Expedition to India 1965

Our first steps as youth to learn about India first hand was through an overland expedition to India.

We left Toronto in October 1965, drove to Montreal where we put our car and all our gear and luggage onto a ship from the Cunard Line and sailed for Liverpool.  When we landed in Liverpool, we met a wonderful man who brought us to stay with his family in Oldham.  We decided to stay a while and earn some money and newly-found friends, Roy and Iris hosted us until just before Christmas.  We then drove to Dover and crossed over by ferry to Calais.  We drove through the south of France, camped out in the Swiss Alps, travelled through the Italian Alps into Venice and across the north of Italy to Trieste from where we entered into Yugoslavia and drove along the Adriatic coast.  It was in Yugoslavia where we began to have car trouble and had to leave the car behind and take the trains.  We travelled by train through Yugoslavia and Greece, reaching Istambul, from where we picked up some cars and drove to Tehran. In Tehran, our group split.  Of the three young men, two headed for India by land separately and one returned to Toronto.  The three young women met Swamiji and travelled with him from Tehran through the Iranian desert, into Pakistan to Quetta. It was the time after the 1965 war between India and Pakistan and there were still land mines around the borders making land travel unsafe. Some restrictions were still in force on commercial flights but we managed to get a flight to Calcutta.