Hailing from Melbourne, Paula, a recently retired teacher, and Peter, a soon to be retired Senior Crown Prosecutor, (who is able to take Long Service Leave) decided having followed from afar Mike and Kay Herlihy’s trip through South America that we would like to be part of the next journey. When the opportunity came up to join the Silk Road Adventure, we jumped at the chance. A suitable MG vehicle was purchased in December 2015, and work began on the preparation of the car to make it trip ready.
Both of us have been actively involved with MGs and other historic vehicles over many years. Whilst Paula is more interested in travel, Peter is still actively involved in racing a MGB in the MG Championship Series in Victoria. Having raced an MG at Spa in 2004, being involved in numerous trips in MGs of various vintages over the years, and having driven an Alfa Spider over the Stelvio Pass in 2015, the time has now come for us to involve ourselves in an even more substantial adventure.
Our green MG BGT which we have christened “Shamrock”, has been painstakingly restored with a new engine built by Ben Connelly of BMC Performance, a gear box re-built by “Slim”, and many parts refurbished by Neil Hopwood of Plus Four Automative. The car has been completely re-built and refurbished, Peter, with great assistance from fellow trip goers, Mike, Henk, and David, together with Neil spent many a Thursday night and other times fettling the car to ensure its preparedness for the big drive.
Eventually, after more than a year’s work, the car was ready to be packed and consigned to Bangkok for the start of the trip. On Saturday, the 18th February, the car was finally packed into a container and shipped to Bangkok.
In early April 2017, we will be reunited with the car, and then the trip of a lifetime, exploring the Silk Road commences in earnest.