a lovely memory to treasure
Let me introduce myself, my name is Sylvia Peel (nee Morris) this web site is in memory of my brother Ken Morris who died in Perth Australia in 1970. He will be remembered always.
Ken loved life and was always the adventurer, no boring games for him, like kicking a ball around a football field “11 grown men kicking a ball” “daft” he would say, it was always the more adventure’s stuff that interested him, like potholing, scuba diving and deep sea diving, We had some great times together Ken and myself my husband Bev and Kens girlfriend of many years Lorraine, inseparable we were.
One cold winters evening we all decided (Ken being the ideas man) on an overland trip to Australia, thought it would be another adventure as Ken had already had a few adventures driving over to Morocco and Marrakesh in an old converted Ford Pop Car. I say converted because he had taken out all seats except the driver’s seat to make sleeping room.
He had also worked in Gibraltar for a while, kitting out a boat for someone who wanted him and another chap to sail the boat back to the UK for him, which they tried to do but due to bad weather in the Bay of Biscay they had to turn back to Gibraltar.
So after buying a 4 wheel drive Land Rover and kitting it out with bunk beds etc off we set.
After stopping for a last ‘Wimpy’ (hamburger) in Dover we drove onto the car ferry to Calais France on the first leg of our ‘drive’ to Australia, never really thinking we would make it all the way.
After a trip that took almost 5 months with lots of adventures we did manage to reach Australia.
With the help of Lee and Pat a couple we met in Tehran where we had come to a stop, not having the funds to buy a Carnet du Passage without which we couldn’t drive through countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, Pat was the only one of us with a cheque book, and so she bought the Carnet for us all from the Iranian RAC enabling us to carry on our adventure, I might add she didn’t have any money in the bank just a cheque book!!!(The Iranian RAC holds the cheque until the Carnet is used and returned) So with the Carnet duly returned to the relevant RAC auto society in Iran once we arrived in Malaya.
Unfortunately we lost Lee and Pat somewhere in Pakistan and wondered often if they made it to Australian.
Ken wrote a log and diary of the overland trip and started to write a diary on our arrival in Australia before his untimely death. And since I have got a bit more proficient in using the Internet (compiling my family tree) I thought it would be nice to publish Ken’s diary and itinerary to the World Wide Web in his memory.
The times are a changing und not fir the best. Once life was easy now it’s becoming more impossible by…
Aww Thanks Emma Only just seen this, I must ask Simon why they arnt letting me know when someone leaves…
I think travel has been a highlight with all our family members Aunty Syl we all defo have itchy feet…
Amazing!
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