Retro Trip Report - UK, Europe & Morocco 1972 (or how did my parents survive?)

[kookaburra75]

I'm taking a break at the moment, between jobs to try and get all the things done around the house that have been put off over the past five years, which was planned a couple of months' ago. And then of course there is that virus thingie and the stay at home - well timed. So my thoughts turned to a massive trip my parents undertook with me and my two younger brothers in 1972. Mum and Dad put together a series of four photo albums of the trip, and when I was up at their place in Hervey Bay last year, I brought those albums back home and have been working through them, scanning them to make up replicas for me and the brothers. So a good time to create a trip report I thought. What about the painting said Mrs K? I assured her the list of jobs would get done as well.

This will be a series of posts as I work through the scans and pick out the best photos that recreate the trip, bring out the 70's vibe and of course, show me in the best light - excuse my fashion choices though, it was the 70's after all.

But the background to the trip. My parents (Father K and Mother K) were primary school teachers in Melbourne, Victoria, and in 1970 they decided to do something big in terms of travel. We had always travelled a lot on road trips, camping etc. Most school holidays were spent on my grandparent's farm in the Mallee area in Victoria, which was a 4-5 hour trip by road. Dad was coming up to 15 years of teaching in 1972 and would get 4 1/2 months Long Service Leave, coupled with the Christmas break would give six months. Mum and Dad started planning a trip on the kitchen table, which at the time I didn't take much interest in. Something about the UK and Europe as mentioned, and doing a road trip. Lots of writing letters to confirm bookings, international bank transfers which were something novel. The plan was to depart Australia in July 1972 and return in Feb 1973 so we could start school. The eventual plan was:

• Travel from Melbourne to the UK by ship - which was the cheapest option with the Chandris Line, going via Sydney, Wellington, Tahiti, Panama Canal, Curacao, The Azores and into Southampton
• Pick up the Motorhome from the rental company (who picked us up in Southampton and drove us to their base in London) , and prepare for the next 4 1/2 months
• Set off on the road, looping around the UK, hop across to Norway on the ferry, zig zag down through Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Northern Germany, cutting through the Netherlands, Belgium, back through southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria and into Northern Italy, down through the old Yugoslavia, into Greece,across to southern Italy on the ferry, up through Italy, across southern France into Spain, down to the bottom of Spain and then across to Morocco, a loop through the Atlas mountains to Fez and Meknes, across to the coast and run back up to Tangiers, back across to Spain, through Portugal to Lisbon, ferry back to the UK and into London
• A couple of weeks in London, including a few days in Paris, and then fly to Singapore on British Caledonian airlines for a week
• Then fly down to Perth for a couple of days, the Indian Pacific across to Port Augusta, down to Adelaide, and then the Overlander back to Melbourne

That meant 4 1/2 months in a motorhome where we had to go to bed in order, get up in order as space was so tight. Thinking back on it, I don't how they survived - I would have killed us as kids. But Mum & Dad are still married after 63 years and going strong, so it must have been 'character building'.

But first, what the trip looked like


Next post will be the ocean voyage

 

[LadyC]

That sounds like an amazing trip. I would love to do that with the Gentleman and MasterC. Look forward to reading more!

 

[craven morehead]

Should be some groovy photos

 

[Major]

I was driving mini buses on camping tours in 1970 through Europe, Scandinavia, Soviet Union and Morocco.

looking forward to this.

 

[kookaburra75]

The start of the trip - going back a year or so from our departure.

To fund the trip, Mum and Dad scrimped and saved the money having set a budget, which included downsizing our way of life, as teachers still got paid next to nothing in the 70's. The first to go was the car - going from a Kingswood V8 wagon, down to a 1965 VW Beetle. Now if we just puttered around the suburbs of Melbourne that would be ok, but as I mentioned in the first post we used to go up to our Grandparents farm for school holidays and Christmas. You can imagine the family of five piling into the Beetle, which had a roof rack fitted - clothes, bikes, presents etc. My youngest brother sat in that little section behind the back seat. Heading up the Calder Highway, Dad could get the Beetle up to 80 kph if he was lucky, although if a truck went past the slipstream would push us back to 40 kph, and we start the process again to speed up. Back in those days the Calder Hwy only had a sealed single lane north of Bendigo, so dropping a set of wheels into the dirt to let another car past, would also kill the speed.

