Chapter 2
Preparations
Apart from this contact with the BMW owners club, I
was a member of the Women’s International
Motorcycle Association (WIMA) and they also had
BMW were considered the best bikes for world
travel, a fact of which I was well aware. They were of members in Southern Africa whose addresses I was
given. But I still wasn’t sure what paperwork and
sturdy German construction, known for their
preparation I would need. As the AA had been so
reliability and were used by police and for
unhelpful I looked around for another source of
missionary work in many countries. I had already
done many miles on them myself. However, I had no information on the logistics.
information from any individual who had taken one
all the way through Africa so I thought I would pay a At this time there were two companies of whom I
visit to the BMW owner’s club in London to find out had heard that arranged overland trips : ‘Encounter
if anyone there had first- hand knowledge of such a Overland’ and ‘Penn Overland’ who filled their
trucks with approximately 20 passengers and took
journey.
them on a three-month journey from London to
Johannesburg. They were well-known commercial
Riding my recently acquired tatty R50 I found the
businesses but in a London newspaper I found
club’s meeting place in an upstairs room in North
another private person advertising such an
London, lent my steed up against a shop window
enterprise. I called the number given and spoke to a
and glanced at the gleaming new models parked
man by the name of Terry Wilkinson. I explained
neatly at the curb. I entered the premises wearing
what I was intending to do and said I needed help
an old leather jacket I had found at a car boot sale
with planning.
and repaired on the Singer. It looked a little out of
place among the new BMW clothing that most of
He kindly invited me to meet him at his home in
those gathered were wearing. However the group
Barn ett, North London. I found the semi-detached
politely greeted me and listened to my enquiries
house in a quiet street where Terry lived with his
about information on a trip through Africa. None of
mother and she brought in some tea while we had
the members had made such a journey and they
our chat. Terry was a tall, spindly, round-shouldered
appeared a little sceptical when I told them of my
intention. They were helpful enough to promise that person in his mid-thirties, I think, with a shock of
straggly, dark, receding hair and large round glasses
they would put my enquiry into their magazine
which was circulated to members worldwide. There which gave him an owl-like expression. He looked
more like an absent-minded professor than an
were a few living in Rhodesia and South Africa and
explorer. His usual profession was a part-time
this fact did, in fact, prove very helpful at a later
insurance contractor but he found arranging
date.
overland journeys more stimulating and lucrative.