What could prompt a couple to drive an Ambassador from Delhi all the way to Europe? I’d wager you’d need a touch of madness—of the good kind—to embark on an expedition of this kind, not to mention nerves of steel and planning capabilities bordering on the superhuman.
After four years in India, Andreas Babst, who had been the South Asia correspondent for Switzerland’s leading daily NZZ, was due for a new posting. Meanwhile, his partner, photographer Rebecca Conway, a Getty grantee, had been working as a photographer all over South Asia for over a decade. The time was ripe to chart a new course.
The headlamps of the reliable lady shows the way through a highway at dusk
“We always thought about driving back to Europe, first to Switzerland where I’m from and then on to England where Rebecca is from. It was kind of a distant project for two years, something you would talk about before going to bed. Then we bought an Ambassador, and the whole journey became suddenly very real,” said Andreas Babst over email. When I contacted Andreas for the story, they had just arrived in Georgia, driving down the hilly border regions into Tbilisi. “We are taking a few days to roam around the city, trying to get a feel for it, so far it has been excellent—and that is not just the wine,” he said.
The Nepal Patlekhat trip
Why choose an Ambassador though? On this point, Andreas is unwavering in his conviction. “There is not a more iconic car than the Ambassador,” he said, “We love India, we met each other in India, the years in India have been formative and life-changing for both of us. Driving an Ambassador home to Europe is kind of a homage to the new home we found there, the people and friends we met, the kindness and culture we were embraced by. All of this is represented by this car.”
The specific model they are driving is an Ambassador Discovery produced in 2011—one of the last batches made before the factory shut down. “She has a bit of a temperament, so we named her Edwina, after Edwina Mountbatten. I was reading a book about her when we bought the car and it felt fitting,” said Andreas.
Edwina passes through Lhasa in Tibet
Planning the journey was a logistical challenge which the couple met head-on. Geopolitics did have a major impact on their route, more than they wished for. “We wanted to drive through Pakistan first, but getting permits to bring an Indian car into Pakistan proved to be extremely challenging. So, we chose to do a detour: We drove to Nepal and from there to China, through Tibet, and left the country through Xinjiang into Kazakhstan,” said Andreas.
Check-ups on the journey
The other challenge was that the war in Ukraine made it extremely difficult to obtain a Russian visa. Current tensions also ruled out driving through Iran. This only left them the option of going via Central Asia, which entailed taking a ferry over the Caspian Sea and into Azerbaijan. The effective route is: Nepal-China-Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey-Europe. Having earmarked four months to complete the trip, the couple are clearly devotees of the slow travel movement. A book about the drive is also on the cards, so, although they could have done it faster, they’re spending some time in each country they visit.
A capture on the Tibet Shigatse trip
Any journey is about interesting encounters. And when you’re driving an OG car like the Ambassador, these can occur with disarming frequency. Andreas and Rebecca have met many wonderful people along the way, with the car proving to be “a real ice-breaker”. “In every country people come up to us to take a photo, or they want to peek under the hood,” reminisces Andreas, “In China we had a police officer who was standing around our parked car for a worryingly long time. Turns out, he just wanted to take a photo sitting behind the wheel!”
Edwina poses smart on the Uzbekistan Samarkand Trip
There were some scary moments as well, largely owing to the terrain and the challenging roads in some parts. For instance, they drove through Nepal in the middle of the monsoon, and the road to the Chinese border was basically just a mud track. “If you’re not careful, you and your car can fall hundreds of metres off a cliff. But we learned you can always trust in the kindness of strangers. One day, in the Kazakh steppe, we were surprised by a dust storm, that turned into a thunderstorm, and it was suddenly dark in the middle of nowhere. We turned off the highway into the first village we saw and went to the local shop. We asked them if there was a hotel in the village—there was none. But the guy behind us in the queue overheard our conversation and told us to follow him to his house. He and his family took us in for the night. We spent a whole evening over a lavish potato dish, talking through translation apps and it turned out to be one of the most beautiful evenings we had on this trip,” recalls Andreas.
While on the Kyrgyzstan Alai trip
As for Edwina the Ambassador herself, she has been a pretty reliable travel companion. “I think none of our friends in Delhi thought we would make it that far,” quipped Andreas, “She made it through the mud in Nepal, over the high mountain passes of Tibet and through the deserts of Central Asia. She keeps amazing us. We lost an exhaust and a silencer on the bumpy Nepal roads, and a Chinese mechanic fashioned a replacement with a pipe and a spray can. There is always something rattling, the electrics are one big jugaad, and she is not always happy with the quality of petrol available. But Edwina just soldiers on.”
Irrespective of the terrain, Edwina just soldiers on
Edwina’s final fate is undecided. When I asked Andreas what they were planning to do with her once they reached their final destination, he said, “We will drive on from Switzerland to Britain and hopefully be able to get her on the road there. She will hopefully turn a lot of heads there too!”
You can follow the rest of Rebecca and Andreas’s trip on their Instagram handles: @rebeccajconway and @a_babst.
