George, Stan & Rover Reunion

From Bombay the journey continued by the Indian ship “State Of Haryana”, via the Seychelles, to Mombasa in Kenya.
A number of people had left the trip in India and others had joined, and we were to meet more replacements upon arrival in East Africa.

On January 6, 1971 this article appeared in the Nairobi newspaper the Daily Nation:-

What a way to go
It started with small hand written advertisements in men’s and women’s loos in London. It is continuing with a round-the-world motor-trip for a dozen hardy adventurers who are taking their time – a year – to see the varied cultures of this globe.
Twenty-three-year-old Graham Strachan, an Australian farmer from a Melbourne suburb, has a bit of Marco Polo in him. He has driven half a dozen times from Britain to India. But last year he wanted to do something more adventurous.

So he struck on the idea of a round-the-world trip in his mini-bus from Britain overland to India, thence to Mombasa and down south to sail over to Australia. From there on to New Zealand and again across to South America. Then it would be north to Canada and back home.
To recruit passengers for this global bus safari he posted handwritten advertisements in the men’s and women’s toilets at every party he attended in London last summer.
It was not taken as a joke and more than a dozen adventurers from Britain, Australia and New Zealand turned up, Graham charged them ₤520 for expenses for the year-long trip.
They roared off from misty London for more sunny lands in their diesel mini-bus dubbed “Stanjun”. “Now we have seven girls and five men on this trip who have taken a year off from their work and are determined to see something of the varied culture and lands of the world,” he told me.
They are clerks, secretaries, nurses, teachers and engineers.
When I rode their bus in Nairobi I was greeted by cheerful people who take bumps in their stride. Aren’t you fed up by being bounced along the dusty winding roads by now was my first question.
“We love it,” said a couple of girls visibly suntanned. Graham added: “It is cheaper to travel this way and you also have a one-year holiday.”
What have been the memorable experiences on the trip?
“Treading grapes for wine at the Daphni Wine Festival,” said one. “Being chased by wolves in Yugoslavia,” said another.
“Driving up 50 miles on a dry river bed in Iran.”

Overlanders’ converted ambulance took man to hospital while in Turkey
Three young men – two from Hartlepool and the other from Billingham – remaining in a party of four, who set off from Hartlepool in August last year (1970) on an overland journey to Australia in a converted ambulance will now be in Africa – minus the ambulance.
It was on August 25, after six months of planning and converting the ambulance, that the four headed south in their vehicle which they had purchased from Hartlepool Corporation for ₤45 10s.
They were John Boagey (23), of Windsor Street; Peter Froment (23), of Jutland Road; John Smith (23), of Haswell Avenue, all Hartlepool, and Peter O’Neill (22), of Billingham.
They journeyed by way of Dover to Ostend and motored on to Italy, via Munich, Innsbruck, and the Brenner Pass. After a short tour of Italy, they boarded the overnight ferry boat and crossed to Greece, arriving at Igoumenitsa the next morning to begin a two day run to Athens.

To hospital
It was in Kavalla in Greece that they met Graham Strachan a 23-year-old Australian from Melbourne, who was making his seventh trip to India, having previously made the journey as a driver for a couple of concerns running coaches to India. Graham was later to feature strongly in their meanderings.
On September 23, they drove into Istanbul, and on leaving, retraced their steps slightly and turned south to catch a ferry boat for Asia Minor at Ecabat. At Pamukkale, they spent an hour bathing in the old Roman mineral swimming pool which is fed by a hot spring.

After leaving Egridir, they received their first puncture since England, and while they were mending it, they again met with Graham Strachan’s mini-bus. They then travelled together for practically the rest of the journey.
The former ambulance once again was used for the purpose for which it was made for a short while at Nevsehir. They had travelled 30 km. south to see an underground city carved out of rock and were returning to Nevsehir when they were stopped by a policeman.

One less
He asked if they could take to hospital a local man who had fallen from a tractor and badly cut his forehead. John Smith administered some first aid to the man, who was also suffering from shock, and they took him to the hospital in Nevsehir.
They travelled to the Iranian border and camped at Tuncelli. Although the weather was getting very good during the nights, they were surprised on waking one morning o find the countryside at Erzurum covered with snow.
Tehran was to become the end of the journey for one of the group, when John Boagey informed his fellow travellers that he had to fly back to England.
They were sorry to lose John because they had become a closely knit and well-organised group. However, at 3 am on October 14 at Tehran Airport they said goodbye to John and headed south through open desert to Esfahan, the most beautiful city of Iran.
In Ahwaz, their number became 19 because they were now carrying an Australian couple, Carol and Colin Francis, whom they had met earlier in Iran, and had been joined by two Australian sisters travelling in a Bedford van.
The convoy of three vehicles parted company for a while at Shiraz.
The mini-bus and Bedford van took the more direct route across the Great Sand Desert, while the English party followed the gravel road to the Pakistan border.

Traffic on this road was almost non-existent and it was not unusual to drive for four or five hours without seeing another vehicle.
After four-and-a-half days of slow driving through desert, where their speed was sometimes reduced to about 8 mph for several hours, they arrived in Pakistan, but the open barren desert continued.

