Between April and June 1967 my father and I drove from Singapore to London and on to Yelverton in Devon in a Citroën ID 19. I was 18 years old at the time and was enrolled at the University of Hamburg in the winter semester 1967.

As Burma (now Myanmar) was impassable by road, we shipped the car from Penang to Madras (now Chennai), then drove through India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey to Europe. We had intended to travel to Israel, but the timing proved to be inappropriate: we would have arrived there round the end of May, just before the beginning of the Six-Day War. On advice from the British Consul in Tehran, we chose not to go. I often wonder if that was the correct choice.

The following diary pages relate to this journey:

• April: Singapore to Madras
• May: Madras to Istanbul
• June: Istanbul to Tavistock

Distance travelled

I made some notes about the distance travelled on the journey, but I have lost them. Starting in 28 May, however, I wrote down the distances in my diary. Here's an overview based on the roads of 2022 and 2026, over 55 years later. We went by ship from George Town to Madras, and for that I used the Great circle distance.

Work in progress

Date		From		To		Distance (km)
8 April 1967		Singapore		Kuala Lumpur		437
24 April 1967		Kuala Lumpur		George Town		389
25 April 1967		George Town		Madras		2369				By ship, great circle
2 May 1967		Madras		Nellore		176				Noted at time
3 May 1967		Nellore		Nizamabad		809				Suboptimal route
4 May 1967		Nizamabad		Jabalpur		749
5 May 1967		Jabalpur		Agra		683		Map
6 May 1967		Agra		New Delhi		212
9 May 1967		New Delhi		Jammu		672
10 May 1967		Jammu		Srinagar		297		Map
14 May 1967		Srinagar		Firozpur		642
15 May 1967		Firozpur		Peshawar		603		Map		Estimated (Google Maps fail)
16 May 1967		Peshawar		Kabul		279
18 May 1967		Kabul		Kandahar		498		Map
19 May 1967		Kandahar		Herat		570		Map
20 May 1967		Herat		Mashhad		378		Map
21 May 1967		Mashhad		Sari		711		Map
22 May 1967		Sari		Tehran		279		Map
25 May 1967		Tehran		Tabriz		618		Map
26 May 1967		Tabriz		Gümüshane		784		Map
27 May 1967		Gümüshane		Samsun		354		Map
28 May 1967		Samsun		Ízmir		985		Map		Distance noted at time
29 May 1967		İzmir		İzmir		266				Sightseeing, distance noted at time
30 May 1965		İzmir		Istanbul		644		Map		Distance noted at time
2 June 1967		Istanbul		Sofia		551		Map		Distance noted at time
2 June 1967		Sofia		Klagenfurt		1011		Map		Distance noted at time
3 June 1967		Klagenfurt		München		364		Map		Distance noted at time
5 June 1967		München		Frankfurt/Main		436		Map		Distance noted at time
19670606		Frankfurt/Main		London		649		Map		Distance noted at time
9 June 1967		London		Horsham		65		Map		Distance noted at time
10 June 1967		Horsham		Portsmouth		219				Distance noted at time
11 June 1967		Portsmouth		Yelverton		317				Distance noted at time
Total						13288
Without ship						10919
Great circle						11149

I used Google Maps with “Avoid Freeways”, since there were none in Asia in those days, and it ignored the setting in Europe. The distances it calculated were surprisingly close to the ones I had written in my diary, except in the UK.

The “great circle” distance is interesting. Singapore is about the furthest that you can get from London in Asia. By comparison, the far east tip of Russia (Naukan) is 6998 km, and Vladivostok is 8751 km. Why is that further? The great circle to Naukan goes over the pole.