The Great Escape
Written by John MacphersonI like Land Rovers. I’ve got an old one. It has ‘foibles’, it leaks: water in from the outside, oil out from the inside. I’ve ‘adapted’ it for my needs using a hackaw and a big hammer. It’s done 256,000 miles in its 25 years. It will keep going as long as I am able to keep it going. Why bother?
History. Perversity. Tinkerability. And simply fun. And the knowledge that under normal circumstances when every other vehicle will predictably get where they want to go, I might not (well not without having to stop and fiddle with something – windscreen wipers, the fanbelt, the ‘self-opening’ drivers door, or whatever else decides to flag up its presence). But also the knowledge that when every other vehicle wont be able to go anywhere, I’ll manage it with ease.
I’ve welded it a few times, and every time I’ve done so I’ve not only joined bits of steel but fused a wee bit more of myself into it. What else can I say.
Here’s another old LR – and a superb little vignette about it and its owner. Short, tight edit, great sound. Lovely.
Author — John Macpherson
John MacPherson was born and lives in the Scottish Highlands. He trained as a welder in the Glasgow shipyards, before completing an apprenticeship as a carpenter, and then qualified as a Social Worker in Disability Services. Along the way he has cooked on canal barges, trained as an Alpine Ski Leader & worked as an Instructor for Skiers with disabilities, been a canoe instructor, and tutor of night classes in carpentry, stained glass design and manufacture, and archery. He has travelled extensively on various continents, undertaking solo trips by bicycle, or motorcycle. He has had narrow escapes from an ambush by terrorists, been hit by lightning, caught in an erupting volcano, trapped in a mobile home by a tornado, kidnapped by a dog's hairdresser, rammed by a basking shark and was once bitten by a wild otter. He has combined all this with professional photography, which he has practised for over 35 years. He teaches photography and acts as a photography guide & tutor in the UK and abroad. His biggest challenge is keeping his 30 year old Land Rover 110 on the road. He loves telling and hearing stories.