If I found the journey tough, capturing a record of it might prove to rob me of even more sleep!
On the matters literary, who can advise me on how to tackle the publishing some form of book about the JoLon journey?
I see it being about a twenty or thirty thousand word story with a generous collection of colour pictures.
Of course we were set up! – but we thoroughly LOVED it!
Having returned to Johannesburg on Sunday 19th May after leaving JoLon Imp in England, my family and my travel buddy Geoff along with his family met me at the airport and it was arranged that we all retire to our house for a ‘cup of tea’. No problem, “but I am driving”, I quickly declared! To be able to drive a vehicle with considerably more that the 36 (or probably much less) horsepower of my ancient Imp had for the journey to London AND a vehicle with a fully operational REVERSE gear was quite a treat!
On to the highway. So far so good! Off the highway and into our suburb still fine. At the entrance to our neighbourhood I was surprised to see my old road Imp parked on the side of the street. Catherine, my wife, said, “ok here is where you get out, you and Geoff must drive the last kilometre to the house in your Imp.”
What a pleasant surprise; the engine that we now have in this ‘67 Imp has some decent poke and it sounds super sharp and I so looked forward to giving the rotoflexes something to consider! However my family had planned that we should return to whence we commenced similarly to how we arrived in Coventry – with a procession. Albeit a procession void of Hillman Imps but not to be undone, the Police car Imp that guided us through the Coventry roads was replaced with the security vehicle of our safety company Proforce and a small following of cars made up of my family in their pickup and Geoff’s car and one other vehicle. Sadly for me but fortunately for the rotoflexes the lead car drove up the distance to our home at a very slow pace, a very JoLon – Joburg to London pace - but I resisted the temptation to overtake and let my ears revel in the crisp exhaust notes and the sinking back into the seat feeling of unfamiliar acceleration. Rolling slowly around the final corner before my house l noticed a large number of cars parked up on the pavement outside the houses of my neighbours and assumed they were having a Sunday afternoon party. BIG MISTAKE! When my house came into view I was greeted by a mass of people who occupied the entire street and were screaming and leaping up and down welcoming us back home. There were massive banners strung across the street, a public address system bellowing out Queen’s rendition of “we are the champions” and a barrage of cameras snapping photos of us as we took the Chequered flag that was so lovingly hand painted by my daughter Caitlin.
At this stage things became rather blurred, yes the magnitude of the moment contributed to this haze but the tears that welled up in my eyes were the main cause of vision distortion.
Sight and breath restored I was able to slowly take in the awesome vista; my family, my extended family, Geoff’s family, Geoff’s extended family, my neighbours, my close friends from all over Joburg and my racing pals all there to shake our hands and hug us home. It was a super super special feeling that we will always remember and cherish.
My neighbours Marius and Rob were the two who put the whole event together and not a detail was omitted, right down to the winners’ bottles of bubbly that we were presented with to spray on the street made podium.
Not only were we showered with bubbly but also with gifts! Commemorative tee shirts, Hillman Imp Models and the coup de grace the uber generous presentation by Frank Copping of the previously commissioned oil painting of the Imp but the renowned artist Gary Seitz.
Rob and Marius had also set up two massive displays of over 200 photos of our trip on display boards that brought memories of our trip flooding back and a great focal point to share stories with our friends about our trip.
A massive thanks to Marius and Rob and all the people they roped into make us feel so thoroughly special on our return. (The Residents Association Chairman, the community security company Proforce and Rawson Property) who all played their part is converting Collins Avenue Randparkridge a truly special place on Sunday afternoon 19th of may 2013.
When i left the keys of my Imp at Beaulieu i was hoping i would be offered the opportunity to take this little Honda for a quick ride but alal i was not allowed!!!
Waht a wonderful display of cars, really worth a looooong visit for any petrolhead.
yesterday i took Jolon Imp on my final drive on this great journey. I have placed it in the care of the good people of the Beaulieu National Motor Museum amid such wonderful machines as the McLaren Honda of Ayrton Senna and other classic autos, a bit outclassed but in great company!
when i return to South Africa i will post more details reports of the trip in due course.
