50 years ago today I started on a journey............ THE ROAD TO BALI By Clive Matthews September 1964 This month 40 years ago in Beckenham, Kent in the UK, 4 young lads were finalising preparations for a journey that would take them half way round the world to Australia & the doorstep of Bali. Many months were spent organising the trip, passports, visas, supplies, buying a suitable vehicle, boat passages, deciding what route to take and a myriad of other minor details. Notice was given to employers, parties arranged, farewells made - would the 14th of October ever arrive?? *** Its the 13th October 1964, 8.30 in the evening and a crowd gathers at The Greyhound pub in Beckenham, Kent, UK. The saloon bar is crowded with family and friends. They have gathered to farewell Brian (Gauntlet) 23, Philip Pip (Walsh) 22, and brothers Ian 21, & Clive Matthews 23. Early tomorrow morning (4.00am) they will board their reconditioned 1948 Ex British Army Land Rover en-route to Dover and Melbourne Australia. In the past few weeks a year of planning was coming to an end - visas for Yugoslavia & Iran, injections at the Tropical diseases hospital, purchase of land rover, parties, farewells etc. One more night and its off, off to Australia (and - much later, Bali). The Land Rover has been named The Greyhound and the vehicle has had the names of the major cities we will travel through painted on each side. Greyhound bears the number plate AKJ 245B, 2 5 gallon jerry cans adorn the front bumper and wheel housing and we have added a roof rack to the Soft Top. This vehicle has already seen service in Cyprus, travelled over 250,000 miles and is about to travel a further 14,000 miles over many sorts of terrain in the journey ahead Apart from our camping supplies, personal items and the 4 lads it will carry, we have stacked it with a ridiculous amount of goods including 96 cans of Sardines, 96 cans of baked beans 48 tins of corned beef (UK variety), 2 8lb tins of powdered soup and from the Whitbread Brewery (courtesy of The Greyhound), 6 slabs of Whitbread Tankard ale. The party at The Greyhound is finally over, farewells have been said - Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and girlfriends. Dont worry well be back we say - little did we know............. *** Well its 4.00AM Wednesday 14th October 1964 as we prepare to leave the Beckenham/Bromley area in Land Rover AKJ 245 B bound for Dover, en-route to Melbourne Australia. By the end of the day Harold Wilson will have become the Prime Minister of England while we will be in Paris on the first leg of a 3.5 month journey to the Antipodes. Greyhound, the name we gave the Land Rover, has been packed and ready. Brian and Pip arrive and we board, three in the front and one of us in the back straddling the luggage & supplies. Each of us will drive the Rover for half a day and rotate our position in the vehicle, so with Brian driving we proceed south to Dover 71 miles away to catch the 8.00 AM ferry (Maid of Kent) to Boulogne. At Dover there are 20 or so of our families, friends & girl friends to farewell us which is not a bad effort considering we only left The Greyhound a matter of 5 hours ago. My Mum has made a mountain of sandwiches For the journey Hands are shaken, kisses given & received, there are some tears but we are too excited by the prospects of the trip to Australia. Many strangers approach us, intrigued by what we are about to do asking where we will be going or have you got room for one more We proudly show them our letter from Prince Phillip congratulating us on our spirit of adventure and wishing us “God speed”. Its time to board, Maid of Kent slowly moves out of the harbour and into the English Channel (A major bone of contention with the French), there is gentle swell. An hour and a half later we disembark - the journey has really begun. The northern French region is basically flat, heavily cropped, interspersed with fields of cows and we drive through towns like Abbeville, Montreuil and Beauvais. A stop to repack Greyhound is required, Mums sandwiches are devoured together with a strong coffee from a little cafe. We are tempted by a beer but resist. Incidentally, when we filled up at a local petrol station in England early in the morning we gave away 3 slabs of our beer supply to a very grateful pump attendant - we just didnt have the room. It really went against the grain I can tell you!!! We reached Paris at 5.00pm, rush hour, got lost 3 times but finally arrived at our residence for the next 2 nights - the home of Mr & Mrs Nettant and their daughter Simone, who we met when she was studying in England. We had a great time with them and we were looked after regally. In the morning Mr Nettant took us to the studios of French National Radio where we were interviewed for a youth oriented program. Notre Dame, The Bastille, Louvre and the Latin Quarter combined with a quick visit to the famous La Pere Lachaise cemetery (with residents such as Sarah Bernhardt, Ferdinand de Lessops - Suez canal, Oscar Wilde and later on Edith Piaf and Jim Morrison) filled the rest of the day while in the evening we were treated to another sumptuous meal with our hosts.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 10:37:40 +0000
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