co lu mn: detou r
text: claire hochachka
photography: albert podell & harold stephens
1-- -': m winter cityscape. There he found AlDert PoceU. the magazine's picture editor. working on Stephens' story of his journey across Russia. Podell asked him what trip he had planned next. "Another auto trip," Stephens said. "This time completely around the
One gray December day in New York City. in 1964, travel-writer Harold hens walked into the offices of Argosy magazine. overlooking the dis-
world."
Podell looked at Stephens intently. "After Europe:' Stephens continued. Til cut across the top of Africa. camp in the desert.
share meals with roving bands of nomads. Then Cairo. I"ll pitch camp in the shadow of the Pyramids. cooled by the evening breeze off the Nile ... the Great Salt Desert of Persia ... mosques and minarets ... Baghdad ... wilds of Afghanistan ... bathe in the Ganges ... the jungles of Thailand ... camp at the edge of a forest pool where elephant and tigers drink together ... .'ยท Stephens rambled on about Tangier and Tahiti. Calcutta and Kathmandu. Bangkok and
Singapore. and a faraway look came into Podell's eyes. "I wish I could go with you:' he said. Two months later. Podell quit his job and. together with Stephens and three other friends. set
off on the Trans World Expedition. a journey to establish an all-time record for the longest automobile journey ever made around the world.
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