CONTENTS

Foreword – VW Kombi Phenomenon

List of Photographs

Preface – Bridging a Half-Century

Prologue – Thumbing One’s Way Through Africa

An Idea Comes to Life

Maps

MOSCOW CALLING

1. Hiccups and Rumbles

2. Into Russia’s Realm

3. Summer in Moscow

4. How to Get Out of Russia

5. Yugoslavia’s Zenith

FROM ASIA’S EDGE

6. Anatolia – Eurasia’s Crucible

7. A Bit Too Far East

8. Iranian Dynasties

9. Children of Abraham

TO ASIA’S HEARTLAND

10. Turkish Connections

11. Testing Afghan Patience

12. Kabul Before the Winter

13. To the Oxus – How Mehmed Pushed His Luck

SOUTH TO SERENDIPITY

14. Beyond the Indus

15. The Long, High Valleys of Nepal

16. A Would-Be Paradise – Ceylon

TASTING INDEPENDENCE

17. Into Africa

18. North to the Nile

19. Stand-Off in Cyprus

Epilogue

Kombi Z1235 In Memoriam of a Faithful Chariot

Appendix: Distances Travelled by Kombis Between Major Cities