Legendary Top Deck trip back on the road
Three young travellers are attempting to drive more than 22,000km on the legendary London to Sydney hippy trail in a 1950s double-decker bus.
Adam Dowden, 28, from Sydney, Mitch Turner, 27, from Terrigal on the central NSW coast and Jordan Cross, 27, from Canada, have set off from Earls Court in a bus named “Tadpoles†which will take them through 16 countries over 118 days.
The friends will follow the route used by youth travel company Topdeck Travel, which pioneered the London to Sydney overland route in the 1970s, in an original 1958 double-decker once used by the company.
The trip is inspired by the ‘Top Deck Daze’ by Bill James, which recounts how James and Graham ‘Skroo’ Turner bought a double-decker in the early 1970s, kitted it out with bunks and a kitchen and created a budget tour company called Top Deck Travel.
Topdeck sales manager for Asia Pacific and South Africa, Ben Ittensohn, said Topdeck had helped refit an original double decker in the Isle of Wight Bus Museum and was providing support for the group along the way.
Another original Topdeck bus, “Loftâ€, will be driven from Perth to Sydney.
The trip will travel through countries including France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, India and Nepal before finishing in Sydney on January 14, 2012.
Ian Jarrett
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