Atlantica - 01.06.2006, Page 56

AT L A N T I CA 55
them with green tea and the question, “Do you have
hashish, my friend? No? Then you buy from me.
First quality. Welcome to Afghanistan.”
For many, the American author Jack Kerouac
kick-started their journey, his soul stripped naked,
his body hungry for release, his heart “mad to live,
mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of every-
thing at the same time.” On the road beside him
was Allen Ginsberg, famously chanting his poem
Howl about “angelheaded hipsters burning for the
ancient heavenly connection.” This new generation
of Americans and Europeans had abandoned their
parents’ “Kingdom Come” of postponed pleasure
to seize the living, transient world. As Tom Wolfe
wrote, their footloose decade unfolded with a feel-
ing “out here at night, free, with the motor running
4) New Zealander Mary Hammonds and Kashmiri
child at the Band-i-Amir lakes in Afghanistan, en
route from London to Nepal. The 7,500-mile journey
took between ten and twelve weeks, depending
on weather, road conditions and drivers’ sense of
urgency (or not). Near there stood the Bamiyan
Buddhas which were destroyed by the Taliban in
2001.
PHOTOGRAPHER: CHRIS WEEKS 1974
3) Towards the end of a London-to-Kathmandu trip,
Intertrek drivers and passengers on a houseboat
on Dal Lake, Kashmir. On their last evening in
Kashmir the boat owners dressed up expedition
leaders and provided a dancing ‘girl’ and some
musicians for an evening of entertainment. Many
travelers chose to have Kashmiri clothes made for
them, just for the party, for a dollar or two.
PHOTOGRAPHER: CHRIS WEEKS 1975
2) South African Verona Bass, aged 25,
by the Bosphorus at the Eminonu ferry
terminal in Istanbul. She is about to
catch the Bosphorus ferry to Asia, on
her journey aboard the ‘Blunderbus’
between London and Kathmandu. She
and her traveling companion, Nancy
Chapman, had met every Saturday
afternoon for a year planning their get-
away. “We felt there was something
exotic in the air, something inevitable
making us choose to go East.”
PHOTOGRAPHER: NANCY HARRIS 1967
1) No one on the overland trail could remain
a passenger for long. This is an ex-British
Army Bedford RL with standard cab but fitted
with long-range fuel and water tanks.
PHOTOGRAPHER: CHRIS WEEKS 1975
2)
3) 4)
054-58HippieTrailAtl406.indd 55 23.6.2006 12:31:35