Fwd: On the road

The first of many brake repairs at Mareeba.

After some great hospitality, we set off from John Lenne's house in Cairns (where the ute and trailer are stored) on Thursday 26th June for all points north.

The little car, now christened "Daisy" by Bev, has been cruelly loaded despite all efforts to reduce the weight. Initially the engine sounded like a machine gun but it was discovered the timing was extremely advanced. With a bit of fiddling the distributor has been modified to use both its internal automatic advance and the original hand lever on the steering wheel and now is purring nicely.

The very steep 15km climb up the range from Cairns to Kuranda tested the little girl with a stop halfway to replenish the radiator. On arriving at Barry Dick and his partner Linda's place at Mareeba the left rear brake was removed after it was found dragging and frozen. It is amazing how much better a car goes without the brakes half on!

A nice night at Lakeland Downs pub was followed by an early morning run into Cooktown. Some seriously steep hills were now taken 'in it's stride" by Daisy using the increased performance. Although she will go faster we find about 60kph is a nice comfortable cruising speed. Fuel consumption, once over the range has come it at 52mpg - about 15km per litre. Fuel is not going to be a big expense and the 20 litre tank should get us easily between stops.

Cooktown has been great with lots of interest and an interview by the local paper who were fully  expecting us - how we do not know. As the Austin 7 in 1928 was the first car ever to drive to Cooktown their interest is keen.

Tomorrow on the Battle Camp Road and our first dirt to Laura.

Cape York by 1929 Austin 7

In late June we will be heading off to recreate the first car journey 1,000km from Cairns to Cape York (Australia's most northerly point). In 1928 Hector Macquarrie and Dick Mathews drove a tiny Austin 7 on a heroic journey through the bush and over numerous tropical rivers to be the first vehicle to reach Cape York.

We have acquired an identical 1928 Austin 7 and will attempt to take this little 87 year old car on the same route. The Cape York trip is still the great four wheel drive destination as the way is closed for 6 months of the year due to monsoonal rains and high rivers. There are gravel roads now built around the most difficult sections but we will attempt to follow the original unmade route along the old overland telegraph line - the same horse track Hector and Dick went on in 1928.

Many four wheel drivers steer clear of this difficult track but we reckon that the groups of helpful aboriginals who helped push and actually carry the tiny car through deep creeks in 1928 might be replaced by the odd helpful Landcruiser in 2015 to assist us up the near vertical banks. Apart from adhoc pulls on the rope if required from passing 4x4's we will be going completely alone and unsupported.

Whatever the outcome it will be a lot of fun and we will keep you posted.

The Austin Seven

In 1922 Herbert Austin decided to build a tiny car to replace the motorcycle sidecar - which was all that was available within the financial range of many people in Britain at that time. The result was a vehicle that stayed in production for over 15 years and sold more than 300,000 units around the world. It was also built under licence in several countries such as the French Rosengart, the American Bantam, the German Dixi - BMW's first motor car and the Japanese Datsun - their first "full size" car.

The car only weighs around 400kg (the Landcruisers who will be passing us weigh 7 or 8 times as much). A mighty 10 hp from a 750cc sidevalve engine will be speeding us along.

Searching Stories

By going to the history/archives on the right you may bring up each month. The history/archives also hold all the various expedition stories from past years- just click on the year and month. Unfortunately blogs are posted on top of each other so each section needs to be read from the BOTTOM. All photos may be clicked on to bring up full size.