Re: BREAKDOWNS
Posted by Johnno McCabe on Nov 05, 2011; 11:35am
URL: http://sundownersadventures.385.s1.nabble.com/BREAKDOWNS-tp4544086p4966497.html
Well written Kit with your trademark dry sense of humour and practical incisive views delivered in your straight down the line manner. I am sure there is a very interesting and exciting book lying dormant between all you guys, just waiting to be written and it’s all there in the exceptionally sharp memory banks of all of the above heads. This would produce chapter after chapter of ripping yarns from an exciting era that we were passengers in aboard the coach journey through life.
Maybe a item for agenda at the reunion?
It is indeed ironic that the incidents that you all remember now so vividly were the breakdowns that you dreaded in the first place. While I am sure it was very challenging at the time it was the ingenious ways in which you, with limited experience and even more limited spare parts overcame each obstacle and of course the camaraderie that grew to become an “overland code” that you helped anyone and everyone you passed on the road all done with a minumum of fuss and the Anzac sense of humour.
Being even more philosophical about it now, I bet that each of you maintained that spirit of doggedness and determination throughout your life to overcome other hurdles you might have had to deal with later. I think it was a case of necessity is the mother of invention or was that Frank Zappa was in the Mother of Inventions. In those days it was the operations manager saying “shit happens, deal with it” while in current times life skill guru’s would prefer to call it “turning negatives into positives” followed by some counselling sessions kind of bullshit.
Back to TK163 in 1977 with Kit, Vicar and Darcy, and me as a punter, I can attest to the overall success of that trip came about by us witnessing you guys busting your guts to overcome adversities and to make it appear as almost a normal everyday part of the trip (“no extra charge”) and how you did compensate in other areas like an extra day in Srinagar and a 30 hour drive Amritsar to Kabul (“On your left we have a Pakistani civil war”, " No they are only throwing rocks as a mark of respect").
Yes, Col that was us running parallel to you and Maryanne. We shared the snake charmer at the Hotel de Paris in Varanasi and a game of cricket if I do recall and possibly even a few beers in the bar. It hovered between 40 to 45 degrees each day and not much cooler at night. There were regular power shutdowns and I was in the room next door to the telephone exchange, “hello, hello, hello, hello” all night, was my first (but not my last) introduction to the Indian call centre. I think I spoke to his son the other day. We left Varanasi on what was in the brochure as day 5 but was in reality day 14.
We did cross paths some time later in the wonderful cool houseboats of Srinagar and that included some shikirar races at midnight as well as the Kit and Maryanne world premiere performance. That time in Srinagar remains as one of the highlights of my travelling life.
I think the effect of each breakdown was dramatic and often painful for you drivers and couriers but the bottom line that the effect on the punters was minimised and was in many cases enhanced their travel experience so belatedly congratulations on your efforts from all those years ago when you think it may not have been appreciated it did give you guys a well deserved reputation as a special breed. Now don’t you all go getting a big head again just after the swelling has finally gone down.
Keep those stories coming there are thousands of them!
Johnno