After the monster day in the scorching heat and double engine change at the Blue Nile Sailing club, we crawled out of our tent at 06h30 having only turned in after midnight a few hours earlier. then a quick coffee and across Khartoum to the offices of our Wadi Halfa ferry and car barge FIXER who took our details and promised to mail it to the other FIXER (his brother) in Wadi Halfa and when we get to Wadi we should meet with him to get ourselves sorted. Well in principle this is how it should have worked.
The next challenge was to exit the morning traffic of Khartoum and drive non stop to Wadi – only 982 kilometres – but of course this is through the full on sun baked Sahara desert! One thing in our favour was the road, it was a near perfect road with almost no serious undulations. so in spite of the enormous distance for our little 875cc Imp and the blazing sun we managed the trip in one run arriving at 02h00 in Wadi.of course we we also thoroughly enjoying the fruits of our previous day’s labour in that we were able to drive the car normally again with the clutch working perfectly again. (we still did not have second gear though, but this was AND STILL IS a selector problem.
Our Khartoum Fixer did make the journey a little easier for us in that he gave us six large and chilled bottles of water along with a block of ice with which we could keep our drinks cool in our cooler box. We were shocked to find that all through Africa we found it impossible to buy ice cubes with which we could keep our drinks cool with so this was a true luxury for us!
We had planned to stop off at a hotel in Dongola which was about half distance to have a shower and a good dinner. We did battle to find a hotel that could assist us with shower facilities but our luck was in again as we not only found a hotel with a shower with lovely hot water showers but they refused to accept money from us either. So clean as two new pins we tracked down a restaurant and we tucked in to some wonderful pizzas that filled us brim-full of energy for the onward journey.
I was keen to push on to arrive in Wadi Halfa even though it would mean a very late arrival but Geoff had wanted to camp wild in the desert for the night and carry on to Wadi in the morning. I was just too concerned about the fact that w still had no confirmation of a place on the ferry to Egypt nor the barge for our car which normally sails a couple of days apart. In fact the ferry for the Tuesday afternoon departure was already overbooked as well as the ferry for April 30th! this a week later was also overbooked! So we were actually looking down a long barrel and seriously worried puts my frame of mind very mildly.
Geoff allowed me to forego our opportunity to camp out in the Sahara where we would surely have been able to see the southern skies as clear as ever one could with the complete absence of any light pollution.
Keeping in phone comms with Mazur, our Wadi Fixer, as we inched closer to Wadi, we finally arrived to be met with him at the entrance to the God forsaken dessert town, or was it a village! Just outside Mazur’s house where we spent a few hours resting, the Imp got stuck in the loose sand and Geoff had to call upon all his off-road driving skill to get us out without having to take out the spade and get to digging.
The four hours of sleep that we enjoyed got us partly back on even keel after a few very challenging days. but there was a mighty tough day ahead of us!
At 07h00 we headed into the town to prepare the paperwork for the transportation of the Imp to Egypt and the securing of passenger berths for Geoff and I. Began then another trying day hopefully never to be repeated!
After successfully negotiating the 14,000 kilometres from Johannesburg to Coventry to celebrate its fiftieth birthday, one would think the little car would say ’now that’s enough”, but no! Instead the crazy duo of Terence and Geoff are now doing a tour of Ireland and England before returning to sunny South Africa and the African Imp is merrily complying!
Our arrival in Coventry for the final day of the Imp 50 celebrations was super special. We were intercepted about 15 miles outside Coventry town by some of the Imp Club members and very soon we were being given a Police escort right to our destination. Of particular note was the fact that this Police car with wailing siren was in fact also a Hillman Imp!
