 These pictures of my Land Rover were taken in September 1995 in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I acquired my Defender 110 in December of 1992 and shortly afterwards left my job in investment banking to drive her 15,000 miles across the United States and Canada. In August 1994 she and I ventured up to the Canadian province of Newfoundland where we explored the stark interior along the abandoned Canadian National Railway grade. She has travelled throughout the northeastern United States with me in 1995 and 1996. We have spent a great deal of time together in the woods of western Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and upstate New York. In August of 1999, we returned to the great north driving all the way up to Labrador City and then on to Goose Bay and the long ferry back to Lewisport on the northern coast of Newfoundland.  The realization that I wanted a Land Rover in my life struck one day in Nepal a few years back when, after bad weather had shut down the airport in Pokhara indefinitely, I was faced with the necessity to get back to Kathmandu in time to catch a flight to Delhi the next morning. At the end of a very long and frustrating day of waiting, I and two companions hired a crazy Nepalese and his aging Toyota Corolla to navigate the horrid road back to Kathmandu. This road had been "built", if that's the correct word for it, a few years earlier by the Red Chinese.  As we were departing Pokhara, a diplomat who had been stuck at the airport with us was also leaving to make the overland journey in a brand new military green 90. For a while we were on the road together and I just remember feeling this wonderful sense of oneness with the indomitable Land Rover in front of us. Not surprisingly, the 90 got ahead of us. And the Toyota proved less than indomitable. But when we finally arrived in Kathmandu eight hours later, well past midnight, and after four separate flat tires along the way, I knew that the fantasy of my owning a Land Rover had begun.  Once my consciousness had been raised by this seminal experience in the Nepalese bush, I went on to admire Land Rovers in their native Britain, in Spain, in Morocco, in South Africa and Zimbabwe, in Australia and New Zealand and other places around the world. When Land Rover announced that they would be selling the 110 in the North American market for the 1993 model year, I realized that the choice to own one was no longer within my control. The rest, as they say, is history.  In the fall of 2003, I made the difficult decision to sell my beloved 110. On October 22, 2003, I conveyed my truck to new owners in Connecticut; their palpable enthusiasm assured me that she would be well cared for in the years to come. Keep your eye out for number 394; perhaps you'll see her sometime in Connecticut or Nantucket.  If you've come this far, you are probably a real Land Rover enthusiast. If you are, be sure to visit my Travel Page to check out the Land Rovers I photographed in Darjeeling. I am always interested in hearing travel stories from other Land Rover owners and fans around the world. If you have any comments or stories, please visit my E-mail Page to send me an e-mail.  |
