Old cars, mates = journey of a lifetime
TALK about an old car with a story.
A total of 107 vintage and classic cars, all of them more than 90 years old, will motor into Dubbo at the end of the month for the Autumn Tour rally organised by Dubbo Antique Automobile Club, and one of them, a 1920 Dodge, has a hell of a yarn to tell.
In fact the story is so engaging, the car’s owner John Mccombe wrote a book, Bondi to the Baltic, about the car’s travels.
John and his 1920 Dodge journeyed with a mate on a pilgrimage from Australia to Finland, delivering a fascinating story told through photos and the distillation of blogs and diary entries by some foolhardy, adventurous blokes.
Their travels took them through Laos, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Russia and Finland – a sixmonth journey spread over two legs in successive years.
Told in an engaging, self-deprecating and personal style, the book takes the reader on the journey, every step of the way: following the ancient Silk Road route into the mountains of south-west and western China and the Tibetan
Plateau where Muslim and Buddhist communities have lived for centuries, through the ‘-stans’, and beyond.
Many an adventure, some impossibly sticky situations, near misses and regular mechanical breakdowns were inevitably resolved with support and civility towards this motley group of travellers in their ancient cars, from locals renowned for their hospitality.
John says nothing was ever too much trouble.
The travellers had no sponsor, no professional photographer or filmmaker, no journalist to publish the story, no ‘name’ to add fame and celebrity, no contract in the pocket for a coffee table book with quality photos and deep, or informed historical and cultural insights, and no travelling mechanical workshop.
There was just a determination to get each of these old cars to Helsinki in one piece and smell the roses along the way.
John Mccombe and others who participated in the Bondi to the Baltic adventure will be looking forward to catching up to Dubbo locals to talk about the vintage car, their travels, and the book from April 29.