Visual Story site
The Rover Boys
This website accompanies the book: The Rover Boys by Paul Gilbert with Bristol Foster & Robert Bateman. The book tells the story of their around-the-world adventure in a Land Rover that ocurred in 1957 – 58. The website provides a pictoral companion to the story.
The images contained here are ©Bristol Foster and ©Robert Bateman and may not be reproduced without permission. Except the historical Introduction, all these images were taken during the around-the-world trip using Kodachrome 20 slide film. After nearly 70 years, the original images have deteriorated – the pictures shown here have been reprocessed to as close to their original state as possible. The author apologizes for any unusual artifacts of that process.
The Journey
Introduction
This section provides images of the Rover Boys and their families prior to 1957. This covers Chapters One through Three of the book.
Great Britain
The Rover Boys spent the first month of their journey together trying out the Grizzly Torque (Land Rover) on a road trip through Wales, England and Scotland. This section matches Chapters Four through Eight.
West Africa
Their freighter from England took landfall at Takoradi, Ghana. This section takes them along the Gold Coast through to The Cross River between Nigeria and Cameroon. In the book: Chapters Nine and Ten.
Central Africa
The section contains images from the Congo and what is now – Rwanda. The highlight of this section and possible the most memorable portion of the entire adventure is their visit with the Mbuti (pygmies) of the Uturi forest. Covering Chapters Eleven through Fourteen of the book.
East Africa
The East African portion of their adventure took place in October, 1957 through January, 1958. This section covers Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. These images correspond with Chapters Fifteen and sixteen of the book.
India
Landing in Mumbai (Bombay), the Rover Boys rushed across the western side of India anxious to see the Taj Mahal. After many incidents, they crossed the Ganges at Banaras heading to Nepal (next section). They returned about a week later to Calcutta. These images correspond with Chapters Seventeen through Twenty and a portion of Chapter Twenty-two.
Nepal
In 1958, there were virtually no roads into Nepal. The Rover Boys went overland across farmer’s fields, on old mule tracks and the occasional dirt road. On the return, they followed the construction on a new road paid for by USAID. These are images from Chapter Twenty-one.
Sikkim
Bored and frustrated in Calcutta, the Rover Boys decide to venture northeast during the ‘Holi’ festivals to Sikkim on a recommendation from the famous anthropologist, Colin Turnbull. These images correspond with Chapter Twenty-three.
Burma
The Rover Boys managed to book passage from Calcutta to Rangoon, Burma on a Japanese ship. From there, they drove north and then east through the dangerous Golden Triangle area to the border with Thailand. This selection supports Chapters Twenty-four and Twenty-five of the book.
Southeast Asia
This section combines their time in Thailand, Malaya (now Malaysia) and Singapore. Among many highlights was their trip into the Cameron Highlands with the British SAS. Images here correspond with Chapters Twenty-six to Twenty-eight.
Australia
A cattle freighter carried the Rover boys and the GT from Singapore to a small town on the north coast of Australia called Derby. From there they crossed the outback to Queensland and down the east coast – with many adventures – to Sydney. This section covers Chapter Twenty-nine through Thirty-two.
Art
This section shows you a representative selection of the many sketches and paintings produced by Robert Bateman during this two year adventure.