A short video from BBC Northern Ireland back in 1971 interviewing a couple about to set off around the world in their VW Camper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSSJRIaUPak

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You will have to do without pocket handkerchiefs, and a great many other things, before we reach our journey's end, Bilbo Baggins. You were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire, but home is now behind you. The world is ahead.

Unusually forward thinking for 1970's Norn Iron

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The electric monk always has faith.

Just caught this (better late than never!) and quite fascinating to watch. 1971 - quite a while ago now, but I think that time must have been the sweet spot between it being a real dirt road slog with unreliable vehicles - as portrayed in Nicholas Bouvier's book The Way of the World, where, in 1952, he and a friend drove a gradually disintegrating Fiat Topolino from France to the Kyber Pass - and the later (and current) era of closed borders, political restrictions and military tension.

What was great for me was at 2mins 10secs to glimpse some of the old yellow AA route guide books. I used to have a complete set of them back then and very handy they were in those pre Google Maps days. I tried to track some copies down about four years ago for our retro tour to Morocco in 2022 and it took the best part of twelve months to find the ones covering France and Spain. One of them came from a secondhand bookshop in the Hebrides and another from a shop on Dartmoor. I'm still looking for the one that covered Italy and the map that told you which route went where. Picture of one of the French books below

As for how young we all looked in 1971, the years, as the lady in the video observed, do take their toll . Four of us rode two bikes overland from London to Athens (and back!) that year. This is one of the bikes on the Brenner Pass.

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.

I won't spoil L'Usage du Monde for you by giving away any of it but certainly elements of how they funded themselves, especially in the early part of their trip, brought to mind attempts to sell (our) blood to hospitals - memorably in Italy - in the early 70's. When money runs out you had to do something as credit cards etc didn't exist back then. The Irish RTW couple and my picture was from 1971 but a couple of years later, in '73, we were stranded in Greece and tried to get money sent by bank transfer. It took over two weeks.

I've never really managed to, well, to be honest, stay awake, when reading Eric Newby. I've got three of his books on the shelf in front of me - including 'Hindu Kush' - but somehow I'm missing a hook to get into them. But re pre war travel I'm currently about half way through the Patrick Leigh Fermor trilogy about his walk from London to Istanbul in the 30's. He walked the route back then but sat on his notes until the 80's so the books are more recent. In fact the third one was so recent he passed away before it was finished and it was completed by a couple of stand-ins. His descriptive ability is in a different league and considering he's describing a pre war Europe it's a real eye into the past.

You're right about travel (in the sense of getting to a previously backwater destination) being cheap / easy etc. The same thought came to mind for me the other day when I was preparing a presentation I'm giving to my local U3A (University of the 3rd Age = mostly retirees) group this Friday coming. I'm talking to them about a overland bike trip I did down to West Africa about 20yrs ago and the very last picture I have is one taken in a hotel I was staying at in Banjul. Most of the other guests were there because a return charter flight plane had suffered a bird strike on landing and they were being put up overnight while it was being repaired. The picture is of a waiter bringing out drinks on a tray for a party of delayed holidaymakers. No judgements, but no cruise ships or 10 day packages either back in the 60's.

As it says in The Way of the World, 'you think you are making a trip, but soon it is making you'. (it's in the preface )

I've read a few accounts from Hippie Trail groups on FB and it seems that selling blood was a common cash generator... reminds me not to be too envious of the travellers of those halcyon days of the Trail. Today we are richer and have so much more information on places to visit. Also, I am from a generation which came of age exploring the Former USSR, which wasn't really open in the 70s. Swings and roundabouts...

'you think you are making a trip, but soon it is making you'

I certainly can relate to this. It was a subtle change at around 7-8 months into a 4½ year trip when I had got over that initial flurry of following a plan and relaxed a bit; let the trip dictate the pace. In fact, I think it is this feeling that is missing from even the best 2-3 month trips made subsequently during leave from my work.

Funny that you mention P.L. Fermor; in preparation for an Aegean trip earlier in the year I read his 'Mani' and have to say, as a person who will trudge through pretty much any book I start, I couldn't finish it. His absurd and uninteresting digressions and expectation of the reader to have a deep and passionate interest in Ancient Greece made it almost unreadable for me. I have his cross-Europe trilogy but can't say I'm that keen to dive in yet. He comes across as someone who did not receive a great education yet still manages to come across as a snobbish bore.

I know Newby is not everyone's cup of tea - I found 'The big red train ride' a bit dull, but 'The last grain race' and "A short walk in the Hindukush' are two of my favourite books.

Good luck with the presentation

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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.