In the jungle, one way to charge the camera, satellite phone or walkie-talkie batteries is via the red box seen here. The inverter converts the vehicle’s 12 V to 110/240 V. Alternatively, one can also use solar chargers or a portable generator.
This Toyota Land Cruiser Series 79 belongs to Team Azimut from Venezuela and is christened Amazonas. The 4×4 arrived in a shipping container via Australia. Incidentally, petrol is the cheapest in the world in Venezuela at USD 0.02 (6 sen) per litre.
Caught up with some of the teams taking part in the Rainforest Challenge in Melaka today. Among the teams at the remote camp site in the Bukit Batu Lebak Forest Reserve were the only two ladies in the competition.
The women of steel were repairing their battered vehicle while the men in the support team cooked. On left is Yati with the high-lift jack and checking the Centipede MT tyres is Nurin. Their vehicle is a Suzuki Vitara fitted with a 3,000 cc Nissan QD engine and two PTO winches.
Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f6.3, 1/80 sec.
For the vehicles in the competition, the going will be gruelling in the days ahead. Many of the shiny vehicles will limp from the rainforest wrecked. For now, the colourful machines with its lifted body, special suspension, knobby tyres, roll-over cage and heavy-duty winch appear as gorgeous Big Boys Toys to the public.
A special salute to the Signals Corps of the Malaysian Armed Forces for providing emergency radio communication for rescue and evacuation. Their vehicle is the trusty Land Rover Defender seen here in the flag-off ceremony.
