This is the story of Will and his two friends who sailed to England in 1967 to see the world. Aerogrammes. letters, diaries and postcards help to tell of their adventures in this A to Z.

“Summer Holiday”   Cliff Richard and The Shadows  •  1963
We're all goin' on a summer holiday
No more workin' for a week or two
Fun and laughter on our summer holiday
No more worries for me or you
For a week or two

Tuesday 30^th July 1968

Packed car and left at 2.30 pm.  Slept in a Hayfield near Rouen, France.

Wednesday 31^st July

Slept near Bordeaux in cornfield.

Thursday 1^st August

Weather getting warmer.  Car going OK.  Slept in Burgos, Spain in a forest.

Friday 2^nd August

Crossed into Portugal at nightfall and slept on a rocky plain.

Saturday 3^rd August

Drove through the mountains of Portugal to Porto, home of Port wine, Henry the Navigator and Ferdinand Magellan. Modern camping area full of gum trees.  I’m suffering from “Spanish Tummy”.

Douro River with traditional Rabelo (wooden cargo boat). Portugal Turistico

POSTCARD Porto, Portugal, 03/08/1968

Dear Dad, Couldn’t work out the Portuguese for “Happy Birthday”.  So haven’t sent you an ordinary birthday card.  Hope you have a Happy Birthday anyway. Have been travelling for five days and the car is going well despite being sandwiched by an Italian and a Frenchman in Spain. They got dented but we didn’t. Camping now in Porto where port wine comes from. Lots of free tasting. Cheers from sunny hot Portugal. Camping area is full of gum trees. Makes us a little homesick. Will

Monday 5^th August

Drove to Lisbon via Fatima, site of the supposed appearance of Mary in 1917 and centre of large pilgrimages nowadays.

POSTCARD

Lisbon, Spain. 05/08/1968

Dear Mr and Mrs Price,

Will has told you enough about the great weather and cheap beer in Portugal. It has made us think more about home than we have for a long while. We spend many a long hour talking about it and you can rest assured that if nothing else Will just about has me signed up for the first sailing season!! Life is good here and in England and all is going well for us.  One day soon “The Great South Land”. Regards and congratulations to Jack and Gail.

Phil

Extract from Diary

Friday 16^th August

Had a beer with Carole and Jane (Nottingham Schoolies) before we left Lisbon at 12 noon for Lagos, Algarve (Portugal), 180 miles away.  Moved onto Quarteira camp area where we erected the tent at nightfall.

Monday 19^th August

Out of bed at 8 am each morning because the heat of the sun coming in the tent is unbearable.

Tuesday 20^th August

Drove on about 50 miles through Tavira to Monte Gordo, a small town on Spanish/Portuguese border.

Wednesday 21^st August

Good spot but camp not much.  Good beach, warm water, Surf! Miles of sand.  Very few English birds however beer good, food reasonable prices.

Monte Cordo, Portugal near Spanish Border,28/08/1968

I’m sitting in the car writing this and it’s breakfast time but Phil’s still asleep so I have a few minutes before I drive up to the market and buy some food.

We have been staying here in the camping area opposite the sandy beach which even has a surf, (the first I’ve been swimming in since Australia) for about 5 days, leading a carefree existence while getting tanned in the sun.

The temperature has been about 86°F at midday for the last couple of weeks but doesn’t get uncomfortably hot because of a pleasant sea breeze. Also, the water is an ideal temperature for surfing and you don’t get cold even after an hour or so in the water.

Collected your letter at the British Embassy in Lisbon and was good to read up on the news.  I get a little out of contact otherwise during the six weeks of being away.

We’re really eating well here and have at least one meal a day in a restaurant at a cost of about $1.00 Australian. Present favourite is “Escalopes de Vitela a Madeira” which according to my dictionary is veal cooked in Madeira wine but being a busy fishing port, the fish meals are probably better value. Mussels, pipis, prawns, crabs and lobster are plentiful but lobster is expensive here too.