Following us was a convoy of Imps of every different sort, shape and colour. Even Ginetta G15’s and Clan crusaders. what a sight it was to see more Imps driving behind us that probably exist in totality in all of South Africa. In fact i am aware of not more than about 10 Imps in roadworthy condition in South Africa,
After a most wonderful welcome Geoff and I managed to steal a few hours of long overdue shut-eye only to be gently aroused from our slumbers to a full on English breakfast, a feast fit for a King. And that was not all! The Chairman, Graeme, then presented us with a very special award which was a picture by the famous artist, David Shepard, of the Imp in the African bush in front of David’s favourite animal, the Elephant. Both copies of the very limited print were personally signed by the artist himself! These will be suitably treasured by both Geoff and I. Along with the very special works of art we were also presented with a commutative golden anniversary miniature Imp made especially to mark the occasion. Our JoLon Imp also got a gift, a commutative rally plaque that we promptly placed in a place of pride on the front of the car. Over and above all of this, we were given a very special treat in a Imp 50 tee shirt. it should be noted that this was the ONLY clean piece of clothing that we possessed after our marathon drive.
The JoLon Imp photographed here at the intersection of the M25 ring road around London and the M1 North in the early hours of the morning of the 6th of May on its final few kilometres to meet the members of the Imp Club at the 50 year celebrations in Coventry.
We’ve done it! Johannesburg to Coventry with our Hillman Imp.
This just goes to show that ANYTHING can be achieved if you put your mind to it!
Thanks to all of you who supported Geoff and I achieve this milestone!
Terence (yes a very tired Terence but a HUGELY HAPPY Terence!)
To our family and friends who have offered Geoff and I support during this very challenging trip (Moral, Technical & Financial) we want to thank you all very much indeed. Without your support we would have been lost for sure.
Furthermore, the good people of Egypt, Turkey, Bulgaria ,Romania and the countries west of them wish also to thank you for the help because without it they would surely have been stuck with the two Imp characters and a very second hand Imp in their backyard somewhere.
we have just had a quick burger just outside Vienna and will now make a final push to drive through the night to make as much of the Imp 50 Convention as possible. Wish us good luck.
Terence & Geoff
It was always a big ask, seven odd hundred kilos in a slow car with a border exit from Ethiopia and an entrance to Sudan. we always had a big reservation about the Sudan part of our journey. seems we had to dance through many more hoops to acquire our visas for Sudan more than any other country and then we had the complication of the exit of Sudan via the Wade Halfa ferry for passengers and the separate barge for the car. we soldiered on nonetheless.
In searing heat we arrived in reasonable time to the Ethiopian exit border to Sudan at precisely 14h00. we know this because we were promptly informed that the customs officials had just commenced their lunch break and would be back at six. back at SIX, that’s crazy we thought. but it was not quite as bad as this, because the Ethiopians have an odd way of read the clock. In fact it was only one hour we had to wait in unbearable heat parked at the border boom gate that was nothing more than a dirty rope dangling between two loosely, barely standing wooden poles.
Of course we were permanently surrounded by the YOU YOU YOU brigade all wanting to sell us something or change Birr to Sudanese Pounds or help us with immigration. we never tired of saying “NO THANK YOU’ but let it be known we must have had to repeat ourselves every two or three minutes for the full duration of the sixty minute wait. Geoff at one stage thought he heard someone scratching with some of the kit on our roof rack. it was not a person but the 20litre plastic drum of fuel about to explode. it had swelled up to such an extent that it was groaning out of its tied owns and if he hadn’t spotted this we would surely have had a huge problem to say the least. We very quickly decanted it into the main fuel tank of the car and it was unbelievable how hot the fuel actually felt. I wonder just how close to its flashpoint it was.
In spite of the blistering heat i decided to break the monotony of the wait by organising two nice hot Ethiopian Chai for Geoff and I. It was served in a quaint little pot and consumed out of tiny handleless cups. It tasted nice and certainly gave us something to pass the time with. Sitting with some of the guys in the Chai shop was a rather interesting little interlude trying to make conversation with a mixture of /Arabic, English and Ethiopian.
