UPDATE: This story was originally published August 29, 2016:

A story from the September 20, 1962, issue of the Toledo Blade (and a similar story on the 10th as well) shares the tale of Lou-Bette Herrick’s three month trip through South America. The Richmond Virginia native entered into the adventure after responding to an advertisement placed by Hilary Dunstervile for a companion to drive back to her native country of Venezuela. I did a little research on both women, but didn’t find any updated information on them. It doesn’t say what kind of jeep they used, but there is a reference in the article to camping out in the jeep, so it might have been a wagon.

Continue reading →

UPDATE: This article was originally published September 12, 2016:

This article appeared in the October 8, 1946, issue of the Southeastern Missourian. Mr. and Mrs. Irwin Kenyans, Mrs. Katherine McGregor Wallis and her daughter Miss Trinket, planned to travel all the way to Tierra Del Fuego in a CJ-2A. I could only find one article and one photo, partly shown below. You can see the full version of the image at Getty.

Caption: Katherine MacGregor with Friends Before South American Trip To South America In A Jeep. Chicago, Illinois: Putting the finishing touches on their jeep before they leave for a year’s trip in South America are (left to right): Mrs. Katherine MacGregor Wallis, Mrs. Anne Knehans, Irwin Knehans, and Miss Iranket Wallis of Quito, Ecuador. Trip To South America In A Jeep. Chicago, Illinois: Putting the finishing touches on their jeep before they leave for a year’s trip in South America are (left to right): Mrs. Katherine MacGregor Wallis, Mrs. Anne Knehans, Irwin Knehans, and Miss Iranket Wallis of Quito, Ecuador.

(<– See Part II of the road trip)

Over the past few days Randy and Carson made good time, yet saw plenty. From Yosemite, they traveled southeast until camping somewhere in Nevada.

The next morning, they drove to Las Vegas, Nevada, where they hit the Vegas strip. At some point, Carson broke a fan belt, so they got to spend more time than planned in Vegas.

Back on the road, they drove to Utah. There, they met up with Jake White and others to take the offroad trip to Toquerville Falls, Utah.

Continue reading →

Randy Qualls is on the left and Carson on the right. Here, they are just entering Arizona.

Randy and his son Carson are currently part way through a cross country trip in two flat fenders. Their journey began a few days ago in Jacksonville, Florida. Their western destination is Ventura, California. From there, they plan to drive back, heading slightly farther north through Utah and Colorado, before angling back south towards Florida. They’ve been documenting their trip on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ P?id=100085873092539

Here are a few pics.

This is a map of their route. They are currently in Arizona driving west along the yellow line.

From Florida, they drove to Alabama, but had a few mechanical issues at one point.

Then on to Mississippi:

They got caught up in some rain, but that didn’t stop them:

Soon, they were in Arkansas (cool stickers ;-)):

Eventually they hit Texas (and likely had good weather from there):

They’ve are equipped to camp at night:

Continue reading →

The March 1963 issue of Four Wheeler Magazine included an article by Brian L. Pinn about the Anglo-African Trans-World Safari, the pics and text of which can be found at The FC Connection.

It turns out there’s a bit more information out there, though not as much as I’d hoped to find, especially given that the group of travelers that made up the trip had access to cameras and film and also given that in January 1963 American Television script-writer John Hicken was supposed to join the group to film the around-the-world adventure.

Without that storehouse of info, or a book, or a movie, we only have the following scraps to better understand the adventure.

South African Derek Linton came up with the idea to travel the world in 1958. At some point, in order to gather equipment, Derek travelled to the United States in 1959. He was photographed at a Ham Radio station in Burlington, Kentucky, a visit later reported in the January issue of Short Wave Magazine:

The 1959 story appears here http://hamgallery.com/gallery/W/w4kvx_shack.htm … and the January 1960 excerpt from Short Wave Magazine appears here.

This map shows the proposed route:

On September 19, 1961, a photo of Derek Linton and Gerald Cubitt (unsure who he is) was taken by Henry Bush. It’s part of the Henry Bush collection at Shutter Stock:

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Henry Bush/ANL/Shutterstock (5693954a)
Anglo-african 1st Expedition Adventurers Derek Linton (left) And Gerald Cubitt. Box 634 413101543 A.jpg.

In the July 27, 1962, issue of the Warren County Observer, a syndicated article appeared by John P. Callahan that shared the news of how the idea for the trip originated and the progress the travelers had made:

Finally, on January 05, 1963, the Evening Standard (London, England) reported that John Hicken was going to join the crew:

In March 1963, the Four Wheeler article appeared.

There is also a mention in a 1963 issue of Business Week about the travelers, but I’ve been unable to determine which issue.

LINKS: Top two excerpts were here and bottom one was here.

After that, I have been unable to learn more about the journey.

UPDATE II: Maury forwarded an updated video about the Sand Ship Discovery that was posted to youtube in January of 2020. Loren’s wife provides information on some of the unique details of this CJ-5, modified for difficult terrain and the 6’4″ Loren Upton.

======================

This post was last posted December 26, 2017:  This just appeared in our local newspaper. A couple local folks are helping him out. Here’s an accompanying video:

ORIGINAL ARTICLE FROM MAY 10, 2017:
An article from Spokane’s Spokesman Review alerted me to the story of A World Odyssey-The Epic Voyage of the Sand Ship Discovery. This is actually a local story (for me) as Loren Upton, the man at the root of the adventure, has lived in Yakima and the Tri-Cities and worked at the nearby Hanford  nuclear reservation.

Between 1984 and 1989, Loren piloted a CJ-5 around the world, surpassing 55,000 miles. The jeep holds a Guiness book of World Record for being the first vehicle to cross the Darien Gap. Some of you might remember the 2014 post about the 1959-1960 venture across the Darien Gap in a Willys Truck and a Land Rover. However, some of that trip was done by floating part of the river.

Loren’s nephew Laurence would like to restore the CJ-5 back to it’s former glory and then take his Uncle on one more world trip. They’ve set up a go-fund-me page and a website with lots of information and photos. Good luck to them!

http://www.outbackofbeyond.com/index.html