Topdeck Travel Blog

by Kara Segedin

Imagine spending over 100 days driving from London to Australia retracing the steps of the original Topdeck pioneers?

For one group of young travellers this dream is about to become reality.

Jealous much?

We are!

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Early on Monday morning, eleven young people from all over the world left London to travel 10,000 miles to Australia in a vintage double decker Topdeck bus.

Making their way through Europe, the Middle East, Central and South East Asia, they plan to roll into Sydney in January 2012.

Tadpoles' new crew ready to hit the road!

The Originals

Way back in the in the early 1970s, Aussie expats Bill James and Graham ‘Skroo’ Turner bought a 1958 double-decker to take eager young travellers across Europe.

The duo started out providing trips along the hippie trail to Morocco and Kathmandu and the rest was history.

The New Crew

Now, 40-something years later, the brains behind the project is Canadian Jordan Cross.

Jordan was inspired to make the epic journey after reading the appropriately named Top Deck Daze, Bill James’s hilarious account of the company’s early days.

“It’s such an incredible story of how these guys came over here with nothing and didn’t always play by the rules and stumbled their way through a lot of things,” he said.

“All their success hasn’t changed them – they are just amazing guys with amazing stories.”

Tadpoles in all its glory!

The Ride

The legendary Tadpoles is a Bristol Lodekka (a type of double-decker bus for the non-bus spotters among you) and started life working on the Isle of Wight for the Southern Vectis bus company in 1958.

After 20 years of service the bus was bought by Topdeck and fitted it out with bunks and a kitchen and soon Tadpoles was making tracks across Europe and Asia including travelling from London to Nepal more than 20 times.

The last double decker running for Topdeck, Tadpoles was taken out of service in May 1998 and given to the Isle of Wight Bus Museum on permanent loan.

But Tadpoles’ adventure didn’t end there. In 2010 it was brought out of retirement to carry a new generation of travellers over the historic route.

The Journey

The guy at the wheel of Tadpoles on its latest adventure is Australian Mitch Turner.

Mitch previously worked driving trucks in Western Australia’s mining industry so is no stranger to operating large vehicles.

As a warm up, Mitch and the new crew took Tadpoles on a short training trip around several small European cities to get the hang of driving the 53-year-old bus.

The double-decker’s size proved to be a challenge on Europe’s old, narrow streets and it sometimes took a dozen attempts to get it around any tight corners.

“There’s no power steering and it’s very heavy so corners and parking are difficult,” said Mitch.

“Even with all the work that’s been done to it 45 miles an hour will be our max speed.”

Tadpoles is sure to get plenty of honks from fellow motorists, let’s just hope it’s in appreciation of this unique vehicle and not for holding up traffic on Germany’s Autobarn on their way to Oktoberfest!

Jordan said the main idea of the project is to see how people change over the duration of the trip and how one experience can impact you for life.

“We want to do it as real as Bill and Skroo did back in ‘75 and track their route as much as we can.”

Just like the original crew, all the cooking, eating and sleeping will be done right on the bus.  Also like the originals they are operating on a rather fluid schedule – unlike today’s organised itineraries.

So while the style of travel may have changed a little (okay, a lot!) over the years the Topdeck spirit is still alive and kicking.

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Follow Tadpoles’ progress through the team’s website, facebook and twitter.

Topdeck will also track the journey on our blog, facebook and twitter along with other old-school Topdeck titbits.

PS If you, your parents or maybe even grandparents would care to share any memories from Topdeck in the 70s and 80s please comment below.