Bondi to the Baltic (AU Edition)

Two antique cars, a few old mates and the journey of alifetime.Take a couple of vintage cars and their owners’ determination todrive them on a pilgrimage from Australia to Finland and you have afascinating story told through photos and the distillation of blogsand diary entries by some foolhardy, adventurous blokes.Starting out from Thailand, their travels took them throughLaos, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Russia and Finland – a six-monthjourney spread over two legs in successive years.Told in an engaging, self-deprecating and personal style, thereader enters the journey, every step of the way: following theancient Silk Road route into the mountains of south-west andwestern China and the Tibetan Plateau where Muslim and Buddhistcommunities have lived for centuries, through the ‘-stans’, andbeyond.Many an adventure, impossibly sticky situations, near misses andregular mechanical breakdowns were inevitably resolved with thesupport and civility towards this motley group of travellers intheir ancient cars, by locals renowned for their hospitality.Nothing was ever too much trouble.They had no sponsor, no professional photographer or filmmaker,no journalist to publish the story, no ‘name’ to add fame andcelebrity, no contract in the pocket for a coffee table book withquality photos and deep, or informed historical and culturalinsights, and no travelling mechanical workshop. There was just adetermination to get each of these old cars to Helsinki in onepiece and smell the roses along the way.A must-read for men (and women) who dream …