Robin and I met in the 70s, in a hostel in Aswan, Egypt, waiting to catch a boat across Lake Nasser to Sudan.  Robin had driven (plus ferries) to Egypt and Aswan.  I had flown and arrived by rail.  We were each planning to travel as far south in Africa as possible.  We became friendly immediately and shopped together for lace curtains to use as mosquito netting.  The hostel was sprayed with DDT each morning.  Robin was traveling with Terry Stuart and Rhona.  I was traveling with Terry Rose.  When the boat arrived, we claimed space on the roof (see photos) and travelled in comfort (?) to Wadi Halfa in Sudan, where Robin's car was unloaded (by hand!).  We went by rail to Khartoum.  We parted, temporarily, in Khartoum.   Robin sold the car and most of his cargo and continued south by boat on the Nile to Juba and onward to Kenya, where we met up again.  I had met a man trying to start up a safari company and Terry R. and Robin and Rhona and I joined him and a few others through Tanzania, Zambia, and Botswana.

In Botswana we parted again, Robin and Rhona to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) I carried on to South Africa.  Robin and Terry S. got jobs in Rhodesia and I met up with them again briefly when I came back north heading home a few weeks later.

Robin and I kept in touch.  He visited me in California when he was on his way to a temporary job planting trees in British Columbia, and we planned another journey together, this time to drive from England to India and back.

We did this in 1977, leaving England in January and returning to the UK in June, traveling in a VW Beetle with two new companions.  We crossed Europe in snowy conditions to Turkey and decided to head south for warmer weather.  We went through Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, hoping to drive across Saudi Arabia to put the car on a dhow to cross the Persian Gulf.  Unsuccessful, we could not enter Saudi Arabia with unmarried women, so back north again, Jordan, Syria, Turkey and into Iran.  Here we again turned south, crossing into southern Pakistan from southern Iran.  Then north in Pakistan and crossed into India.  Along the way we needed some minor repairs on the car, including having a new ball joint made from scratch by a village blacksmith.  We drove to Delhi, then south along the west coast to Sri Lanka and back up the east coast to Benares and north from there to Nepal.  We drove to the Tibetan border but could not cross - no foreigners allowed.  By then we were tired, so headed home by the most direct route, through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey ...

We wanted to carry on traveling but driving seemed like hard work, so we decided to try letting the wind push us along.  We each returned to work, Robin to the North Sea, me to California, and came again to England 18 months later to buy a sailboat.  We bought a 10-metre catamaran Kabudu, in Plymouth.  It needed work and we needed more money, so we went back to work for six months then came back to finish work on Kabudu.  By now Robin was acquiring other commitments, so I took Kabudu into the Mediterranean.  For various reasons, Robin didn't get much use out of Kabudu.  I sailed her for several seasons in the Med.  In 1985 (?)  Robin and I sailed her from Greece to Malta, where she was eventually sold.

By now both of us had family commitments, so our traveling days were over.  For the six months before we "finished" working on Kabudu, I was able to work in the UK for the first time and have been based here ever since.  Through all this time, Robin has been my best friend.  I'm heartbroken that he's gone.