Other preparations were also taking place. Getting hold of maps and working out what to see. Organising Travellers Cheques - I remember Dad at the bank going through and signing them all, about six books of them. Frommers Europe on $5 a Day was standard reading and some attempts at learning other languages. Fortunately, through Dad's contacts he was able to arrange to rent our house, furnished, to the Dept of Civil Aviation for while we were away so the mortgage was covered. We all had to get passports, having never travelled overseas. One quirk of that era was that my two brothers and I went on Dad's passport - group photo, and Mum had her own. That also tied in with us being on Dad's entry permit to the UK being different to Mum;s, as his father had emigrated from the UK in the 1920's.

As the day got closer, Mum paid attention to our clothes that we intended to take with us. My brothers and I thought what we normally wore around home would do, but she kept mentioning really cold winters, rain, snow etc. It didn't really register to us, but we did some trips to the shops and bought some 'special' clothes for the ship at least - remember this was the 70's. Dad put in his Kodak Retinette camera for servicing, but unfortunately it got damaged and he had to pick up a Kodak Instamatic 133 at the last moment. The massive pile of film was provided by my uncle who worked for Kodak. All photos in the album were from that camera. A few black and white shots, but most in colour. The colour ones have faded, but I've been able to tweak them in GIMP to get the colour back, as I could remember what the original colours of the clothes were like - thank goodness for primary coloured clothing in the 70s.

But the Ship. Back in the 70's air travel was still relatively expensive and everyone got about by ship. There were the mighty Cunard liners, P&O etc, with their 1st, 2nd and 3rd classes. And the many others who plied the trade taking people and freight around the world. We picked the Chandris line from Greece, which was a regular on the UK/Europe to Australia route, bringing out many new migrants to Australia. Our ship was the Britanis which was built in 1932, had gone through a couple of name changes and refits. It was set up as a single class ship. At 26,000 tons and 650 passengers, was a lightweight compared to today's cruise liners which come in at 150,000 to 250,000 tons, 4000 - 6000 passengers. I've put a copy of the Ship Layout as a Thumbnail below, so you can see what it looked like.


We were in Cabin 262 on Main Deck, which had two double bunks, a sofa bed, ensuite and a porthole window. Not all cabins had ensuites, they had to use shared toilets and showers at the end of the corridors. Basically as you went down in the decks, the cabins were cheaper. Right down in D Deck is where the backpackers of the day were, with three double bunks per cabin and shared toilets and showers.

But then the great day came. Our uncle picked us up from home and we headed down to Station Pier at Port Melbourne. We checked in our luggage, assigned our cabin and got onboard. We also caught up with other uncles, aunts and cousins who came down to see us off.

Throwing streamers across the gap was a big thing, letting them break as the ship sailed. There were quite a few toilet rolls used in lieu of streamers, that wouldn't happen today.

We steamed through the night and sailed into Sydney Harbour. We docked at the Old Overseas Terminal, the ship fitted in quite easily. This was our first trip to Sydney, so we wandered around Circular Quay, had a look at the Opera House and Dad hired a taxi to drive us around, including going over the Bridge. So, more photos

Should be some groovy photos

Get ready @craven morehead .....

Left photo (L to R) youngest brother (K2), Dad K, me, middle brother (K1). Then the middle photo (L-R) Me, Mum K, Dad K and youngest brother (K2) . Skivvies were very big (the Wiggles are just recent show offs), and you can't see it in the photo but my trousers were corduroy, but the ribs were very thick, almost velour like and ran horizontally, not vertically. Very chic.

After the day in Sydney, we set sail for our next stop at Wellington. We sailed in on a calm sunny day. From my many trips to Wellington over the past 20 years, I know that's a rarity. But before we got there, we went through our first lifeboat drill. Getting into the stylish jackets (imagine if that is what they used on aircraft), getting to our lifeboat stations, waiting around, kids blowing the whistles - lots of fun. If my kids were doing that, I'd show them how lifejackets worked by throwing them overboard.... (not really), but just something else my parents put up with. But then, being teachers I guess they knew how to go to a happy place in times of stress/strife.

