In Transit

By Steve Walker

Take a Transit Minibus, a full-sized roof-rack loaded with camping equipment, 14 passengers, plus a driver armed with road maps of Europe, Asia and Africa and you have a phenomenon that was to be a character-forming and life-changing experience for a generation of travellers. That phenomenon was “overland”. For the first time, young people had an affordable way to travel in the relative safety of a group to what, for many, had previously been inaccessible, and possibly dangerous, places. Overland brought together larger-than-life characters, involved some epic journeys and created unforgettable memories. The late 60s and early 70s was a period of Woodstock, peace, love and flower power – and a feeling of freedom was in the air. The fruits of the post-war baby boom were discovering and celebrating this new-found freedom and the time was ripe for this travel phenomenon to take off.

This is a story of how a broken relationship and the urge to break out led the author, in his early twenties and raised on an Essex council estate in the 50s/60s, to take his first trip abroad as a passenger on an overland trip to Morocco in September 1969, (he admits to being so naïve at the time that he thought Morocco was somewhere in the South of France), encountering an individual who happened to be a master at concocting a cock-and-bull story which eventually landed him a job as an overland driver.

He suddenly found himself inducted into the University of Life, spending the next four years on a hectic, challenging and adventurous journey across three continents, travelling extensively through Europe, Asia, India and Africa; watching the sunrise over Mount Everest, driving overnight through winter blizzards in the Anatolian mountains of Eastern Turkey and waking in the Sahara just before dawn in a complete sound vacuum. Along the way, he met some amazing, interesting and colourful characters and made lifelong friendships – and went ten-pin bowling with the Prince of Afghanistan!

Chambers of the Black Hand Opal Mine

Chambers of the Black Hand Opal Mine – Lightening Ridge

Chambers Of The Black Hand Opal mine at Lightening Ridge was a great experience.

First we waited in the hot sun for another tour to finish then several of us descended down the 85 steep steps into the mine. The guide had given us all hard hats and a safety briefing prior to the descent.

The tour was very informative about how the mine was formed and all the hundreds if intriate carvings in the soft stone down below.

As expected there was a small shop down in the mine selling hand carvings and various Opals.

Black Hand Mine Steps

Royal Flying Doctor base and Museum

Royal Flying Doctor Base and Museum – Dubbo

We arrived late at the Royal Flying Doctor museum at Dubbo, NSW so did not really get enough time there.

At the time we got there after many hours of driving the cafe was closed unfortunately.

We had a couple of people showing us around, one was a retired Nurse and an ex Pilot telling us how it all worked and they showed us mock plane setups of how the planes were set up inside, the medical kits they had on board and a good video of tome of the stories of rescues that had been done in the past.

The Nurse took us up to the top of a control tower and we managed to see one of their planes coming into land and take a stretcher off the plane.

The story behind it all and the experience was fantastic.

Overland with Top Deck

By Ian Hall

The adventures of a Top Deck Tour leader in 1979 and 1980 travelling from Kathmandu to London on double decker buses. It’s a volatile time in Asia with the Soviets invading Afghanistan, revolution in Iran, Saddam Hussein campaigning in Iraq, Hafez al – Assad quelling rebellions in Syria and a coup d’état in Turkey. Ian’s winter overland tour, where temperatures in Iran and Turkey drop to minus 30 degrees contrasts vividly with his summer Overland – monsoons in India and temperatures in Pakistan and Iran rise to 45-50 degrees
Overland crew needed a blend of resourcefulness, initiative, audacity improvisation,problem solving and rule bending to get their passengers safely to their destination. This is a fascinating book full of keen observations, everyday people he meets, Kiwi and Aussie characters, adventures and misadventures, big and small, ordinary, extraordinary, exciting and dangerous.

A Phase I’m Going Through

A Phase I’m Going Through

by Anthony Lindsay Jones & Trish Burt

A TRILOGY THAT RECORDS THE LIFE
OF ONE OF ADVENTURE TRAVEL’S PRIME PROTAGONISTS

Overland 1970

Overland 1970

by David Shirreff

It is 1970 and in London a group of people gather around a Land Rover bedecked with jerry cans and hooked to a trailer.

Ahead lies a journey of many thousands of miles on ‘The Hippie Trail’, the well-trodden route from London to Nepal. They will encounter every imaginable hazard along increasingly dangerous roads that will take them through mountains, deserts, across empty plains and through teeming cities.

Overland 1970 vividly recreates the experience of the ‘Overlander’ at a time when a Western traveller could make this epic journey without encountering war or totalitarianism. The Hippie Trail had its dangers but to anyone possessed of the spirit of adventure it offered a wealth of fascinating encounters and stunning spectacles.

Author David Shirreff knows his subject well. Having driven the Hippie Trail several times, he captures the chilly mornings, the engine failures, the moments of rapture and the constant stimulus of new sights and experiences. But what sets his book apart is that he focuses on what is surely the essence of those journeys: what happened between the travellers themselves.

Inside a metal box for hours at a time, and for weeks on end, relationships ebbed and flowed. Travellers coupled and uncoupled, nursed grudges, formed bitter rivalries and, occasionally, arrived at a better understanding of themselves.

Overland 1970 takes the reader into that Land Rover and the experience of a vividly drawn cast of characters as they experience the journey of a lifetime.

The Last Overland

The Last Overland

by Alex Bescoby

The Last Overland is the remarkable story of filmmaker and historian Alex Bescoby’s journey to recreate the iconic First Overland expedition made in 1956 in the original ‘Oxford’ Land Rover and the story behind the All4 documentary series.

Africa Overland: The Journey Home

Africa Overland: The Journey Home

by Michael Leytonstone

A sequel to The Overlanders: An African Journey

Had his quest ended in South Africa . . . or had it only begun?

“The path to virtue is a rising slope, each step more difficult than the one before.”

A quest for courage on an African odyssey becomes a quest for honor on the homeward journey. A quest for honor . . . and love.

The Overlanders: An African Journey

The Overlanders: An African Journey

by Michael Leytonstone

What was he seeking in the wilds of Africa . . . the journey of a lifetime, or something greater?

“It sure makes me want to experience a similar adventure.”—Michael Garrett (Stephen King’s first editor), author of Keeper.

Breaking away from his office job in London, Alex Thompson joins a dozen other would-be adventurers on an overland expedition from Cairo to Johannesburg. His journey soon becomes a quest for courage as he confronts deserts, swamps, a civil war . . . and a few of his fellow passengers.

Rule No.5 – No Sex on the bus

By Brian Thacker

Brian Thacker, bus tour-leader extraordinaire, tells it how it really is in this funny, rollicking, absurd, ride through Europe.

Crew Manual Rule No. 5 : Crew must not engage in sexual activity on board the bus with passengers or fellow employees.

Crew Manual Rule No.2 : learn all names on day one.

Crew Manual Rule No.3 : don’t get lost.

But then, who follows the rules?

Brian Thacker confesses all as he reveals the best (and worst) of 20 trips as a tour leader around Europe. He tells how he fed passengers horse meat spag bog, hamburgers made from breakfast cereal and roosters’ testicles. How he left a passenger standing by the side of a motorway in France for three hours in his underwear clutching a purple toothbrush and how, along the way, he lost his driver, his cook, his bus, 10 brightly coloured canal bikes, a large church and eventually his patience.