The Memoirs of a Wayward Traveller

By Adrian Little and Alexander Edwards

The memoirs recount the lifetime journey and factual stories of a British expat who has worked in or travelled to every continent in the world since the 1960's to recent times. The book includes many humorous situations which veteran expats in particular would appreciate  but also at times those of a more serious nature. The central character relives his early travels through western Europe as it was with its history and culture and later to the balmy shores of Australia and South Africa and onwards to the Middle East and beyond. The historical wonders of cities such as Rome and Athens  Beijing and Istanbul are documented in detail as are the trials and tribulations of life in Tehran and Baghdad during troubled times and the lifestyle of Sydney and Johannesburg among others in this travelling extravaganza. 

 

The book contains an account of many unusual and interesting natural, archeological and human phenomena which are not generally in the public domain. These phenomena include discourses on the Three Sisters sandstone rock formation in the Blue Mountains of Australia; the monolithic Sibele Rock in Swaziland; the Victoris Falls in Zimbabwe; the Hellenistic carvings in the cliffs of Petra in the Kingdom of Jordan and the fruitful Tree of Life in the desert of Bahrain among many others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adrian Little
• Release date: Jan 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224781546

Book preview

A voyaging extravaganza

ALEXANDER EDWARDS

This book is dedicated to all expats and fellow travellers, my children Flora and Edward and my friend Christa for her guidance.

Chapter 1

The Beginning

It all seems like a lifetime ago but also feels like yesterday when the urge to travel and discover became predominant in the mind of the Wayward Traveller (the/our Traveller), hereinafter called Ben. Life’s awareness started for him while growing up in a small Yorkshire city in the 1950’s. This city encouraged tourists to stay awhile amidst its ancient charms and was dominated by its cathedral complete with a Saxon crypt, where people had worshipped and prayed for more than thirteen hundred years. Consequently our traveller was brought up within a quasi religious environment and taught the virtues of honesty and truthfulness.

Not far from the city were the ruins of a cistercian monastery which had been dissolved by order of Henry VIII in the sixteenth century but which still retained an aura of magnificence in its idyllic natural surroundings. This was and remains a testament to the power of the establishment over those who would contest its authority.

At the beginning of the 1950’s Britain was still recovering from the effects of the Second World War but with the advent of the crowning of a new monarch in 1953, a better and happier era seemed possible. This was evidenced on coronation day when a national holiday had been decreed and people in every city, town and village of Great Britain celebrated with street parties and social gatherings with Union Jacks being proudly displayed. The lucky few were able to see the actual coronation on television but only in black and white of course.

During the later part of the 1950’s a ten mile bus ride seemed like a great adventure to Ben and what a treat to enjoy the coffee bars in a nearby metropolis. By the 1960’s however, Britain had become more affluent and the freedom to travel had become part of youth culture. The 1960’s was responsible among other things for a great surge in travel especially the younger generation. Young Britons as well as those from as far afield as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America had become motivated to discover Europe’s lifestyles, history and culture. A form of travel which had become popular in the 1960’s was hitchhiking or autostoppen as it was known on the continent and which was reasonably safe for both sexes at that time. This was an era when freedom to travel was more straightforward without the restrictions of modern times.

It was in the early 1960’s that Ben finished his schooling and decided to discover what lay beyond his native county. His first destination was the city of Oxford with its historic university, colleges and ancient buildings with their architectural heritage. However, the academic life immediately post school had no appeal to him and he found work with a local brewery. What Ben didn’t know then was that Oxford was to become his gateway to global travel.

During his stay in Oxford, Ben had met and become friends with a fellow traveller from the north of England, Dave. Dave had decided to travel to Australia by the overland route via Europe, the Middle East and Asia and finally work his passage on a boat from Singapore to Australia. Dave had resolved initially to find work somewhere on the continent in order to accumulate additional funds for the grand trek. He tried to persuade our Traveller to join him immediately in this venture. However this was far too great a step for Ben to contemplate but they both agreed that they would meet up somewhere in Europe in the near future and travel as far as Turkey together.

