Bridget the Midget - 9 May 2010 Report
- Jim Paterson
On
Sunday 9th May Jim Paterson went to the Hillcroft Hotel in Whitburn to
hear Roy Locock present the story of his single handed 39000 mile round
the world
trip in a 1977 MG Midget. Roy and the car are on a round Britian tour
presenting to clubs and enthusiasts.
His trip
through Europe, through Belgium, Germany, Austria were easy, The move
into Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey gave him a feel
for what was to come.
Author took
Simon's Sprite to the talk
Crossing
into Iran he found a country not at all as portrayed by the media over
here. The people, young and old, were very welcoming, helpful, and
always interested to find out how it was to live in Britain. They also
liked to practice their English language skills. Just as well as Roy
speaks no foreign languages at all! He was taken on trips round some of
the cities he visited, and invited on "nights out", though of course
with no alchohol. Though Iran exports oil, they have very few fuel
stations. Just as well Roy carried two 20 litre jerry cans of
additional fuel. He said that fuel cost about 20p a gallon, for
tourists, but locals receive a free monthly quota. Break your quota and
you pay 10p a gallon. I like the sound of that :-)
His
trip into Pakistan meant driving over some pretty rough roads. With
only 3 inches clearance it was touch and go in places. One hotel
provided an early morning wake-up, incoming mortar and gunfire. Appears
tourists are supposed to stay in the police compound overnight. No-one
told Roy, but as the icoming fire was directed at the police station he
was kind of glad he hadn't!
The drive through India
led him to Chennai for the shipping to Perth Australia. The original
idea of driving through China was abandoned when an additional
£4500 was requested by the Chinese for the pleasure, plus a
permanent guide with him throughout.
Driving round
Australia anticlockwise, or any other way, is a mamoth task at anytime.
Roy found the trip from Perth to Adelaide was one straight road for
hundreds of miles, seeing nobody for hours at a time. If you stop and
someone passes they will stop incase you're stuck!
Unfortunately
he managed to pick the time when storms and floods hit the northern
territories, washing away some of the roads around Darwin as he headed
back to Perth. He said the technique when meeting a flood was to walk
through it, to see if there was a road underneath, how deep, and if any
flow across the road would wash the car away. He managed to
cross one that was too deep by "trailer tagging" an official method. A
passing road train will get you to drive under the last of the
4 trailers, inches from the rear axle, and keep up as it goes
through. Roy told us that it works a treat, despite the fear, as he
came through as dry as he went in. The road train will keep
going until he sees you in the rear mirror. Part of the deal is if you
are not there they have to come back and pull you out!
The
Midget was again shipped out to South America where up the west coast
as far Manta, missing out Colombia. It's impossible to drive across the
Darien Gap to Panama so he shipped around it before driving through
Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala into Mexico and the USA,
where he drove across most of the desert regions..
Death
Valley lived up to its reputation as being extremely hot and
Bridget’s engine was at the very maximum of her temperature
range several times.Roy had to nurse her up the hills in third gear
which helped bring the temperature down just enough to continue but it
was touch and go. He finally reached Chicago for the ship back to the
UK.
On route he met many Classic car enthusiasts in
the most unexpected places, and all were willing to help him,
especially when the inevitable mechanical problems arose.
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On
Sunday 9th May Jim Paterson went to the Hillcroft Hotel in Whitburn to
hear Roy Locock present the story of his single handed 39000 mile round
the world
trip in a 1977 MG Midget. Roy and the car are on a round Britian tour
presenting to clubs and enthusiasts.