Aussies set to re-create history
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, March 09 2013 :
After Australian adventurer Francis Birtles drove from England to Australia in his car through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Baluchistan, India and Manipur in late 1927, two Australians Lang Kidby and Warren Brown have decided to take the same inter-continental tour in November this year.
Lang Kidby and his wife Beverly Kidby have already surveyed the roads which Lang and Warren would take in their historic tour.
Lang Kidby had created a record when he flew non-stop from England to Australia in AV Roe Aircraft in 1995 .
Speaking to media persons at Classic Hotel here today, Lang Kidby said that their tour would start from London in November this year.
The tour is expected to take around two months, and Lang Kidby and Warren Brown would be travelling all the way from England to Australia through Imphal and Moreh in two Bean cars which are exactly of the same type as the original care driven by Francis Birtles in 1927 .
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Lang and Warren are expected to reach Imphal in early 2014.The 14,000 Kms long journey would take the same roads taken by Francis Birtles 85 years ago.
Lang Kidby who is around 66 years old said that there might be just around 25 Bean cars in the whole world.
He said that they observed the battered condition of Imphal-Jiribam highway during their route survey.
Lang Kidby had served in the Australian Army for 25 years.
Land Kidby and Warren Brown would also shoot a documentary film covering their entire journey from England to Australia.
When Francis Birtles travelled from Imphal to Moreh together with Canadian Percy Stollery, the journey took them over a month.
At that time, they made their own tracks and built bridges.
Francis Birtles and Percy Stollery were the first men to drive a car from Calcutta to Imphal, Lang Kidby said.