Marcin read recently a brilliant book, or rather a chronicle of travel . “Halina Korolec-Bujakowska My Boy, Motor and I “ about Stanislaw and Halina on their honeymoon trip to China, which was developed based on records of trip by Łukasz Wierzbicki .
The book was based on 7 thick workbooks with stenograms, yellowed magazines, albums in different languages clippings and boxes full of photographs.
In 1934, Stanislaw Bujakowski bought a BSA motorcycle BSA, It was probably G-34-14 two cylinder "World Tour".
The motorcycle escapade to China was to be their somewhat belated honeymoon. With only a tent in 4 blankets, two pillows, two coats of rain, suitcase, her two dresses, two sweaters, some underwear, and a change of shoes. Kitchen of a primitive stove and pans made of aluminum.
A typewriter, 2 cameras, some spare parts (...) and a set of tools. Rope and shovel also.
The young couple intended to finance the trip of royalties for correspondence releases. Their main - we would say today - the sponsor was "Kurier Warszawski". They also had to write to the bi-weekly "World" and the magazine "Motorcycle".
They set out in August 1934 to reach as far as possible to Shanghai, China. The motorcycle wasn't the best choice, there were times that we had to push, pull, carry the machine.
They ate modestly, slept on the ground, in the snows in the mountains of Persia, and in the heat of India, in the tent that became more rotten and torn.
In Burma they had to live six months in the heart of a tropical forest. The jungle fed them, and in 1936, they reached Shanghai. Then Halina spent most of their time arranging and editing notes from the expedition.
Stanislaw was in China as a reporter for Polish newspapers getting photographs from the war of Manchuria.
Soon he received a letter that his wife was expecting a baby. In 1938, at the news, he left China and returned home to Poland. Unfortunately, not much time was available to enjoy family life, in September 1939, the bombs which Halina escaped from China were falling in Poland.
Stanislaw enlisted in the British RAF Transport Command, he flew to the front with military equipment from the United States, from the port of Takoradi on the Gold Coast (now Ghana) to Cairo in Egypt.
Convoys struggled with sandstorms and lost their bearings in the vast desert.
Halina in Druskininkai took care of the child. In 1946 with her son at her side, Halina was waiting at the gate of the harbor to greet airmen from Britain.
She went to the first passenger who stepped down from the deck of the ship and asked whether this knows Stanislaus Bujakowski.The pilot pulled from his pocket a photograph of her husband and said that for five years he'd been with him flying.
They quickly established contact again, but Stanislaw decided not to return to the Poland. He had a job as a pilot in a private transport company in India.
In 1947, Halina sailed with her son to England. Less than a month later, they boarded a plane to Calcutta, placing all the travel clippings, news reports, and photos in a suitcase she left with family.
In 2004, Marek Ponikowski, editor, journalist, and automotive enthusiast, became interested and began the project to correlate, organize, and make a book about the adventure, in 2011, forgotten for decades, the chronicle of two Poles went to the hands of readers.
In October 2012, the book received the 'travel book of the year '.
http://www.lukaszwierzbicki.pl/byle-swiat-szeroki/
No comments:
Post a Comment