Stand buy your beds, cos he's back spreading mayhem and large stinging things on Biglorryblog. Yes BLB's 'Good Man in Africa' so beloved of the anorak army has returned and says: "Finally, finally, finally we have finished fighting with Customs on the description, weight and definition of our latest TM and trailer. Lets not talk about perceived value (versus actual) and duties payable! What a performance, and luckily for all Bloggists there is not enough memory left on the interweb to tell the full story......anyway, its out!"
Meanwhile, as it's become traditional on BLB JB says: "Let's have some lighter fauna and flora studies first. The wild animal is Tony Cockayne (who represented Uganda in the IGFA World Inshore Championship Finals in Florida a year or two back), seen here during one of our annual Murchison Falls international fishing tournaments. More on Murchison in a few days. And in case you're wondering why he's holding this fish up by the nylon trace rather than conventionally by the mouth, well it's because he's caught an electric catfish---small, ugly, unassuming, inedible....and packing 400 volts, as our token South African (we are equal opportunity bigots) in the event, Tony Wales, found out to his cost.
Not believing the stories about the ferocity of these vile creatures, he happened to catch one and of course grabbed it round the body to take out the hook. 10 seconds later all 6"2" and 18 stone of Boer beef biltong was drunkenly picking itself off the deck on the far side of the Boston Whaler.
That should have been enough, but oh no, probably in mild shock/disbelief/stupidity after personal recovery our resident hairy-back then had another go! OIA!! Same result, to the unbridled joy of all others on the craft, who by now were beyond laughter. Maybe dragging all those wagons across the Highveld to Pretoria a few hundred years back didn't help the evolutionary process? So, stand warned if you perchance happen to traverse the Nile at Murchison and you stumble across one of these! They hurt.....properly."
Now click through here for more on that terrific TM6x6...and a quick African pie quiz too! You know you want to!
"Back to the Atlas-equipped Bedford," says Jerry, "bought directly from the military in UK through Withams, complete with auction-purchased trailer (already seen here having a 230kva genset installed as a mobile power unit) and Africa's share of 6" flexible water hose." Notwe the handle grinder nearby too says BLB!
Back to JB: "Two months in bond doesn't seem to have hurt it at all and incredibly, nothing was nicked. It's off to the workshops tomorrow for a paintjob and for the deck to be stretched by a foot or so and twist locks fitted so it can carry 20ft ISO boxes. Unfortunately, as can be seen I caught Allard involved in committing some unspeakable act to it. He's very fond of trucks but this pushes the point (sorry!) and infringes on the trucks human rights I feel." Oh and Allard please cut out the middle man and send you writ direct to Jerry please!
" Not that Allard is human," continues Jerry adding "He has been spoken to sternly!"
"Meanwhile, here's one for Cam 'Tilt Tray' McFadyen and Very Old Vic here too - our own sheep fancier Lenders' antique Tat Tray Toyota dropside flat deck, surrogate wheelie bin, seen here parked next door, brought all the way from NZ for reasons best known only to him!"
"And then there's our latest new arrival, our sixth new ambulance love-child, direct from Toyota. Full UN-war-zone-battle-spec (and then quite a bit more in the way of extra mods done by us) 70 Series Cruiser. Possibly the best, all-round vehicle for all situations ever made (and that's from Tesco carpark speed bumps through Rome traffic to the Sahara). That'll spike some comment from the Long Repair mis-guided I've no doubt. And that's what was in the car park in front of the office recently."
And so, as the sun sets gently on our hero he concludes: "Oh, and a totally unrelated but gentle sunset pic of G&T's being quaffed in the bush by Lake Albert to calm things down before bedtime. I bet no-one can tell me what the little soft top 4wd is though....Regards, Jerry." Havne't a clue mate but all that talk of G&Ts has got BLB thirsty pip-pip!
Hi Jerry
I'm in Scotland at the moment about 12,000 miles away from home so I'm feeling a bit confused, however that 4x4 looks like a genuine Jeep to me. It's good to have you and your stories back, by the way.
Good to hear about your latest adventures Jerry, when your Kiwi lad brings the family car over he must be settling in. I understand an earthquake last week has moved the South island of NZ a foot westward so we are expecting a fresh influx of them.
Vic, Amazingly close my friend - its a 5 year old Mitsubishi copy of the second world war Jeep. In the circumstances I guess I owe you a warm, brown english beer! Tread carefully in Scotland mate, its a remote, dangerous place.......Peter, Unfortunately Leenders has already performed the dirty deed once and polluted the gene pool with a sprog, plus his missus is now warming up a second - he's trying to work out what to do next regarding seats (apart from not having any more kids)! R J
Love the Land Cruiser Gerry,I did have a similar one,mine had a Chrome Donkey on the bonnet for that touch of class,I`ll see if i can dig a pic out for Brian.I see we share similar attitudes to yarpies (the Australianism of South African gent).I am impressed by the electric Catfish.I had an encounter with the normal veriety of Catfish while water skiing last year.The bugger brushed the inside of my arm as I came out of the water which caused an instant sting and a rash which lasted a week.It could have been worse,I had an unfotunate incident involving the weakness of seams in board shorts,which I might add my missus refused to take a pic when I zoomed out one side to chuck a brown eye.Interesting how women view things differently.
Jerry,have you noticed the V8 Landcruiser back axle is about 100mm narrower than the front