Jägermeister bomb fests, 24-hour computer game marathons and general debauched shenanigans aside, modern students don’t get up to much these days. At least not compared to an intrepid group of nine Cambridge students in the early Sixties who travelled through the Soviet Union, across to Tashkent and then back to Kabul, down around India and then across the sea to Mombassa and Nairobi in a VW Kombi. There’s a book been written about their exploits which includes a batch of incredible photos taken en route…
The Cambridge Afro Asian Expedition was the trip of a lifetime; a fact finding mission, apparently, looking at the relationship between young people and universities around the world and the way higher education operated internationally. Against the backdrop of the Cold War the nine travelled through the Soviet Union to the Middle East, South Asia and on to Africa. Their mode of transport? Two Splitscreen buses, complete with full length roof racks to carry supplies…
Judging by the totally bonkers photos from the trip, the Kombis certainly had their work cut out, negotiating treacherous mountain passes, near impossible roads, jungle tracks and river crossings for the students – the vehicles acting as transport, shelter, study area and home for the duration.
Based on journals written during the expedition, The Kombi Trail, published by IB Tauris & Co (ISBN: 9781780763767), tells the epic story of their journey, recounting not just the people they met and the places they saw, but the madcap experiences – sometimes nerve-wracking, sometimes bizarre – they encountered along the way.
We haven’t been lucky enough to read it yet but VW was obviously impressed with the role its early buses played in the tale because apparently they stumped up a significant amount of sponsorship money to get the book into print.
Given the fact that VW was still a bit of an unknown in 1961, the choice of a couple of Kombis over more conventional options like the Comma BF is interesting. It would also be good to know how many miles were covered, whether the students encountered any mechanical glitches – and, perhaps more intriguingly, what happened to the Kombis afterwards. Has either survived, we wonder? No doubt the answers are in the book, but it would be good to know from any of the original nine if they are reading this…
As for all you modern day students out there, jumping in the back of a T4 and camping overnight at Edition38 doesn’t quite come close we’re afraid!
Ian
The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of VW Heritage
I wld so love to do an epic trip like this. An osteopath I used told me how his wife, when young travelled from South Africa all the way thru to London in her VW camper when she was a young girl. She made her necks by the side of the road and carried a spare engine. These days a girl on her own wld be mad to risk it.