The Silk Route Motorcaravan Club.

Bulletin 92.

March 2002.
Translated by Christine O'Brien.
Edited for publication by Bill Peckham.

New Zealand (continued from Bulletin 91)

After two months in Australia we catch a flight in Sydney for Christchurch, in the South Island of New Zealand. We take possession of our van (raised Ford with shower and WC at a hire cost of 11 days at 410 Francs + 11 at 560 Francs) and follow the coast as far as Dunedin, then the road for the south and climbing back towards the west, Milford Sound, Queenstown and further north the Fox and Frantz Joseph glaciers, Westport and Wellington.

Ferry for Picton in the North Island where we linger in several active volcanic sites. During the three weeks, we came to appreciate this country very much, it is very different from what we were able to see of Australia. Here everything is green and rolling. There are sheep everywhere, 55 million of them, but also a lot of cattle and a number of deer farms. The downside of all the greenery is the rain! And yet our time there corresponds to summer (June in France). We were hoping for a bit more sun.

We appreciated the respect for nature: everything is clean. There are toilets in all the villages, and impeccable everywhere. Even paper was always in plentiful supply. A good lesson for France. No broken windows even when shops looked empty and deserted. No vandalism, no writing on the walls, no flyposting for Minitel porn. And yet the people are up-to-date, not at all old-fashioned. At the Information Bureau in Dunedin we were welcomed by a young women speaking French. She was thrilled to be using our language since she'd had very little opportunity to do so since she studied it.

Kiwi fruits are abundant in the orchards, but two-footed kiwis are only visible in the zoo and in darkened enclosures because they sleep during the day and only move at night.

In New Zealand, it isn't the kangaroos that fall victim to the roads, but the opossums. These little animals are increasing in number and they do such damage in the forests, eating leaves and bark, that their numbers are being controlled and nobody is sorry for their lot.

We crossed Australia and New Zealand with only a few words of English in our memories and a dictionary in our hands, and we found a way through, though not without occasional difficulties. Tourist literature is translated into Japanese all right, but that isn't much help to us! The New Zealanders are very happy, not to say amazed, to meet French people but engaging in a conversation is another kettle of fish. It happens but very rarely.

Baggage reclaim hall full of smoke, despite the no smoking signs, delays following a strike by baggage handlers. Yes, we're home again in Roissy in France.

Around the Indian Ocean.

We have just finished the first phase of an adventure planned over two years for 100,000 kilometres. Together with another team, which had joined up with us for the stretch including India, we took to the road on 18 August 2001.

To the Iranian frontier, 4325 kilometres in 13 days? This leg of the journey deserves only one comment: what wrongs did our compatriots commit in Hungary to justify the ill will of their police? Tolls are extremely expensive in this country for roads of mediocre quality.

Our stay in Iran began badly: were there different rhythms of life, different interests in the discoveries we made along the route? We overlook these, although these factors examined together beforehand had shown a certain similarity in our points of view. Even so, leaving Tabriz, our companions took off on their own without either warning or explaining. On the previous evening we had enjoyed meeting the Helmbachers on the way back.

Iran was a real and pleasant surprise. Scholarly reminiscences and national media clichés are obsolete. The gigantic lazy S of the route - 7000 kilometres in 23 days - shows that we found more than we had hoped there. It wasn't the landscape or the vegetation, which is desert and mountain. It wasn't the sites and monuments, apart from Persepolis, the magnificent Koranic precincts around the mosque of Qom, also the pretty town of Ispahan.

It is the Iranian people who remain our best memory. Curious but discreet, attentive to others and especially to tourists, willing but not servile and not looking for differences, they proved kind and open during all our dealings with them. The young generation, whose clothes underline their development, promise to make Iran into a modern and dynamic state by freeing it from religious dogma.

We entered Pakistan on the morning of 21 September: we had just learned of the murderous events in New York ten days earlier. By the dry plateau of Baluchistan, the track reveals a poor population, divided into more or less widely spaced islands. In the morning, we witnessed the halting of a caravan at the end of its long march through the night. Every day we were aware of the mad ceaseless chain of vehicles dealing in the fossil fuels necessary for human existence in this region. Then, gaining entry to the Punjab via the inconceivable path of an unsuspected pass brings us into contact with endless files of extraordinarily coloured lorries.

