Guildford Motor Club January 2018

In Tune �1

Editorial

Happy New Year and welcome to the latest edition of the magazine.

Another full newsletter this month. We continue with Part 2 of the article from Francis. As a reminder last year Francis undertook a trip from Cape Town to Mt. Kilimanjaro in Kenya with his brother in a 55 year old Ford Consul Classic.

Also we include a report and some pictures from LeJog which we were able to see whilst away in Scotland.

It is interesting to report that both the Brands Hatch Stages Rally (20th Jan) along with Southdowns Stages at Goodwood (10th Feb) are both fully subscribed each with a list of reserves.

Don’t forget subs are due now and the AGM is `on 9th January.

Annette & Robert Clayson

Membership Renewals

A reminder that the subscriptions are due on the January 1st.

These need to be forwarded to Mark as soon as possible and he will issue you

with a new membership card!

Full Membership is £15 and

£20 for Family Membership.

Why not renew at the AGM!

Guildford Motor Club

Annual General Meeting

Tuesday 9th January 2018

The Cricketers, Pirbright

From 8pm.

Guildford Motor Club January 2018

In Tune �2

Social Calendar

December

Pubnight - 27th - Wednesday this month!

January

9th AGM - The Cricketers

16th Committee

23rd Pubnight - The Cricketers

Goodwood Events - January

All quiet apart from a Track Day on the 19th

10th Feb Southdowns Stages Rally

Brooklands Events - January

1st New Year’s Day Classic Cars Gathering

28th VSCC Winter Driving Tests

Membership Fees

Full Membership £15.00

Family Membership £20.00

Associate Membership £2.50

Pro-rata Membership for new members joining after 1st July

Full Membership £7.50

Family Membership £10.00

GMC Goodies

The following GMC Goodies are available from Mark Feeney, just phone him or speak to him at Clubnights

Windscreen Sticker £1.50

Club Badge (Self Adhesive)

£1.00

GMC Leather Key Ring £1.50

GMC Mugs £2.00

GMC Polo Shirts (White) £15.00

GMC Sweat Shirts (Green) £20.00

Romers, Clear or White plastic

£6.00

GMC Ice Scrapers £2.00

GMC Pens 3 for a £1.00

GMC Fleeces (to order) £25

Enamel Car Badges £30

Competition

29 Dec 2017 Loco2 Stages - Bramley Camp - Sutton & Cheam

January and on..

12 Jan 2018 Southsea 12 Car - Southsea

19 Jan 2018 Harlequin 12 Car - FDMC

26 Jan 2018 Frostbite 12 Car - Dolphin

02 Feb 2018 The Norseman 12 Car - BMC

10 Feb 2018 - Southdowns Stages - Goodwood

16 Feb 2018 Southsea 12 Car - Southsea

16 Feb 2018 OMC 12 Car - OMC

23 Feb 2018 Rapscallion 12 Car - Guildford

23 Feb 2018 CMSG - MSG

More on the Website

Contact Information

Follow this link for our contact information.

Website and Facebook Website: www.guildfordmotorclub.org.uk

facebook: www.facebook.com/guildfordmotorclub

Guildford Motor Club January 2018

TANZANIA REVISITED

We drove well into the night over both good and very bad roads to catch up on our intended destination for the day following our time consuming repairs. In the end we made a fortuitous stop just short of the Zambian border. We found a rather exquisite rest house, had a surprisingly good supper and then fell into bed in our splendid thatch roofed, mud brick rondaval.

Up early still in pyjamas by the swimming pool with the birds singing and the orange African sun just rising in this lovely spot - The Panda Rest Camp. After a hearty breakfast we headed for the ferry across The Zambezi River at Kazangula. Straight through the lines of parked trucks and on to the rather primitive ferry. Then on to the border post where Matilda made friends of the policemen and border guards on duty. As a result we were through in a mere two hours, eager then to press on to our smart, sponsored hotel in Lusaka for the night. We would be back on schedule if we could make that target.

The trip to Lusaka was tedious but uneventful, with lasting memories of sections of horrific, potholes in the road some of which are capable of breaking parts of a car if they are taken at speed. So, it was crawling pace for hours. 

Eventually, having again broken our ‘rule’ and driven in the darkness, we arrived in Lusaka where we enjoyed the comforts of the Sun International hotel. (Driving in the dark on these sorts of

In Tune �3

Part 2

Getting past a lorry in the bush.

Matilda was a one owner, unmolested, Barn Find.

Route on the boot.

Guildford Motor Club January 2018

roads in this part of the world makes you a soft target for road-blocks, hijacking and a complete ‘clean out’ or worse if you break down. There can

be no come-back following such incidents).

The next day on the road was long day on the road with very little of interest to see. Many road blocks for Police checks which were easy in that Matilda was the focus of attention not us. Sometimes offers were made to buy the car other times photos were the order of the day, otherwise we were waved on with cheers and smiles! We reckoned that we had already passed over thirty of these checks!

Night came with long stretches of nothing. We had broken our ‘rule’ yet again. This time we would pay for it!   

