The Overland

On the 19th September 1982 I was given an Overland trip. This consisted of a trip out to Kathmandu via Syria, Jordan. At the time Iraq and Afganastan were close to tourists and we were also having issues getting Iran visas.

En-route we began at the 1982 Oktoberfest in Munich, then a quick trip down through Yugoslavia, Bulgeria, Turkey with a few sights to see there including Gallipoli then down via Troy, Cappadocia, along the southern coast, then into Syria, Jordan.

At this stage after a tour around Jordan and still issues with Iran visas, my bunch if passengers and the courier overflew Iran out of Amman to Karachi where another buc picked then up for the remainder of their trip.

I waited around Amman for another 4 weeks or so along with a couple of other of our drivers and finally myself and another driver and bus got visas and did an almost non stop drive through to Quetta, Pakistan.

We picked up the next groups to overfly at Quetta after they came up on a train from Karachi and continued with the rest of the trip to Kathmandu. We got into Kathmandu Christmas Eve 1982.

Following that on the 1st January 1983 I had a 4 week India trip around India with a new bunch of passengers which finished in New Delhi. Then an almost empty bus back up to Kathmandu for the return trip to London.

On 20th February 1983 two buses, mne and another began on the return trip to London. With the aid of a bottle of scotch we had the buses transferred into our couriers names so they could drive the Pakistan portion of the trip and our passports were sent to London once again for iran visas. The two couriers met us back at the india/Pakistan border and we got the buses transferred back into our names.

The couriers and passengers then did the public transport things again and flew out of Karachi to Amman, Jordan and did all the Joran Middle East part on public transport.

The other driver and I then did an almost non stop drive from Lahore to the Turkey/Syria border to meet them.
From Lahore, Multan, Jacobbabad, Bolan Pass, Dalbundin, Taftan the Pakistan – Iran Border we lost a day in Zahedan getting the Iran guard, Bam, Ardestan, Zanjan, Bazagan – Dogubeyazit border nestled under Mt. Ararat, we lost more time there getting through the (Iran – Turkey border), Tahir Pass between Agri and Erzurum, Tunceli pass, Elazig, Malatya, Gaziantep, Antakya. Total 5,755km.

Despite our best efforts, we encountered a few minor breakdowns along the way. We spent a memorable night at a Turkish truck stop with English TIR truck drivers and lots of Efes beer, leaving the next morning with a hangover. We encountered a sandstorm in Iran at one stage and had to wait that out and Bill running off the road also in Iran, and we ran out of money to buy fuel towards in Eastern Turkey.

I am told the story goes we ran out of money because we didn’t have enough from the start; we were short on funds when we left Lahore. As for the fuel, Bill swapped the bloke at the servo in Turkey 4 pairs of Levi’s for 2 tanks of fuel, the Levi’s were a present for Nazir up in Srinagar but he left them on Crunch in Jammu by mistake and didn’t take them up. But, we can assure you that everything was carried out in a true Top Deck manner (lots of luck and not good management). We arrived near the border at Antakya on the 17th April 1983.

We arrived with 5 hours to spare and picked up the passengers and continued to London via all the great Turkish places to visit we had come to love. Apart from a blowout tyre, running out of fuel (twice), frozen engine near the Iran/Turkey border, a speeding fine through a small town, spending all the trip funds and borrowing off the passengers to get us back to London, a strip search at French customs then not being allowed into France all went quite well and we only got to London two days late.