In the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of young Westerners, inspired by Kerouac and the Beatles, blazed the ‘hippie trail’ overland from Istanbul to Kathmandu in search of enlightenment and a bit of cheap dope. Since the Summer of Love, the countries that offered so much to these dreamers have confronted the full force of modernity and transformed from worlds of Western fantasy to political minefields. Through a landscape of breathtaking beauty Rory MacLean retraces the path of the once well-worn ‘hippie trail’ from Turkey to Iran, Afghanistan to Pakistan, India to Nepal, meeting trail veterans and locals on his way, and relives wide-eyed adventures as he witnesses a world of extraordinary and terrifying transformation.
In Top Deck Daze, Bill James tells the hilarious, true story of how Graham ‘Screw’ Turner establishes a bus touring company using old converted double-decker buses. From humble beginnings in 1973 London, Screw, together with a gang of colonial larrikins, builds up a 100-strong fleet of ‘deckers’. Follow the antics of Screw, Spy, Bill Speaking, Wombat, Filthy, Grilly, Budgie, the mysterious Graham James Lloyd and other incorrigible crew members as they lead their unsuspecting punters on riotous escapades to far flung, exotic corners of the world. The chaos that was Top Deck Travel lays the foundation for Flight Centre. Screw, through his dogged determination builds the company into a hugely successful, multi-million dollar travel empire.
Meski Oasis was a small campsite in Morocco surrounded by date palm trees and a small river down below at the back we used to use. The camp itself was very basic with no power but it’s redeeming feature was a huge swimming pool which was fed by a natural spring. In the pool there was a lot of fish swimming about that used to have no fear and nibble at your feet or what ever they could nothing to harmful.
There used to be a small stream running along side the pool which was handy for doing some laundry. The showers were just a row out in the open no privacy at all and the toilets were another story all together, normally overflowing and water running everywhere.
Over the back of the camp was an old medina that you could walk over to or go by donkey ride to explore.
The camp itself was quite a relaxing place to be for a couple of days especially if you had just been to Fez or Marrakesh and the full on vibe going on there.
Elephant Camp in the Chitwan National Park of Nepal was a favourite place to go.
A drive into the camp consisted of crossing a river then driving up a long narrow road into the camp which was shared with elephants, bikes, people and on the drive in we used to pass a couple of very small villages and a small school.
At the camp, which was run by an American guy he organised Rhino walking tours into the bush around the camp and also Elephant rides which were somewhat safer to go see the Rhinos.
Also at the camp was very basic toilets, cold showers and the best bit was a bar. A generator was there providing power around the bar area only
A group of locals were normally organised to go a dance for us and would walk to the camp from miles away with their music and sticks just to perform for us.
On the 19th September 1982 I was given an Overland trip. This consisted of a trip out to Kathmandu via Syria, Jordan. At the time Iraq and Afganastan were close to tourists and we were also having issues getting Iran visas.
En-route we began at the 1982 Oktoberfest in Munich, then a quick trip down through Yugoslavia, Bulgeria, Turkey with a few sights to see there including Gallipoli then down via Troy, Cappadocia, along the southern coast, then into Syria, Jordan.
At this stage after a tour around Jordan and still issues with Iran visas, my bunch if passengers and the courier overflew Iran out of Amman to Karachi where another buc picked then up for the remainder of their trip.
I waited around Amman for another 4 weeks or so along with a couple of other of our drivers and finally myself and another driver and bus got visas and did an almost non stop drive through to Quetta, Pakistan.
We picked up the next groups to overfly at Quetta after they came up on a train from Karachi and continued with the rest of the trip to Kathmandu. We got into Kathmandu Christmas Eve 1982.
Following that on the 1st January 1983 I had a 4 week India trip around India with a new bunch of passengers which finished in New Delhi. Then an almost empty bus back up to Kathmandu for the return trip to London.
On 20th February 1983 two buses, mne and another began on the return trip to London. With the aid of a bottle of scotch we had the buses transferred into our couriers names so they could drive the Pakistan portion of the trip and our passports were sent to London once again for iran visas. The two couriers met us back at the india/Pakistan border and we got the buses transferred back into our names.
The couriers and passengers then did the public transport things again and flew out of Karachi to Amman, Jordan and did all the Joran Middle East part on public transport.
The other driver and I then did an almost non stop drive from Lahore to the Turkey/Syria border to meet them. From Lahore, Multan, Jacobbabad, Bolan Pass, Dalbundin, Taftan the Pakistan – Iran Border we lost a day in Zahedan getting the Iran guard, Bam, Ardestan, Zanjan, Bazagan – Dogubeyazit border nestled under Mt. Ararat, we lost more time there getting through the (Iran – Turkey border), Tahir Pass between Agri and Erzurum, Tunceli pass, Elazig, Malatya, Gaziantep, Antakya. Total 5,755km.
