ERIC’S WIZARD TRIP TO OZ.. AND BACK
Some people are just born adventurers, like former RAF tail gunner Eric Edis.
Now 94, Eric became the only person to drive overland to Australia – and back again! His daughter Carolyn tells his story:
“Like many young men at the time, my father Eric Edis lied about his age to enlist in the RAF during the Second World War – he was only 14 years old when war broke out.
“He was determined to fight for his country, and chose to be a tail gunner despite the life expectancy for air crew being six weeks!
“After the war, in 1948, he married my mother, Betty, who was the wages clerk at Watchfield aerodrome where he was stationed. They moved to Walthamstow in East London, where his family were from, and rented a prefab as the air raids had decimated the area.
“My dad always craved excitement and planned to drive to Australia and back again – overland! So in October 1957 he bought an old Land Rover, which he called Tessa, and set off with a team of like-minded travellers.
“The intention was to drive through Burma which had a closed border for land travel, and many said the trip was impossible. Undaunted, the party set out – although many did not stay the course for different reasons.
“On arrival at the India/Burma border, they were refused a visa but dad realised if land visas were not being issued, then the border guards wouldn’t know what one looked like. So he got into the country!
“Driving through Burma was tough. In some parts they had ad to cut their way through dense e jungle, averaging just five miles a day, ay, while trying to avoid tribes of
Naga headhunters.
“Poor old Tessa also got stuck tuck in the middle of a river they were ere trying to cross, and had to be e winched ashore by a Bren Gun un carrier.
“On arrival in Singapore, dad got a working passage on a Norwegian oil tanker to
Melbourne, and from there he drove to Sydney to surprise his brother, Frank, who had emigrated to the area years earlier. “After working in Australia for six months, he put together another group of travellers, all willing to endure the terrors of Burma – and worse – the English climate, and drove back home to Blighty the same way as he’d come. “My dad wrote about his incredible journey in his book, The Impossible Takes A Little Longer, which is avai available on Amazon.
“In England, da dad started a business running exped expeditions to India. Later he became a driv driving instructor and carried on teaching te until he was 85. “He’s now living alone in Woodford Green as my mother died in 2001. “Both mys myself and my sister Wendy are very prou proud of our dad, as far as we know, he i is still the only person to complete comp this journey bo both ways.”
If you have a story to share about one of your family members, email me at siobhan. mcnally@mirror.co.uk