Image Up Advertising & Design

10 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | OCTOBER 2021 By Thomas Herron, Navigator/Spare Driver Durham University Contingent In July 1969, 500 young men and women traveling in 20 vehicles undertook what must rank as one of the longest and largest overland journey in history. When they returned and disembarked onto the shores of England 86 days later, they could claim to have crossed and re-crossed two continents covering a total distance of approximately 18,000 miles. I was fortunate to have been among the 25 students who formed the Durham University contingent, and can confirm every day on that journey I experienced adventure and friendships, all of which molded me into the person I am today. A contribution from each contingent was to provide a cultural program to be presented during a number of free performances in several of the cities on route to our main destination, New Delhi, India. Durham's talented offer was to perform a 15-minute scene from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera Trial by Jury. At this point, I need to be honest, as it is no secret I have no notable singing voice, hence I appeared as a member of the jury and my miming was greatly applauded. To convey my daily experiences and the friendships that formed on this expedition would take more space than the Breeze can offer me so I will highlight some of my most memorable events. Once all 20 vehicles disembarked from the Cross Channel Ferry Enterprise IV into the Port of Zee-Brugge (Belgium), we lined up in convoy and reminded each other to drive on the right hand side of the road. The route across Europe took us to Frankfurt (Germany), Salzburg (Austria) Zagreb (Yugoslavia) and Kavalla (Greece). With the exception of Frankfurt, where we were the guests in the US Air Force Base, all the campsites we utilized were far too small to accommodate our convoy, and lining up to use so few toilets was a nightmare. On July 24 we finally left Europe and entered Asia via Istanbul aboard a rather vintage ferry, which we were convinced was overloaded. The voyage was smooth but the unloading was as chaotic as the loading had been. The journey to the campsite gave all our drivers an insight to driving rules in Turkey: there are no rules. Taxis, horse- drawn carts, overloaded motor cars, and motorcycles all believe they have the right of way. To this day I am sure the Durham driver on duty that day is still getting psychiatric treatment for the experience. Once we left the chaos of Istanbul, we stepped back in time about 30 years. Roads often changed into compacted dirt tracks, often teeming with oxen carts, ancient trucks, and various farm animals being driven by young children and old men. Although Turkey was a wonderful experience and it gave me many enjoyable memories, the memory that stands out is the campsite we had at Trabzon. Again on the invitation of the US Air Force, we, plus four more coaches spent an overnight stay in a location that provided a wonderful view of the Black Sea. It was an Air Force Base without a runway, however, it was surrounded with numerous aerials and radar dishes. I was told on a good day they could wave greetings to the Russian sailors aboard the ships they were spying on. The landscape was becoming harsher and we were plagued with heat; our coaches did not have the luxury of air conditioning. The city of Tehran was experiencing temperatures around the 120 degree mark and our campsite, which was approximately 3,000 feet above the city, was only slightly improved at 108 degrees. We, along with several other contingents, were due to perform in front of the Minister of Culture. Rather than the normal nervousness at the thought of performing, we were eager once we discovered the Central Youth Theatre had excellent air conditioning. The main highway leading to the Afghanistan border was void of tarmac; in numerous stretches we had to reduce our speed to around 20 mph. This plus the long wait to exit customs meant we had to search for a campsite in the dark. Around midnight under the light of the Milky Way, we pulled off the road to join several coaches in what can only be described as a desolate field. We were far too exhausted to erect the tent so we spread it across the ground and crawled under it. As daylight broke we discovered we were sharing the area with a mixture of camels, sheep and goats, as well as a group of locals sitting along an embankment. The sheep and goats were easy to disperse, however the camels insisted on staying for breakfast and one of the coaches discovered they were partial to Quaker Oats when a rogue animal stole an unguarded box. We were amazed to find the main highway running from Herat through Kandahar and onto Kabul was totally concrete. We later discovered the first section was funded by the USA and the latter by Russia, and the ADVENTURES ABROAD

• Cover