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Published: July 21st 2010
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The Hillman Club
At Singleton, we met with the owners of these cars for a dinner. Wednesday 21 July 2010
The epic journey is over! John and I have made it to Sydney crossing the bridge at around 4.00pm on Sunday 18 July 2010 having travelled nearly 15.000 miles since leaving the Ace Café, London. The overall trip has taken 113 days to complete, some 13 days longer than predicted and much of that due to the shipping arrangements we encountered on each of our sea journeys that we arranged - from Chennai, India to Port Kluang, Malaysia and from Johor Bahru, Malaysia to Fremantle, Western Australia.
The Hillman has stood up to the distance it had to cover and the amount of equipment that we were carrying across some pretty terrible road conditions in Asia, particularly in Pakistan and India, incurring few problems that I have already mentioned somewhere in previous blogs. The most difficult repair was the leaking oil filter, which took some time to replace and involved John being carried off on the back of a tractor’s trailer to some remote village where we hoped to get someone to remove the old filter from its manifold before we could replace it with a new one.
It has also not gone unnoticed
by many people that we met on our travels that we did the trip on our own with no external support. This in itself has been a significant feature in achieving our journey and makes the achievement that much more special.
Our reception by the Australian Hillman Club at Singleton last Saturday night was extra special. We arrived only 30 minutes later than scheduled, and that being due to the road restrictions we encountered on the way down to Singleton, New South Wales (NSW) from our last camp site at Coffs Harbour. You can see from the photographs the variety of Hillmans that were there at the Motor Inn where we were staying the night and being dined by the members. I would like to reiterate our thanks again to the Club members for their warm welcome, especially Geoff Prescott who I had been badgering for many days through emails to ensure that there was something organized for our arrival in Sydney. Thanks Geoff, the finale was great.
On Sunday after a good English breakfast the Hillman Club’s motorcade with us in the middle set off for Hornsby RSL - the Returned Services League, that is similar to
Me with Lyn and another enthusiast.
I should add that Lyn was not an enthusiast but had turned out to meet me after 28 years, last seen in 1982 when her husband and I used to work together in Australia. our own British Legion but in Australia it is much more. In the larger cities the RSLs dominate the social scene, providing entertainment, pokies and restaurants for its members and visitors alike. Australians are very proud of their commitment to these establishments that recognize their ex-servicemen’s and women’s Service to the Crown, the Commonwealth and of course Australia itself.
There, we had lunch and also gave anyone who wished to come and meet us the opportunity to come along and do so. Once lunch was over, we journeyed into the city itself and over the bridge to the Opera House, escorted by two members of the Hillman Club who ensured that we got the evidence needed to finish our journey here in Australia.
I have now rejoined my son and family in Adelaide and John is presently staying in Sydney for a few more days as he has never been there and will then proceed on a holiday that will take him to New Zealand, Fiji and the USA before arriving home around the 10th August, shortly before I arrive on 13th August from Australia.
While it is still sinking in that we have managed to reach
Sydney, there is no doubt in my mind that the driving side has been the easiest to engage with. In today’s world, we cannot just decide to drive across the other side of the world and hope to reach it. The complication of bureaucracy, different in every country, has made the trip only possible with the means of electronic communications, and by that I mean the internet, email, and lastly the telephone.
No amount of telephoning would have secured our progress because so much paperwork is now done via the internet and emails and without a computer to receive and send back signed documentation necessary to proceed to the next country, we would still be somewhere in Asia.
I raise this point because those of you reading this blog who do not have the ability to communicate via internet and emails if attempting such a journey, will surely fail. The wonderful thing about internet communications is that during our travels it has been widely available and thus has allowed me to communicate to you through the blog as well as members of the family, and to those people and companies that we have had to deal with to
progress across half the world.
We have also been fortunate in having some good bases in various countries to stop at; friends of Elaine’s, my wife, in particular who have provided us with a bed for a few days or in some cases for over a week, in Pakistan and Australia; friends of friends of mine in Turkey and friends of mine in Australia, all of whom who have given their hospitality to the both of us to enable our journey to be completed. We thank you all for your generosity.
What of the future? The Hillman is being brought back to the UK and we hope to get it back in time to be featured at this year’s classic car show at the NEC, Birmingham, where we will continue to highlight prostate cancer and the need by men of 45 years of age to get checked out. For the rest of the year, we are considering ways of raising further funds for the Prostate Cancer Charity; I would like to hear from anyone who would like a presentation/talk on our journey, covering perhaps some of the aspects of the journey that I have not covered in this
blog; talks to Lion Clubs, Round Tables, Rotary Clubs, Golf Clubs and the like, for a fee to be given to the Charity.
May I thank all of you who have been reading the blog, encouraging the editor to keep at it! And lastly a very big thanks to our families who have been encouraging, cajoling, and supporting this venture by two men in their sixties who have now driven from London to Sydney in a 42 year old Hillman Hunter car, a journey that many thought would not be possible for either of us.
But we did it! We survived and we live to tell the tale.
PS: I have added further pictures to the previous entry which readers may wish to look at. (Including my shark photos1)
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John Watts
non-member comment
Many Congratulations!
I saw your car outside the Asda store in Andover and made a small donation to your cause. It hardly seems possible that that same car is now halfway round the world, and got there under it's own steam. Well done to you both! P.S. Where's the pictures?