Dave Tapsell
Safaris Overland Passengers — 1971
Some of the passengers on the Safaris Overland trip that left London for Kabul, on 14 November 1971. The photograph was taken on Christmas Day, 1971 at Persepolis whilst on an excursion from the main route at Tehran. About half the passengers requested to be able to go south and see Isfahan, Persepolis and Shiraz. I charged them enough to pay for the diesel for the 1,200 mile round trip, which took us five days.
This cost them each very little — in those days you could buy about 15 gallons of diesel for £1 (GBP) in Iran – so this side-trip was good value for money. The remainder of the passengers stayed in Tehran until we got back, probably recovering from the gruelling trip so far – just to get this far through the most extreme winter in this region for many, many years. At Isfahan there had been some, not much, snow on the ground, but here at Persepolis there was a welcome trace of warmth in the sun – at last.
On the left is David, Patrick is in the brown coat, and Isabel is smiling because she's spotted the camera.
This trip was unable to get to India due to the war-like political situation between Pakistan and India at the time, so it terminated in Kabul, Afghanistan. All the passengers on this trip were travelling further on, so they did this by taking local buses to Pakistan, or flights direct to India.
Safaris Overland Passengers — 1971
Some of the passengers on the Safaris Overland trip that left London for Kabul, on 14 November 1971. The photograph was taken on Christmas Day, 1971 at Persepolis whilst on an excursion from the main route at Tehran. About half the passengers requested to be able to go south and see Isfahan, Persepolis and Shiraz. I charged them enough to pay for the diesel for the 1,200 mile round trip, which took us five days.
This cost them each very little — in those days you could buy about 15 gallons of diesel for £1 (GBP) in Iran – so this side-trip was good value for money. The remainder of the passengers stayed in Tehran until we got back, probably recovering from the gruelling trip so far – just to get this far through the most extreme winter in this region for many, many years. At Isfahan there had been some, not much, snow on the ground, but here at Persepolis there was a welcome trace of warmth in the sun – at last.
On the left is David, Patrick is in the brown coat, and Isabel is smiling because she's spotted the camera.
This trip was unable to get to India due to the war-like political situation between Pakistan and India at the time, so it terminated in Kabul, Afghanistan. All the passengers on this trip were travelling further on, so they did this by taking local buses to Pakistan, or flights direct to India.