FORTY-SIX years ago, four adventurous young men from South Gloucestershire set off in an ageing Land Rover to travel the world.

On a shoestring budget, and with just two paper maps to guide them – the Daily Express map of Europe and Asia, and the Telegraph’s map of the Middle East - they left 1970’s Britain behind.

Their journey took them from Dursley to Asia, via the Middle East, passing through Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, a route unthinkable in today’s political climate.

Now, as the 47th anniversary of the trip approaches, their fascinating story has been told in a brand new book – Round the World on a Shoestring.
The travelog has been written and self-published by one of the group, Pete Strickland. Richard Williams, another of the quartet who is now based in Horton, South Gloucestershire, is so impressed by Pete’s way with words that he is hopeful a publishing deal can be struck.

“I think Pete missed his vocation, he should have been a travel writer,” he said.

“It’s so strange reading about myself, the Richard of 46 years ago.”

Mr Williams spoke to The Gazette at his home in Horton, where he showed a yellowed press cutting of the group’s trip, published in the Gazette on November 12, 1971.

He became involved in the project after spotting a small ad in the Bristol Post.

“It said ‘Person wanted to drive to Australia’,” he recalled.

“I was just 21-years-old and very naïve,” he said. 

“I thought that when we got over the Alps, the climate would be tropical and we would be able to live off the land.

“As we headed south, the weather just got colder and colder. The Land Rover, or Sweaty Betty as we called her, just had a canvas top and crude side screens. 

“We slept in a boy scout tent, which became so frozen that we couldn’t fold it up.

“The maps we had didn’t have roads on them, just the names of places.

“We did drive each other mad at times. Tim Evans, our engineer, insisted that we drove for 100 miles a day and then stop. That sometimes meant us spending the night on the side of a precipice, having gone through a beautiful mountain glade just three miles before. But he stuck to his rule and wouldn’t go back.”

“At the Khyber Pass – the most northerly mountain pass between Afghanistan and Pakistan - we’d been warned about bandits and told not to stop, so we ignored all the people who waved at us. It turned out that they had been trying to alert us to the six foot snow drifts that lay ahead.”

The group’s arrival at the Syrian border is one of the most startling moments of the trip.

“We got there and there was a border post, with a gate. There was no-one around, so we opened the gate and just wandered in. It turned out everyone was at prayer.”

After Syria, they headed through the desert to Bagdad. To navigate, they tuned in to Bagdad radio and steered their course according to the strength of the signal. The stronger it got, the closer they were.

“I wouldn’t be talking to you now if we’d veered too far off course.” 

Whilst in the Iraqi desert, a man asked if they could take his photograph, which they did. The man then demanded to be given the photograph.

They tried to explain that it was a film camera, which had to be developed before a photo could be given. 

“You have taken my soul,” said the man, drawing a Colt 45 on them.
Luckily they managed to talk him round.

After Syria, the intrepid foursome headed through the desert to Bagdad. To navigate, they tuned in to Bagdad radio and steered their course according to the strength of the signal. The stronger it got, the closer they were.

“I wouldn’t be talking to you now if we’d veered too far off course.” 

TV celebrity Noel Edmonds is a good friend of Mr Williams and was delighted to provide a quote for the frontispiece of the next pressing of the book.

He writes: “An epic story of intrepid explorers, beautiful women, love and lust in the desert… would have been more enjoyable, but this tale of oddball eccentrics comes a close second.

“This journey, impossible to replicate today, makes Three Men in a Boat seem like a punt up the river.”

The book is now available in paperback via: www.amazon.co.uk/Round-World-Shoestring-Pete-Strickland/dp/1785451642

Any publishers interested in adding it to their portfolio should email: Richard@williamsautomobiles.com

Richard and Pete have lost contact with the fourth member of the trip, Ron Harvey. They would love to be put back in touch with him, anyone who can help can contact them on the above email.