The Camel Trophy was a multi-day, multi-nation, mega-budget off-road adventure competition taking place every year for a good chunk of the 1980s and ’90s. If you have any interest in overlanding or Land Rovers, you’ve probably seen images of the English SUVs, painted yellow, loaded with gear, convoying through some impossibly picturesque setting as part of this event. I’m a fan of all that stuff and have read plenty about Camel Trophy trucks. But I never realized how spectacular the actual physical Camel Trophy trophies are until now.
Last week, photographer Nick Dimbleby posted a carousel of pictures on his Instagram page of some of the trophies associated with the Camel Trophy. I was blown away by how interesting and ornate they are.
He shared them to announce that they’re currently on display at a museum in Surrey, England, called The Dunsford Collection. If you’re nearby (it’s a bit southwest of London) you should absolutely go have a look. In fact, Dimbleby will be giving a talk about the Camel Trophy at that museum on Dec. 7. He was involved with the last four Camel Trophy events in ’96, ’97, ’98, and 2000 as part of the photographic team.
He’s also written a book, Camel Trophy—The Definitive History, which I’m sure will provide a wealth of context on the event. I plan on ordering a copy myself as soon as I finish writing this post. But you can get a taste with this video flip-through below. And if you’re a super-rich Camel Trophy superfan, it looks like you can get some authentic CT memorabilia along with the book for $7,000.
I was able to get in touch with both Mr. Dimbleby and Gary Pusey, one of the founding trustees of The Dunsford Collection, to get some high-resolution images of the trophies to share along with this good contextual excerpt from the book. Take a look (sic):
“When the Team Spirit Award was announced in 1985 the trophy produced for this was a simple square made of solid brass with a flat map projection of the world engraved on it. Incredibly, the trophy weighed 56kg, requiring plenty of team spirit to lift it!
“With the announcement of the Special Task Award in 1991, the resulting new trophy was a beautifully detailed, solid silver scale model of a five-door Camel Trophy Discovery, created by the renowned silversmith Anthony Elson.
“In 1992, two new trophies were commissioned: one for Team Spirit and the other a new Camel Trophy. Both were conceived and designed by Iain Chapman and were realised once again by Anthony Elson in his workshop in Clerkenwell, London.
“The Team Spirit award depicted three figures working underneath a wooden tripod, all of whom were modelled from life using Camel Trophy staff. The three ‘models’ were Lee Farrant (breaking the bead on a tyre), Duncan Barbour (holding a rope, with his right foot on top of a Pelican case), and Nick Horne (reaching up to pull the rope). The tableau is made of solid silver.
“The Camel Trophy itself used a combination of solid silver, gold plate, and pewter, depicting a Camel Trophy Discovery emerging out of half a globe held aloft by three hands representing teamwork. Once again, the detail on the trophy was exquisite.
“During the event, the awards were insured for £25,000 (the main Camel Trophy), and £20,000 each for the other two. After Special Tasks were abandoned in favour of competitive disciplines in 1997, the Special Task award was renamed the Land Rover Driving Award. Square trophies made from glass were designed for each of the competitive disciplines, and all the winners on the event received their own smaller versions to take home.
“For the Team Spirit and Camel Trophy award winners, flat wooden plaques with a two-dimensional relief in sterling silver of each of the trophies were presented and taken home. These were valued at £550 each. When the Camel finished in 2000, Event Director Nick Horne purchased all the trophies and for many years they were displayed in Nick’s office.”
Camel Trophy Trophies Gallery
Discovery Tdi Sculpture (Driving Award)
Discovery Sculpture (Special Task Award)
Joe Camel Sculpture
Camel Trophy Discovery Globe Sculpture
Camel Trophy Team Spirit Sculpture
How cool!
We’ll never see an event on the level of the Camel Trophy again. There’s just something a little extra extreme about adventuring in the pre-smartphone era that cements the CT as the stuff of legends. I’ve been into overlanding, and Land Rovers, since before Instagram existed and am now realizing I still have more to learn about the event! I’ll probably never hold a trophy like one of these myself, but this tome of a book will be a pretty fun prize to get, too. And I don’t even have to drive across deserts or jungles to get it.
