Life is an adventure really because you never know just how things will turn out. Sometimes you do the hard yard and then the easy bit gets you…….just like my walk along The Camino, the pilgrim’s walk, in northern Spain in September last year. All the hard walking done, without any drama and then the walk over and on the first day of the EASY part of the vacation you slip on wet cobblestones and your right elbow will never be the same again. Now my elbow is a work of art with lots of “hardware and bits” holding things together.

So how will this adventure unfold?
Six MGs all forty plus years old, driven by a team of 54 to 67 year olds, over 22, 000 kilometres through China, the Stans- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Turkey and into Europe through Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy, Switzerland, France and finally Britain
The first convey of classic MGs to drive from Beijing to London along the Silk Road.
This blog is a big adventure for a new blogger. Where will it end??? Will it peter away to nothing, will it deliver? Who knows. Will anyone read it and respond???

So – why a blog????
Hopefully this blog will serve a number of purposes:
• To keep in touch with family, old and new friends who take the time to read, reply and provide an additional level of support for us
• To link to the PEACE fund who will follow Ken and I and hopefully raise some funds which will go to our work for Teachers Across Borders (TAB) Australia
• To link to the car clubs who wish to keep abreast of the group’s travels

TAB and PEACE logos

It is great that PEACE fund will use our journey to raise funds to continue their fantastic work in supporting small boutique voluntary organisations like TAB. The PEACE website at http://www.peacefund.org with my Letters From Battambang (see link on side), gives a sense of the work of these two organisations.

Just a baby bloomer’s folly?
I am thinking that when my patience and tolerance level has reached explosive proportions as we drive the hot and unmade sections of the journey, I can take a deep breath and think it is partly for a good cause and not just a “baby boomer’s folly”.

People’s Responses
People’s response to our journey has been varied. Some think we are nuts and have asked if we are arming ourselves as we drive through some remote areas.  Some say we are “doing a Jon Faine” but I remind them that Jon and his son, Jack drove a modern Toyota Prado. Some people think it is great and the adventure of a lifetime but not for them and others tell stories of much more adventurous souls. My physio tells me he is working on someone who plans to follow a similar route on a bicycle taking about 18 months to ride from Beijing to London……….makes car travel look a bit insipid hey!!!

Background
This journey is the “brain child” of David Godwin from the Gold Coast. He has been planning and dreaming of this adventure for three years. He has put hours into determining the route and has made extensive plans for the trip. He is totally committed the MG marque and is bringing his good friend and mechanic, Dan with him.

Dave and Ian, the driver of the second Queensland car, are both members of the Gold Coast MG Car Club. The Gold Coast MG Car Club will follow the journey on their website. Dave advertised his dream on the MG Gold Coast website saying:

“This is not a race, nor rally; just a gently amble, talking to the locals, eating their food and sleeping in their motels. Sealed roads will be chosen where possible and time will be made to enjoy the sights along the way.”

Ironically it is the Victorians who bought into the dream so we have four cars driven by Victorians.
Dave’s car has the rego RIP – Retire in Peace. In 2008 he and Laurel toured New Zealand, South and Central Africa in it.

Let's hear it for the Victorians!

Peter and Kerith asked us to join them on this tour and have an extensive background in car rallies with twelve years experience in the six day Targa Tasmania event. They have also driven and navigated for Porsche in other classic rallies.

I understand the rest of the chaps on the trip have fairly extensive knowledge of cars and car repairs. As for the other ladies on the trip, apart from Kerith and Laurel, I have a feeling that they are, like me, pretty inexperienced in long distance driving in forty plus year old cars!!!

The theory is that because five of the six cars are MGBs many parts will be interchangeable. Dave has organised a list of suggested parts that we should carry and Ken tells me MGBs are reasonably straight forward to work on, not like modern computerise cars. Here’s hoping!!!! It all seems like an enormous leap of faith that all this will come together…the cars, the team, the  demands of officialdom, the logistics associated with travelling through so many counties , the visas and all the other issues related to shipping six cars to Beijing, driving onward to London and then shipping the  cars  home.

Reg and Mary's car ready for loading. Melbourne,12 March 2010

March 20th 2010

.......and the red vehicle drives into the container

The time has almost come…except that we are still awaiting visas and as I sit here blogging our passports are on their way back to the UK for the final   visas!!

Peter and Reg looking at Simon and Ian's car ....ready for loading!!!

Two of the cars are sitting, patiently, on the wharf in Brisbane, while four cars are already on the high seas on their way to the hardest trek of their lives!!!!

Kerith and Peter feeling pretty relaxed!!!

On the way………March 16, 2010……

It is count down time. The cars look great with their colorful decals and list of countries (pasted on each side) that we intend to drive though.

Thanks to the work and follow up of Kerith, the cars were loaded in Tottenham, Melbourne on Friday, March 12 and presumably will be on the high sea somewhere between here and Beijing. There’s absolutely no turning back now!!!! Luckily for the team Kerith has had experience in international transportation of  vehicles and engines and knows the ropes.

You can’t imagine the number of emails that have been back and forth. Thanks to Dave for all the planning, lists of Trip Considerations and on going advice about the car preparation. Dave has plotted out the route and liaised with a travel agency in China to provide us with the compulsory guide through China.

"Don't forget to tape the Collingwood games!"

Dave’s enthusiasm for this adventure is infectious as he often emails…”bring it on” His belief is that the tricky bits will be the stuff of a great story to tell our grandchildren. He sees little adventure in driving along the expressways. I’m more than happy to drive the expressways as I just can’t imagine driving or navigating around a country as big as China with some 1.3 billion residents. Also keep in mind that I say go left when I mean right and at times I struggle with the Melways!!!!

Ian and Dave have done further follow up with a travel agency in Uzbekistan and they are providing guides to meet us at the border of each of the Stans countries. We have the Carnet de Passage and I have completed the St John’s First Course. I intend do a defensive driving course four days before we head off to Beijing.

"Screwdriver...check. Tim Tams...check. Map...check."

For a variety of personal reasons I have only driven our red vehicle for about an hour and half.  The car has been off the road with lots of time in “car hospital”(the shed) having a myriad of minor alterations to make for smoother travel. Prior to Christmas my smashed elbow prevented me from extensive driving in this five gear machine. Last Thursday Kerith took me driving and what a catastrophe, I couldn’t find first gear and struggled with second gear. She was a model of patience and her advice to double clutch was very enlightening for me!!!!

Our passports are somewhere in London being ferried by an agent (whom we have paid to expedite the process of gaining visas) from   one Stan’s embassy to the next. Maybe we have left it a tad late as some embassies have  been closed for national holidays to align with their home country, so that our planned timeline has not been adhered to. We patiently await the return of our passports so that we can then get our final visas in Australia.