Shortly after making this agreement, Dave left England and ultimately reached Denmark and found work on a planteskole (tree nursery) in a town near Copenhagen. A few months later Ben decided it was time to start travelling and meet up with Dave later in Denmark.

What was particularly attractive for the young traveller in Europe was the diversity of people, language, culture and geographical features along with the multitude of different national currencies. As far as currencies were concerned, it was always fun to compare values and exchange the pound, shilling and pence combination of the U.K. with another national currency at a time when bank notes in one’s hand were more impressive and had more intrinsic value.

Chapter 2

The Netherlands

Our Traveller’s first continental destination was the Netherlands, famous for its flat landscape, dikes, waterways and windmills. Part of the Netherlands had been reclaimed from the waters of the North Sea and almost half of the country lay at or below sea level. Consequently its numerous windmills had been designed to pump water out of the lowlands and back into the rivers beyond the dikes in order to keep the country safe from flooding. Some windmills had been designed also for the more mundane purposes of producing electricity or crushing grain.

Ben disembarked at the Hook of Holland with a rucksack on his back and within a few days found work at a Dutch nursery garden in a town near Rotterdam. For the next few months he became accustomed to hearing the strange pronunciation of the Dutch language and to using the national currency of the Netherlands which at that time was the guilder and cent. In addition, Ben was able to sample Dutch beer and some of the special local delicacies such as poffertjes (small pancakes) and doughnuts.

It was in the Netherlands that Ben had his first misadventure. The nursery garden that he worked for grew and exported plants, shrubs and small trees to many European countries. These items were deposited en masse in a large, flat metal barge for transportation by canal to the nearest railway station. There they would be containerised for onward transportation to their eventual destination.

After helping to load the barge, Ben was instructed to take the barge with its cargo along the canal to the railway station. Keen to undertake this task expeditiously, he immediately proceeded to punt this cumbersome mass of metal from the rear of the vessel with a long pole and succeeded only in careering from one side of the canal to the other. Every forty metres or so there was a small swing bridge which allowed access to the many other tree nurseries. Ben would stop and dutifully put each bridge back into place after pushing them to the side of the canal with the barge in order to proceed along the canal. The whole process took a long time and a great deal of effort and after one and a half  hours of strenuous punting, there was still no sign of the railway station. Fortunately Ben’s boss turned up and asked What have you been doing? We expected you an hour ago. Although seething, Ben responded calmly by stating the reasons for the delay, however Ben’s boss quickly replied that the method Ben was applying was wrong. The pole should be placed securely across the rear of the barge and the barge propelled by walking along the canal bank. Additionally after passing through a swing bridge, each bridge was to be left at the side of the canal bank to be opened by the next person who wanted access. This was the accepted local tradition.

Ben was embarrassed and weary but used this newly acquired information on technique to steer the barge quickly to the railway station. The moral of this episode was not lost on Ben who always required detailed and concise instructions for a task from that day onwards.

No trip to the Netherlands would be complete without a trip to the nation’s capital, Amsterdam, with its elaborate canal system, narrow gabled houses and museums. On visiting the city, Ben decided it would be pleasant initially to enjoy a canal boat tour in the centre of the city. Whilst he remembered the start of the tour and looking at the facade of the houses along the sides of the canal, the next thing Ben felt was a slight jolt as the boat came to a juddering halt as it began to moor up at the side of the canal. Unfortunately whether it was the whirring of the boat’s engine, the heat of the boat or tiredness from work, Ben had slept for the whole of the tour and completely missed the sights to be seen along the canals and the commentary from the tour guide.

It was here in the evening that our Traveller discovered the Dutch openness as regards drugs and sex not that he ever partook of the former. It was while he was enjoying a bottle of lager in a bar near the Red Light district that he was approached by a woman in her late twenties. Not one to turn down an unsolicited offer, Ben accepted but was amazed afterwards when his conquest said to him I will be sleeping with my husband tonight.

