| THE WALLABY TRACK WITH LIONEL MUSSELL
TOW VEHICLES AND
BEST-SELLERS
LAST MONTH, I LEFT YOU WITH THE PROMISE OF MORE
INFORMATION ABOUT ME… SO HERE GOES!
My wife, Vi, was in hospital.
I was at a loose end between
visits so I started writing down
all the things I could think of
about travelling with a caravan.
I did it alphabetically. A was
for axles, awnings, ants,
A-frames and so on.
I sent it to Caravan World
and the editor published three
or four letters every month.
There was such a demand
it occurred to me maybe a
book could be published.
The ABC of Caravanning
was very successful.
Regular readers of my column
will know that I've made Murphy
of Murphy's Law into a real
person who I blame when things
go wrong, so I published
a book called Living with
Murphy. I gave a free copy
to anyone who could prove
their name was Murphy in the
faint hope they would pass on
to other Murphys that Lionel
wasn't a bad bloke and to
leave him alone. It didn't work!
CLOUDS AND CARS
I mentioned last month that I
visited Australia when I was
in the RAF but having 2000
hours in my logbook didn't
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slake my appetite for flying
and I've done many trips in
aeroplanes, helicopters and
even balloons. Last year, I did
a fabulous trip over Lake Eyre,
SA, and a thrilling lesson flying
a helicopter at Mackay, Qld.
So far this year I've only been
in a chopper once. I was on the
Great Ocean Road and there
was a helicopter operation
near the site of the Twelve
Apostles, or at least there
used to be 12 until the sea and
weather eroded them and now
they are down to eight. I was
at an Australian Caravan Club
muster but took advantage
of some free timeto fly down
the coast to Peterbough with
a couple of Irish fellows – I
thought that with them I'd
be safe from Murphy!
My first car was a 1929
Morris Minor that I bought
from a wrecking yard.
The first time I drove it, one of
the back wheels came off and
overtook us! That was the start
of a series of mishaps and I
wasn't sorry to see it go.
My first brand new car was a
VW Beetle. I’d made enough
commission from selling food
mixers door to door for the
deposit and it was a great little
car. We towed a caravan to
Adeleaide and back, did lots
of trips with a go-cart on a
trailer and Vi did a country
mail run with it.
A Hillman Hunter GT I owned
was a disaster! There was not
one week during the 10 months
I owned it when it didn't have
something go wrong. In my
final exchange with the general
manager of Chrysler I told him
I'd found the solution. There
was a floral roof covering
available so I told him I'd put
that on it, dig a big hole in our
lawn and drop the car in as a
permanent flower bed!
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