Wandering around Wellington, our first foreign port, was good fun. We went up on the old cable car, looked around, and walked along the old waterfront. I remember when I went back to in Wellington for work 20 years ago, going up Cuba Street and seeing the tipping bucket fountain, and memories of the trip came back. After a day in Wellington we set off for the first long leg, to Tahiti.

 

[kookaburra75]

We settled into life onboard as we chugged across the Pacific. Thankfully I don't get seasick, although the rest of my family were knocked out of action for the first few days as we crossed the Tasman. I spent the time roaming the ship, which didn't take long as it wasn't that big. But for me, looking out in all directions with nothing but the blank horizon was relaxing. As we got further into the Pacific, schools of flying fish would leap up and glide alongside the ship. At night, the stars were endless, although they moved around through the movement of the ship, which was a bit odd.

But back to the daggy photos (you know who is who by now in the photos)

We visited the bridge and had our photos done. We could hang out at the back of the ship, and then there were the special buffets - you have to remember not even Sizzlers had set up in Melbourne by then. Also, a quick explanation on the photos. As I was 13, I was on an adult fare with Mum and Dad. That meant my two younger brothers went to the Children's sitting for meals and use of the pool, while I went to the Adults' sitting for meals with Mum and Dad. As you can see I was very partial to corduroy and paisley ties - and only the attraction to paisley ties has remained - thank goodness or words to that effect from MrsK who is standing behind me as I type. And those who have met me in real life would also spot that my hair has a bit of grey in it now.

The other part of being on the ship, was there is a lot of other people. Most of the people were came across were English migrants who had decided they didn't like Australia and were returning to the UK and talking about it incessantly - yes it was ship full of whinging Poms. But thankfully, we were saved from that. At dinner we were seated with an Irish couple and their daughter who were returning to Ireland as their parents were getting older and needed help. They loved Australia and were sorry to leave, but family came first.


On the photo on the left, all of us sitting at dinner - me and my parents you know. The others are Mr & Mrs W, and their daughter, let's call her Miss B. The photo on the right shows about the extent of the entertainment available on the ship, the shuffleboard deck is just down to the left and there was the pool at the back of the ship. That was all there was.

There was a good Entertainment Director on Board, who roped in the younger passengers/backpackers to be part of the shows and events. It was all good fun.

When we crossed the equator there was the big show with King Neptune (a bit out of order but they look good) and a fancy dress party. The ship provided the raw materials and we built/made what we wanted. I made a small plane and went as the Red Baron, Miss B as a Match Girl, Dad K as the Absent Minded Professor and Mum K as a Witch. I picked up a prize which was cool. Dad also got one, but that was due to us standing in the queue to go out on stage for the judging, and there was a group of women just in front of us dressed up as Girls from St Trinians. They grabbed Dad to stand in as their Teacher and off he went without us. He did return with a prize though.

I'm sorting the next batch of photos which covers our stop in Tahiti and Panama. And I've got to finish scanning the last two albums.

 

[Cossie]

I posted this in Ozduck's Germany thread by mistake, anyway I'm enjoying this as well and I regret not taking a camera with me in the my early travel days.

"The boss had a chuckle over the VW story above, that was her family as well, Vancouver to Kelowna for summer holidays, must have been a slow trip.

 

[drron]

I can relate to the VW story though our car for the first 3 kids was a Standard 8-1953 version.

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Mother's family lived in Melbourne and surrounds so twice a year the 3 kids were loaded into the 8 and driven to Melbourne and back.To make it more comfortable my father drove through the night.Access to the boot in that model was folding down the back seat so the kids slept on the trip.

 

[love_the_life]

Fascinating to read. MtLtL want back to the UK with his parents and sister in 1967 (he was 16 - 17 at the time) - also on a Chandris line ship. Took 4 or 5 weeks each way. Looks like similar route on the way out - Tahita and Panama Canal. On the way home had to go round th Cape as the Suez was closed due to the war.