Despite our best efforts, we encountered a few minor breakdowns along the way. We spent a memorable night at a Turkish truck stop with English TIR truck drivers and lots of Efes beer, leaving the next morning with a hangover. We encountered a sandstorm in Iran at one stage and had to wait that out and Bill running off the road also in Iran, and we ran out of money to buy fuel towards in Eastern Turkey.
I am told the story goes we ran out of money because we didn’t have enough from the start; we were short on funds when we left Lahore. As for the fuel, Bill swapped the bloke at the servo in Turkey 4 pairs of Levi’s for 2 tanks of fuel, the Levi’s were a present for Nazir up in Srinagar but he left them on Crunch in Jammu by mistake and didn’t take them up. But, we can assure you that everything was carried out in a true Top Deck manner (lots of luck and not good management). We arrived near the border at Antakya on the 17th April 1983.
We arrived with 5 hours to spare and picked up the passengers and continued to London via all the great Turkish places to visit we had come to love. Apart from a blowout tyre, running out of fuel (twice), frozen engine near the Iran/Turkey border, a speeding fine through a small town, spending all the trip funds and borrowing off the passengers to get us back to London, a strip search at French customs then not being allowed into France all went quite well and we only got to London two days late.
One of my first trips was driving a newer bus Gordon.
Normally either the driver or courier has had some experience, but on this trip it was not to be. It was more or less my first trip around Europe and my Courier was Max off my training trip from a few weeks earlier. We got lost everywhere and Max was just reading all the blurb for each place out of a book he managed to buy.
We were lucky as one of the girls on the bus spoke fluent Italian so we were fine getting her to ask for directions in Italy which happened a lot.
When got to Brindisi they were having a 3 day strike on the ferry so we got delayed there heading for Corfu.
I did learn to read maps fairly quickly after that trip plus one of the guys that was leaving the company gave me a stack of maps and a couple of guide books so I was grateful for that help.
After the Russia Scandi trip I applied for a job driving at Top Deck Travel. First I was told I had to do a training trip. I was told that there was a Spain, Portugal Morocco trip leaving the following day which gave me very little time to get a visa for Spain and Portugal.
We left the following morning with a fantastic bunch of passengers. I shared the driving on the entire trip and just as well got to know my way around that trip as I ended up doing 6 of them over the future 2 years.
We began at the Running of the Bulls at Pamplona Span so it was a quick trip down to Pamplona BUT, we hit a snag as soon as wen crossed to Calais. We were told by a friendly cop we needed new front tyres, so off we go and get that done before continuing on.
Pamplona is a bit like Oktoberfest in Munich, all the Top Deck buses turn up. We had a Top Deck Picnic day whilst there where each bus had their own 30 litre Sangria Mix.
All went well and we stocked up on 100 dozen cans of San Miguel beer for our time in Morocco as the beer there is horrible. Along the way we got Ice almost everywhere and kept the esky full as and when we could. There was an honesty chart with everybody’s names and they would tick off each beer they had. All totalled up including the ice and the missing beers not accounted for and each person paid towards the end of the trip.
We got to Barcelona and had engine issues. The driver and I did a full engine rebuild in the Barcelona campsite. This turned out to be a learning experience as later I had to do similar to a different bus.
We got back to London and was given a bus to do a Russia Scandi in which broke down in Berlin. I was then given a Beerfest trip and during that trip at Munich was switched to another bus to do a 7 Week Europe and I was on that bus for several more trips after that.
In June 1981 I did a 6½ week Russia Scandi coach camping trip. A lot of booze was consumed over the period with 23 passengers on board a coach and the driver and courier.
First we crossed over on the ferry to Europe then did Amsterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, then worked our way up the coast to Hammerfest, and back down the Finland side Rovaniemi, Helsinki, Lenningrad, Kalinin, Moscow, Smolensk, MinskWarsaw, Prague, Berlin, Cologne and back to London
We got off to a great start by buying 100 dozen of Elephant Beer on the ferry (which later got us an overloading fine in Norway, so we had to drink faster)
In Amsterdam we did all the usual things that I revisited many times later such as Red Light area, live shows, Banana bar and several other seedy establishments.
Up at Hammerfest we went out on the North Sea fishing and caught more fish than we could eat in a month, in spite of the ice cold weather.
At the Artic circle on the Norway side the snow was higher than the bus where a snow plough had kept it clear.
