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Psuedo travel over with, prepare for the real thing. For the past seven months, I have been acting as Club Manager for the MG Car Club but, clearly was making progress too fast and have been removed, because they were concerned about my health, or their own! So, I have dusted off Bridget and assessed what needs to be done to prepare her for another round-the-world tour. As can be seen in the above photo, she is sitting quite low on the rear suspension, so it will be new springs (the current ones are the originals and completed over 200,000 miles) and new hydroscopic shocks. Such modern upgrades! Also the front bumper (fender)anchor point welds have parted company so they will be rewelded. Other items include a brake system overhaul, check engine valves and seats and standard maintenance work. Regards the route, I really don't know. Most likely, is to follow the first leg of the original route planned for 2021 before...

  Since arriving back in the UK early in February, I have been finalising the plans for Bridget's Swansong Tour. Bridget is road ready, the route as finalised as I ever do, with the usual provisio that should the road to my left or right look more interesting then I shall follow it, and I have approached the embassies of many of the countries I shall travel through. I have kept one eye on Covid developments the whole time. Regrettably, I have had to face the fact that I am very unlikely to be able to enter many of the countries on route this year! Many borders are currently closed to leisure travellers, which is what they class me as, and those that will open before the end of the year will probably insist on a period of quarantine. A quick calculation of the number of border crossings on the planned route means quarantine at each would add 6 months to the...

My winter sheltering is almost over. I know that originally I was going to stay in the Canary Islands until the end of March, but changed that to 1st March to give me plenty of time to prepare for the tour in June. Well, British Airways, who undertook to fly me to the islands and fly me back again, has changed that plan! I received an e-mail informing me that the return flight was cancelled; no alternative was offered or reason given. I contacted them and after listening to a recorded announcement assuring me amongst other things that I could " book with confidence", spoke to an operative who, after some prompting, transferred me to a flight scheduled to leave eight days early on the 20th February. One week later British Airways cancelled that flight too. This time they offered me no other flight in the e-mail and when I spoke to them was informed that they have "suspended the route for...

Much as I am looking forward to travelling again in June 2021, it is with a guilty conscience. Bridgets’ Swansong tour has a budget of almost £38,000 for the first leg to Australia. Some £8,000 of that would otherwise have been spent living at home for the eight months, but £30,000 could have been a cash donation to Save the Children! I have gambled that those of you that like to follow, and live my adventure vicariously through these blog posts, would help me make up those lost funds by making donations whenever you can. Any sponsors I manage to persuade to join this final adventure of Bridget’s Swansong will be making donations in support of Save the Children. You will have noticed in the sidebar of this webpage, or near the bottom of the page if you are browsing with your mobile, that there is a link to my Save the Children fund-raising page. I have tried to explain on...