The Great Australian Adventure in ‘RIP n’ Coffin

Part 3

Our plan had been to go 250km north to The Pinnacles before heading east back across the Nullarbor to Adelaide. However, our trip to The Pinnacles on The Military Road was marred by a very nasty pothole the width of ‘RIP’. ‘COFFIN’ has a narrow track and on swerving to avoid the pothole, ‘RIP’ slid to the left and our ‘COFFIN’ trailer flipped over on to its left side, damaging the spinner and rim but, unbelievably, not the mudguard nor wooden box. I pulled up 50 metres down the road on the wrong side and counted my blessings a few times. The image shows just how far the tow bar bent to the left and upwards, we were very lucky not to have flipped the whole rig and been front page news in the WA newspapers. Fortunately I was still on sticky race rubber and mentally alert from the weekend’s racing.

As a precaution, we returned to Perth before embarking across the Nullarbor to Adelaide, where ‘RIP’ was checked out at The Sports Car Workshop. A possible leaking head gasket was diagnosed, so off came the head to be crack and pressure tested.

Twisted towbar Lucky escape

The Pinnacles WA

Commemorating Caversham GP 1957

Laurel attempts Collingrove

1760 lined up for Bay to Birdwood Run

Supercharged MG Milano 1600 motor

Meanwhile, my son Michael had flown in from Kalgoorlie so we rented a car and booked into a fantastic holiday unit on the river in the middle of Perth for five days. The only negative was we were too close to the shops where Laurel and Michael had a ball and, as a result, ‘COFFIN’ had an even heavier load to carry…

While “stuck” in Perth, we kept ourselves busy, including going to the Caversham Race Track to see the 50th anniversary of the running of the 1957 Australian GP, dusty (part of the track is in disrepair) but fantastic to see so many different old cars and motor cycles “doing the laps” again.

We also visited the port of Fremantle where we saw the Hoons doing laps of town in their gleaming hot rods and other old cars. Then it was back to Perth to see the Circus of Soleil. A very expensive long weekend without ‘RIP’.

At last ‘RIP’ was given the all clear so we updated the progress map on ‘COFFIN’ and immediately started our journey back to the East Coast of Australia, 2700km away.

It took a day to reach Kalgoorlie, ostensibly the richest gold field in the world. We did the town tour, the mine tour, the Hall of Mining Fame tour and the skimpy tour.

What is the skimpy tour, I hear you ask? Well, skimpy’s are girls that wear precious few clothes and the ones they do wear are too small for babies, I think. Their job is to ply people with drink, obviously. What else would you expect in a wealthy mining town.

Our trip back across the Nullarbor was uneventful, 1400km in two days with the top down this time, a tail wind and a happy wife, what more could a bloke ask for? ‘RIP’ did 30 mpg and was singing.

Three coincidences occurred on our arrival at Adelaide, very unnatural. First we were stalked by a lady in a car through Port Broughton. On enquiry, we had passed by the lady five weeks earlier en route to Perth in her 4 X 4 and caravan.

Then driving to our motel, someone passed us shouting and waving. It was one of a group that we had shared a very large camp fire with at Ayres Rock seven weeks previously.

Lastly, when we called up our Gold Coast MGA friends Gary and Anita Lock, who were planning to meet us in Adelaide, they were right opposite the Hungry Jacks restaurant where we had stopped. How creepy was that.

Adelaide. What a lovely MG town. Officially, Adelaide is a city, but in reality, Adelaide is a well laid out, pretty, friendly town. Only half an hour away are the Adelaide Hills with narrow, gutter less roads winding up hill and down dale with something new at every turn. No wonder there are so many sports cars in South Australia. Along with sports cars goes performance mechanics, so guess which lucky MG got a real tickle up whilst there, thanks to Adrian at MG Adelaide Specialist Workshop and Brenton at Fours N More performance dyno tuning.

Eucla near WA and SA border

CamolotteCastle-Adelaide

Interested Mgers at SAMGCC Sunday Run

Ready for the last leg home

Happy to be heading home after 3 months

We’re safely home

Here we met the SASCC (South Australian Sports Car Club) committee and attended an MGA register meeting, an MG charity “pig on the spit” night and an MG club Sunday breakfast run to Normanville. Laurel and I then drove in a sprint meeting at Mallala raceway and up a pretty, steep, rough and exciting hill climb at Collingrove. We also entered the pre-Bay to Birdwood rally events north, east and south of Adelaide to interesting destinations and did ‘the big one’, The Bay to Birdwood Classic Run.

Can you imagine 1760 proud, gleaming vehicles manufactured between 1957 and 1977, driving two abreast through Adelaide streets to the Adelaide Hills and on to the Motor Museum at Birdwood under a cloudy sky with all drivers and passengers dressed in period costumes? The towns were brought to a standstill with onlookers set up on the pavements and median strip between the roads cooking breakfast or drinking champagne or just calling out suitable comments and, of course, continuously waving. We had at last fulfilled our purpose of setting off on this adventure… and it was fantastic.

Gary and Anita shared a flat with us and joined us in their MGA on some of our adventures. This reminded us of our trip together in 2005 in UK when the “little blue and little red” MGA’s participated in the ‘Round Britain Tour’ with our MGCC friends, what happy memories.

Adelaide being our fifth and last goal, we completed the route on the ‘COFFIN’ map in front of the Birdwood Museum. Then we all had a late night packing and repacking our little car ready for the final assault home, 1700km. The trip was hotter than expected and took four days, with the hood going up one afternoon in 35 degree heat. Wusses, I hear you say. Maybe. Our route took in Burra (old copper mining town), Broken Hill (iron ore mining town), Bourke on the Darling River, Moree, Inverell, Lismore and eventually the Gold Coast, home sweet home and our own bed.

On 5th October 2007, after 89 days (81 with the hood down) the last line on the map on ‘COFFIN’ was finally drawn, representing a 21,500km (13,000 miles) circle of friendships and lasting memories. It was a tender moment when Laurel and I personally tapped ‘RIP’ on the bonnet and thanked her for a ride of a lifetime and for towing ‘COFFIN’ full of “necessary” gifts and wine safely home for a good rest before our planned assaults, on New Zealand and Africa in 2008.

Look out for the next adventures of RIP ‘n COFFIN along the Silk Road to China

Dave and Laurel Godwin