Who says age matters?

23 August 2007

AFTER a lengthy stay in hospital as a teenager, Malcolm Metcalf decided to see the world.

He kept his promise to himself and today, at the age of 73, he can boast of travelling through 42 countries and hitchhiked for 16,000 to Australia.

But the desire to see even more has never left him and this week the retired catering manager from Palmers department store in Great Yarmouth sets off on his travels again - for his 19th visit to America in the last 16 years. He has never lost the urge to travel.

Malcolm told the Mercury: “I'm not married so I don't have family to worry about. What started my wanderlust was that in 1953 at the age of 19 I was in hospital for some considerable time under observation and I decided when I eventually got out I wanted to see as much of the world as I could.”

He said he could only undertake his travels due to the many friends he has made in other countries over the years.

Malcolm starts his 19th visit to America staying with friends in the rural town of Bogart near Atlanta, Georgia. He will then travel 10,000 miles through 25 states in 30 days on the Amtrak rail system.

He said: “I have already travelled 120,000 miles with Amtrak since the early 1990s. The itinerary has taken me weeks to finalise as most trains only run once a day and freight takes precedence in the States. During my journey I will be staying with eight different families whom I've met over the years.”

He won't be taking either the easy or the straight route either - he wants to experience the real America.

The rail journey begins in Gainesville, Georgia, then on to New Orleans and then north to the windy city, Chicago.

Malcolm added: “During the journey I will be giving several talks at churches, local societies and to an air force veterans association. Then it's on to Minneapolis, Minnesota en route to Omaha, Nebraska in the old west.

“The trains are very comfortable, air-conditioned and with excellent catering service on board but sometimes they do run late. The longest part of the joinery means I will be on the train for three days.”

From the prairies, small townships and the deserts of the historical west where people a century earlier had crossed in horse-drawn wagon trains on their way for a better life in California, he will venture north over the great lakes of Michigan and Ontario to Stratford in the province of Ontario, Canada.

The adventure will take him two months to complete and he will be keeping a diary and photographic record of the trip.

He said: “I may not have much money but what I do have I save up for these trips, this time it has cost me US$ 385, it works out to only pence a day for travelling thousands of miles.”

But it's not the cost of the trips that keeps Malcolm on the road, on the train or in the air. He said philosophically: “I have two qualities of life that are more important than money, my health and good friends.”

ends