Guest Stories: Rolling into Savista in a 1923 Rolls Royce
Guests of Savista come from all over the world, but Rick Brown and Tom Stevenson have traveled enough miles of the world to cover the equator eight times.
Rick is the passionate collector of 1923 Springfield Silver Ghost Rolls Royces (he has five to date). The beauty they drove to Savista in has taken Rick through 60 countries throughout different continents. Tom has been his navigator in most of these travels (although Rick has also had thirty other family members and friends (ages 8 to 80) accompany him at various times).
The two began traveling together in 1998 (they have been friends for over 28 years and share a common interest in fly fishing and exotic travels). They were placed first in the Pioneer category of the 2007 “Peking to Paris” Road Rally. They decided to take a trip to India to fulfill their dream of seeing the Taj Mahal, and driving through the Himalayas (particularly the highest motorable mountain pass in the world, the Khardungla in Ladakh). Shipping their car from Paris to Bombay, they stopped over at Jaipur on their way to Ladakh.
When Rick and Tom arrived at Savista on a humid late August evening, it was too dark to even make out the beauty of their 1923 Rolls Royce. Traveling everyday at a sedate speed of 35 kilometers per hour, often for 8-10 hours a day, they try to make the most of the daylight hours, stopping only when dusk begins to give way to night. Their motto is to travel for the journey rather than the destination. Each evening, thus, brings them to a new hotel, making it a count of thousands of hotels across the world over the years. We felt special that Savista had made it onto this list.
Between drinks and dinner, they regaled us with stories from their travels. The following morning after breakfast, Rick spent an hour servicing the car while Tom attended to emails and did a bit of reading. Before they left, Rick in a gesture of old world courtesy offered to give a ride to whoever at Savista wanted one. He told us that at the hotel that they had stayed at in Mumbai, he had ended up giving 40 rides around the hotel block to the hotel staff (since only one passenger can be accommodated at a time)! Conscious of their need to be back on the road, we contented ourselves with just one short spin through the countryside surrounding Savista, so Rick could get an idea of where he had stayed when transiting through Jaipur. Children in school uniforms on their way to school, men on cycles and motorbikes, women in the fields – everybody we passed waved and jumped, wide-eyed at the sight of the beautiful car. Rick was not surprised; he remarked that the courtesy that he had received on the road from Mumbai to Jaipur from fellow truck and other drivers had been an amazing experience.
Please visit their website at Silverghostworldtravels.com or contact them at info@silverghostworldtravels.com for more information about their travels.