Ruairidh, what a fascinating selection of photos. Well done!
I have copy of the full edition 1962 first edition and in the acknowledgments John Coleman states "Much of my own photographic material was lost through the exigencies of the journey and in the most dramatic moments the last thing I thought of was my camera." The book is full of stock images of from airlines and photos from other expeditions.
Where did these photos come from? Was Coleman just being modest about his photographic skills? Do you have a record of where the photos we taken? Some locations are clear from reading the book but some are a little more obscure.
The photos came to me from John - he was promoting his last book in a Morris Minor, part of this involved a tour of Scotland. I have a copy of his proposed route in the book he sent me too, I have a feeling that he did not actually complete the tour - perhaps someone else will know more.
I don’t think the photos are captioned, but will check.
Super photos, thanks for sharing Ruairidh. I look forward to your own story.
For what it's worth, if you can track down someone with a high-end slide scanner (something like a Nikon Coolscan 5000ED) they have miraculous software which makes all the scratches, dust etc. disappear from the images - it's not infallible but works remarkably well. Sold mine a while ago I'm afraid.
I spoke with John in the very early seventies and he said that much of his notes were lost in the journey as well. I congratulated him on having a remarkable memory for detail and his reply " I travelled alone and my focus was external and not distracted by a conversation beside me "
John did complete his tour of Scotland despite terrible health problems but didn't quite complete the book about it. We were lucky enough to have dinner with him in Inverness and he sent us a copy of the page where we were to get a mention.
He was an extraordinary character with a thirst for knowledge and a remarkable memory for detail. I asked him what advice he would give to anyone contemplating a journey like "Coleman's Drive". His answer was primarily that you can never do too much preparation or homework. He also thought you had to have faith in human nature.
I re-read my book again this past weekend and have to say that the ending was a little disappointing as it left you hanging once John had arrived in new York. It would have been nice to have had this loose end wrapped up with the return to Britain ending at the place where the whole adventure started. The ending felt hurried and abrupt to me.
I was fortunate to meet John in Brighton. It was at the end of an A7 London to Brighton around 2010 or so, he was sitting in the pale autumn sunshine, rather fragile, but still very alert and interested in all that was going on. I had not long returned from an A7 trip around Argentina from BA to Ushaia and back via Chile, the Patagonian glaciers, the Andes and return, over a 1000 miles on Route 40 a dirt road of fearsome repute.
John was interested to hear about it, asking lots of questions. At the end I hesitantly told him of an ambition to follow in his footsteps because his 1959 trip and book had been such an inspiration. He was immediately enthusiastic "You must do it, it will be a most important part of your life history". In the company of Diana Garside, River Dukes, Stan Price and my partner Amanda Peters in a chummy an RN and my RP we followed in JC's wheel tracks in 2013. Our route was largely based on his, but we were able to continue through Ecuador, where he had to divert by ship to Panama, and on through Colombia. Following a sea passage to Colon in Panama, we passed through Central America, Mexico and entered the USA in San Laredo, Texas. Now our route diverged from JC's, we crossed the southern States to North Carolina, the home then of Diana and River, visiting friends and briefly hooking up with Steve Berg en-route. North, along the Skyline Drive, avoiding the major cities until reaching New York.
We made a brief visit to Times Square, we reckon being the 3rd, 4th and 5th Austin 7s in that location. JC was the first, Vince Leek the 2nd.
Along the way we meet people who had met John on his journey, we drove a short distance on the original Pan America Highway, then a dirt road. We saw some of the river crossing points he had to ford and understood quite how epic his journey had been.
Some of you may have seen the three cars at Beaulieu together with JC's car, at the end of the trip, fresh off the ship on which they returned to the UK.
31-03-2021, 12:09 PM (This post was last modified: 31-03-2021, 05:43 PM by Oxford Jack.)
I think I understand from our perspective in 2013, perhaps it applies to JC. By the time we reached the USA we had been on the road for nearly four months, I wont speak for the others but I was beginning to feel rather well traveled, tired, approaching a sense of humour failure. Up to Laredo everywhere we had passed through had been both a challenge and a pleasure. The challenges were language, altitude, poor fuel, finding new accommodation every night, concern about whether the cars would make it, crossing borders, police interest (polite or demanding) heat and curiosity. The pleasures included foremost the people, their interest and delight in the cars, the landscape, overcoming the challenges etc.
Reaching America was something of an anticlimax. We traveled on the old Highways, avoiding the Interstates, small town USA is fascinating, we loved stopping in small towns and briefly joining the crowd in a Mom and Pop Diner or chatting with people in shops. We stayed in budget motels, where it was sadly Anywheresville, USA. On the road, filling stations and the like it was if we were transparent, I think we may have had interested questions on less than a dozen occasions. We might get a comment such as "neat car" tossed over the shoulder while stopped. I described it at the time as being viewed as just "another bunch of crazy folks, doing their thing, dont look they might ask for help or money". This may be too harsh, but were not sufficiently noteworthy to be worth time or effort.
We reached Newark, outside NYC where we were staying for the last push in the City. The States were on high alert following a recent major bombing incident.Setting off at 05:30 to avoid the worst of the traffic we arrived in Times Square at 06:15 and parked the three cars abreast on the pavement. Expecting to be jumped on by the Boys in Blue in short order, by 07:30 there was no sign of any interest, to people had made passing comments but we drew no attention at all. In the UK we were visible on the Times Square webcam. We left shortly afterwards back to Newark and arranged to deliver the cars to the shippers.
We were not seeking fame or notoriety, but had imagined that our journeys end might be of interest to the media. There was absolutely zero response from TV, papers or magazines in the USA, unlike the other 13 countries we had passed through. Back in the UK were invited to Beaulieu, we were fortunate that the cars arrived by ship with one day to spare.
I concluded that south and central America are car crazy, travellers welcomed and arriving in a new country, town or just on the road, people were pleased for the visit and interest. This was almost completely the opposite in north America. The car craze is there but its all about modern cars. Even at the ACA Museum in Hershey, where we were parked immediately in front of the Museum, our cars attracted little attention, whilst the gleaming exhibits inside were examined minutely. We were outside the scope of imagination of most I think.
I am beginning to sound sour about north America, which I am not, but it was such a contrast in response that it left us all rather deflated I think, perhaps JC had a similar experience. Sadly he had died before we left, I was unable to thank him for his push that made us do it, but I shall ever be grateful that he was so very enthusiastic.
