Back into a 5C early AM at Tullamarine...Bbbrrrrrrr....sweet as to be home.

Took these photos on the way from Kampala to Entebbe to catch my flight out of Uganda.

These are the ONLY light tow vehicles I could see in Kampala:

















There were another 5-6 parked out of sight here:



Interesting to see Series Landies used exclusively in the role.

welcome back mate!!

great pics, I wonder why all Series 3's (and all with deluxe bonnet!).

does this mean that smiths type heaters may be prolific there???? (as in no one needs them!!)

Thanks for sharing with us....
enjoy ALL YOUR TIME OFF!!!

cheers
digger

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(remlr 235 / MVCA 9)*88"-'63 .S2A--c6005 x 2-"Horrie"-112-769, & "The Vet"-112-429(-Vietnam 1ATF '65) (unnamed)--109"--'56 .S1 (ute) (future project --88"--'66--S2A-as UN CIVPOL.) 80"--'49. 'hoist', 80"--'53 parts! 1 x 109 s3, "Hans" 1 x 88 s3

Seta hy? (How are you?) Wafia aanta hy (I am well), back in Mogadishu since 11 Jul after spending an all too short 3 weeks back home…Crikey! Melbourne was having a winter.

Now coming in via Nairobi, instead of Kampala, which had me well clear of the terrible attacks there.

Now back here with a seat change. Now sitting in a seat as the UN Support Office to AMISOM (UNSOA) Engineer. An utterly new job which has me inventing what it is to be. The previous 10mths here have stood me in good stead because I know ‘who is who in the zoo’ and what way is up.

Currently have a host of work on. Providing contract management for accommodation, warehousing, electrical reticulation, water system management, quarrying, a multi-million dollar road contract to go between the sea and air ports. This is all for 8000 troops currently here, with another 4000 projected to come…busy, busy, busy.

Some snaps of a Somali contractor vehicles on the roads inside the Airport Base, taken about 1 hr ago:

The best thing on that first photo of the trucks, looks to be the fabulous 6 air-horns. The rest is utterly trashed!

Nice use of string on the 2nd truck to hold on the air-cleaner etc.

DId you get that first guy to sound the air horns?

Nothing wrong with that I have the airfilter in my Tdi held in with cable ties at present. Didn't think of using string

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08 Defender 110 TDCi
99 Defender 110 300Tdi
08 Kimberley Kamper Platinum
iMac
MacBookPro
flickr

Past: 03 D2a Td5, 97 D1 Tdi

Hi BBC, thanks for the photos and continuation of this thread, hope you are keeping well.

Do you know what motors were being run in the tow-truck fleet?

Series 3,

I have Davis, a Ugandan mechanic sitting right beside me, and he assures me they will all have the original petrol 2.25's in all of them. Reco'd a number of times but still being employed because of their capabilities.

Cheers,

BBC.

Thankyou BBC and Davis, music to my ears.

Just received some photos taken during my recent stint of leave, during which my wife and I returned to my home town, Kyogle, on the FNC of NSW to pay respect to my parents and visit family. To do so, we flew to Brisbane, hired a car and drove south.

To me, there is always something special about heading home....makes me feel like putting John Denver's 'Country Roads' on the stereo as I drive into that country which will always be my home...it is spiritual.

Especially when I come down from the north because, invariably, it will always have me driving along the Lions Road. My Dad was in the Kyogle Lions Club and I grew up building the road. The Lions Road was the outcome of an inspired individual called Jack Hurley, a really great Australian who was a local businessman who was part owner of 'Brown & Hurley', a truck sales/repair company with branches up and down the east coast.

Jack could see there were some infrastructural benefits in building a road across the QLD/NSW border and thereby making a shorter link between the Summerland Way of NSW and the Mt Lindesay Hwy in QLD. Significantly shortening the route to Brisbane...and, despite he being a stalwart of the heavy truck industry...it was not intended for them.

Anyway, it was a very formative experience for me as it put me out in the bush on most weekends with some of the larrikin 'can do' bushmen that saw the benefits, and came and volunteered their skills, expertise, and equipments; a real community effort.

Between 1971-5 the road was constructed and I was out riding on bull-dozers, loaders, graders, felling trees, and holding onto a survey stick...it taught me that almost anything could be done.

On the drive down from Brisbane, I took the time to show and explain some of the significance of the road and the area to my wife. In doing so we drove down to the Border Loop Lookout and, to my surprise, there was a photo of an incident from 1971 when a Cat D6 got stuck in a gulley, and there was I front and centre of the photo, a 9 yr old, swinging on a shovel:



In 1976 I can remember my father in our back yard at home, chiselling away at what was to become the Lions Road signs, at both ends of the road. They are still lasting well:



I wonder if there are many of the Gold Coast LRO crew that know of the area?

I drove that road last year, on the way to Lismore via the scenic route. It was amazing to think of a community actually building a road. Lovely drive too. The builders did well. Is it still a non-government road or does the local council look after it now?

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1995 Disco ES 300 Tdi, locked and lifted. Aussieswag Camper Trailer. Curious mind...

Not lost - just exploring...