FOR her maiden safari, Samantha had been equipped, theoretically, with every possible comfort and convenience. In practice we found that some of our modifications were either uncomfortable, superfluous, or a perfect nuisance.
The three trunks provided more packing space than even our vast collection of junk required,and took up so much of the roof–rack that there was no room for the second spare wheel between them. This meant that the wheel had to be balanced on top of the tables, on top of the trunks and miles of rope had to be used to tie the whole lot down.
If we suddenly needed something out of one of the trunks, we had to unravel all the rope and heave the wheel off, before we could get at it.
Filming from the roof also became a highly hazardous occupation, because the trunks were higher than the guard rail and there was nothing else to hang on to. To attempt to sleep on either of the bunks was instant claustrophobia and they were so narrow that turning over was an impossibility. Karen’s sleeping space, between the freezer and the cold box, was fine at the beginning of the holiday, but she grew 6cm and the space didn’t.
The freezer was mounted in a frame and insulated with ceiling board. By way of extra insulation for the top, I had made a second lid out of plywood and expanded polystyrene. We had nothing so luxurious as hinges or catches, so we just balanced it on top. Every time we hit a bump it landed on Karen’s head. We put up with this all the way through the holiday and never thought to do anything about it until a full year later, on another trip, I suddenly had the brilliant idea of chucking it in the rubbish pit.
So now we had to start all over again, remodifying our modifications. The first thing to go was the water tank. We sent it back to the manufacturers, with a sample of its contents and a long, involved explanation as to why we were not going to pay for it.
We never saw it again, but regularly, once a month, for the next five years, we got an invoice for it.
One trunk was removed and the others were repositioned so that the spare wheel could fit between them and people could sit on the front of the roof rack. We added a footrest and a handrail to make the game-viewing seat as safe and comfortable as possible. Passengers on the roof now had a wonderful view, but the driver’s vision was slightly obscured by the spatterings of welding flux on the windscreen.
The top bunk came out, Karen’s bed was extended, a fourth fuel tank went in, two 25-litre water carriers were acquired and we were ready to face the bush again.
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