Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB

Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB (https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/)
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-   -   How it used to be done (https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/4-wheels-travel-reports/how-it-used-to-done-54752)

tacr2man 10 Jan 2011 14:26

How it used to be done
 
Just a link to a very interesting travel report from 1953 !

The Great 1953 Trek

If this isnt the right place please feel free to move

JonStobbs 10 Jan 2011 21:53

Fantastic! An excellent excuse not to go out into the garage (again) with the rain lashing down outside.

moggy 1968 10 Jan 2011 22:31

just fantastic. showing that you don't need all that tat they sell you nowadays. a whole familly in an 80 inch land rover!
I think the 50s were the golden age of travel of this type, before the world got smaller and global corporations hadn't made everywhere look the same.
love the picture of waiting at Le havre for documents to be cleared, how times have changed!!

farqhuar 11 Jan 2011 13:58

A great read, it brings back a lot of memories of my own ride across the Sahara in '78.

Yes that was 25 years after Diane's journey but it was also 33 years ago today but given her description of road conditions I suspect the experiences were more similar than they would be to a journey through the same area today.

backofbeyond 11 Jan 2011 16:23

It really makes me wish I'd kept more detailed notes of the early trips I did but there was very little interest in or outlet for such scriblings then - unless one had the writing talents of Ted Simon or the like.

I did like the bit about the French embassy saying that there should be a law against trying to do the trip without firearms. I wonder if that's still their position!

oldbmw 11 Jan 2011 18:32

How times have changed
 
quote "Still with the hope that we would get away in time, we travelled by train to London during the big smog to confirm with the Automobile Association that everything was in order and to check the clearance of firearms we wished to carry. The A.A. in turn passed us onto the French and Belgian Embassies. The French informed us it was quite in order to carry firearms, in fact there should be a law against trying to do the trip ahead of us without firearms; they thought them a definite necessity."

I used to carry my shotgun into the local post office each Saturday when I paid in to my savings account. The mile walk to the post office took me through good rabbit country :)

backofbeyond 12 Jan 2011 10:15

Yes, as they say "the past is a different country, they do things differently there". As a schoolboy back in the 60's, living on a farm in Essex I was given an old shotgun when the farm manager bought a new one. No one was concerned (although I did get a bit of a b*ll*cking when I shot one of the game birds).

My North London school had a rifle range in the grounds (used to train future soldiers of the empire in the cadet force) and the teacher in charge of it gave me one of the rifles when the bolt action mechanism developed a fault and it was due to be scrapped. He said it wouldn't take much to fix it!

More recently, the last time I passed through the Ceuta/ Morocco border the vehicle check consisted of looking at the paperwork and asking me if I was carrying any pistols (presumably he'd be able to spot a rifle on a motorcycle). Made me wonder how many do come through with guns.

Mehmet Zeki Avar 12 Jan 2011 21:22

unfortunately only the daughter of the family is alive and just received her reply for congratulating.
Always been a dream to realise such an adventure without any technology support.
heartful thanks for that nostalgy.Thanks and regards diane.

Re: the great 1953 trek
From:
Diane Stuckey <dianes356@yahoo.com>

View Contact
To: zeki avar <mrcolonel50@yahoo.com>

Many thanks and I wish you all the best for 2011. Diane

silver G 18 Oct 2011 22:23

A lovely story, thanks for posting.

Iron_mighty07 5 Feb 2012 11:43

Simply Fantastic!!

Selous 5 Feb 2012 20:55

Great find
Here is something simlar but via a bike Brough Superior SS100, Brough Superior, 1953 European Trip, Triumph Thunderbird, Triumph Motorcycles

look at the cost! lol


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