Agli inizi degli anni Sessanta, quando gli unici fuoristrada circolanti sulle nostre strade erano rappresentati (tranne rare eccezioni) dalle Fiat Campagnola in dotazione alle forze armate, c’era già qualcuno in Italia che affrontava le piste e i deserti di tutto il mondo a bordo di una Land Rover.
Il suo nome era Nino Cirani (1926-1998) e la prima avventura che lo vede protagonista nel 1962 è la traversata da Milano a Ceylon (138 giorni, 31.000 Km) su una Land Rover 88 battezzata “Aziza 1” (dall’arabo aziza=carina). L’idea originale was to go to Singapore after going through Burma, but a series of political problems that prevent their entry into Myanmar today and the prohibitive conditions of Stilwell Road (the famous road built during the Second World War who traveled throughout the peninsula Indochina to Bangkok) Cirani persuaded to fall back on Ceylon.
few years later, in 1965 it was the turn of Africa with the crossing from Cape Town to Cairo (eight and a half months, 53,000 kilometers) aboard a Land Rover 109 ("Aziza 2"). Compared to the previous trip, crossing the African continent proved tremendously hard and difficult to accomplish due to the absence slopes in some areas crossed, such as that between Addis Ababa and Lake Rudolf, where the only information available at that time were placed in an old guide from the period of our "Empire Mussolini." Back in Italy
Cirani starts to work immediately for a new shipment and between the summer of '68 and spring '69 completes this extraordinary adventure to become his greatest undertaking: the crossing of the entire American continent from north to south, on board a new Land Rover 109 (the mythical "Aziza 3") that turns into a real trip to record in about 11 months 102,000 km are traveled from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. During this trip, which was still the longest raid car ever made until then, was also established the record for the highest altitude reached by a motor vehicle, when the Bolivian Andes Aziza three wins on the proportion of 5007 meters on the slopes of the summit of Cerro Rico. During this trip
Cirani impentrabile also attempted to overcome the jungle of the Serrania of Darien, Isthmus of Panama, but managed to forward only to a few tens of kilometers to navigate this stretch with only one vehicle and without the support of appropriate support structure of the rest was an impossible task and only a few years later (between the '71 and '72) a mega expedition organized by Land Rover for the launch of the Range will be able to complete the undertaking.
After going through a total of 18 countries (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil) and far exceeded 64 customs controls, Aziza 3 is loaded at the port of Rio de Janeiro Augustus on the ship to return to Italy. In the following years Cirani
Nino continues his tireless work-man raid-wheel-drive around the world by making five surveys in the Sahara (1972-73-74-78-79), a new crossing in Asia (1975) e in Africa (1977) e il periplo dell’Australia (1978), della Nuova Zelanda (1978) e dell’Islanda (1980).
estratto da un articolo di Giorgio Rosato pubblicato il 19 dicembre 2007
Ho il piacere di aver ricevuto in regalo dal titolare della AirCamping il libro di Nino è molto valido e affronta tutto su come affrontare un viaggio, molto valida la parte della preparazione e allestimento del mezzo che utilizza tecnologie oggi alla portata di tutti. per me è stato fonte di ispirazione in molte delle modifiche che ho fatto ad "Aquilante".
E' suddiviso in capitoli
i miei raid, ottomila ore di guida
la scelta dell'itinerario
le stagioni e i climi
le carti stradali
i compagni le spese la salute
l'auto da preferire
come preparare la vettura
il fango la sabbia la foresta
l'attrezzatura fotografica
le grandi traversate
Purtroppo e' difficilmente reperibile non essendoci state ristampe. Capita di vederlo in qualche mercatino di libri usati, se lo trovate non fatevelo scappare!!!