 

[kookaburra75]

@drron - all of our road trips were long, and many of them we left in the evening, us kids dressed up in our pajamas and stretched out in the back, so I can relate to that.
@love_the_life - it took four weeks to get across the Pacific, and the Chandris line was the affordable travel option - but at least you got decent food and entertainment and service, not like the cheapie airlines today. However, I did the conversions, the $1,500 in 1972 equates to around $16,000 today - but that was still the cheapest option, as people didn't really travel that much

Next stage of the trip. To Tahiti and the Panama Canal.

Crossing the Pacific as I mentioned earlier was fascinating, as there was an endless horizon all the way around. For me, a boy from the country and the suburbs of Melbourne, this was an unknown world. Wellington was an interesting place to visit, but still a clone of Australia (or vice versa). Tahiti was the first 'exotic' place I would visit. Soon, we could see the first glimpses of the islands, and pulled into Papeete


Dad got a hire car, which was a convertible VW 181 jeep like wagon. We all piled in, our family and Miss B, then Dad went off driving on the 'wrong' side of the road, in a manual, as we took off around the island. We exchanged some of our Travellers Cheques on board into Francs (no credit cards then) and explored. Mum insisted on pulling up at a stall to get leis - you can imagine how that went down with three boys "... you want us to wear flowers?!" You'll see that we are wearing them - as Mum could pull off the School Teacher look without even trying.

After spending at least a week on a ship, it was nice to get off and paddle around on the beaches and dry land. For those with an eagle eye, you'll note that I'm positioning myself next to Miss B.

We then sailed from Tahiti, off towards the Panama Canal. We docked at Panama City for the day, before starting our way down the Canal n the afternoon. Before we reached each port, they would have a series of talks in the cinema on board to explain what the places would be like, things to see, available tours and so on. The session for Panama City was a bit different, as it also covered how not to get ripped off by some of the dodgy shops that preyed on the passengers., Things such as 'genuine replica' watches. The idea that someone would pull that type of stunt was quite alien to me.

The photo on the right is the Miraflores Locks as we approached in the early evening. As you got into the start of the locks, massive locos hooked up to the ship on each side, and pulled the ship right into the locks. We sailed through the Canal through the night, with a commentary being provided by the Pilot so you could see what was happening.

In the morning we popped out the other side, into the Atlantic.

 

[Toula92122]

What a fabulous report. Have to say your parents were very adventurous to envision such a holiday during that period. What great memories you must have of that trip. As to your fashion styling, DH and I are a similar vintage and have photos of flares with the body shirts thinking we were hot stuff. Looking forward to further installments.

 

[Fifa]

Terrific TR!
Definitely looking forward to future posts...

 

[kookaburra75]

So, into the Atlantic.

We took a right hand turn and steamed to the Dutch Antibes, to Curacao. Being an old Dutch colony, its houses were replicas of what you'd see in The Netherlands. Also as a surprise for us, were the taxis waiting to take the passengers into town, were big old yank tanks as we'd call them. We got into ours and off we went. Our taxi driver was old school, speeding down the very narrow streets, hand on the horn, arm out the window. We were glad to get out at the other end.

The old buildings, the fort and the old slave quarters. Even the old Synagogue was interesting. After spending a day at Curacao, we set off for our next stop at The Azores.

We arrived at Ponta Delgada, and got to see another slice of Europe with The Azores being an old Portuguese colony. The way the streets were paved was new to us, and we would see again when we visited Portugal later in our trip. Thankfully the port facilities were close to the centre of town, so we could walk in.

In the middle photo, Dad K was going to take a photo of the policeman on traffic duty, when the policeman blew his whistle waving at him. Thinking he had done the wrong thing, Dad was worried, until the policeman waved us kids over, so we could be part of the photo.

This was out last stop in warm weather at least, and we turned north to steam up to Southampton, for our last stop.

 

[kookaburra75]

The day came when we arrived into Southampton in the late afternoon. The families got off in a reverse alphabetical order, so we said goodbye to the W's family as we were at the other end of the alphabet. A person from the Motorhome Hire company Stevens, met us at the ship and drove us up to London in what was to be our home for the next four and a half months. The trip up the highway took a couple of hours at night, and their yard was up in the northern suburbs I think, where they had a small caravan park type set up and facilities for people to stay for a few nights in their vans, with toilets, showers and a common kitchen/lounge area, which had a TV. Now that was a big thing. In 1972 the UK had colour TV, in Australia we were still black and white. We sat there watching whatever was on, commenting "... even the ads are in colour". The other locals sitting there with us must have thought we were real hillbillies.

