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Saturday 4th October saw 15 classic and Vintage cars, 5 Alfa Romeos and 3 moderns line up at the MOBIL petrol station in Westlands. It was our third entry in the VCCCK's major event, in yet another car. This time a 1957 Austin Metropolitan, bought last June, driven every week-end since, but never further out of Nairobi than Athi River! Such a gathering of cars was attracting quite a lot of attention from the public. MOBIL had generously offered to sponsor the event, and each car was given two 1000/= vouchers for petrol, and two T-shirts for the crew as we were flagged off. After the usual driver's briefing, cars started leaving at 9.30 in a slight drizzle. Our odometer read 95550 miles at the start.

The route took us to Thika and we reached the first control in good time, stopping long enough to tighten the wiper arms on their shaft. Gary Farant was desperately looking for a pin to hold his in place! However his lights seemed to work, he fixed them after the Concours...Next leg took us on the B7 road to Embu and that's where we had a blow out at the rear. By the time we stopped, the tyre was in shreds. We put on the spare and still made it in time to Control 2, set next to Masinga dam and our picnic stop. However, it turned out that Peter Young had worse problems than us: his Morris Minor engine had run a bearing and was sounding like a diesel... He managed to nurse it to Embu and leave it in the lion's den (Marshalls). Common sense dictated that we would try and buy a new tyre in Embu, even if that meant being late at the next control. We did get a tyre fairly quickly and had it fitted. Spirited driving allowed us to pass a number of cars, but we reached Control 3 a few minutes late. Next casualty was David Withey's Ford Model A with engine problems which had to be towed to the finish. Pole Sana...

We set off after 10 minutes' rest on the final leg to Nyeri and the Aberdare Country Club, but the brains were getting tired and we missed a few signs on the way...Reaching the Club was a relief and we had a cup of coffee and a rest before being taken to the bush by bus for a magnificent banquet around an enormous fire. The nyama, salads and deserts were excellent and the setting was absolutely superb. It reminded me of the Gaul banquets in Asterix comics.

Following morning we had a large breakfast and we were free to enjoy the Club's grounds and activities. I managed to drag my friend Charles Gitau back to the golf course - he had played two rounds already, one on Saturday afternoon and one before breakfast. As I had never played before, it was a bit of a struggle, but what a laugh! We enjoyed ourselves tremendously. By the end of the golf round, it was time to have lunch and Pierre Parsons had already worked out the results. To everybody's surprise, we came second in class! My navigator Marcelina had really done well this time. After lunch it was a straight uneventful drive back home with 95875 miles on the clock. The car did very well and returned 13 kms/litre. This was our most enjoyable run by far. Thank you to the organising committee and to Pierre and Margaret Parsons