Near Quetta, we came across an incidence of events involving the country: our security became a military and police matter. Which meant that we were guarded for three days then given a military escort when we were finally given permission to drive on.

By Loralai and Multan we came to Islamabad where we saw for ourselves what reliance to place on news we'd received on the radio. There were small numbers of troops at the street corners, right enough, but none of the massive demonstrations reported on the airwaves.

A welcome and salutary stop in the pretty capital, welcomed by a French community and a warning: Club 21 is no longer to be recommended. All travellers on the Road to India or the Silk Road, whether going or returning, have had a chance to appreciate the menus. Do we have a right to a fidelity card?

After 2270 kilometres in 13 days via Lahore, we left Pakistan, a country torn apart by its contradictions.

We stayed in India for 71 days and covered nearly 11000 kilometres in two stages. Beginning in Rajasthan, our journey round the north continued via Agra and the Taj Mahal, Khajorato and Varanasi. The dog days were with us for our visit to these sites, most of them unique in their own way and pleasant. But after Delhi, where the pollution is worse than Mexico's, the roads are appallingly bad. Already the daily round imposed by Indian shamelessness - in the most intimate areas - made them difficult for us to bear. The lamentable sight of the Ghats at Varanasi, with circuits organised for the customers/voyeurs, was the low point in the overall horror.

Then we took a holiday in Nepal. Kathmandu, an interesting capital with well-stocked supermarkets, afforded us a base camp. From there we radiated out towards the splendid range of the Anapurnas from Pokhara, towards Everest, incomparable at Nagakot, right to the Chinese border towards Lhassa by the terrible track well known to the Paris-Beijing 2000 group.

Meanwhile, as well as the town itself and Freak Street, obviously, we took pleasure and interest in visiting the medieval village of Badmati, the silent temples of Patan, among others, and we suffered the nocturnal serenades which accompany the the feast of Diwali. The altitude offered cool and finally pure air, we confined our moving around to short trips, and in this little kingdom We found 20 days and 1850 km of physical and spiritual relaxation.

On our return, we reached Calcuttta after 600 kilometres that were even more atrocious. The traffic was demented, the regulations give priority to the largest and to crazy buses. In town it's worse; it is open season on motorised tourists. Two voluntary and untimely manoeuvres broke our left headlight and righthand rearview mirror in the space of half an hour. The active complicity of their colleagues and the passive complicity of the traffic police allowed those responsible to get away. Parking within the walls of a religious community, we lived for three days near the Court of Miracles: even in the 21st century, the name still applies. And while Mother Teresa's work is in good hands, there is still a great deal to be done. Until that point the huge numbers of temples had not attracted our attention a great deal, except to deplore the grotesque representations of humans and animals and the aggression of the people there. The temple immediately beside the silent church of Our Lady of Dolors offers a constant assault on the ears with its discordant and unbearable noise. The unceasing nature of this phenomenon made us hate them in the end.

As the embankments are good, we reached Madras, now Chemnai, by the coastal route along the Bay of Bengal. There we organised how to carry through our plans for the second phase of the journey and bandaged the major wounds on the van. A last large loop via Bangalore ended in Goa, where the beaches of the sea of Oman were very pleasant. Going via Cap Comorin, at the extreme south of the subcontinent, we finished up in Pondicherry, with its French restaurants, having celebrated Christmas in a friendly way beforehand and drunk a toast to the club on the first day of the new year.

On 3 January 2002, Camion took its place in a container; at midnight the airline put its teammates on their way. The team will be reunited in Malaysia in mid January.

FAX of 4 February from Alliance Francaise, Bangkok.

Since our last message we have done a great deal. First we recovered Camion on the 14th, after some delay for which the Indians were responsible. We used the time to visit the very modern and very successful capital of Malaysia. We now know Kuala Lumpur well, as our stay last nearly a week in the end by the time we had got the vehicle serviced and repaired. Good work and acceptable prices at the Iveco garage.