We headed into London the next day, to Australia House, the AA offices and map shops, to get our AA Guide for Caravan Parks through Europe, the Michelin Maps covering our intended routes and other bits and pieces. And of course stock up on UK pounds. It was even more confusing, as the UK was in the middle of changing from pounds, shillings and pence, to pounds & decimal pence - so you had old pence and new pence - and had to do the maths. As I could still remember the change over in Australia, it wasn't too bad, but you still had to be careful what you handed over.

But the mighty Bedford Bedouin.

It could sleep five, just. The photo on the left shows the mighty beast. The middle photo is taken during dinner by Dad K, who is standing at the back door which was in the rear middle of the van. Behind the curtain is the cab and front seats. The bags etc above us are in the hump above the cab. To the right of the shot is the sink, stove, fridge and small bench, with a wardrobe at the very back right of the van. On the left is a long seat/couch that ran along the left side of the van. The photo on the right is in sleep mode. Where the table is, dropped down and you put the back cushions down that became a double bed for my two brothers, sleeping across the van. My bed is up top, a roll out, hammock type bed. And the long seat/couch on the left pulled out to make another double bed, longwise in the van, for Mum & Dad. If I or my brothers needed to get up in the night, we headed out through the front of the van, Mum & Dad out the back door.

It was cosy. There were a stack of cupboards and storage places under seats. It was really just a small caravan on a light truck body, but at least you could walk around inside without having to duck down.

Our first stage of the trip was to loop around the UK and end up at Newcastle, where we would take the ferry to Norway.

I think we allowed a few weeks for that, travelling about 100 miles a day, using the back roads where we could. The first planned stop was Canterbury, so we had loaded up the van, had a minor heart attack when we saw the cost of petrol (x3 on Aus) and pushed off. I have always been good at map reading, and can also read in a vehicle and not get car sick. So started off in the left hand seat, navigating for Dad. I got us onto the North Circular Road (A406) and followed it around, went under the Thames through the Dartford Tunnel and onto the road to Canterbury. It was a big day.

 

[docjames]

Fabulous TR, really enjoying it.

 

[kookaburra75]

We rolled into Canterbury, and Dad looked up suitable sites in the AA Guide. We got used to the codes for showers, pet friendly etc. We also had to take notice of when the sites were open, as it was getting to the end of the holiday season. The one we found in Canterbury was just outside of the city, basically it was big paddock with a single shower/toilet block in the middle, and just us there. It was a very nice paddock and we explored the area. The next day we went into Canterbury and spent time in the middle of the city, walking along the old walls and the cathedral.


Canterbury, with the old walls and the cathedral was interesting for me, as these were buildings greater than what we had back at home and a lot older. I'm have always been amazed by the workmanship and skill in building those places. In more recent times I walk into those magnificent buildings and lie on the floor so I can look up and appreciate the work and detail - although I do get some funny looks. About ten years ago at Chichester Cathedral, I did that and the Deacon came over and lay down next to me as he too thought that was the best way to appreciate the building and we ended up chatting for an hour while he pointed out special details - while the tourists walked around us.

But while on our walk around the old city wall, we spotted something, which at that time we would never see in Australia.

Again, having spent a lot of time in the UK for work, I get it, but at that time it was a "what the ..." moment.

From Canterbury we looped along the south coast (no photos though), through Dover, New Romney, Brighton, Bognor Regis and then up through to Salisbury - and of course Stonehenge.

At that time, the car park was across the side road from Stonehenge, and there was a tunnel under the road to get to the stones. You could wander amongst the stones and the other parts of Stonehenge, which was a real buzz. You can see how quiet it was in our photo. I know what it is like now, but I can understand the need to control numbers, otherwise the site would be trampled.


From Stonehenge we cut further north up to Stratford-upon-Avon, and visited Ann Hathaway's house.


I don't have Dad's notebook that he kept during the trip, where he recorded everywhere stayed, how much it cost, where we bought fuel etc - so I can't say exactly where we stayed along the way. I could get Dad to come down for the AFF Get together in December and run a separate workshop for those who are interested, although I'll warn you now it would be a long session.

