Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2007 | Page 124

life

MOTORING

Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang
goes down
under
Nick and Carolyn Pointing
leave this September for
a four-month overland
adventure to Australia, visiting
18 countries, camping,
cooking and taking in the
sights. It sounds like the
journey of a lifetime, until
Nick explains that their
journey will be in a replicastyle Chitty Chitty Bang
Bang, made from an old 1973
Land Rover. Nick Pointing
describes the preparations.
Our journey starts from Dover
with a ferry trip to France, from
where we will head to Munich
(Germany), via Belgium and
Luxembourg. In Munich we
will visit the iconic fairy castle
made famous in the 1968 film of
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Then
we will head east for the Czech
Republic and visit Prague to
sample Eastern Europe.
Turning south we will drive to
Vienna in Austria. Budapest
will be the next capital city
on our route after an exciting
drive over the northern Alps.
Hungary, the home of the river
Danube, will make a good
photo opportunity, and over the
border in Romania, we will take
in Bucharest and experience
a taste of Transylvania.
Bulgaria is next on the list,
and from the port of Istanbul,
in Turkey, we will ship Chitty
on a container ship to Mumbai
formally Bombay in India.
Shipping Chitty is full of
customs and red tape which
will be sorted out by our
shipping agent leaving us
to negotiate a passage on
board the same ship as we
wish to sail with Chitty.
Once in India we will drive

124

Photo: Nick & Carolyn Pointing pictured
with Charlotte & Alex Pointing

north with our hearts set on a
visit to the Tiger wildlife reserve
of Ranthambore in Rajasthan.
Crossing the northern half
of India we plan to head up
to Kathmandu in Nepal and
encounter the breathtaking
scenery of the Himalayas.
Tibet within China will be the
next stop, aiming for the city
of Lhasa. Driving through
China will be a long leg of the
trip and we will need special
permission. The way south is
through the country of Laos,
which will bring us out in southeast Asia. In Thailand we will
take a trip to the northern jungle
to encounter Thai elephants.
Crossing over into
Malaysia, we head south via
the capital Kuala Lumpur
aiming for Singapore which
is where we will ship Chitty
to Darwin in Australia.
Before Chitty is loaded
in to the container she has
to be completely cleaned,
removing all traces of soil and
contamination prior to Australian
immigration. Once safely in
the Northern Territory, Perth,
Adelaide, Sydney, are the cities
we will visit as we head towards
Brisbane, our final destination.
For security reasons we can
never leave Chitty alone, so
our sight-seeing will be from
the driving seat and one of
us will always be with Chitty
whilst the other goes shopping;
washing etc. We will always
camp next to Chitty and have
designed an awning to cover
part of her. A night in a hotel
would be fantastic but to be
realistic, finding secure parking
for her will be very difficult.
Chitty’s engin R