The Overland Route:

Attribution for map: Karte: NordNordWest, Lizenz: Creative Commons by-sa-3.0 de

The Hippy Trail: Where Did It Begin?

Although Istanbul, Turkey was understood to be the jumping off point when travelling from west to east across Asia, each of us started our journey the moment we left everything behind and set off to see the world. For many their journey began in Australia and New Zealand. They travelled through Bali, Malaysia and Thailand. They would then fly to Katmandu or India then travel overland to London.

Did All Overlanders Survive? 

The simple answer is no; they didn’t all survive. Some succumbed to severe illness, died in road accidents or simply disappeared. Two months after our arrival in New Zealand it was announced on the news that two Frenchmen had their throats slit while enroute from Kabul to the Bamiyan Valley, 81 miles northeast of Kabul.  They were on their way to see the Buddhas of Bamiyan, two monumental statues carved into the sandstone cliffs of the valley. We had planned to make the journey ourselves sharing the fare of a taxi with three other travellers. Unfortunately, or fortunately as it may be, I became ill. Lacking the strength to drag myself to the taxi we didn’t go.

By the late 70s the overland route had become extremely dangerous due to the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Although the vast majority of overlanders may have survived the trip it wasn’t always a cake walk.

Where Did We All Go After the Trek?

I lived in New Zealand for eight years, Australia for almost two years and Canada most of my life. During this time, I met one other person who had travelled overland. Where did they all go? Like us, most transitioned back into the mainstream of life. This meant finding a job and a place to live. It is impossible to identify an overlander. The man or woman sitting next to you on the bus, the one that looks like a corporate lawyer, might have travelled the Hippy Trail. You would never know.

What We Saw and How It Changed Us:

We would never be the same as before we embarked on the journey. Travelling overland not only opened our eyes to different cultures, it made us realise how privileged we were to be born where we were, when we were.

From Istanbul to Calcutta (Kolkata) access to health care and clean drinking water was inadequate or non-existent. Instead of water flowing in pipes underground it ran in open ditches where it was used for everything from washing clothing and children’s faces to being a convenient place to empty ones’ nasal passages.

Travelling with packs on our backs, eating at the local restaurants, sleeping at the lodgings of the local citizenry, we were not shielded from the realities of the world, nor did we wish to be.

After stumbling through the dim back streets of Calcutta, trying not to trip over the countless motionless bodies bedded down for the night, we would never take a safe place to sleep for granted again.

Travel as Far as You Can on as Little as You Can: 

The overlanders may have been the first ones to turn low-cost travel into an art form. They travelled in Volkswagen vans, Land Rovers, motorbikes, private buses, train, by local transport or hitchhiked. According to information on line, some travelled in hearses, fire trucks, Morris Minors, Royal Mail vans or anything that could be converted to long distance travel. Dervla Murphy completed the journey from Ireland to India on a bicycle.

Out to See the World:

While some were heading for places like Katmandu in pursuit of cheap and readily available drugs, the vast majority were simply out to see the world.