Chapter 3

Denmark

After several months working in the Netherlands, Ben decided it was time to meet up with his friend Dave in Denmark. Denmark consists of a large peninsular and several islands in the Baltic Sea and generally has a flat terrain.

The train journey via Germany and over the Danish islands was uneventful and Ben was met by Dave as agreed at the main train station in Copenhagen. From here they travelled by train to the town nearby where he would be working alongside Dave at the planteskole. In Denmark Ben exchanged the Dutch guilder and cent for the Danish kroner and ore.

Ben quickly found board and lodging with a middle aged Danish couple where he was introduced to the Danish specialities of smorebrod  and schnapps. He was soon to to learn that eating and drinking outside the home was prohibitively expensive in Denmark and was rarely done. The Danish consumed their alcoholic drinks at home and usually during the evening meal. It was traditional as a starter to accompany each piece of smorebrod, an open piece of ryebread topped with cold cut meat, fish, cheese or other spreads, with a small glass of schnapps. The main course would be washed down with Danish beer which came in different grades of strength. The strongest was special elephant beer which was over 7% alcohol by volume and was named elephant so that reputedly the individual would not forget it.

Several trips hold particular memories for Ben during the summer months spent working under the spotlessly blue Danish sky. The first was an outing to the Danish island of Bornholm.

Bornholm is a Danish island which is situated in the Baltic Sea off the south coast of Sweden. Along with its spectacular scenery, the island is especially  known for its art and craft industries and four unique style round churches. It has a long tradition of fine craftsmanship and has maintained its age old techniques in ceramics, glassware, textiles, metalwork and woodwork. The round churches were built during the 12th and 13th centuries and served not only as a place of worship but also for storage and defence. Their construction consisted of very thick walls some two metres thick which were formed in a circular shape to provide a sound and secure structure and to enhance their protective capabilities. The upper levels had small windows and arrow slits to facilitate defensive measures.

The owner of the planteskole organised a day trip to Bornholm for his work force which comprised a charter flight to the island and a bus tour to view its main attractions. This was Ben’s first flight and on the way the plane was buffeted by strong winds for the duration of the flight. It must be said that the plane was of the small twin engined propeller driven variety which was vulnerable to the elements and not ideal for a first time flight.

On landing at Ronne Airport, Ben felt extremely sick and dreaded the ensuing bus tour and flight back to Copenhagen. In time though, after stopping off for lunch during the tour and after consuming a few beers, Ben recovered sufficiently to enjoy the diverse scenery of the island with its rocky coastline; sandy beaches; forests and lakes and the craft demonstrations, particularly the glass blowing and pottery display. So much so that he found the return flight quite exhilarating.

Glass blowing has always seemed a very special and elaborate process to Ben and the studio that the group visited was a prime example of the art. The technique involved inflating molten glass into a bubble with the aid of a blowpipe to produce elaborate articles for everyday use or as plain or colourful decorative objects. Ben also appreciated the skill of the artisans using potter’s wheels to produce domestic items of various types and sizes. By controlling the speed of the wheels by a foot pedal, the potters were able to shape a lump of clay by the use of their hands and a selection of wooden tools into ceramic ware which after drying out, was glazed and fired in a kiln. Apparently the clay occurring naturally on the island was of a very high quality and particularly suited as the base material for forming pottery. 

After working hard for several months, our Traveller and Dave decided to become tourists for a day and enjoy the attractions of Copenhagen. Both were thrilled to see the Little Mermaid facing Copenhagen on the shores of the Baltic Sea. They enjoyed also the hustle and bustle of the crowds in the Tivoli Gardens with its restaurants; cafes; gardens and amusement rides and took a stroll along the walking street which was the first pedestrianised street in the world.They even indulged in several beers but were ever mindful of the expense.

One weekend on a sudden impulse and because both were avid travellers, our