Coming down the Finland size he had a night in a campsite with Saunas, that was fantastic.
In Berlin the campsite backed onto the Berlin Wall, looking over the fence we could see guards with machine guns. At the camp was the usual beer boot party and 120 bottles of Kuemerling. We did a day trip across Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin and about a 20 minute walk to the Berlin Tower and had a meal in the revolving restaurant at the top.
In Prague it was the first time our courier had been there and whilst changing money on the black market we ended up with counterfiet notes which was not ideal.
We did visit Auschwitz which was a real eye opener. We had a guide and were shown the huge buildings with specticles, bags, shoes and we were also shown the area where they were set up as showers and were in fact gas chambers. Quite a sad place to visit.
I will be in Berlin again this year (2024) and have booked a table at the same Tower Restaurant some 40 years later.
A fantastic trip but I have not managed to get back in contact with anyone off that trip since.
I went back to Western Australia in 1980 and the job at Bell Bros this time was on a roading section near De Gray river which incorporated the approcaches to a new bridge. On this job I was in 85 ton dump trucks and a bit of time on a couple of big loaders.
After this job it was off to the Leslie Salt job building new salt evaporation ponds. On this job I was mainly on an elevator scraper which was one of several on site that we also had at the Wallal Downs road job with Bell Bros a year or so earlier.
Two Cat 623b’s Elevator Scrapers
SC23 stripping topsoil. A dusty job with the odd snake thrown up on the back of the cab.
In 1978 a friend Marvin and his Wife Julie and I decided to go over to Western Australia. We both had caravans and we had to stop in at a transport yard in Narrabri and spend a week helping weld up cracks on trailers. A bloke from home had been staying with me in my caravan in Brisbane and he came along also.
We spent about two weeks driving with only one small issue when I had a wheel bearing on my caravan fail at Broken Hill. With Marvin’s help as a self taught mechanice we fixed that fairly quickly but the hardest thing had been sourcing the correct size wheel bearing. That stop cost us about half a day.
Neither car had roo bars so we avoided driving at night and with the big open roads across from South Australia to Perth was easy going. We did have a quick stop and a look around Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie but had no plans to work or stay there.
The trip over we managed to cook in the caravans and stop in various rest areas and managed to have the odd shower at roadhouses along the way.
When we got to Perth we stayed at the camp ground and each day made enquiries about getting jobs up in the mines in the North West. After a few weeks we had all managed to secure jobs in three different locations.
My first Job was at Wittenoom and at the time I did not know it but it was home to an old Asbestos Mine which had recently been closed down. My job was driving a loader and a truck at times working on covering up areas that had asbestos dust. NOTE: Wittenoom has now been removed from most maps and signposts removed and in theory no longer exists.
I lasted there a few weeks then went to Tom Price and got a job there on a Cat D9H dozer with Bell Bros. I walked into Bell’s office and the guy was on the phone looking for a D9H operator. I had driven a small D4 a bit at home and thought how hard could it be? So when he was finished on the phone I told him I had operated a D9G and a 631 Cat scraper and he gave me a job.
I was taken up to the dozer by the fitter and it was all a bit of a mystery at first. I spent a whle looking around it and checking the oils and water etc then got in and soon figured out how to start it, a lot easier than the old D4. All I had to do was rip and push rock ofer a rock face all day, a nice easy job indeed. My job in New Zealand I had driven lots of different loaders and machines but nothing this big apart from a scraper at Twizel for a few weeks.
They had a contract at Tom Price and it was slowly coming to an end. A few weeks after I began there my dozer got shipped off to another job and I moved onto a Hough loader loading ballast railway wagons for Hammersley Iron, then that got shipped off to Perth. I was then on a smaller Cat loader doing the same job until that also got shipped away. My final job was in the workshop building a bullbar for the bosses Toyota Landcruiser, after that the job at Tom Price ended. My boss got me transferred to another job on a Cat scraper on a 50 mile section of a roading job north of Port Hedland at Wallal Downs, about halfway between Port Hedland and Broome.
Mine was the only scraper on site that was not Air Conditioned and in the hot temperatures I did manage well. I later went onto a dozer when it’s operator left and a few months after that I told them I was going to Europe. A few days after I told them a brand new dozer arrived which was a bit bigger and my old D9 was off to another job. At the time they asked me to stay and by then I had everything booked. I was given a letter of reference stating that there would always be a job for me and they would fly me back from anywhere in the world.
Welding trailers at Narrabri
Tom Price Hammersley Iron
DZ22 my first D9H job at Tom Price
The new Fiat-Allis 31 I got to replace the old Cat D9
