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Sam Watson
Biography
I was a lucky lad – parents with broad world views took me through most of Europe as a child – and, tellingly, to the Sahara. I remember, as an impressionable seven-year-old, staring out into the burning desert from the roof of the temple of Hathor, on the Nile at Dendera, and wishing with all my young heart that I was out there, exploring the wastes. Increasing desert travels as an undergraduate made me realise that my heart is forever in Africa, under an open desert sky, and so I moved there to live and work for several years, travelling into the Sahara from my home in Cairo, and working as a freelance desert guide, as well as spells in desert rescue and mapping.
After living in such wild and remote places, untouched by tarmac and neon, I developed strong leanings towards conservation and environmental matters, and was a founder member of the Born Free Foundation, a wildlife conservation organisation based in the UK. Since then I have worked in East Africa with the BFF, mapping areas of Mount Kenya, working with Masai school projects in Amboseli and accompanying Kenya Wildlife Service patrols on armed anti-poaching sweeps in central Kenya. These activities, together with my desert mapping work, gained me my Fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society, and subsequently I have been lucky enough to become a member of the Northeastern Committee for the RGS. I am also a member of the Royal Institute for Navigation.
When back in the UK I have been lucky enough to have my scribblings printed in Land Rover Owner, Land Rover Enthusiast, 4x4, Total Off Road and 4x4 Mart, and I owe their editors a great deal. Currently Land Rover Owner are kindly running various of my pieces on overland travel, and 4x4 Mart periodically publish my travelogues. I get into Africa whenever I can, and current projects include taking LRDG-replica wartime jeeps from Cairo, across Egypt and into Libya, and taking a group of Series Land Rovers overland from the UK to an orphanage in the Gambia.
As for MyWay, I used various rooftents in various places, notably in long trips through Egypt, Kenya and Tanzania, and became pretty much convinced that they were heavy objects, badly needing a redesign. By a quirk of fate, in 2001, I got hold of what I think was the first MyWay tent in Britain, and was immediately bowled over by how light, tough, user-friendly and unobtrusive it was. I spoke to Jan, the manufacturer in Cape Town, and then to Paul, and the rest is history….! Frankly I use them because I firmly believe they are the best roof tent on the market, and regularly take mine out into the Sahara, and beyond, atop my much-loved long-suffering Land Rover, Elsa.
Personal details
| Age | 37 |
| Occupation | Science teacher, writer |
| Skills | Navigation, mapping, desert and bush guiding |
| Hobbies | Overland travel, mountaineering, natural science, collecting old books, maps and navigation instruments. |
| Vehicles | Land Rover Defender 110 Tdi overlander |