I was on the Sundowners trip from London to Kathmandu which departed the Earl’s Court Road on 19th April 1976 to the appropriate sounds of the Beetles’ ‘Magical Mystery Tour!
I have really amazing memories of that trip and certain events spring to mind, e.g. of buying a gun disguised as a biro pen in Darra; taking it out onto the street to fire it to check it worked: - no matter that I could have blown my hand off and then had to smuggle it over all those borders we had yet to cross! A fun memory of a mock ‘marriage’ between Greg R. (Silver?) and Cheryl in Selifke springs to mind which was followed by everyone getting totally out of their heads on some disgusting Turkish wine! However, I think I should add that throughout the trip the former was far from an unusual occurrence! Actually, having re-read my diary, I could ramble on and on with some really silly but great anecdotes!
After having a search in various boxes in the attic, I’ve found all the slides I took, together with a daily diary I kept (best keep that to myself I think!), as well as a Sundowners' tee shirt which all of us had made in Venice (photo attached).
The crew consisted of:
Greg Reid (Gold Coast)
Greg (Stretch) Williams – who was the trainee courier (Oz somewhere)
Dave Attwood – driver (Devon UK)
The passengers as far as I can remember were:
Cheryl Pearson (Adelaide)
Heather & Steve Percy (Melbourne)
Sue McNicol (a nurse from Meninge, S. Australia)
Lesley Lucas (ditto)
Christine Eckel (Canadian dentist)
Michael Janusz (Canadian doctor) ] ]- I think they ended up getting married!
Joy Gamble (Rosebud, Victoria)
Mick Johnson (London)
Gladys Larkin (a teacher from Sydney)
Jan Piltz (Albury, NSW ]
Malcolm(?) (Croydon, UK)] I think they may have ended up together
Neville Ritchie (Quirindi, NSW))
Peter Wood – he joined the tour in Innsbruck (Victoria)
Alan & June(?) (Melbourne)
About a year later, I met up once with Greg R. in London (after I had returned from NZ) and, at about the same time, an Australian reunion took place (in Melbourne I think) when a cassette (which I also found in the attic) was made and sent to us in the UK to be played at our reunion held in Croydon. I kept in touch with Neville for a few years but then, as usual, we all move on, get busy with careers, kids, etc. and lose touch.
I would just love to hear from anyone who was on that trip - especially Cheryl, Neville and Greg R. (I'm sure he must be 'Silver'!) – another reunion perhaps ….?!
Jun 18, 2012; 7:12pm
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