Facebook today has reacquainted me with a long lost friend and travelling companion.

In 1978, I stumbled into a losmen (guestroom) on Samosir Island in northern Sumatra. I saw this seasoned traveller there – a skinny, long haired bearded man wearing Coke bottle bottom glasses and eating porridge and bananas. John Ducedre was a Canadian and we hit it off perfectly and explored the island together.

Eight months later, John showed up at my house in northern Wisconsin driving a beat up van and offered me a ride to Banff. I grabbed my skis and backpack and we were off on a wintery adventure.

The heater in the van broke somewhere in Saskatchewan and the windows all froze up and we were driving a freezer (not frost-free) on wheels across the Canadian Plains. I was driving when the Royal Mounties pulled us over and they made me go into their squad car. The other Mountie went to check out John. John got out of the car and started jumping and waving his arms. The Mountie came back laughing and told the other Mountie that John was shivering and wrapped up in a sleeping bag while trying to scrape the windows and John asked if he could step out of the van to warm up. I was told I was free to go but asked if I could stay in their car a bit longer to thaw out.

We eventually made it to Banff and John got a job right away as an electrician at a ski resort. He got a flat so we moved out of the van and found warmth and a hot shower. He worked while I took the van and drove around the Canadian Rockies and skied into the back country.

Eventually I had to get back to uni, so I said goodbye to John and hitched to Wisconsin, skis and all. I caught a Chinook wind on the day I left so had warmish weather but only till North Dakota where I got caught in the blizzard of the year.

I never saw John again. A couple of weeks ago I started going through old travel journals while preparing The Hitchhiking Chronicles, a memoir of my adventures in the late ’70s, and found my stories with John and I Googled his name and found him on Facebook.

But the twist in the story is that John, like me, immigrated to Australia and now lives on the eastern seaboard. I called him today and we recounted stories of 30+ years ago. John never stopped travelling and has travelled to 83 countries and aiming for 100. This album is of photos I took while travelling with John.