So farewell Benj – my brother, friend and fellow nomad.

So when our brother Graham called today to tell me you had left us last night – I said “oh hello Benj” it’s as if I knew – but Graham said you won’t be talking to Benj anymore. I will miss you mate, it’s been a long time we’ve been friends. We’ve shared many an adventure and many a grin together. As the tears flowed today, I’ve remembered those times of joy, as we’ve talked about so often over the last few years. We shared more than most can ever hope to. If we’d been ordinary people we would never have met – we’d have remained divided by class, upbringing and geography – you from “Harold Hill” and me from “Hampstead Garden Suburb” an unlikely mix you might have thought. Yet, that said, we did meet some 47 years ago in City Park Nairobi, and we’ve been friends ever since.

So what memories come to mind today? Hitchhiking to Arusha in Tanzania and partying “On the Road” style in a hotel bar with three very hospitable local girls. You selling me my first proper car – an Austin A40 – for £30 – which was great until I tickled it into the back of another car outside the Hammersmith Odeon at a Tina Turner concert, and the headlight fell out – nothing that couldn’t be sorted with a bit of gaffer tape!

Then in 1983 – under the grand banner of GSL Overland – Graham, you and me – with Jane riding shotgun – drove 5 trucks, 3 cars, and 3 mopeds from Maastricht to Maroua in Northern Cameroon. We survived: desert break downs, customs arrest in Nigeria, etc. etc… and we grinned through it all.

There were parties and trips and deals after that – I remember you turning up, quite late, to a party in Milton Keynes, saying you’d broken down on the way and had to “borrow” a car – I asked you to park it in the next street please Benj! I could go on – and I will as I remember you my brother over the weeks, months and years to come “Inshallah” – fuck we’re getting old… though we still feel 2o something……