Retro Travel Photo – Before We Grew Up: Berlin Wall watchtower, Berlin, Germany

In this new occasional section we share some of the travel photos from our archives – when we paid our dues but rarely our way. Times were tough, hitch-hiking was a favoured mode of transport (even through the Sahara, which was surprisingly easy) and luxury hotels were places we tried to sneak into to have a swim.

We’re talking bad hair days galore, I’m sure…

Guilty there I’m afraid. Haircuts were far down the list of priorities when it came to actually spending money, as you will see. Still – all good fun and useful experience – it certainly makes us appreciate Grown-up Travel even more…

On to Europe. Back in 1990, there were still quite a few watchtowers left in Berlin, including this one with a cracking view of the then-abandoned Reichstag. So what would be more natural for a couple of adventurous (and broke) hitch-hikers than to spend the night up there? I slept like a log, conscious of the fact even then that this would be one those never-to-be-repeated experiences…

 

All pictures from this era were taken with my very first (non-digital) SLR, a Canon EOS something which I eventually sold to a fellow traveller in Africa. The quality is poor due to the age of the original print when scanned and fortunately the detail level is too low to fully appreciate the unique take on the afro which I was sporting at the time…

 

Andy Higgs
Andy Higgs

I know what it's like to go from being a crazy backpacker without a care in the world, via being a vaguely sensible parent to being an adventurer once more. In other words, evolving into a Grown-up Traveller.

Like everyone else, I love to travel, have visited a lot of countries and all that but my big thing is Africa.

I also own and run The Grown-up Travel Company as a travel designer creating personalised African itineraries for experienced adventurers

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