our expedition around the world along the line of 50° North. In January 2008, Team Latitude – consisting of Peter Lovell, David Smith and myself – became the winners of the first ‘Go Beyond’ bursary, sponsored by Land Rover and the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). Our aim was to circumnavigate the planet along this line of latitude while carrying out research into the social impact of climate change through a series of case studies with farmers. None of us had experience of overland expeditions or had driven a Land Rover before. We had a lot to learn.
We took courses in off-road driving with Land Rover and in expedition first aid with Wilderness Medical Training. We also wrote to numerous companies asking for financial
or equipment sponsorship.
Three months later, we were ready, and we drove our kitted-out Defender 110 to the Lizard Peninsula. This windswept area of Cornwall is the only part of the British Isles that the 50th parallel crosses, so we decided that this would be our start and finish point. At Mullion School – the most southerly school on the British mainland – we introduced our expedition to the pupils and demonstrated some of our kit, including pulling the Land Rover across the playground with the recovery winch.
Our drive through the EU was uneventful. There were surfaced roads, campsites and no guards with AK-47s. The route took us through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland.
The expedition began in earnest in Ukraine. We encountered dodgy officialdom at every turn; corrupt policemen lurked by the roadside and stopped us with surprising frequency. They accused us of all kinds of trivial crimes in an attempt to extort money. One official accused Pete of being ‘dizzy’, ‘breaching the peace’ and finally a parking offence.
Overall, we were stopped by police 31 times during the expedition. Usually, they grew bored when they realised we weren’t going to throw money at them, but sometimes we gave them cigarettes just to get away quickly. We only paid 4,000 Mongolian tögrög (about £2) in cash bribes.
Having not seen a hill in the whole of Ukraine, we crossed the border into Russia. The Black Sea coast beckoned before we headed deep inland. Indeed, the Continental Pole of Inaccessibility – the farthest point on Earth from the sea – was close to our route.
As we left Volgograd and headed out across the Kazakh steppe, the landscape and people rapidly changed. This part of Kazakhstan is even flatter than Ukraine, but has a serene emptiness to it. The people were welcoming and helpful.
From Kazakhstan, our route took us through the Altai Mountains in western Siberia and into Mongolia. Mongolia was the trip’s highlight, with wonderful scenery and friendly and curious locals. We travelled to Lake Khövsgöl in the north, the Gobi in the south and witnessed the amazing Naadam festival in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. From there, we drove north back to Russia and Lake Baikal, before heading east along the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway towards the Pacific.
Wheel deal
Our Defender served us fantastically, especially as we didn’t always treat it very well. Despite being heavily loaded with kit, it coped with almost everything we threw at it. On several occasions, we accidentally became airborne, but the chassis and suspension held up remarkably well.
While in the Gobi, a problem developed with the turbo after we had over-revved the engine on the sand dunes. Luckily, just as the engine started to lose power, we encountered a convoy of Land Rovers carrying out a recce for the G4 Challenge, which was due to be held in Mongolia the following year. They invited us back to their camp, where Asif, their mechanic, recognised our vehicle. By pure chance, he had worked on the Defender six months earlier when it had come into his workshop in Solihull to be kitted out for the expedition, and he did a great job of repairing the turbo.
Between Volgograd and Japan, we barely drove a mile on tarmac. The dirt tracks we followed had formed into washboard-like surfaces that took their toll on our kit. The neatly stacked storage boxes in the back quickly became a collection of plastic shards held together with duct tape, while the overloaded roof rack broke regularly. We had it welded back together in both Mongolia and Russia, but it wasn’t long before it broke again.
Being a single-vehicle expedition, we had to literally dig ourselves out of a hole each time we got stuck. Having no off-road experience – apart from our brief Land Rover course at Eastnor Castle – we got stuck regularly when the roads ran out. We became very good at digging in Kazakhstan. The winch proved invaluable and extracted us from many a sticky situation.
