I've spoken with Jerry a few times before and he's seen my Panel plenty of times and out of nowhere comes this. I was floored. The obvious question arose......
"You don't have any pics of the trip, with the Kombi in it, of course?"
Jerry grinned and nodded. I'd been about to leave but decided the kids could sit in the car for a minute or 2 while he showed me the photos.
The trip was not a short one. John, an Aussie in London, was a speedway nut. "He'd passed fanaticism and was on the other side," Jerry said. After spending a year driving over there he bought and built these specific engines and did not trust them to be shipped to Australia. Instead he'd drive them there himself in a Kombi. Makes sense, right?
Anyhow, he advertised in the paper for a companion and Jerry, who was there at the time answered the ad. Before he knew it they were off across Europe into Turkey and through Iran then on to Afghanistan and Pakistan and into India. There they met an English girl who's tour had finished there but was after more travelling so she hitched a ride with them and they headed into Nepal.
After Nepal Jerry and the girl parted company with John who had to put the Kombi on a ship. But they met up again in South East Asia on the ship and landed in Sydney together.
Jerry's opinion of the Kombi was that it was a good old bus but that it broke down a lot. From the photos it was at least a late 50s Bus if not earlier so it had probably seen a lot of miles already. But he said that was the good part of the trip. Because for the couple of days it took to find a machine shop he'd pop off and sight see around the local area. Stuff that you'd never normally see. He also said you learned to spot towns with machine shops because they had powerlines going to them. So if they saw powerlines leaving the main road and going into a village it meant they'd be able to sort out any repairs.
And here are what you're really after.....the photos. The bus and adventurers in Iran:
A stop in India where the locals turn up to take a look:
Another from India with water buffalo plowing the fields:
A pass into Nepal which was practically a mudpit. Apparently they followed the Jeep as they thought it would go best....until it lost traction. The Kombi was still going though but they could not pass the Jeep which was now in the way. So the bulldozer pulled them up:
Crossing a river in Nepal. Jerry commented "You know what they're like but that Splitty went places it really shouldn't have been able to":
Here's John and the English lass parked by the Mt Everest View Motel. I said "Wow, a motel." Jerry replied "Mmmm, yeah, but you had to peel the leeches off as you left!"
And finally on the boat to Sydney:
Makes your heart glad, eh?