 

[VPS]

Absolutely fascinating. Good on your parents for even having the guts to do that with three kids. Really enjoying this

 

[RooFlyer]

A great TR ... keep it up!

 

[kookaburra75]

Absolutely fascinating. Good on your parents for even having the guts to do that with three kids. Really enjoying this

I'm lucky, my parents are those sort of "...well, it seemed to be a good idea at the time..." type of people. Even now, in their 80's they go off wandering, either driving around Australia (they just sold their caravan and 4WD last year), or overseas. A couple of years ago they went to the UK and Ireland for five weeks, getting around on their own by trains, car and buses. They had mentioned to us they were planning a trip, and then the next thing I knew was I got a postcard from Mum, saying how much they were enjoying Ireland.

Mrs K and I spoke with Mum and Dad a couple of nights ago and Mrs K mentioned that I was doing these posts. Mrs K also said that she couldn't understand why Mum felt she looked so plain, as she looks gorgeous in the photos of the trip. Mum then commented, "... well dear, you do know who picked which photos went into the albums".

But onto the trip. From Stratford-on-Avon we cut across into Wales. On my earlier map I showed we went down to Cardiff, but I had mixed up the locations in Wales. From Stratford-on-Avon we cut across to Caernarvon (as it was spelt at the time), going through the Snowdonia National Park. One problem we had was that there was an up swelling of Welsh Nationalism and people had been going around spray painting over the English versions of the place names on the road signs. Given our Welsh wasn't that good, we had to pull up at the signs and try and read the place name through the black paint.



We then headed further into Wales, as Dad is a keen train buff and we had to visit some of the small steam train rides, and of course buy a Station Ticket for Llanfairpwllgwyngyll.


I remember we went and stayed at a caravan park out on Holy Island - so we were on an island, off an island, off an island.

From there we started heading north, up the coast through Blackpool, visiting some of Hadrian's Wall and stayed the night at Gretna Green. From there we headed into Scotland, via Loch Lomond and into Edinburgh.


Of course we went up to Edinburgh Castle and climbed over the place. Much to Dad's disappointment, the Tattoo had just wrapped up - although Mum didn't seem to be too worried about that. We wandered along the Royal Mile and other haunts in the old part of town.


From there we turned south, to get down to Newcastle-on-Tyne, to meet up with our ferry that would take us to Norway. We drove the Motorhome onto the ferry, found our seats and settled in for the trip across the North Sea to Norway.


But back to the painting as I've promised Mrs K, and I'll dig out the next album tonight and scan in the photos

 

[kookaburra75]

Our ferry to Norway landed at Stavanger, and then carried onto Bergen, where we got off. We spent a day or so in Bergen having a look around, and Dad getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road. One big shortcoming in driving a right hand drive vehicle on the right hand side of the road, is the driver is on the footpath side of the road. To overtake, the poor passenger (normally me) had to give the call on whether it was ok or not. Norway and most of the other countries were ok as the roads were good. Other countries such as Yugoslavia, not so good.

We took a few days to drive back down to Stavanger to meet up with a family my uncle knows very well. We weaved down through the fjords, using ferries to cross in some places, and the rest was a lot of winding roads. It was spectacular countryside.




We caught up with the family in Stavanger, after finding their place. That took a bit of doing to find, as we didn't have a street directory and had to resort to stopping into shops and getting directions. We camped in the driveway for a few days, while they took us around the place. On the weekend we went out for a picnic and onto Pulpit Rock, which is a 600m sheer drop. Really stunning. There were people who walked up to the edge and looked over, and then there were people like us who laid down and crawled up to the edge to look over.


From Stavanger we looped around the south coast though Kristiansand and onto Oslo. We spent a few days there, exploring, but it seems the only photo is one taken at Frognore Park. I know we visited the Kon Tiki museum. Having read the book by Thor Heyerdahl, it was amazing seeing the real thing, and also how small it was. From Oslo we headed south and into Sweden. We didn't have time to go across to Stockholm and kept going south to Gothenburg, to catch the ferry across to Denmark.