Tech headaches
The lack of a back-up vehicle meant that we also had to deal with any kit failures on our own. For every mission-critical piece of gear, we had a back-up and regularly needed to use it. Two of our three GPS units failed in southern Mongolia, so we were glad that we had packed the third device, as well as maps and compasses, as a back-up.
Electronic gadgets inevitably caused the biggest headaches on the road. It seemed that everything that could break, did, and usually sooner rather than later. The inverter gave up before we left Europe, the laptops we used to update our blog were a nightmare to charge, and we lost count of how many times the fuse for the cigarette lighter socket blew. However, a solar panel lashed to the roof delivered a reliable trickle charge to our satellite phone and camcorder batteries.
I used a Canon EOS 400D camera to photograph the expedition. It’s efficient on power, but I always had several fully charged batteries close to hand. Changing lenses in the field is a surefire way of getting dust on the sensor, so I opted for a single 18–250-millimetre lens. Its wide focal range meant that I kept it on the camera for the duration. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a one-size-fits-all lens.
We also carried a small photo printer, which we powered directly from the Land Rover’s cigarette lighter socket. This enabled us to give photographic souvenirs to people along the road. The CompactFlash card from my camera plugged directly into the printer, which produced a ten-centimetre by 15-centimetre print in under a minute. Such images transcend all language barriers and helped to cool some heated situations with local people. The apparently magical production of a photograph just minutes after it had been taken was often rewarded with a bottle of vodka or some freshly caught fish.
When there were trees around, we slept in our Hennessy hammocks, which have an integrated flysheet and mosquito net to keep the rain and insects at bay. You sleep diagonally across the centre line to keep your spine straight. You would be amazed by how comfortable these hammocks are – and waking up and looking out over the camp in the early morning light is infinitely better than being cooped up in a tent.
Completing the circle
On the beautiful Russian island of Sakhalin, we reached the exact point where the 50th parallel hits the Pacific Ocean. We celebrated on the beach with some spear fishing and champagne, before heading south to Japan. We shipped the vehicle out of Nagoya to Vancouver and spent a few weeks working in each of these cities to earn some more money to complete the expedition.
After clearing customs and insuring the vehicle – a ridiculously bureaucratic process – we continued our journey across the vastness of Canada to the island of Newfoundland. We returned to the UK by sea via New York and Southampton, from where we drove to the Lizard Peninsula to complete the expedition on a blustery winter’s day, seven and a half months after we had started. We returned where we began, at Mullion School, where we spoke about our expedition and the findings of our research.
Climatic variation along the 50th Parallel
We wanted to bring the reality of climate change to life for the schoolchildren who followed our expedition. Along our line of latitude, we put together15 case studies, interviewing farmers who are on the front line of climate change. Our subjects included dairy farmers across Europe, horse farmers in Kazakhstan and nomadic herders in Mongolia.
Every farmer we spoke to had noticed major changes in the weather in recent years. Although these changes weren’t consistent in different regions, all of our subjects said that the weather had become far less predictable. For example, in Mongolia, one family had suffered badly as a result of a harsh winter seven years ago. Snow had nearly completely covered their ger (a traditional tent used by most Mongolians) and 90 per cent of their livestock had died.
Spike Reid was responsible for communications, navigation and photography on the Latitude Expedition. A keen climber and photographer, he has undertaken a range of expeditions on four continents. www.spikereid.net
Go Beyond
The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) has a range of grants available for fieldwork and expeditions. A total of £180,000 was awarded to 89 projects around the world last year. The deadline for this year’s ‘Go Beyond’ bursary is 24 September. For more information, visit www.rgs.org/grants
To help them negotiate the many countries along the 50th parallel, Spike and Team Latitude packed their vehicle with camping equipment, navigation gear, audio-visual kit and communication gadgets. But the star of the show was the Land Rover Defender itself, which coped admirably with the journey across the varied off-road terrain:
Start the slideshow (10 pictures)
Don’t forget…
… a Nerf and an Aerobie. These throwing games provide limitless entertainment and a well-needed stretch of the legs after driving for hours. The only problem is getting the Nerf past border guards due to its resemblance to a mortar shell
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