Early July 1972
Having declared your interest in going East through whatever company or organisation in your area that deals with this sort of thing, then paid your money for the arrangements, you find a letter in your mailbox. It has been sent by airmail and is postmarked London, 3 July. It is a large envelope filed with various leaflets, maps and a typewritten letter that has clearly been through a mimeograph, an inexpensive duplicator machine you will find in smaller offices that have yet to buy a photocopier.
The letter has a header marked ‘From the desk of Desmond Weaver’ with an address in the London suburb of Finchley and a telephone number. It is dated 2 July and written in English; a translation into your local language is provided.
It reads:
quote:
Dear [your first name in blue pen],
Thank you for booking with Overland Adventures! I am Desmond Weaver and I will be your guide for this trip east to India, Nepal and beyond. I have been a guide for the last six years on this journey, before that doing extensive tours around Europe.
Now this is an adventure of a lifetime, but it does come with risks; but provided you are sensible, you should avoid any serious mischief. (Minor mischief is a part of the experience; brace yourself for some spectacular bowel movements!)
You will need to make sure that you have inoculations for smallpox and cholera before you go; a certificate detailing your jabs will be needed for many of the nations that we will be visiting. Your doctor will be able to assist here. A full health guide is also provided.
I’m fine with you smoking tobacco or hash on this trip, but please don’t do it in my van. Please don’t do anything harder; it is not worth the temporary hit. Also, no drugs smuggling. Turkish prisons are awful, and the Iranians will shoot you.
I am sure you will respect the local cultures of the realms we pass through. Remember don’t eat with your left hand and when we’re in the Islamic countries, ladies should wear modest clothing. With the current situation in Vietnam, Americans may wish to not advertise their nationality too overtly.
If you take any personal weaponry, you do so at your own considerable risk.
A passport valid for at least a year is needed. Visas will generally be obtained via the various embassies on route, but you may wish to obtain your Iranian visa before you leave. We will be paying a visit to the Yugoslav Embassy in Vienna for anyone who needs a visa for that country, such as Americans and Canadians. Full details are provided in the attached pack for your nationality.
The route
This will be getting a good deal more flexible as we go along, dependent on the weather, how quickly we can cross frontiers etc. Travellers may want to take diversions and are welcome to do so; we can pick you up later on.
Our first rendezvous point will be at London Victoria station on Monday 7 August at 12pm; I will be in the station refreshment room, which is easily signposted. We will be leaving in a VW Kombi at 1pm sharp, registration LCD 457H. This is a left-hand drive vehicle.
From there, we will be driving to Dover Eastern Docks, boarding the 4.05pm Sealink ferry to Calais. I will have the tickets with me.
Please remember that you are only allowed to take £25 in British notes out of the country and the equivalent of £300 in foreign notes. I recommend taking traveller’s cheques in any event as they can be replaced if someone steals them.
The ferry should get us to Calais 90 minutes later, then once we are through Customs, we will drive to Brussels, arriving that evening. A room for us is booked at a youth hostel in the Schaerbeek area – the address is provided.
After a day in Brussels to pick up arrivals there, we will drive to Nuremberg for a further pick-up day (our normal stop of Munich will be very busy with arrivals for the Olympics) and then onto Vienna.
From Vienna, we will then turn south and head for Yugoslavia, on the first real part of our trip. Our aim is to take a meander down the Adriatic coast, taking about a week to do so, before turning inland via Titograd and then arriving in Greece around the 19th.
Another week in Greece is planned, with a visit to Athens.
Around the end of August, we will cross into Turkey and reach Istanbul (not Constantinople), crossing the Bosphorus to enter ASIA!
Our timings will be a lot more flexible and casual at this point too.
We will travel through Turkey to Iran, an Islamic land with an open, progressive culture and a rather repressive ruler. I am sure you will like the people and hate the Shah, but let’s not criticise him in public!
Our route will go through Herat, Kandahar and Kabul in Afghanistan, an unspoiled mountainous land, then crossing Pakistan via Peshawar and Lahore. The latter section will see using the Khyber Pass and we will be travelling through this area without stopping; the tribal areas off the mainland are not under the control of the Pakistani government and can be particularly dangerous to Westerners.
We will cross into India at the Ganda Singh Wala border crossing, with a daily retreat ceremony well worth watching.
In India, we will reach Delhi in early October (just after monsoon season), with plans to visit Bombay, Goa, Benares and Kathmandu. This will be in no particular order and with no particular time planned.
The experience will conclude at the end of November for myself, at which point I intend to drive back to England. You will be free to return with me or head wherever you wish. Bangkok is highly recommended but be advised that you will have to fly there. For some reason, the Burmese won’t let you cross their land borders.
I look forward to you joining me for a truly memorable experience.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed)
Desmond Weaver
