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I like the idea of a sweet spot in time, I'd add a cultural/social one too - there was the roughly pre-WW2 era when you probably needed quite a bit of money behind you to travel, and the more recent times (not sure when exactly they started) when travel became so cheap and easy that many places which must once have been wonderful (Greece is probably a great example) are swamped by the most casual of visitors. I'd say the 1960s and 1970s were the sweet spot, though I say that as someone born in the 1980s.
I'd also say that 1979 would be a good candidate for the end of the heyday of the Asian Overland Trail, with the near simultaneous Iranian Revolution and Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
I have a brand new Eland copy of 'The way of the world' on my bookshelf, but like a rare bottle of wine, I am waiting for a good moment to read it as possibly the last of the great pre-modern overland trail books that I have not read. But the early age of such adventure, when cars were fickle contraptions, will surely always best be captured Byron's 'The road to Oxiana'. I love the opening chapters of Newby's (much later) 'A short walk in the Hindukush' too. Also Reginald Teague-Jones' 'Adventures in Persia'.
Nice photo, oh to have seen the world in the 1970s.
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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.
Last edited by eurasiaoverland; 3 Jan 2025 at 00:17.
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