Motives and Illusions

There were six of us. Seven at one point. We’ll get to the introductions in a little while. First there’s the question of why six variously stoned and strapping English hippies should choose to spend the summer of 1974 travelling to Istanbul in an ex-military ambulance called Bertha.

Some possibilities:

- We’d all read Kerouac. And the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. If we couldn’t be on Kesey’s bus…

- We wanted to see the world. Well, doesn’t everybody?

- It seemed like a good idea at the time.

- Cheap transport. Pat was on board because he wanted a lift to Amsterdam. This really is beginning to sound like the 70s, isn’t it?

- We’d been working hard and needed a holiday. That was Stu’s story at least. I was a photography student. How hard is that?

- We were all seasoned travellers on the journey of life and the bus was just another illusion on the road to enlightenment.

All doubtless true, to some degree or another.

Me, I reckon we just wanted to get laid…