A healthy summary is very worthwhile.
Abrams spent three years travelling alltold, his partner Louis 10. They began on the 2rd of Cotober in 1968, Abrams was 22 years old. This diary records the first 6 months and 5 days of Abrams’ travels, being how long it took him to reach Darwin from Liverpool. They traversed countries as follows: Belgium, Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, India, Burma,Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, East Timor, Australia. Abrams travelled 32, 717 km, hitched 181 lifts, and spent £235 in the process. It has taken him 7 years thus far to produce the on-line diary from his written notes!
He blitzed through Europe in a mad rush, reaching Turkey just one week and 21 lifts into the trip. The real story begins in Asia.
In Iran they encountered an admanat skepticism regarding their chances of hitching the distance from one of the many people they met driving it!
- The bus driver was an Australian who called himself Bluey. He had driven the route from London to Delhi and back at least half a dozen times before, being one of a number of tour bus operators travelling the route at that time. He expressed his surprise "that we had got this f...... far by hitch hiking and frankly didn't give a s... for our chances of getting to India in a month of f...... Sundays". (That was the clean version.) He told us that "we didn't stand a chance of getting over the Iran/Afghanistan border. The only vehicles that passed that way were tourist buses like his or oil tankers, and he wouldn't give us a lift. The oil tankers would charge us US$10 just for a ride on top of the tank." His best advice was to give up while we were ahead.
In Afghanistan, 1 month after leaving England:
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Having finished all the cheese we brought from England we tried to find some more.
