Overland Route Popular

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31655, 16 April 1968, Page 3

Overland Route Popular

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON, April 14. About 1500 young people, mostly Australians and New Zealanders, will set out from Britain this year, heading eastwards towards India and Australia—overland. Spurning the comforts of luxury liners and fast jet planes, the “overlanders” will travel in vehicles ranging from buses to bicycles. An ever-increasing number

of Australians and New Zealanders are choosing to “go home the interesting way” after their working holidays in Europe. The journey through ancient India from Britain to Australia has gained tremendously in popularity during the last ten years. It started long before the Beatles began their transcendental meditation cult, but many of those setting out this (northern) summer may have been influenced by the Maharishi and his devotees. Some plan to live in India, Pakistan and Nepal, staying and working with the people. Others will study Indian culture, but most will go simply as tourists. One of the longest established companies in England offering tours across India is run by Oswald Garrow-Fisher, who first made the 5000-mile journey from London to Bombay 11 years ago. Since then he has organised tours each year, and he believes the demand is getting bigger and bigger; He even claims to hold the record for the London-Bombay-London run, with a time of 24 days. But tours take a little longer London to Bombay is scheduled to take 76 days. “I suppose a total of about 1500 people make the overland journey each summer now, and 75 per cent of them are Australians and New Zealanders,” he said. Hundreds of the “over-

landers’ pass up organised tours, preferring to buy their own vehicles, outfit them for camping, and drive themselves. This way, they say, they have greater freedom and are able to see much more. But the cost is higher. It is possible to drive from India, through Burma, down the Malay peninsula to Singapore and then go by sea to Australia, but Burma is not always open to tourists. One way around this is to catch a boat from Calcutta to Penang in Malaya, as a number will do this year.

W.D.F.F. Officers.—Officers elected by the Christchurch branch of the Women’s Division of Federated Farmers: president, Mrs A. Grant; secretary, Miss E. Ffitch; treasurer, Mrs M. Wolff; vicepresidents, Mrs H. Clark, Miss M. Wright; committee, Mesdames B. Russell, Ml Burrell, J. Barker. R. Buck, H. Farmer.