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Heidelberg Youth Hostel
Dear Dad and Phyl and whoever else
I’ve decided the best way of keeping a diary is to write to you very regularly including everything that’s happened and ask you to file my letters away – so I don’t lose them.
After a shady start, things have picked up although the courier still dives into the engine every time we go uphill – there’s air getting into something and he has to release it when we need a lot of revs. Having broken down before, we set off and missed the ferry, our philosophy is that things can only get better!
I spent my first night on the floor of the bus between the seats – heard every gear change, but I slept for about 4 hours. We drove from Brugge to Cologne – it’s my third visit there so I didn’t do any sightseeing.
We are 19 passengers – 4 male and 3 of those are with their wives or girlfriends. The other guy is very quiet – his mum and dad were there to say goodbye, and he’s halfway through his sandwiches. There’s the driver and courier who are both great. The drivers done this trip loads of times. I don’t know how he does it as he drove all last night and all day today. Still, I suppose he’s used to it.
There are some great girls on the trip. The ratio doesn’t bother me at all as a woman’s libber said in a conference “a woman without a man is like a Fish without a bicycle“. I have a feeling I’m the only one on the trip who won’t be home within 6 months. Most of them have been away from Australia for over a year – some of them up to 4 years, so they’re really looking forward to getting back. There’s a Scottish couple and the quiet guy who will be flying straight back to England from Kathmandu, and there’s a girl from Derby who will be doing a similar trip through the states, before she gets home. That’s 5 British, with 4 New Zealanders and 11 Australians = 21 in all.
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