Zambia World Wide

It was 1969 don't remember the month but it must have been May or June. It had been 10 years since the family had been to the UK even though part of my fathers contract allowed us to return every 3 years. I suspect that after our 58/59 trip my folks started looking at Zambia as home rather than the UK.

Anyway my folks, together with my younger sister and brother, set off to Europe I think in July or August 1969. I was still living at home so also qualified for a ticket however at 19 I was going to see the UK on my own, anyway I had another motive, I was going to buy myself a car and import it into Zambia.

While my folks were away I was 'in charge' of the house. We didn't have too many drinking sessions, only two a week, but we were lucky. Attached to the house were two very large rooms in which my mother ran 'Lusaka Creche'. This meant that we were able to have a good time without having anything around to destroy.

I had arrange to go over to the UK with Dennis Heuer, we were going to have fun, I was going to buy the car and get it shipped back.

We flew out of Lusaka on a BOAC VC10, the first time I had ever been on a large aircraft. The short range meant that we stopped off in Nairobi, Cairo, Rome and finally Heathrow. Each time we stopped we had to leave the aircraft while it was refueled. The stop in Cairo was 'different', it was only a couple of years after the 7 day war so all the windows at the airport were blacked out. We touched down and could see absolutely nothing outside, everything was in complete darkness. I understand that they turned on the landing lights for just long enough for the plane to get down on the runway. I have no idea how long the trip took but it must have been not far off 24 hours.

Dennis was only over there for part of the time so as I was going to be on my own for the last part of my holiday the car hunting took priority.

I spent some time looking at the magazine adverts, I was looking for a Mini Cooper S and if it had been tweeked so much the better. I found a number advertised and phoned to make arrangements to see them. We went to see 4 or 5 getting around the UK by rail but nothing took my fancy, they all looked decidedly second hand. Even though I was looking for a second hand vehicle I did want something that was reasonable.

Now Dennis wanted to buy some 'go faster' bits for his Mini Cooper back in Lusaka and had decided that Janspeed Engineering in Salisbury, Wilkshire was where he wanted to go to. While there I decided to ask Jan Oador, owner of the company, if he knew of anything.

He took me through to another room and pointed at a 1968 red Mini Cooper S that had no engine and no interior. He explained that it had been brought in to be built into a race car but after they had changed all the suspension, had rebuilt the engine whoever had owned it could not pay for the work so handed the car over to Janspeed. The registration on the car was LOL 129 F. He said that they would detune the engine slightly for road use, get a new gearbox from BMC, use the interior from a new Cooper S that they had prepared and sent to Canada, the interior was brand new. I said I also wanted a smaller steering wheel and a set of wider wheels, how much was it going to cost? The answer £638:10:0.

I thought about it for about 5 minutes and said 'Yes'. We then set off to Southampton to organise the shipping of the car. I decided that I would have it shipped to Durban rather than Cape Town, not sure why. After this had been sorted out I headed back to Salisbury to let Janspeed know the ship, dates and times they they had to meet. They had started work on the car and while I was there the gearbox arrived, bright and shiny in it's own box.

For the rest of my trip I spent a couple of days with my Grand Parents up in the Lake District, about a week in a seedy hotel in Bayswater from where I roamed London until the early hours. I met a Spanish guy in London and we explored the night spots together, me not speaking any Spanish and him very little English.

I cut my holiday short, ran out of money as I had spent more on the car than I intended, but before I headed to Heathrow I payed a visit to Janspeed to see how they were getting on. Although not ready for the road it was taking shape and they assured me that it would be in Southampton ready to be loaded onto the ship.

I flew back to Lusaka and immediately booked a ticket to fly down to Durban to match the arrival date of the ship which was sometime in November 1969.

I arrived at the dock in Durban on the morning that the ship docked and arranged for the car to be checked and cleared through customs. It was about midday when the car was unloaded and I went over to check for damage. The car had two petrol tanks, one each site, and both caps were missing as well a one of the windscreen wipers. I decided that I was not going to put in a claim for these and set off, first time I had driven the car, to find a spares shop where I bought two caps and a windscreen wiper.

I took a drive along the coast and then went back to my hotel aiming at getting an early night and an early start in the morning. I settled my hotel bill and went to my room.

At about 1am I had not managed to sleep so I decided that now is as good a time as any, dressed, picked up my bag and left for the drive up to Lusaka. The engine in the car might as well have been brand new and in those days we 'ran the engine in'. This meant that after about 600 miles of taking it easy the engine oil had to be changed. The was done on the side of the road.

After this I sped up a bit and stopped the night at the hotel that is next to a river on the left hand side of the road when heading north, I think it is in Zim. I can't remember the name but something to do with hippos seems to ring a bell but I could be completely wrong.

I don't remember when I finally arrive in Lusaka even though I was delayed quite some time at Chirundu sorting out the import of a vehicle. In the end I persuaded them that it was OK to bring the car into the country and that I would sort out the clearance once I was back in Lusaka, which I did. The import duty was next to nothing.

I had the car for a few years, under the guise of EU6353 until I swapped it with Theo Peterse who then painted it orange and blue.