Finally we set off for the north. 11 days in Malaysia (on the west coast), 1780 kilometres of agreeable and peaceful driving with discreet people. On the 26th at midday we entered Thailand, and now we're in Bangkok where we're going round the consulates (Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, future plans). Obviously as many visits as possible. For 1500 kilometres in this country we had countryside and the gulf of Siam, calm and cleanness, wild camping. Vegetation, oil palms, rubber, rice; industry endless shrimp farms. Dried they're exported or used for agrifertiliser. Now you know everything

Hello to everyone to knows us.

Jean Moriot.

Technical Information.

In Camping-car Magazine number 137, issued February 2002, there are two interesting articles on the dangers of gazole and on chains. CC Mag stresses the sensitivity of injectors in new diesel engines. Water in the fuel can lead to breakdown, and this is all very well explained in a comprehensive fashion even for non-initiates. In our western countries, the pumps are well watched over, but when you have to buy fuel from barrels at the side of the road, as happens in Nepal, I believe, and often occurs in Africa, what are the means of control for water? I'd like to hear from those people who used the paste we offered to our members (and of which we have a few tubes left as we bought several at cut price). Have they had a chance to test the product?

As far as chains are concerned the article is equally well documented but I'd have liked to know what the journalists thought about the necessity or otherwise of snow chains for 4X4 vehicles, particularly those like the Transporter which keep the two drive shafts permanently together? Should chains be put only on the back or only on the front? But in that case the diameter of the wheels is not the same, while the manufacturer recommends using tyres with the same wear. Our friends at the Club Syncro presumably have their ideas on the subject.

A reminder that if you wish to attend the European Festival of the Camping Car on the 31 May, 1 and 2 June, you can reduce the cost from 60 euros to 50 by enrolling through us (cheques payable to Motor Press-France; if you don't have the formula, ask on paper with the number of persons and the dimensions of the motorcaravan). While no 'balade' has been organised at this moment, this could be an opportunity to get together.

Selfcriticism.

I haven't kept my promises: Bulletin 91 was only supposed to be 4 pages and it ended up being 8! As far as the colour's concerned, I think the end result is pleasant, but I am going to stop photos in the text. Photocopies only give good results in laser formula (to compare see in bulletin 90 the illustrations on pages 9 and 14 and those on pages 11 and 12). This improvement would cost extra, which was not foreseen in the 2002 budget.

Postcards from...

Rony Loeschnigg, Sillans-la-Cascade, 8 February 2002. On the way to Sardinia via Livorno (Italy) the boat has put into this charming village*, the name of which should tell you something!

Nello and Marie-Claude Di Giusto, Saint-Louis, 4 February. The Silk Route has led us to Senegal, not without some trouble. Tomorrow the tank comes off to be cleaned**. Nouadibou-Nouakchott 600 kilometres of track (+beach) with pumping in a 20-litre can hung on the cow-catcher, that was hard, but the moral is there.

Claude and Robert Jacquard, January, Canada. After autumn in Quebec under canvas, here we are in the the great north steering a team of powerful malamutes, less docile than the iron horse.

* For new members, I'd point out that the Relais de la Bresque camping site at Sillans la Cascade is the traditional site of summer meetings for the Silk Route Club (dates to be decided later). While waiting for the good weather, we envisage spending time there between 18 and 30 March (according to the forecast), after a week at Isola 2000 from the 9 to the16. If you'd like to join us, call us on the portable for more information.

** See the comments about fuel above.

Journeys Being Planned.

We would like to return to the North Cape (a journey we rushed through in 1996) but going via Poland, the Baltic States, and Finland on the way there, and Norway on the way back. We're very tempted by the idea of making a detour to St Petersburg, but that means Russia! We've consulted the embassy by fax and telephone but they are not helpful when it comes to explaining what formalities we need to go through. Has any member made this journey? We'd welcome any information about this destination. Thank you in advance. Bernard and Odile Cousin

I have just received Bulletin 91. I found much of it very interesting. I faxed the Lyos Voyages and VALS agencies to find out how to get visas to cross Russia, going from St Petersburg to Moscow, Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Iran. No reply so far. If I don't receive any I shall about-face, or rather turn my steering wheel to the right towards North America. My Eriba measures 5.50 x 2.10 x 2.25*. Will I be able to bring it back in a container? I may go alone or with other travellers, men or women. Robert Van Grevelinghe.

