Easter 1972. With a friend from college, we drove a Ford Capri from Chicago to Los Angeles.
... A quick drive as we only had a few days...
My first international "Road Trip"
While attending college in the USA, I worked for a few months in Switzerland as I could make more money in Switzerland than in the States!
Being curious, I thought it would be fun to go for a quarter to a college in Lebanon and then transfer my academic credits to the USA.
=> Erasmus long before the Erasmus program was officially invented!
During September 1973, with friends and in two cars we shall drive from Geneva to Beirut in
5 days! Time is money - even in those days.
I was driving a BMW 1600 ti, with such a sweet sound when air was going through the 2 double barrel Weber carburattors... OMG... Loved to rev up that engine, just for the sound!
Sold the car when I got to Beirut and explored parts of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan during the next 3 months.
Trip to Mutwanga and climb of the Ruwenzori mountains
Not too far from Rwanda where I lived, stood the mystical, mysterious "Mountains of the Moon" as they had been know for some years. These are ideally visited from the Zaïre side.
Ha, ha, should you climb those same mountains today, you would go up the Rwenzoris and they woud be located in the Democratic Republic of Congo!
To climb them from the Congo side, one needs to have rock + glacier equipment and skills. Having neither of these, but a desire to climb those mountains, I patiently waited many years until we could combine ressources for a succesful climb: 2 young experts, ladies, from France would provide the equipment + skills and I would provide "wheels" (my Land Rover) to reach the base station.
Reaching Mutwanga involved 2 long days drive from Rwanda, and using the yellow 4 wheel drive knob on my Land Rover as we had lots of mud to get there. Loved it!
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Rallying and my activities reletad to Motor Sport
I have been involved in Motoport for many years
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Trip down the Nyabarongo river
Because the river was there and because I had an inflatable boat, why not go down the Nyabarongo river for a few days...
The Nyabarongo is a major river in
Rwanda, part of the upper headwaters of the Nile. The river begins in Nyungwe
Forest, at a location considered by some to be the most distant source of the
Nile.
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“Out of
Africa” style, traveling by train with a steam locomotive in Tanzania!
In the early 70s, in Tanzania, I made a long journey by train on the “Central line” from Mwanza to Morogoro. This trip went-on for two nights and one day!
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Travelling by ship to the "colonies"
During the first part of the 20th centruy, before the "jet age", people living in the colonies used to travel by ship to go on their "home-leave". As the trip could take 3 to 4 weeks (depending on destination), the home leave was not taken every year but every 3-4-5 years depending on the employers...
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