Hanzelka and Zikmund

Jiří Hanzelka (24 December 1920 – 15 February 2003) and Miroslav Zikmund (born 14 February 1919), known collectively as Hanzelka and Zikmund, were a duo of Czech adventurers known for their travels in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania in the 1940s and 1950s, and for the books, articles, and films they created about their journeys.

Hanzelka was born on 24 December 1920 in Štramberk; Zikmund on 14 February 1919 in Plzeň. Both were deeply interested in foreign countries, nature, travel writing, and adventure stories from childhood onward. In 1938, both began post-secondary studies at the University College of Business in Prague, met, and became good friends. Their studies were delayed when the school was closed during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, forcing their graduation to be postponed until 1946.

While at school, they discovered each other's love of travel and developed what they called the "5" project, referring to the five continents they hoped to visit. While waiting to graduate, they made detailed plans for travel, copying maps and studying their destinations from historical, meteorological, economic, and social perspectives. Both took university Russian lessons, but also studied to prepare for international travel: Hanzelka spoke German and French and studied Swahili, and Zikmund spoke English, studied Arabic, and had a basic understanding of Italian and Dutch.

In 1947, Hanzelka and Zikmund explained the "5" project to the automotive company Tatra. The company, impressed by the plan and seizing the opportunity to promote its vehicles, decided to sponsor the trip, and gave them a silver Tatra 87. After three months of gaining experience with the car at the Tatra factory in Kopřivnice, the duo set out on their first trip. It was a continuous three-and-a-half-year voyage through Africa and Latin America, from April 1947 to November 1950 and covering 44 countries and 111,000 kilometers.

Having traveled from the north coast of Africa to Mexico, the duo returned home, but their country had greatly changed during their absence. The 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état, scored by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia with the support of the Soviet Union, had put a Stalinist government in control, beginning one of the bleakest eras of the country's history. Initially, the government treated Hanzelka and Zikmund well; though most Czechs and Slovaks were barred from going abroad, the duo were allowed to publish the fruits of their travels because their descriptions were not seen as politically threatening. They were able to launch a second trip, running five and a half years continuously from 1959 to 1964, taking them to Eastern Europe, Asia, and various Pacific islands with two prototypes of the Tatra 805 truck. On this trip, the duo reported on Indonesia, Irian Jaya, Japan, and the Soviet Union.

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