Len van Onselen grew up in the cattle-farming Kalahari. Odd farmers in the area had Jeeps and Len was besotted by them. One evening at a local watering hole the boys were discussing the merits of Jeeps and Land Rovers. Len proclaimed that he cared nothing for a Land Rover, but a Jeep… well, he wanted one. One of the fellows remarked that his father had a Jeep on his farm near Lydenburg. He had decided to sell it because it made funny noises from underneath, the axle he thought.
Another friend, Broz had a 1948 Jeep – a CJ2A – and a large stock of Jeep scrap, including a rear axle. So, one Saturday morning, Len and Broz headed to Lydenburg to get the Jeep. Neither Broz nor Len had their own cars and had no option but to hitch hike the roughly 320km to Lydenburg. This they did toting the axle between them.
Standing by the roadside, Len produced a bottle of murky liquid. (The Cure for Every ill). Len explained that it was a tradition passed down from the Boer War when his great grandfather fought the British. The stuff obviously worked as he lived to tell the tale.