We finally found a place to stay. This turned out to be the most, absolutely, basic accommodation we have ever experienced, anywhere! It was dark and late and we were tired, so we plumped for the mud huts.

The moral of the story is: “Do not travel after dark - find a sleeping place well in advance of nightfall".

We left our well-below-basic-accommodation as early as we could after a cold and miserable night and pushed onward towards The Africa House at Shiwa Ngandu, then beyond to the hot springs at Kapishya, 25 Kms further down the badly maintained corrugated road and across a temporary structure replacing a bridge which had been washed away a

In Tune �4

Boarding the Kazangula Ferry over the Zambezi.

Long, long lines of waiting trucks at borders.

More bling on the doors.

Regalia on the front wings.

Guildford Motor Club January 2018

few days earlier. Rather scary - I volunteered to get out and check the bridge on foot, to direct Chris across from the safety of solid ground on the other side.

What a lovely tranquil place! Here we enjoyed our first rest-day the following day. We began this most pleasant day began by lounging in the tranquil hot springs for a couple of hours followed by a walk into the bush to view some pre historic caveman paintings. Then down to earth again to rewire Matilda's burnt harness before our luck runs out and more bare wire catches fire again! This proved fairly straightforward as all the instruments, lights and gauges were still working.

The Great North Road, now called The Tanzam Highway, from Lusaka to Tanzania is a long and straight stretch of tar dotted with sections which have potholes ranging from poor through awful to horrifying . It is a very long drive particularly in a 1962 Ford called Matilda. 

Throughout Zambia there are hundreds of roadside stalls with nothing for sale except neatly and identically packed sacks of charcoal together with occasional buckets of the most delicious tomatoes. We left Kapishya Springs and Shiwa on the last leg of this stage at 6.00am over the 32kms of corrugated road, a makeshift bridge and past the amazing English Mansion style Africa House and back on to the tar. Breakfast at

In Tune �5

Road bridge!

Sweets and gifts handed out on the way to Kapishya Hot Springs.

Dawn at ‘Camp Absolutely Basic’.‘Big Policeman’ poses, cap off, for his photo at the border.

Guildford Motor Club January 2018

8.00am in a lay-by was shared with a Tanzanian truck. We chatted in Swahili with the driver and to his great delight, gave him our unwanted, packed-breakfast popcorn. 

Without the many big trucks which tramp the roads Matilda would almost be on her own, only seeing another car perhaps once an hour!

Zambia is also a land of the old, black bicycle. Big, once-heavy double cross-bar machines now stripped of their long worn out mudguards, enclosed chain guards and lights if ever there were any. Pedals worn away leaving only the highly foot-polished spindle, brake blocks fashioned from wood and saddles secured with wire. The newer bicycles can be spotted still with mudguards and heavy duty kick down stand mounted at the rear and of course a bell! The sides of the road are occasionally brought alive with corrugated iron roofed huts in little settlements dominated by churches of many denominations.

The Tanzania border is not far away now. The excitement rises!  

Francis

In Tune �6

Typical, rock hard, dirt road.

Repairing the wiring. Well, someone has to take the photographs.....

Fuelling from the Jerry can en route in Zambia.Caveman paintings first discovered in 2011.

Guildford Motor Club January 2018

LeJog - Lands End to John O’Groats

The Lands End to John O’Groats Reliability Trial organised by HERO is better known as LeJog. Acknowledged as one of the toughest events on the Historic Calendar being a test for both man and machine. The event started at Lands End on Saturday 9th December and finished on the following Tuesday at John O’Groats. The route comprised of 1450 miles which took the competitors through Wales then up the backbone of England into Scotland, along the way the cars competed a number of tests and regularities. There is no overall winner as crews are awarded medals based on their performance on the event. The entry is open to cars built before 1/1/1986.

No we didn’t do the event, just in case you wondered! We had arranged to visit Annette’s brother who had moved into a new home just north of Oban. I somehow knew this also coincided with the weekend of the LeJog. Visit to the HERO website listed the main controls on the event - their lunch break on Monday was at Killin which turned out to be about a 90 minute drive away. I was able to work out their route into and out of the lunch halt.

In Tune �7

Volvo 244

Lancia Fulvia HF

Guildford Motor Club January 2018

Before the lunch halt we stopped on the south side of Loch Earn, given the weather we had had it was actually quite pleasant, though not shirt sleeve weather! With 60 cars starting,

In Tune �8

Mercedes-Benz 500SLC AMG BMW 2002tii

Volvo 122S

Triumph TR4

Volvo and Golf alongside Loch Earn

Guildford Motor Club January 2018

however, by the time we caught up with them there were 42 running. Having seen most of them through, it was time to move on to a point north of Killin. Having turned off the main A road onto a yellow, the first sign we encountered warned us that this road was not gritted! It was relatively clear but as we climbed up it became a little more challenging. We found a good stopping point turned the car around to look towards

Loch Tay in the distance. It definitely was cold and windy here! Nevertheless we saw all the cars through, with the sun setting and the closing car through it was time to head back. So naturally a few pictures were taken.

Robert

In Tune �9

Austin Mini

Jaguar MkI 3.4 Saloon

Triumph TR4