Malara’s journey symbolically united the city of his birth, Sydney, with his parents’ city and current home, Reggio Calabria.

Malara’s parents emigrated to Australia in 1960 before returning to Italy four years later with their new son on the return journey.

He had travelled back from Sydney to Messina on the Galileo Galilei ocean liner when he was just two years old.

He wanted to consecrate this journey, so he decided to undertake the trip with the company of his friend Carmelo.

Emilio and Carmelo were colleagues in the police force in Reggio.

Carmelo was famous for buying coffees for everyone.

Their journey covered 26,400 kilometres, across three continents and 13 countries, and countless people and cultures encountered.

The planning phase was a complex process which involved sending hundreds of emails in search of information on how best to organise the journey.

“To tell you the truth, we reached up until Singapore by travelling overland,” Malara said.

“Unfortunately, because of the lateness of an additional team of two with whom we divided the costs for crossing China, we arrived later than expected in Singapore.

“There wasn’t enough time to ship our car to Australia.

“We flew to Darwin from Singapore, where we then rented another car which we drove all the way to Sydney.”

Nevertheless, Malara’s journey was an astounding achievement, and he has many interesting stories to recount.

In one tale, the two friends realise with horror that their photo camera has been stolen while in a carwash in Malaysia.

Malara jokes how their friends will laugh at them when they hear that two policemen had their camera snatched from underneath their noses.

In another episode, the pair’s car reaches the border between Ukraine and Russia, where a guard approaches each car asking for a “present” to avoid the long line of lorries waiting to cross into Russia.

Carmelo is unimpressed and turns off the engine, and lights a cigarette to the dismay of the guard, who reluctantly waves them through.

A little further on another friendly guard checks their documents and “repeats the same few universally-known Italian words: ciao, bello, pizza, spaghetti”.

“Our documents are all in order,” recounts Malara.

“And he returns our passports but before leaving, like his colleagues earlier, also asks us for a ‘present’ and wants to know if we have any chocolate, to which Carmelo quips:  ‘We’re Italians, not Swiss!’.” 

The pair travelled through the immensity of the Australian outback.

Between Uluru and Coober Pedy they risked running out of petrol, and were forced to turn off the air conditioning and slow down just to make it to the next service station.

On the 77th day, after 20,460 kilometres with the Fiat Ulysse and 6002 kilometres with the Toyota, they finally arrived in Sydney.

They counted:

  • 51 days of driving;
  • 8 days of forced rest, in Ulaan Baatar (Mongolia) for Chinese visa problems encountered by their Belgian travel companions;
  • 6 days in Johru Bahru (Malaysia) to organise posting of the car from Singapore to Darwin, a plan which was subsequently scrapped;
  • 3 days of relaxing in Patong so as not to arrive too early in Singapore;
  • 1 day of visiting the city of Budapest (Hungary);
  • 1 day of forced stop in Ufa (Russia) because the generator was broken;
  • 1 day of visiting the city of Pingyao (China);
  • 1 day of visiting the city of Kunming (China);
  • 1 day of visiting the city of Jinghong (China);
  • 1 day of visiting the city of Bali (Indonesia);
  • 1 day of visiting the city of Darwin (Australia);
  • 1 day of visiting the city of Port Lincon (Australia);
  • 1 day of visiting the city of Melbourne (Australia);
  • 1 day of deviation from the original route to visit the city of Yekaterinburg (Russia);
  • 1 day of deviation from the original route to admire Uluru;
  • 1 day of deviation from the original route to reach Port Lincoln (Australia);
  • 2 flights from Singapore to Bali and from Bali to Darwin;
  • 1 bus from Johru Bahru (Malaysia) to the airport in Singapore;
  • and 1 bus from the airport in Darwin to the city.

Malara has written his tales into a book, Viaggio in auto dall'Italia in Australia, istruzioni per l'uso, published in Italy by Città del Sole.

The book offers a useful guide to anyone interested in following the same itinerary, as well as giving an account of the amusing exploits of the two protagonists.

The biggest obstacle Malara said that they faced was crossing China by car.

It’s an expensive and bureaucratically difficult process, which involves hiring a “guide” to accompany you for the entire journey, on an advised itinerary from which one must not deviate.

Malara said that the team chose their itinerary with safety as their primary consideration.

Their route crossed China and Mongolia, rather than taking the more southern route which involves crossing the border of India into Pakistan, which at this time is quite dangerous.

Despite the difficulties encountered, Malara mentioned that he may be looking to complete the trip again soon, but in reverse!

He has been dwelling on driving all the way from Sydney, to Reggio Calabria, in an Australian car and has even begun considering the necessary bureaucratic planning.

If he were to complete the trip again, Malara said that his companion or companions of travel should be motivated to complete the journey, and have a spirit of adaptation, tolerance and understanding.

Furthermore, they would have to respect all cultures and people encountered, and finally, like Malara, they must have the spirit of adventure!

Malara’s book is currently being translated into English and he is hoping to publish it in Australia.

You can read Emilio Malara’s blog or send him an email.

Or purchase and read his book.