* I don't think so. Robert is a great traveller, and one of the Paris Beijing pioneers since he went on the 2nd trip with Michel Barbaudy.

The well is beginning to run dry and I think you now have enough elements to find partners at your feet (if I dare put it this way!). It is for the big trips (Canada, South America, Australia, etc) that an agreement can be useful. Even if you don't plan to take the same route once you have disembarked, the fact that you are 3, 4 or more vehicles together has an effect on prices, whether for maritime transport (containers for 2 when possible), for air tickets or for insurance costs.

Response to the guessing game.

Leaving the jamboree at Vogelenzang (Holland), July 1937. The vehicle was a Citroen with a folding hood. End of the letter published in Bulletin 91.

I believe that you'll find pipes in Scout. The first London should have them. Good luck, brotherly greetings Jean de Larigaudie, scout of France.

Kashmir.

7 February 2002 from: Wolff Jean-Louis

Hello, The family is at Istanbul and heading for South-east Asia. China is too expensive for the moment. Here the bolts are being tightened. Hyundai have heavy vehicles in Turkey and they have been very friendly (it must be said that we had a 50 minute broadcast on Korean TV). Our generator is nearly repaired. But the Indian consulate says that the border with Pakistan is closed*, though they think a non-Pakistani vehicle might possibly be able to get through. We're bewildered. And it's a long way to go and see! Jean-Louis Wolff

* I replied that we have no knowledge of this closure in Paris.

11 February 2002 from Wolff Jean-Louis

Re Kashmir Having work to do with a Korean team in Nice on 18 January, it would have been absurd to go back to Paris after that when we had to leave Europe at the end of January because our green card expired. So our last days in Paris were frenetic. We left with the generator unrepaired and our membership form unreturned. With everything you've done for us, that was not right, mea culpa. If my mother has put it away in a drawer we can make good the damage. We have spent nearly a fortnight in Istanbul and we will be back on the road tomorrow. We're raring to go but we have to stop in Ankara for three days to get our Indian visa: your reply was a great consolation: our bus isn't amphibious... The following is the reply from the regional office of the Indian tourist board: 'This is to reconfirm that the border is closed. The only option is to ship the vehicle from the nearest port to India and then continue your journey. Otherwise you may send it to Nepal and enter India. Thanking you, Gour Kanjilal, Regional Director.

I don't understand whether this is a reply to our first request or a confirmation. If the latter, then our party leaving for Beijing may run into trouble.

Pros and Cons of the Web.

In the last issue of CC Mag, a reader complained, justifiably, that when he takes the trouble to reply to requests for information he never receives any thanks or acknowledgment. For this reason he will no longer be giving out information. I'm in a good position to understand how he feels. How many bulletins, following requests by post, telephone and now by mail, have been lost in an ocean of indifference. From now on, as far as I am concerned, I shall only be sending out information in exchange for a stamped addressed envelope. Here are two examples of what I mean - mails which the experts are welcome to pore over and then reply to in my place.

12 February 2002 from Andre Xardel

Subject: Information Hello!

I have just read the account of a tour in Morocco in the Internet. Super. I go there myself every year in a motorcaravan for two or three months, in October or March (a better time in my opinion, fresh vegetables, pleasant temperature).

I go mainly to the south, as far as Dakla. I'd like to ask you the following question: as I'm a terrible fisherman but a lover of fresh fish and an owner of all kinds of equipment, I'd like to know what bait is used for fishing in that region. Thanks!

This year I shall be leaving in early March and I'm looking for another motorcaravaner who might be interested in the adventure. In case...

New friends for the Silk Route?

Travelling from Paris to Ankhor 2002. 28 January 2002 from Georges Schaller Mr Yao of China Comfort Travel has spoken to me about you. I've recently asked him to organise a journey across China from Kirghiztan to Laos in a 4x4 van (2 Toyota) for 3 people, one of them on a bike (!) for this summer. I know that you organise long journeys, so it may be useful for us to exchange experiences and I'm available to speak to you about this. Georges Schaller 69 avenue d'Italie 75013 Paris tel and fax 01 45 86 94 22, mobile 06 15 15 50 10