Tatra Around the World

Tatra Around the World was a six-member expedition the began on 18 March 1987 and ended on 4 May 1990. The expedition’s main means of transport was a Tatra 815 truck, i.e. its specially modified version GTC (Grand Tourist Caravan), which differed from the mass-produced version in its unique habitable extension produced by Vagónka Studénka. Apart from a bedroom, a kitchenette, a bathroom, a toilette and technical facilities, there was also space for other means of transport: a Babetta moped, an inflatable boat and a Rogallo wing, used for aerial shots.

The crew travelled through 67 countries on all inhabited continents. In 40 countries, expedition members held 80 press conferences and shot more than 100 hours of film. News of the expedition and the unique vehicle thus appeared in hundreds of foreign media, including the CNN. The expedition also had several dramatics events. In the spring of 1988, the entire crew was arrested in Guatemala and held for nine days in prison due to false accusations of espionage. Czechoslovak diplomacy solved the situation, although the crew permanently lost some of their materials. In the spring of 1989, as Tatra was leaving China the military intervention against students began several days later. In May 1989, Rogallo-wing pilot František Jeniš died while riding down the river Hunza in Pakistan.

Although the expedition was initially closely followed by the public, they were unfortunate to return to Czechoslovakia just as the country was preoccupied with something entirely different. It was a month before the first free elections, only a few months after the Velvet Revolution, and the public was not very interested in the expedition. Moreover, the business contacts that they had made lost their meaning in the new market economy. The planned 56-part series was cancelled, as well as two films. The films were first shown to the public in February 2020 on the YouTube channel of the Czech Radio, but the series has never been released. A new expedition, Tatra Around the World 2, set off on 22 February 2020, promoting the Czech Republic all over the world more than 30 years after the first one.