In my twenties, I lived in London, working hard as a nurse and midwife to finance my many long trips around the world. One of the most adventurous trips I did was driving to India with my then boyfriend. We were young, carefree and seeking adventure, it was an amazing experience, but not a holiday!

We drove through the (then) Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan into India. We sailed to Hamburg where we purchased our car, a VW Beetle, that little car was our home for two weeks until we arrived in Delhi, where we treated ourselves to a few nights in a 5 star hotel.

When we arrived at the Turkish border it was the day Greece and Turkey declared war, after the invasion of Cyprus. We had no idea. We thought, in our ignorance the massing of troops and tanks signified some sort of national celebration! The blackout in Istanbul was unnerving, but during the day it was a beautiful city to explore.

India was a massive culture shock, I was constantly besieged by beggars, and had to give rupees to everyone, which couldn’t be sustained as we were on a budget!

We left the car in Delhi and began our travels around India. Agra and the Taj Mahal were unforgettable, Kathmandu in Nepal was another world. These were just two of the places on our travels but there were many more.

I did have dysentery quite badly, insect bites galore, I lost my money and passport to a nimble fingered thief while I slept in Bombay railway station, waiting for a train to Goa.

Driving through the night in Afghanistan on our return journey, we ran into a flock of sheep, killing two! The irate shepherd insisted we take him(and the sheep) to his nomadic village. We were held there for two weeks until the shepherd, after consulting his kinsmen, decided we owed £20 compensation.