JPFreek - Index

JPFreek - Spring 2008 - Index

KEY POINTS - PERSONAL PROFILE
Roy Follows & Noel Dudgeon – See inside flaps/Dust jacket
[and p6 – Noel Dudgeon]
Noel Dudgeon and Roy Follows made a remarkable team, and
shared that rare quality of mutual and implicit trust. Every aspect
of the journey was shared from cooking, sleeping, driving,
navigating, and even the occasional tumbler of whiskey.
KEY POINTS – PREPARATION
The expedition was planned with military precision one year
ahead to fall in line with preferable weather patterns/avoid
monsoon season in N/E/ India etc
WILLYS MB JEEP: See modifications [p194-196].
• Jeep was painted an impartial cream to limit the chance of
being mistaken for an ‘armed’ military vehicle.
• Similarly Roy and Noel chose not to carry armed weapons
[guns].
• Jeep nick-named PLEUT 1 (Police Lieutenant 1). The Jeep was
house and home for the whole length of the journey
Finance
The expedition was not sponsored. Therefore, to minimize
expenses, they carried only essential items, many of which
(including a used parachute which was cut-up and made into
numerous pairs of disposable underpants) were purchased from
street markets in Singapore – particularly the legendary ‘Arab
Street’ [See page 162 para5]
*Failed to acquire sponsorship, since all companies they
approached believed the journey would be impossible.
Food:
• Inflated ration supplies of their respective jungle platoons for
approximately one year.
• Often bartered ‘ciggies ‘ n soap’ in exchange for food.
First Aid Box
• ‘The contents of our first aid kit included a roll of adhesive
plaster which was used to patch the Jeep’s radiator hose’
[p190].
• Survived bout of malaria [Roy] and Dengue fever [Noel]
Navigation Maps Fuel [p189]
• Maps were not available for many of the areas – Burma, North
East India etc.
• Used ‘old school wall map’ for Thailand/Singapore
Traditional British Army marching compass and
•
protractor [no G.P.S back in 1958]