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.

“We Gotta Get Out Of This Place”    The Animals  • 1965
We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
'Cause girl, there's a better life for me and you

29B Jeffreys St,Camden Town,London, NW1.  14/05/1969

Main news is the axe has fallen tax wise and as well I’m paying superannuation of £10 a month. I expect this will be rebated but not the double tax I have to pay. Handed in my resignation today. Dates from end of August. Will be paid summer holiday pay here almost till I start work in Aussie. Seems strange to be leaving. I’m doing pretty well on a reasonably tight budget at present but don’t expect I’ll save enough for spending money on the way home so will send home for £100 (about AU$207) in July as two of my pays won’t be credited to my account before I leave. 

Will probably leave England the first day of the hols, 26th of July and drive through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia and then to Athens in Greece where will spend a week, more or less dispose of the car and get a boat out to a Greek Island. The girls are coming with us and we will probably camp most of the time.  We may stay at an occasional pensione in Greece. Expect will fly out of Athens on a Qantas flight about the 27th of August as that is when Jean and Beth are flying back to England on a student charter flight. From there we’ll spend four to five days in Bangkok, Thailand and do a spot of shopping if I have any brass left. We will arrive in Sydney round about 1^st, 2^nd, 3rd of September I think. Haven’t booked any flights yet so these are all tentative dates. Will go into Piccadilly on Saturday and book these and to the Strand to NSW House to apply to the good old NSW Education Department (bless their despotic, authoritarian, little minds). School starts in NSW on the 9th of September. I may know by then which school I’m appointed to. If it happens to be a one teacher country school in Western Division I’ll just write and tell them to… and I’ll go to Canada, South Africa or some other place.

Our Beer Festival was a Rip-roaring success with about 12,000 people there. I was in one of the team races. You had to empty a pint of free beer and then put the glass upside down on your head to show there were no dregs left. It was one of our rugby teams versus some civilians. We won but didn’t get into the final (time too slow). I served on the bar for four hours (more free beer) while the brass band played in the afternoon (Royal Guards) and they were tremendous as were two pop groups later in the evening. I don’t know how much beer was consumed yet but it was all on BBC News.

Only a week and a half till our Whit holiday. Jean and I are going to the Isle of Wight and will check out the yachts on the Solent and at Cowes. Weather is definitely warming up so we’ll probably camp. It’s cheaper and also check out some people we know.

Still have my beard which saves shaving of a morning. Doesn’t look too bad at all but probably shave it off in Greece unless I have a change of mind. Keith gets married 31st of May in Canada.

POSTCARD

31/05/1968

Hello, arrived back in London yesterday with a good beginning to a suntan. Now looking much healthier after having spent a few days on the beach. Came back by hovercraft across the Solent into Portsmouth and had another look over the Victory (Nelson’s ship) in the Navy yards as Jean hadn’t seen it before. School again on Monday, unfortunately. 

 Postcard view from Royal Yacht squadron and Cowes Castle

Suntan hasn’t faded much yet and I’m still a bit surprised at having got one during our very cheap midterm holiday on the Isle of Wight. The whole trip cost only £7 for six days inclusive of everything as we hitched down then camped and Youth Hostelled. Ate well, had a few trips on boats from canoes to hovercraft and hitched back. Saw the QE 2 in the Solent. What a fantastic ship she is. I would love to go on a cruise on that. Spent a few days on the beach at Ryde and Freshwater and the countryside is very pleasant and green down there. Weather was a bit variable and we slept one night in a bus shed but the rain started blowing in about 4:00 am. Fun all the same.