They’re Off!

They’re Off!

By roychinnorNo Comments
I was beginning to wonder if we would ever get away but, having cancelled the world tour, I managed to get away this morning for a 90 day  tour of the Balkans. We left at 07:30 and by 09:30 we had travelled just 9 miles! Having joined the M40 in Oxfordshire, there was an accident causing the complete closure of the Southbound carriageway. We missed the mid-day ferry we had booked to Dunkirk and had to catch the following one some two hours later. The drive across Belgium was good, but we were unable to make up the time and so were late arriving in the Waterloo area, where a hotel I had booked was located. I got us hopelessly lost (which is why I rarely book hotels in advance), but managed to purlion two passing police officers and got an official escort to the hotel. That's style. I have been told, that this weekend, there is going to be a re-enactment...
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World Tour Cancelled

World Tour Cancelled

By roychinnorNo Comments
To all those that like to travel vicariously with Bridget and myself I apologise for the above heading, but it is unavoidable. The might of the united Russian Armed Forces, spreading terror and oppression, have caused such restrictions on free travel as to precipitate the cancelling of our tour. A minor inconvenience compared to the problems and suffering Putins' war is raining down on the people of Ukraine. To fully understand my reasons for cancelling the tour you really need to understand my motivation for travelling in the first place. In a word, Freedom. It is the capacity to be able to decide for myself in which direction I am going to travel, when I decide to travel, and in whatever manner I decide to travel. Not to have any person, or organisation, coercing me to go somewhere I have no wish to go, or preventing me from going where I desire. It is these parameters that provoked me on my...
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Bridgets’ Swansong Update

By roychinnor2 Comments
Bridget is having new rear springs fitted along with Frontline hydraulic suspension. A few other small fixes and she should be ready. I have applied for a carnet, booked transport across the Altantic, a ship for Bridget and a plane for myself. We are going to be travelling anti-clockwise! So many of the land borders, east of Europe, are still closed or blocked by large gatherings of unfriendly troops and tanks, that I couldn't leave the plan unchanged for any longer. The start date of June will not be compromised so I am shipping Bridget to Halifax, Canada and will follow in time to collect her from the port on her arrival. The current thinking is that we will spend 4/6 weeks in Canada, then cross into the USA for a two month exploration. We might just turn up at the Pebble Beach Concourse, in August, before driving down through Central America and crossing into Colombia. Then it will be north to...
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Countdown to Take-Off

Countdown to Take-Off

By roychinnor2 Comments
Psuedo travel over with, prepare for the real thing. For the past seven months, I have been acting as Club Manager for the MG Car Club but, clearly was making progress too fast and have been removed, because they were concerned about my health, or their own! So, I have dusted off Bridget and assessed what needs to be done to prepare her for another round-the-world tour. As can be seen in the above photo, she is sitting quite low on the rear suspension, so it will be new springs (the current ones are the originals and completed over 200,000 miles) and new hydroscopic shocks. Such modern upgrades! Also the front bumper (fender)anchor point welds have parted company so they will be rewelded. Other items include a brake system overhaul, check engine valves and seats and standard maintenance work. Regards the route, I really don't know. Most likely, is to follow the first leg of the original route planned for 2021 before...
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Pseudo Travelling

Pseudo Travelling

By roychinnorNo Comments
It's Bank Holiday Monday here in the UK. Had Bridget and I left as planned in June we would have been arriving in Vladavostok, Eastern Russia, this weekend and preparing for the ferry crossing to Japan in a weeks time. Instead I am working five days a week as the Club Manager for the MG Car Club in Abingdon and have only myself and the Covid pandemic to blame. I apologise therefore, for the lack of genuine travel reports and can only tell you of what had been planned on this first leg of this journey. As with most of my adventure runs it would have started routinely with a run across Europe to Turkey. I had planned to take in a few countries that I hadn't included on previous runs such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania and North Macedonia. Then through Bulgaria and across the Turkish Border. From Istanbul I was going to follow the same route as I...
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