ASIANOVERLAND.NET SYDNEY TO LONDON  DAY 165/77: OSTEND, BELGIUM TO LONDON, ENGLAND

3 December, 1980

“Finally in London (HOORAY)”

The final day of our Asian overland to London starts with the English Channel ferry ride from Ostend, Belgium to Ramsgate, a seaside town in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. Ramsgate’s main attraction is its coastline, and its main industries are tourism and fishing. The town has one of the largest marinas on the English south coast, and the Port of Ramsgate provided cross-channel ferries for many years.

The Christian missionary St Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory the Great, landed near Ramsgate in 597AD.

Kent borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west. The county also shares borders with Essex along the estuary of the River Thames, and more recently with the French department of Pas-de-Calais through the Channel Tunnel.

Kent was one of the first British territories to be settled by Germanic tribes following the withdrawal of the Romans. Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, the oldest cathedral in England, has been the seat of the Archbishops of Canterbury since the conversion of England to Christianity that began in the 6th century with Saint Augustine.  Located between London and the Strait of Dover, which separates England from mainland Europe, Kent has been the setting for many conflicts, including the Battle of Britain in World War II.

We drive to Earl’s Court, London, for our final drop off and goodbyes after this 11 week Kathmandu to London trip, through 15 countries, at a cost of A$759 per punter, less than A$10 per day. The food kitty cost was A$181 or A$2.35 per day. 

The 1979/1980 Top Deck Asian Overland brochure includes our scheduled itinerary and is here -

http://asianoverland.net/Top%20Deck%20Asian%20Overland%20Brochure%201979-80%20Version%202.pdf

We have now completed our full year 365 day Sydney to London Asian overland and return, including some countries and places which were not included in our 1979/1980 Top Deck Asian overland brochure - the west coast and Top End of Australia, Java, Borneo, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and Tibet:

https://asianoverland.net/index.php?displaytrip&trip_no=4

The calendar updates daily, for each of the 365 days of the year (366 in leap years).

During the late 1960s and 1970s, a large transient population of Australian and New Zealand  travellers began to use Earl's Court, London as an English hub, and it gained the name "Kangaroo Valley".

In our 1980 overland Trip Book, my own address is -

C/- Top Deck Travel,

64 Kenway Rd

Earl’s Court

London SW5”

Corrie has described her occupation in our 1980 overland Trip Book as -

“Taking care of the courier when returning from Bars (which is often).”

I am immensely grateful to Corrie Searle, for doing her job so well on this overland and other trips, and the wonderful 43 years that have followed.

We then drive to the Top Deck farm at Woking to clean and service GRUNT, and, hopefully, have a well earned break – I've had 7 months straight on the road since starting my first overland from London to Kathmandu on 12 June 1980. We started this return overland from Kathmandu to London 77 days ago, on 18th September, 1980.

But it didn't take long for Top Deck Travel to snap me out of the "well earned break" idea, as I was taking the next bus back to Istanbul on a 7 week Winter European departing from London on 12 December, 1980, my third drive to Istanbul in 8 months.

My final comment is to thank all of the crew and punters who have enjoyed this adventure overland trip. Overlands are described as adventure travel, and they certainly live up to the description. Our own overland trips in 1980 are mere examples of what every overlander has gone through, in one way or another, as summarised by Scroo Turner in his forward to Trevor Carroll’s book Crossing Continents with Top Deck:

“Personally, I am incredibly proud of the dedication and professionalism, considering what they had to play with, and what we paid them, of the drivers and couriers. ….. Crews had to be brave in the face of officialdom, capable of continuously improvising to circumvent the many daily obstacles that arose. Above all, they had to be at all times easy going, irreverent and enjoy a beer or three.”

For me personally, I am incredibly proud of my two drivers, Gary Hayes and Les Stringer, who are everything Scroo described of drivers, and without whom our overlands would not have been possible. R.I.P.

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