Fruit, vegetables, bread and wine are very cheap if bought at the markets where the locals shop and sample prices are: a large rock melon 1 penny, tomatoes large 1 penny, onions 1 penny, plums a halfpenny each, grapes 8 pennies a pound, bread rolls 1 1/2 pennies each and wine is 3 1/2 pennies for a glass of red local variety, very tasty, so you can see we live pretty cheaply on the food front and one could get ironed out for two and six pence if one drank, which is the price of a large bottle of wine. 

Petrol on the other hand is 8 shillings, that is $0.84 a gallon for super- dearer in France. 

The pretty little town of Vila Real de Santo Antonio where we do most of our eating and shopping has a Main Street full of open-air cafes, beach umbrellas and attractive buildings where no cars are allowed.

It looks over the Guadiana River and Spain is on the other side.

After a big meal with wine here a couple of days back we flaked in the afternoon heat for about four hours and ended up drinking orange juice and coffee and eating ham and sausage rolls in a little cafe until 3:30 am Then not being sleepy, watched the dawn across the water and had scrambled eggs on the point overlooking the ocean for breakfast.

It’s a good life if you don’t weaken as Arthur kept saying in this book I’ve just finished reading “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” by Alan Sillitoe.

The camping area here is nowhere as good as Lisbon and while the toilets are clean they are equipped with French boggers not designed for reading the newspaper.

We were shocked when we bought an English newspaper down here and read of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia last week and have been buying papers regularly now to keep in touch.

Have been doing quite a bit of thinking about home lately as the open-air living, sunshine and gum trees are reminiscent. Missed the sailing a lot and have been re-examining future plans in view of finances and cost of fares etc but haven’t come to any conclusions yet. Will have £150 more in the bank (pay for holidays) when I get back to London so will make my account look a little healthier.

Morris has 2200 miles up on the clock since London and is still going well but the water pump is a bit noisy.

About it for now hope all is well. Heading back for London in two days and will drive for four or five days to get back.

Extract from Diary

Wednesday 28^th August

Decided to move on so shopped, packed tent and caught ferry into Spain in afternoon. Drove all evening waving to Pom birds. We became lost in Seville. So did they and we hoped to catch them up when about 1:00 am the loud clunking noise from our water pump ceased. It had seized 50 miles short of Cordoba alongside a deserted road.  We got some sleep but the bloody lorries in the road roared on all night. 

Thursday 29th of August

We disconnected the fan belt and moved on at dawn because of no need for lights and the cooler air and drove in short spells when the radiator stopped boiling.  The only food we had was rockmelon and beer and this developed into a case of diarrhoea.  It took five hours to get into Cordoba and find a BMC place who were very helpful.  We checked into a nice camp area and surveyed the town in the evening.

POSTCARD. Cordoba, Spain,30/08/1968

Didn’t intend to stop off here on the way back but the water pump finally seized 50 miles before this place at midnight last night. Slept under an olive tree and limped into the BMC place this morning. All repairs completed £3 seventeen shillings. So went sightseeing today. The Romans must have been everywhere. Spain is very interesting. Madrid tomorrow.

Saturday 31st of August

Left Cordoba with the Morris now sounding healthier although a little noisy from a slipped manifold. Drove on stopping only for fuel and passed through Madrid, the capital city of Spain.

Sunday 1st of September 

Drove on through Spain and reached the French border about 4:00 am so slept in car until 8:00 am when the shops opened. We spent a few hours shopping (wine bottle, wine skin etc). Drove on through France. 

Monday 2nd of September

Through Brittany and spent an interesting time visiting Mont St Michel, the old Benedictine monastery built on a rocky outcrop of the sea. Fascinating place. Spent the day exploring the remnants of the invasion coast of Normandy where the events of the 6th of June, 1944 took place. Slept the night at Omaha Beach.

Tuesday 3rd of September

Drove on at dawn. Passports stamped for 12 months without bother. Had a cigar and duty free whisky and felt very good to be going home to England.  Phil drove up the right hand side (wrong side) of the road in Dover. We both got quite a shock to see a Jaguar bearing down on us head on! Stayed at Dover Youth Hostel  and enjoyed hot shower for one hour. 

Wednesday 4th of September 

Good old England. Visited Canterbury, a great place with interesting cathedral. Had mudguard ripped open in Earls Court.

Thursday 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, 8th flat hunting.