Grandparents' world trip photos - 1970s

[saithkar]

Collected here is a compilation of photos taken by my paternal grandparents on their two world trips in 1970-1 and 1976-7. These are just a fraction of the total in existence, but unlike most I don't believe in just dumping hundreds of pics on people for them to ignore. All of these have been carefully chosen because they either A) say something

Comments

[saithkar]

Wow, that's a lot of fascinating info, cheers for all this.

You are correct about the ordering, but it's entirely not my fault. Grandma organised her slides by region not chronologically, so when she died and we inherited them, there was almost no way to tell which trip they were taken on, and they re-visited certain places, often multiple times. For the convince of casual readers I have tried to stitch these selected highlights into a cohesive narrative.

I know that the van you see in the Loch Ness picture is from their first trip, on the second they had a white Commer Highwayman that they ended up bringing out to Australia, although it proved hopelessly underpowered to work on Australian roads over Australian distances (fun fact, the whole of Britain could fit within our state of Victoria). Thanks for the numberplate info, that's actually interesting. They drove this van on the continent on their first trip, so the mini just happened to be in the shot, possibly put there to add colour. Mum and dad also bought a used Commer Highwayman for their UK trip in 1977 and sold it when they left, mum used to say it had a mini's engine and the wheelbase from a roller-skate, but it was very comfortable way to get around the back blocks. I know that such vehicles have their fans so there's a chance it's still puttering around somewhere, and despite what Top Gear might think they're more characterful than a Ford Transit.

Interesting note about the age of some of the photographic subjects. While there on their first trip they tracked down the second wife of my grandfather's grandmother's younger brother who was still alive, and she gave my family the diary her sister in law had written when emigrating to Australia in the 1880s.

I dare say Northern Ireland is less grim than it was at the height of the troubles, but I can't really comment as I too have never been there.

Even though you've been to Berlin, you might be interested to have a quick glance at a couple of pictures from my visit there in 2010, especially the first shot which is taken just off to the side of where those tanks are above, and I also stood atop Hitler's bunker with the very person who had the sign highlighting its location erected in 2006, prior to that there was nothing to indicate what lay beneath that spot. There's also some Ampelmann love.

I didn't know about that ad, I couldn't even remember the location (there would have been a handwritten note on the slide, but I was just working with the scanned images). Ridley Scott, eh? Ah well, I guess everyone has to start somewhere.

The Suez Canal is always near the action, consider that my grandparents first trip came between the Six Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973, in both of which this passage featured strongly.

So cheers for that, and yeah I'll have to pick out a few choice ones from my parent's stock sometime.

[ironlord]

I know that the van you see in the Loch Ness picture is from their first trip, on the second they had a white Commer Highwayman that they ended up bringing out to Australia, although it proved hopelessly underpowered to work on Australian roads over Australian distances

Doesn't surprise me at all. Even the last Dodge Spacevans could barely crack 60, so a mid-1960s Commer would be firmly stuck in the 50s flat out. The last thing I'd want to be doing is driving one of those through the Outback, having to overtake a road train with a 1 mph speed differential. And there's the other nagging problem that "Britain" and "automotive industry" in the same sentence don't project an image of bullet-proof build quality and reliability, more of a product that was thrown together haphazardly by a bunch of trade unionists who'd go on strike at the slightest provocation and would be expected to break down because the first five years of sales were considered the beta-testing phase. The venerable old VW Microbus, I see is just as popular in Australia as anywhere else (and I can always identify an Australian model as it's the only one with RHD-spec wipers). This may also have had trouble passing road trains, but at least you knew you weren't going to break down half way between Alice Springs and Darwin and be left to bake to death in the desert...

Mum and dad also bought a used Commer Highwayman for their UK trip in 1977 and sold it when they left, mum used to say it had a mini's engine and the wheelbase from a roller-skate

...and something else I could have mentioned is that the front track was even narrower than that at the back. Presumably, Rootes just bodged in a bit of extra metal on the back axle and trusted it to luck. The Mini would have had a smaller engine - Commers ranged from 1.5 to 1.7 litres over their lifespan - but I suspect that even the base Mini 850 would be faster!

I know that such vehicles have their fans so there's a chance it's still puttering around somewhere, and despite what Top Gear might think they're more characterful than a Ford Transit.

Precisely because they're not the ubiquitous VW Microbus, Commers have their fans - even the plastic-faced Dodge models from the end of days have attention lavished on them now. The VW was in every sense a better van - but then, because it was better, more people bought one, so the Commer is far more rare, and hence exclusive. It's an easy way to stand out from the classic forward-control-camper crowd. And then there's the Austin-Morris J-series vans that also spawned a series of campers to throw into the mix...

Even though you've been to Berlin, you might be interested to have a quick glance at a couple of pictures from my visit there in 2010...

As I will do now. It's the same year I was there, in May after Metalfest.

[saithkar]

You're extremely knowledgeable about 60s and 70s vans I see, that stuff about the wheelbase and crappy engine explains a lot about the Highwayman's performance on the road. I will note though that road trains are only found in the remotest part of the country, usually in places without rail lines. People who own VW Kombis are probably more to be found rolling along the NSW or Victorian coast, at least a thousand kilometres from any area that would require the existence of road trains. And yes, to get anywhere in Australia you'll need to be doing a steady 100 on the A roads and 110 on the freeways. It's noteworthy that my extremely common and unremarkable car has a 3.6 litre V6, a displacement that would be only found in high performance sports cars or expensive luxury saloons in Europe, but that's what you need out here.

[ironlord]

I figured that most of the Microbus owners would be surfers rather than those who'd cross the Outback, but you never know, maybe one of them would give it a go...

As you were away (or at least appeared to be away) from LJ for months on end, you'll most likely have missed all that bumph I wrote about campers (that post and the next two...); the chances are a Fiat 900E would never have been sold in Australia in the first place - but even though it'd break down the way 1970s Fiats tended to do, at least in the dry climate it wouldn't be reduced to a pile of flaking oxide overnight.

And I suppose that to really get anywhere in Australia, you'll need to fly. Sydney to Perth is something similar to Inverness to Istanbul. And I know from experience that even Inverness to the England-Scotland border is a hard slog! (Although there is plenty of scenery to compensate, as is obvious above.)

[saithkar]

I was away for quite a while, I regret all the time I have, and continue to waste on Faecesbook. Any further advancements on your quest for more humane festival accommodation?

Campervans have never really been a thing in Australia, because we have traditionally driven big and powerful cars, it was always caravans that people used. There's a lot more space here so hence you can tow things that would be impossibly awkward in the UK. Only in Australia could you have a businessman like Gerry Ryan who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and made most of it selling caravans.