A group of intrepid adventurers from the United Kingdom and South Africa consisting of Robert Wilkinson, James Gunnell, John Walton, Adrian Babault and Ken Grossmith arrived in Rhodes on the 7th March 2023. They stopped over at Walkerbouts Inn on a grand Southern African tour organized by Mark Bland of Routes Rediscovered. In stark contrast to scoro-scoro, their immaculate steeds were Bentley “tourers”, both manufactured in 1926 and still going very strong indeed. Equipped with 6,5 litre and 8 litre motors respectively, both are in perfect running order and literally awesome to hear!
At the time of manufacture, Bentley built the substructure consisting of the chassis, engine, transmission, differential and steering gear. The bodywork was made by coach-builders who perforce, had to adapt to the changing modes of transport from horse-drawn carriages to petrol-powered, self-propelled “motor cars”.
The coachwork of the 6,5 litre vehicle is leather-clad while the 8 litre version has an aluminium body. Both had leather straps to secure their bonnets! Interesting features were “saddle bags” made by a saddlery company specifically to accommodate water flasks. These “gadgets” were strapped to the spare wheels of the vehicles and within easy reach of the passengers!
This year’s tour started in Mpumalanga, went through the Northern Cape/Karoo to Cape Town and from there heading eastwards through Hogsback to Rhodes. The famous Naudesnek Pass to Nqanquarhu (Maclear) and on to Underberg was the next leg of the route. At the time of writing, Underberg was duly reached having traversed the Naudesnek Pass with alacrity. From Underberg the route meanders through KwaZulu Natal and on to Swaziland. All of the travelling is done, as far as is possible, on back roads, the best of which thus far were encountered in the Karoo. In due course, the intention is to then travel to Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania and Kenya with the ultimate destination being Turkey.
We wish them well on an amazing journey in vehicles that are almost 100 years old!
