Here's a broader view of yesterday's photo. From here, the only way is up!
With the surveyor standing by the blue land rover, you can see the Wild T3 Theodolite on the tripod and the Wild DI4L or DI5 distomat mounted on top of the theodolite.
The white blob on the top of the cliff about a third of the way in from the left is another land rover. At 100% you can see it also has the tires mounted high above the roof. The surveyor's colleague is off to the left of the land rover at the top of the cliff, again quite visible at 100%.
The boulder field here at the base of the escarpment meant for slow, deliberate driving. The independent coiled spring suspension of the 110 Land Rovers made the ride superior to that of the leaf spring suspension of the prior 109 series, but it was still rough going here.
In the UK I was used to seeing the spare tire mounted on the hood or hanging off the rear door and I wondered on arrival why we didn't do that also. One of the mechanics hefted a spare onto the hood and challenged me to open the hood. Since it was part of the daily morning routine to check the oil, radiator fluid, and other fluid levels before starting the engine I could have really beefed up with that extra weight.
The mechanics pointed out that in terrain such as this the weight of the spare would deform the hood. When mounted on the back door the hinges would break or the door frame would deform so you couldn't open or close the door.
Usually we had the spares mounted in the bed of the Land Rover on each side (as in this photo), just behind the cabin. Placing them up high as this crew had done raised the center of gravity of the vehicle somewhat.
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