Familiar
It was while they were walking through the streets in Quetta that they first heard a phrase which was to become familiar – “Change money sahib?” In Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nepal there existed a black market for changing money and it was often possible to obtain twice the legal rate of exchange.
For some time they had been considering Graham Strachan’s offer of joining him on the African part of his journey and with this in mind they decided to try and sell their vehicle in Kabul.
They found a buyer, but the deal eventually fell through because of the amount of duty – 200 per cent of the purchase price – which the buyer would have to pay. In anticipation of selling the vehicle, they had sold their camping and cooking equipment and were a little disappointed when they left Kabul.
Graham, who was now carrying most of their personal effects, had left four days earlier and gone to Srinigar in Kashmir. They were to meet later in New Delhi.
Travelling on, they passed through the historic Khyber Pass and on to Rawlpindi and Lahore.

The party arrived in Delhi on November 13, having travelled from Kabul without any tools or a jack which they had given to Graham. They had four punctures during the period and were helped each time by local lorry drivers.

After meeting up with Graham again they headed south and stayed the night at the 16th Century abandoned city of Fatehpur Sikri.
The next day was a particularly memorable one because they travelled to Agra and visited the 17th Century mausoleum built by Shah Jahan, the Taj Mahal.

Himalayas
A 15-hour drive then took them to the holy Hindu city of Benares on the River Ganges. They then visited the Kingdom of Nepal with its terraced hillsides and backcloth of snow-covered Himalayan peaks.
After 100 miles of winding their way over two 8,000foot passes, with hardly 100yd. of straight road, they entered the fascinating city of Kathmandu.
Peter Froment takes up the story from there:-
“Our hotel was costing 2s. 6d. per hight and a meal of buffalo steak and chips was also very cheap at 2s. 6d. At our hotel we met Harry, an 18-year-old Nepalese, who we engaged to sell our vehicle. This was to prove something of a task because of the high duty (approx. US 2,000 dollars) which was fixed by the Custom’s officials.
“However, after a couple of days, Harry found a buyer and within a few hours all the formalities were completed, and out vehicle became the property of a local grain merchant.
“Very early the next morning we journeyed to Nagarkote, about 20 miles from Kathmandu, to catch a glimpse of Mount Everest. At a distance of 50 miles, Mount Everest was only a tiny peak in the distance, but the views of the majestic Annapurna and the cloud-filled Katmandu valley made the journey well worthwhile.

Brief stay
Back in Katmandu, we met Heather Storey, a school-teacher from Queensland, Australia who had also come overland from England, and was, like ourselves, joining Graham Strachan on the African part of his journey. Graham had left three days earlier for Calcutta.
“On the morning of November 29, it was foggy when we arrived outside the main post office where a convoy of buses and trucks was assembled, ready for the journey to the Indian border. Finding all the bus seats taken, we climbed aboard a truck and paid our 3s. to the driver. The truck was soon filled with about 40 people and at eight o’clock the ten hour journey to the border began.
“At Raxaul, on the Indian border, we had a meal of mutton curry and boarded a train for Calcutta. The third-class compartments which we travelled in were wooden benches with a similar bench above for sleeping on. We had to change trains three times during the journey of 30 hours and were extremely tired when we arrived at Calcutta. However, our stay in Calcutta was extremely brief. We met Graham at 2 am., had two hours sleep, and at 8 am. We were on the road to Bombay.
“The drive out of Calcutta was particularly interesting. December 1 was the end of the Moslem Fast of Ramadan and we drove past streets filled with people parading to an open air meeting. The most amazing people were the beggars who lined both sides of the streets for mile after mile. Later we passed a sit-down demonstration which had stopped the local trams from running.
The journey to Bombay took 65 hours, travelling day and night, and only stopping to cook meals and repair punctures, of which there were quite a number. On December 4, we arrived at Bombay, our final destination in India.

Many foods
“On refection, our journey had been a memorable one. We had sampled many different kinds of food and drink – the local brews of retsina and ouzo in Greece; shish kebabs, coffee and raki in Turkey; the long grained rice of Iran, usually served with butter, which is probably the finest in the world; the beautifully cooked, but inexpensive steaks of Afghanistan; thw sweet chai (tea) of Pakistan, without doubt the most refreshing drink of our journey; the hot curries of India; and the buffalo steaks and various Chinese dishes of Nepal.
“We had tried a number of different types of transport – motor-cycle taxis in Delhi; Afghan buses, where each driver seemed intent on creating a record of the number of people he could carry; a truck in Nepal; and a train journey in India.
Our only health problems had been the occasional touch of ‘Delhi belly.’ We had visited many interesting places, met a number of remarkable people, and learnt a great deal about the countries we traversed. There was no doubt in our minds that the time spent in converting the ambulance, obtaining visas and insurance, and getting the various vaccinations had all been worthwhile.
“We were perhaps a little saddened by the sale of our vehicle in Nepal, for it had served us well, but I am sure that it will be seen around Katmandu for many years to come.
“Finally, to all the people whose generosity and encouragement helped us to make the journey a success, we would like to say, ‘Many thanks, we will be forever indebted to you’.”

- continued in next post.