Another casualty of the searing heat were our coffee and sugar containers. they were unceremoniously shrivelled up by the sun to make them totally useless. Serves us right for putting them on the roof rack in any event.
So the guys from Sudan were not to be outdone! what happened here was having the misfortune of landing up with an official who was clueless with how to deal with a carnet du passage for our car papers. Not only did it take him over one hour to actually complete the necessary paperwork. in fact part of the paperwork because as we were to establish on our attempted exit from Sudan not all of it was complete and we we at serious risk of having to drive back the 1,500 kilos form Wadi Halfa to Wad Medini to have the correct papers redone but a for phone calls of confirmation and a few hours of sweating bullets in Wadi Halfa a few days later the matter was resolved. ONCE AGAIN, NOT OUR FAULT! All our paperwork was sharp but yet another incompetent official could easily have properly scuppered out trip! what he did however was delay our trip solidly by at least one hour more than was necessary.
We were now so late that we could not even take our good friend and brilliant back home trip advisor’s advice to sample the excellent chicken kebabs on our way to Wad Medeni. We knew that we would arrive in Wad late, very late in fact and by the time we rocked up at the Wad Medeni International Hotel it was well after midnight. No worries, we were tough and we knew the trip from Addis to Wadi Halfa was going to be a real challenge but absolutely necessary due to our delays in Kenya. so 2,300 kilos in three days was going have to be done by hook or by crook.
At about 21h00 while still en route to Wad Medeni we pulled off the road and cooked up a thumping good dinner to at least keep our corporal side strong and well sated, climbed back into the cabbie and hit the road again. 
A cold shower (thank God it was cold because to the unbelievable heat in Sudan) a massively noisy fan above our beds and an equally noisy aircon unit was not enough to keep us from sleep, we were wrecked exhausted.
At 05h30 next morning we dragged ourselves out of bed and back to the car.
it was only two hundred kilos to Khartoum but we decided to get in super early so that we could get hold of Waleed to get our tickets fro the Wadi Halfa ferry sorted before we headed back to Wadi. into the rather busy road to Khartoum we launched ourselves and all was trucking fine until at one of the police check points we tried to stop as normal but i found the clutch was not properly disengaging! My mouth went dry, and my stomach churned! All of a sudden Geoff’s words of the previous evening rang loud in my memory; “I’m battling to get 1st gear” he had said!. This did not feel good. so having brought the car to a stop by killing the engine for the police check and slipping it into first gear before starting and when given the all clear by the cop we ran it straight of in first off the key, luckily it started.
we pulled immediately into a gas station that was one of the only places around with any shelter from the blazing sun to examine the problem. We desperately hoped it was a slave cylinder problem and we furiously bled it and even removed it and were almost disappointed to find that the slave seemed perfect. the gas station started to put pressure on us to move as we were now starting to interfere with their business with our tools and bits and pieces spread around us on their forecourt. So we had to pack up and head out in the traffic towards the capital city of Sudan with getting gears almost impossible. In fact it had gotten much worse since we had stopped at the police check.
Geoff heard it before me, the release bearing was making a horrible noise so i realised there would be absolutely no more stopping unless we were actually forced to. Well forced to we were every now and then but we tried to gauge the traffic flow to minimise these full stops. Because each full stop was surely causing the problem to deteriorate and we ran the risk of being stuck out on the road with no shelter from the blazing sun and no-one to help us.
we still had about 180 Kilometres to go! It was sweating bullets all the way to Khartoum and as luck would have it every cop in Khartoum pulled us out of the traffic to verify our papers. By yet another miracle of this trip we made it to the Blue Nile Yacht Club and within minutes of our arrival Geoff selected a massive tree that offered perfect shade as our home for the next two engine changes, (more about that later!)
