The sign above the door at the Red Lion Inn, Adderbury says it all.....

A new MG journey....here's hoping

Dave makes a presentation at MG Longbridge

The nine of us who completed the entire trip

Last port of call:the team at Longbridge

Abingdon Square: Home of the MG

After 94 days and nearly 21,000 kms on the road the six little MGs made it from China to the UK. Would you believe that for most of us there was a real deep sadness that this adventure was over? Doesn’t make sense but there you have it. Sitting in the cabin of a 1967 MG  has become addictive.

It is an incredible achievement that Dave has fulfilled his dream of leading the team and that we have all arrived in one piece, on time and with no major  accidents or breakdowns. Dave planned this adventure for three plus years and we have been so lucky to buy into that dream. Keep “daring to dream” Dave and thank you for everything because without your dream none of us would have completed this journey!

Dave had enormous support from his wife Laurel and his positive demeanour and absolute belief that all would be well is remarkable. When the chips were down it was always Dave who couldn’t see the problem. His glass is always half full. His commitment to the MG marque is outstanding and his belief in the “the MG family” is unique.

Dave, Ian and Denise have driven from the MG factory in China to the MG factory UK as originally planned.

A fantastic feat for the tenacious two: Ian and Denise. They were going to do this no matter what, and  even a hot air balloon accident couldn’t stop them. Ian’s car was without a doubt the best prepared car and he was always hopeful that he would get through without any significant problem. Well he did just that, he got over the line and into the Longbridge MG plant when his car backfired and lost a welsh plug. Off to the workshop at last.

Reg, Mary, Peter, Kerith, Ken and I, have driven from Tianjin, China to Longbridge, UK completing the entire trip.

Ian M who joined us near the border in western China, Lorraine and Laurel who joined us in Istanbul, Mike and Lou who joined in Italy also made it to the new  MG Longbridge, UK plant.

Simon and Dan were there from the beginning and left us in Istanbul. Madeleine’s planned  China trip was cut short, due to flight cancellations caused by the volcanic ash problem. She drove with us for two and a half weeks and Vin  from Yorkshire tagged along on the Italy to Paris leg and arrived at Abingdon Square for the celebrations.

Mr Jeremy Fisher, Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny completed the entire trip wearing MG badges which were presented to them along the route.  They are now in the old country.

It has been a whirlwind of celebratory activity. We were met at Portsmouth by Pam and Geoff, friends of Dave and Laurel’s and also Peter who had read about the trip on the internet. They were all driving MGs and lead us to our hotel.

The following morning some 20 MG drivers rode with us to Abingdon, which was the home of the original MGs and where the six little cars that were driven from China were manufactured during the fifties, sixties and seventies before the plant was closed. Nice symmetry.  Lots of morning tea, lunch and drinks peppered the day.

Next morning we parked in Abingdon Square, again, escorted there by an extensive convoy of MGs and once at the square it seemed like it was a who’s who of MG history. The MG Car Club, engineers and people  who worked at the original plant were there to celebrate the feat. As well others who had taken long drives across continents, some in older cars than ours were there to share the moment. All of them talked about the addictive nature of this type of travel.

The deputy mayor of Abingdon was there with his dog Harry. He runs the Abingdon blog and would you believe Harry, the dog has his own blog.

We celebrated at a dinner at The Dog’s House Inn and next morning we drove to the new MG plant at Longbridge where we were waved in with chequered flags, balloons and lots of smiling faces. Many were astounded at the feat but proud of the strength and resilience of the little cars.

We were all so pumped up that some of us we were saying the journey was” a walk in the park” but when I had to prepare a slide show presentation for the dinner it gave me a chance to crystallise my thoughts and do a quick review of what we had been though.

 It wasn’t a walk in the park. It was initially challenging and full of the unexpected, literally, not knowing what was around the corner. Our early days in China were very trying but by the  time we got to Western China it was clear we could do this and so on we soldiered on. Each country presented some unique challenge.

Even to the end it was a challenge to stay together as a convoy with two cars not driving through the chequered flags at Longbridge because TomTom’s directions were a bit hazy and traffic congestion meant the sweep car lost sight of us and took another route.

The most awesome part of the experience for me was being part of the convoy and the happiness it brought to those in China and the Stans. The landscape for the entire trip was magnificent….high summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the people nearly everywhere were smiling and helpful. Many in our team talked about this journey as being life changing but for me it was life defining.

Thank you to Ken who did all but 100kms of the drive and to the rest of the team. It was a special privilege to be part of a team of four women: Mary, Kerith and Denise where never a cross word was spoken in 94 days.

The team said their emotional farewells and some of us headed into the Cotswolds, others to London or Portsmouth.

Thank you to Kerith who knocked on our door and asked us to join this adventure. The moral of the story is: always open your door because you never know who’s there and what proposal they might put you.

We are  going home to meet our granddaughter and our “soon to be born grandson” and to wait for another knock on the door.