{"id":43556,"date":"2012-11-26T00:00:04","date_gmt":"2012-11-26T00:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGAR2020\/?p=43556"},"modified":"2012-11-26T00:00:04","modified_gmt":"2012-11-26T00:00:04","slug":"congratulations-mg-adventurers-cape-to-cairo-and-beyond-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/congratulations-mg-adventurers-cape-to-cairo-and-beyond-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Congratulations MG Adventurers \u2013 Cape to Cairo and Beyond 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Congratulations11 Classic MGs; 24 Adventurers; 12,000 miles\/19,000 kms; 75 days; 18 countries; 4 vehicle ferries; from MG Cape Town, South Africa to MG Motors, Birmingham, UK …<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Mike Brett<\/strong> and Guy Murphy<\/strong> in \u201cBlue A\u201d and Neil Godwin<\/strong> and Margie Burrie<\/strong> in \u201cBlackie\u201d for driving from Cape Town to Cairo \u2013 and on to Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea…<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Dominic Clancy<\/strong> for being passenger in \u201cBlue B\u201d from Nairobi, Kenya to Cairo, Egypt…<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Ken & Sue Slater<\/strong> in \u201cRed Car\u201d and Reg & Mary Bowran in \u201cWhite Car\u201d for accompanying RIP from MG China to MG Motors, UK in 2010 and now completing the gruelling trip from Cape to Cairo & Beyond to MG Motors, Birmingham, UK…<\/p>\n

Congratulation to Simon & Madeleine Boadle<\/strong> and Macca (Ian) & Lorraine McCleave (our Tag Team) in \u201cNavy Car\u201d for accompanying RIP from MG China to MG Motors, UK in 2010 and now completing the grueling trip from Cape to Cairo & Beyond to MG Motors, Birmingham, UK…<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Nigel & Sue Fowler<\/strong> in \u201cTango\u201d, Peter & Wendy Carthy<\/strong> in \u201cGreen Car\u201d, John & Ros Bastian<\/strong> in \u201cGoldie\u201d, George & Cherie Pethard<\/strong> in \u201cCasper\u201d and Ross Letten<\/strong> in \u201cBlue B\u201d for completing the grueling trip from Cape to Cairo & Beyond to MG Motors, Birmingham, UK…<\/p>\n

…and, of course, to Dave and Laurel Godwin<\/strong> in \u201cRIP\u201d…<\/p>\n

\"Kimber
Kimber House, Abingdon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You all earned, and well deserve, a standing ovation!!!<\/h3>\n

Roger Pearce once said \u201cAfrica is not for Sissies\u201d and how right was he! South Africa was a breeze: hoards of MG International Family members, good accommodation, sealed roads, lots to see and very, very clean… Namibia was lovely in a different way \u2013 good dirt roads (although we thought they were bad at the time…), good accommodation, desert landscapes and wild African animals… Botswana was much like Namibia but Zimbabwe was the start of \u201cDarkest Africa\u201d for us.<\/p>\n

The accommodation deteriorated, as did the roads. Although the majority of the population in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia loved our cars and enjoyed us being in their countries, more and more started shouting abuse at us and throwing sticks and stones at our MGs… All was not quite right for them!<\/p>\n

The roads in Zambia and Tanzania were sealed but deeply pot-holed due to high density trucking and poor maintenance. Many of our shock absorbers failed and one rear spring broke in two… but this was insignificant compared to the carnage we witnessed of the trucks that were virtually hammered to death! Many had broken down, others had rolled over, some had burnt out and one broke in half!<\/p>\n

We were hugely successful in the 42nd East African Concours, enjoyed the animals and accommodation in the Masaai Mara Game Reserve and appreciated the hospitality of the Australian High Commissioner in Kenya, but the \u201cRoad from Hell\u201d in northern Kenya to the Ethiopian border sure did live up to its reputation! We encountered 375km of the roughest, rockiest and most dusty roads most of us had ever experienced! We were warned that 4X4 vehicles and off-road motor bikes turn back when they are confronted with this road \u2013 but the little MGs continued on defiantly… These were the conditions we had prepared our trusty steeds to navigate and they did us and the MG fraternity proud!<\/p>\n

Long may our Classic MGs live!<\/h3>\n

That is not to say we were not seriously challenged! Nearly every MG had one sort of problem or another. Various shock absorbers failed; 2-front springs broke into 3 rings each; one puncture; one stone guard came adrift; numerous cars stopped simply because the motors could not breath \u2013 as the air filters were totally blocked; points gaps closed up regularly due to excessive wear of the mica due to abrasive dust mixing with the lubricating grease; one clutch failed due to excessive sand being packed around the clutch mechanism; a few starter motors, overdrive units and other electrical connections failed due to the ingress of dust; headlight filaments broke from the constant vibrations and bits and pieces fell off the dash board at will…<\/p>\n

But, as Roger Pearce proclaimed \u201c…but you all did it…\u201d \u2013 Yes, we did, even though \u201cWhite Car\u201d had to be towed the last 60km by \u201cBlue B\u201d…<\/p>\n

Ethiopia was green and lush, with reasonable good road surfaces, and the Christian history was phenomenal, especially at Lalibela and Axum. Did you know that one of the Three Wise Men was a Black from Ethiopia? None of us did, but we saw evidence in many churches in the area.<\/p>\n

\"11
11 MGs on the Nile<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sudan was hot, hot, hot \u2013 30\u2019C during the evenings and 40\u2019C during the day time \u2013 and our little MGs revelled in this test of their cooling systems! Not so our bodies \u2013 as each of us consumed around 7lt water each day, according to Dominic, our \u201cWater Boy\u201d! We enjoyed the \u201cChinese Roads\u201d \u2013 being new sealed roads traversing much of Africa at the moment \u2013 which took us to more pyramids than we were to see in Egypt \u2013 as the kings of Sudan ruled Egypt for some time and followed the rituals of building pyramids as tomb stones to their tombs…<\/p>\n

The ferry from Wadi Halfa to Aswan on Lake Nasser can only be described as a disgrace! When will the road border open between Sudan and Egypt?!<\/p>\n

Egypt is obviously a holiday destination and did not disappoint, but we were perplexed why armed guards felt compelled to loiter around us at every stop along the way…<\/p>\n

\"MG
MG Motors, Birmingham<\/figcaption><\/figure>Hearing the bad news that Libya had closed its border to us and subsequently searching for and finally finding a vehicle ferry and negotiating getting across the Mediterranean Sea to Iskenderun, Turkey almost spelt the end of the trip for some! However, all except \u201cBlue A\u201d and \u201cBlackie\u201d continued on and \u201csprinted\u201d across Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and France in essentially good but cold weather to Britain and our final destination \u2013 Abingdon, where all of our cars were built and MG Motors, where MGs are still being assembled.<\/p>\n

CONGRATULATIONS, MG ADVENTURERS \u2013 THE MG WORLD SALUTES YOU!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

11 Classic MGs; 24 Adventurers; 12,000 miles\/19,000 kms; 75 days; 18 countries; 4 vehicle ferries;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-mg-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}