Octagon - March - 2017

Our return home was very tiring as we were
no longer in tourist mode and wanted to
make road, as they say. The second last day
became somewhat of a nightmare as we
made a bad choice of route after lunch at
Uralla, when we decided to go to Grafton via
the Waterfall Way, a hypotenuse on the map.
A bad choice, because of several reasons.
The road turned out to be very windy and
rougher than we remembered it to be. Being
single lane it was slower and also more
dangerous to travel on. Then we ran out of
daylight, into a storm, and had hardly any
lights to boot. I don’t know how Peter keeps
going under these conditions but he does and
this was not the first time we have travelled
under such arduous conditions over our
many years together attending these events.
We had misjudged how long it would take
because of all the changed conditions to our
previous days of travel. We soldiered on to the
nearest town – Grafton - grabbed a motel bed
and collapsed. Grafton to home was a breeze
in comparison. True enthusiasts! You bet.
In summary the conditions of the roads west
of Cobar were excellent.
Things that went wrong with the car-
• Boiling petrol on the way over - Peter
changed the petrol pump at Coolgardie on the
way back.
• The odometer stopped in Perth - So we had
to manually calculate the distances between
the service stations for fuel.
• Exhaust pipe mount broke - Because of the
woopie roads in spots going to Perth and back
and even worse on the Waterfall Way, Peter
had to stabilize the exhaust pipe at Grafton
with a wire clothes hanger.
(We always carry a couple of these in case
they are needed.)
• Flat tyre - We had a tyre slowly go flat on the
way over, due to a badly fitted tube.
As stated before most tyre fitters don’t know
how to fit tubes these days. Peter wasn’t there
to see the tyres fitted.
• (NB With the Ys and Midgets never let a
tyrefitter use a rattle gun on the wheel stud
nuts or they will break the studs, as they are
thin. Use the provided wheel brace or a torque
wrench and certainly not a cross brace either.)
Spare Parts taken –
A complete distributor and cap, a fan belt,
petrol pump, assorted nuts and bolts, oil for
jack, diff, and gear box etc, tyre tube and
puncture kit. The reason for taking these – you
can’t get these spares everywhere.
To end, we simply want to say that we had a
ball. We enjoyed driving our thirties designed
MGY with forties features the distance we
did. It was probably one of those once in a
life time adventures. Would we do it again?
Maybe! Peter says that he would. Me, I’d like
to try another adventure somewhere else as
I have other fish I would like to fry. But we
are both glad that we did it. Victoria (our little
MGY) drove like the true English Lady she is -
graciously and reliably. Plus it was a joy to see
the expression on peoples’ faces when we
came into each roadhouse or little town on our
journey. It was wonderful to bring a little joy
to people – life is too serious these days. It
wasn’t a case of what the car owed us - but a
case of what we owed it as travelling in the Y
opened “doors” for us. We certainly met some
wonderful people who were more open with
their conversation because of it.
Having driven MGs in all states and territories
of Australia, we hope this story will encourage
more of you to use your cars. To fully enjoy
your car and get the most out of them, drive
them! They were meant to be driven.
We personally are looking forward to driving to
Adelaide in 2017 for the Easter MG National
Meeting.
We travelled 7142 miles/ 11501 kilometres
over and back
We used 271.40 gallons/ 1234.85 litres
of petrol with the highest price $1.72 @
Balledonia and the cheapest of $1.04.9 @
Grafton and 6 litres of engine oil
The Octagon - March 2017 25