The road to India

John Prendergast

Published by John Murray. hardcover with dustjacket, illustrated.

More and more people are taking time off to make the overland trip through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan to India. As this book emphasises, you don't have to be young and rugged to do it and your vehicle doesn't need to be four-wheel drive. John Prendergast, with over forty years of driving experience in the East including eight return trips to India by road since 1960, is uniquely qualified to act as guide on this most rewarding of journeys.

His aim is to remove as many obstacles as possible to the full enjoyment of the people and places both en route and at the end of your journey in India itself. He will save you time and money; he will save you unnecessary risks. Above all he will save you needless worry.

In the first part of the book types of vehicle are discussed and in particular the motor caravan or camper. The author goes into modifications for the workings and interiors of vans and campers, and gives a great many invaluable mechanical tips. The rest of the book covers the route itself, stretch by stretch, giving distances and approximate times, good stopping and shopping places, petrol stations, gradients, passes, surfaces, detailed guidance for getting through the cities and the frontiers, side trips and alternative routes, and takes you as far as Madras in India itself where the ships for South-East Asia and Australia leave.

Throughout, the hard information and instruction is leavened by a liberal allowance of anecdote and history, comment on the passing landscape and the handicrafts or types of carpet associated with each part of the route. The air of authority and accumulated wisdom arises from the author's obvious love for and understanding of these lands and peoples.