Wally’s Cape Town to Cairo caravan

In 1959 Wally Byam and a group of Airstream owners travelled across the continent of Africa in their Airstream trailers. I found a video on YouTube made of that historic trip, as well as a website for a group that intends to retrace the original route: Cape Town to Cairo. From the website:

“Wally Byam’s Airstream travel trailer has been an American icon of design and product integrity as well as a symbol of a carefree, adventurous way of life since 1931. To this day, Airstream Caravanners travel the world, making friends with people from all walks of life.

The year 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of Wally Byam’s Cape Town to Cairo African Caravan Adventure. This historical event was an overland, 221-day, 14,307-mile journey embarked upon by 106 Caravanners in 41 Airstream travel trailers. This anniversary provides the motivation to rediscover Africa as a Caravan destination. We want to tackle the challenge that is Africa, once again embracing the humanity and participating in the community that Wally Byam endorsed in his life and in his book, Trailer Travel Here and Abroad….”

Here is a link to the video:

I have just realized how easy we sometimes have it today with our modern roads and full hookups.

The Vintage Airstream Podcast

The VAP is available on iTunes, and is a fantastic show that highlights all the fun you can have owning an Airstream. As the show summary says, you can join Host Tim Shephard and Panel Pros Colin Hyde and Rob Baker as they talk vintage trailers. The show focuses on vintage as opposed to modern models, which are generally accepted to be more than 25 years old, although many of the topics are relevant to Airstream owners with more current trailers. Each week the hosts talk about restoration, fixing, camping, and just generally having fun with Airstream trailers in a nice, relaxed, laid-back fashion that reminds me of old-day radio shows before TV.

Here is a YouTube video that Tim made up called “The VAP Aluminum Wrap”, and it has lots of good pics and a custom soundtrack:

Sheer ambrosia for an Airstream fan.