by Gerald Davis

In the late 1970s, adventure bus journeys were the most exciting form of international travel. Buses crossed continents to the fabled cities of Asia, Europe, Africa and South America, carrying adventurous travellers across scenic lands and harsh deserts. Many of the passengers were Australians and New Zealanders, going to and from Britain and Europe.

Tours lasted weeks and months and crossed borders freely – until they were blocked by unrest and warfare in the late 1970s, and the golden age of overland travel came to an abrupt end.

Faraway Places with Strange Sounding Names brings this magical era back to life, thanks to Gerald Davis’s determined efforts to gather people’s stories, photos, maps and mementos.

His book tells the story of the leading operator at the time, the Penn Overland Company, which pioneered the Asian and African overland travel routes in the 1950s, and spread to five continents and 50 countries, taking people on the journey of a lifetime.

This book is a window into that time, and for the thousands who travelled, a chance to relive their journeys. Drawing on memories and mementos of former Penn staff and passengers the world over, Gerald Davis has saved the story from disappearance, and told it in this evocative book.