SYDNEY OR BUST!
On the overcast Sunday morning of August 14, 1977, a total of 69 adventurous crews set off from London’s Covent Garden Opera House at the start of an epic 30,000km (18,750-mile) rally ending at Australia’s iconic Sydney Opera House. Sponsored by Singapore Airlines to mark its 30th anniversary, this was the longest competitive rally ever staged.
The tortuous and challenging route would take in many of the cities that the airline flew to and would pass through Holland, Germany, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey, followed by Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The competitors were then ferried across to Penang in northern Malaysia before driving south to Singapore. That was an arduous enough trip in itself but the rally was barely over half distance. The vehicles were then shipped to Perth in Australia where the route meandered eastwards across the interior of this vast continent to eventually arrive in Sydney on September 27.
Along the way, the crews would have to contend with blisteringly hot deserts, snow-covered mountains, mud baths, dust bowls, flash floods and river crossings. They would visit vast cities and isolated villages and would travel along tarmac highways and rock-strewn tracks. They would pass through areas that are no-go zones today and experience sights and sounds they would never forget. The target times set for each stage were rather ambitious to say the least, meaning that the crews had to drive flat out for much of the time. Some would crash, some would catch fire, some would be stranded, some would fall ill, some would be beaten up, some would be thrown in jail and some would fall victim to rock-throwing shepherd boys, kamikaze kangaroos, wandering wildlife, flocks of sheep, vultures and wild dogs. There would be injuries and even fatalities. All competitors would be pushed to their physical and mental limits by driving around the clock for days on end and all would experience total exhaustion at some time or other. But all would agree that it was the adventure of a lifetime.
Many of the
