Welcome from Jan

Hi there!
This blog is for those who love both books and travel. I'm starting by travelling back in time to the 1970s and the overland trail to India which I took as an 18 year old. Have a look at my daily diary entries and photos. Some of these places are impossible to visit at the moment, but I can give you a flavour of what they were like in the golden age of the hippy trail.

The experience has inspired my new mystery novel, THE VANISHING OF RUTH, which is out now as an ebook. Find details and extracts at The Vanishing of Ruth

To buy: The Vanishing of Ruth

Also take a look at Facebook Page Overlanders for more memorabilia.
http://bit.ly/Overlanders

HELP ME FIND MY FELLOW PASSENGERS! TAKE A LOOK AT THE GROUP PHOTO (post on 30th November 2009) AND CHECK THE NAMES ON THIS LINK:
http://www.indiaoverland.biz/overland/passengers/sep26_76.html
Cheers, Jan.


Thursday 11 March 2010

FUSINA CAMPSITE, VENICE - fog, fleas, foamies and fun! 1976

OFF TO VENICE AND FUSINA CAMPSITE ...

SATURDAY 2ND OCTOBER, 1976

"Up early.  Rolled the foamies!!
The foamies are explained in a letter home: "we're quite efficient at getting up, fed and tents packed etc in 1 and a half hours (up at 6 every travelling day!)  The worst job in the morning is rolling the foamies (that go under our sleeping bags) and squeezing them all in between 2 sets of seats; they are rather temperamental things and tend to spring out and flow into the gangway if not given their due attention."

Left for Venice.  Good card games at the back.  Scenery of hills, trees and picturesque houses - tunnels etc (hopeless to try and read!)  Then fog descended and saw nothing.

Got to Fusina after lunch - cabins not tents!!  Seems nice campsite but lots of mosquitoes.
My letter home says: "The campsite was really rather luxurious - hot showers and what's more we managed to book into cabins and so got a bed!  It may have been rather flea infested but it was real high living."

Run into Venice briefly in afternoon and saw gondolas tied up by canals, lovely bridges; not time to see much else (apart from station).

Evening spent in the bar of camp - Fusina is rather famous for rowdy evenings in the bar because the camp is always full of bus tours!  Graffiti on walls, exuberant barmen etc.  Eventually only Julie, Paul, Mark and me left, retired to bus - few others there.  Sat at back listening to Supertramp.

We've had t-shirts designed with Asian Greyhound on - the design is a bus inside a large carafe of wine! "





More photos on Facebook Page, Overlanders: http://bit.ly/bEVp5V

No comments:

Post a Comment