Breadcrumbs

Lunch in the desert
A short break in the sunshine, probably somewhere near Tataouine, Tunisia

Our attempt at a new route

 

Striding for the unknown, after the snow

Tunisia 13/ Feb/1979 to 20/ Feb /1979 and Algeria 20/ Feb/1979 to 9/ Mar /1979

February 1979

I was very conflicted about writing up our story, following our visit to Matmata Tunisia. Memory and information did not seem to agree.

Memory took me to the bottom corner of Southern Tunisia right next to the Libyan border for our crossing into Algeria. Our Michelin Map of North Africa indicated a road there but that does not preclude politics disrupting our ambitions of exploring a new route for Encounter Overland. At this time I was accompanied by a very experienced EO Leader Driver Alan Dougle. Having two of us perhaps allowed us to be more adventurous.

Amphitheatre of El Jem
On the approach to the Roman Amphitheatre of El Jem

El Jem, the Roman jewel in Tunisia

 Now an UNESCO World Heratige Site at El Jem

Tunisia 13/ Feb/1979 to 20/ Feb/1979

17 February 1979

The Roman amphitheatre towers over the city as you approach on the main road from Tunis.

 We arrived just before lunch and spent a while looking around the ruins and the adjacent town.

EO truck on dirt road
Encounter Overland truck on dirt road in the Sahara

Africa - Encounter Overland Expedition 1979 Southbound

 

 

A story about my overland trip from London to Johannesburg, Southbound, with the layover in Southern Africa, and back to London covered elsewhere. The first chapter.

 

EO London to Johannesburg departure 3 Feb 1979

On board WBH 646S in orange

I was one of the Expedition Leaders/Drivers, L/D for an Encounter Overland trip from London to Johannesburg in South Africa. The trip left London on Saturday 3rd February 1979 and was planned to take 16 weeks. At the time Encounter Overland operated a single staff member with an expedition team of about 20 people. Otherwise known passengers, customers, punters, or officially Expedition Members, EMs. Whatever they are called they are most definitely not passengers. Having only one staff member ensures that the L/D has to fully engage with the Expedition Team and not able to bump along with with another staff member. Another advantage of course is that there is an additional seat to sell. Our trip was something different from that norm, just as well.

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 The flag counter below is for my original travelogue, which is slowly being replaced by this one, but can still be found here.

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News Flash

Change of host Sept 2023

 

Change of host Sept 2023

 

In the begining of August 2023 I transfered my ivanhurst.me.uk sites, including this one from 123-reg to IONOS. It was meant to be a simple task. However, that was to to be the case. The reason for the move was primarily the hugh increase in price that 123-reg was applying regarding email boxes. Previously, the upto 500 of the boxes were included in the various hosting packages I had. Now they were going to charge for each mailbox based on size, and as far as I could make out, this was going to cost me nearly £2,000. This was not acceptable, and I did not get satisfactory answers from support. So I turned of all the auto renews and stated to move sites and domains accross to IONOS.

Travel data problems

 

Travel data problems

This is where it starts to get a little technical.

The site is built on a content management system, CMS, using Joomla. Joomla is moving forward and version 3.10.?? is being discontinued. Future developments are for version 4.??

Similarly, PHP 7 is being replaced with PHP 8.

Part of the migration is relatively simple, I have already changed to a new template which works on the new platforms.

However, some of the helper applications, which work within Joomla are not yet ready.

Fabrik is one of those applications, if fact a significant 'Joomla Custom Website Application Builder'.

Refresh 2021

 

Site refresh Easter 2021

I decided to give the site a bit of a refresh over Easter 2021 and install a new template and some additional functions. One of the things I didn't like about the old site was the delay in text appearing which probably meant some people left before the content appeared. This has been corrected now.