We texted Waleed to help us to get the paperwork started for the Wadi Halfa Ferry and barge to get us from Sudan to Egypt but he never responded. But without a car we needed not a ferry nor a barge. so we immediately got to graft on removing the engine to establish the nature of our problem. it did not take too long but it took litres and litres of sweat from both of us and this job was tackled with us having neither had breakfast not lunch. I for one was weak with hunger but knew we just had to press on or get stuck in Sudan for one week longer at least.
with the engine removed we found the release bearing hanging by one spring and the pressure plate had one finger broken as well as the centre ring completely ripped away from the centre of the pressure plate. add to this the clutch worn down to the rivets. as luck would have it, we did bring a new clutch with us AS WELL AS A PRESSURE PLATE!so within no time the new kit was in place and then turned our attention to the release bearing with only one spring to hold it in place! Well true to form Terence panicked and decided to run around town in the vai hope that he would find one of these Hillman Imp release bearing springs while MacGyver Geoff scratched around the yacht club until he found some bullwire.
Having found a friendly motorbike owner who said he knew town, Terence went about searching for the proverbial needle in the Khartoum haystack! Miracles of miracles. both Terence and Geoff met with success; Terence did find one of these little curly wurly springs and on his return he found that Geoff had with pliers, vice grip hammer and bullwire had secured the release bearing so we had a brief happy moment of high fives but soon got back to work since we still needed to get the engine back in, tested and then still do our ticket paperwork for Wadi Halfa.
So on we ploughed and had the engine back in in good time. with the car still up on the trestles we decided to run it through the gears to make sure all was in order. ALL WAS OUT OF ORDER!!! inexplicably the rhs doughnut was broken in six pieces!!!! I have never heard of such a break and doubt if anybody has actually witnessed such a break. Now I ask you with tears in my eyes, how were we able to drive this car with a bust pressure plate AND a rubber doughnut that was in six pieces.
we believe that the doughnut was probably damaged by the strap that had become entangled on the half shaft (that’s the strap we had put in place to help us through the heavy towing of the Moyale Mud road) and as much as it caused the damage to the doughnut it might have also held it together long enough for us to actually drive it at all! well whatever the explanation, we had no option but to remove the errant doughnut and the strap as well.
We all know that hard work was never easy and i certainly did not cherish the prospect of fitting a second hand doughnut without the bracing strap. well hard work was made easy by MacGyver Geoff who yet again managed to get the doughnut sorted in absolute no time. with all the bolts properly tightened and everything in place it was time for Geoff to test drive and around the Blue Nile Yacht Club he spun and was quite happy with our handiwork. in fact not happy… ecstatic was the word.
Packing the tool kit away and back into our car and setting up our tent for the night and nicely cleaned up with a nice cool shower we were about to start preparing a good hearty dinner for surely we deserved it. TT I HAVE SOME VERY BAD BAD NEWS, Geoff sombrely said to me. Somehow i knew he was being serious. What i enquired! did you tighten the bolts on the pressure plate? No i said. Well neither did I was Geoff’s reply. This of course meant another engine removal to rectify this omission. In the meantime we had many onlookers who offered us help. “all the help we need is to be able to find USD for the payment of the boat in Wadi Halfi” Terence asked of the one onlooker. where is the closest ATM? You know with the sanctions against Sudan by the US we have no affiliation to either Mastercard or Visa so you will not be able to draw any cash through our banks here with your cards! how much will you need? and we told them it would be in the region of 300 US Dollars. Come and see me later was the response. WELL this friendly Samaritan as we call him handed us USD300.00 as a gesture of goodwill from the people of Sudan. he would NOT accept a cent in exchanged and Geoff and I were gobsmacked at this gesture. this covered three quarters of the cost of the Wadi ferry. We cannot believe the goodwill of certain human beings.
We mustered up all our reserves and immediately got stuck in and contacted a second fixer for the Wadi Halfa ferry and told him we would be delayed and only be able to see him much later in the evening. It was 23h00 when we managed to finish the second engine removal and refit. Tired but deep down super content we dragged ourselves to make a bit of supper, the first meal of the day, and we hit the sack with the plan to meet our ferry fixer at 08h00 next morning and then take on the 982 kilometres to Wadi Halfa.
Sleep came very easily!
Jolon Imp's Blog 