This was a trip in which Malcolm joined his colleague Hamish Thew with his friend Peter and another friend John whom Malcolm had not met before. The arrangement was that Malcolm would be the relief driver in John's new blue Hillman car. The holiday was arranged for September 1963.

The boys all met up in London and Malcolm was immediately given the job of driving out of London as John did not like the traffic. Malcolm had never driven the car before but was not daunted, however, they had not gone far before he was stopped by a policeman and told that he was travelling the wrong direction along a one-way street. John probably lost some of his confidence at that point. Malcolm drove down to Dover where they took a ferry to France.

John took over in France and they found lodgings for the night. The next day they headed towards Paris as they wanted to take a look at the city. John lost his nerve again at the prospect of the morning rush hour traffic, so Malcolm took them round the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs-Élysées. Then it was a case of speeding down through France to cover as many miles as possible. The next overnight stop was at Angoulême where they found a cheap hotel. They went out for a meal and ordered steak which was tough as old boots and turned out to be horsemeat. The hotel was grubby and there were bedbugs.

The third day found the boys arriving at their hotel in San Sebastian which turned out to be on the main road through town carrying many lorries so it was noisy at night. The weather was dull and cloudy with frequent rain, and even a thunderstorm one night.

The boys spent their time meandering around the town during the daytime. The weather was not generally nice enough to swim but they did go in on one day. Malcolm also went in on a second day when the sea was cold and rough and there was a lifeguard in a row boat who was gesticulating to him when he was in the water. He suddenly realised whay the warning was when he found himself in a shoal of jellyfish upon which he raced out of the water.

The evenings were spent drinking in local bars. The boys usually returned to the hotel worse the wear and sometimes were sick in the en suite shower. That made them unpopular with the chambermaid who told them that they were "very naughty".

The journey home through France was just a slog to get to Calais. There was an alarming incident when driving in the dark that they ran into an area of roadworks where the surface had been taken up and there were no warning signs. They reached Calais in good time so pottered about until it was time to board the night ferry.