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Reproduced From the AC Blog - An Interview With Eirian Jones, Author of 'The Welsh Lady From Canaan'
By Ceri Shaw, 2012-06-20
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Author Eirian Jones with Bronwen Hall, the great-niece of Margaret Jones, the Welsh Lady from Canaan. Also in the photograph are Bronwens children, David and Susan. They are looking at the Australian diary of Margaret Jones which is kept at the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland in Brisbane.
AmeriCymru: Hi Eirian and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. When did you first become aware of Margaret Jones and what made you decide to record her life and adventures?
I was browsing through the Cydymaith i Lenyddiaeth Cymru [Companion to Welsh Literature] one day looking for some information about poets born in Ceredigion, when I came across a couple of paragraphs about this Margaret Jones who had written a few books, but, more interestingly, had lived in Paris, Jerusalem, Morocco and travelled around the United States before spending the last ten years of her life in Australia. Shed done all this in the second half of the nineteenth century which I thought was remarkable. A few months later I visited Margarets home village of Rhosllannerchrugog in north-east Wales and went into the library to see if they had any more information about her. Theyd never heard of her! So that was it I was hooked by her life story and wanted to find out more. Since Im also an author and love travelling, I had quite an affinity with the story of Margaret Jones.
AmeriCymru: Margaret was an exceptionally lucky and above all courageous woman. What in particular strikes you about her bravery and dedication?
She was extraordinarily brave and courageous at a time when women were only expected to raise a family and werent supposed to do much else. Margaret was born in 1842, in poor and unfortunate circumstances and she only received three weeks of formal schooling. There were no ambitious female role models to follow in her home village of Rhos, so her expectations in life must have been pretty low. But, her lucky break in taking a position as a maid with a family in Llangollen and then being asked to work as a maid for another member of the same family in Birmingham (a missionary with the London Jews Society) opened up wonderful opportunities for global travel to her. Margaret was evidently an outgoing personality from her upbringing in Rhos. When she lived in Paris and Jerusalem she could have just worked as a maid and kept herself very much to herself. But no, she wanted to fully experience living in these places: she learnt the languages, visited the important sites and related all her findings back to her parents in letters. In Jerusalem she told her parents about cholera outbreaks, plagues of locusts descending on the city, death threats to Christians from the Sultan etc. And in Jerusalem also, her time was particularly difficult personally, because she suffered from a badly twisted knee. Shed hoped to stay in Jerusalem for ten years, and it was only after being hospitalized due to the condition of her knee that she was persuaded to return home to Wales to receive treatment. So she showed particularly brave and dedicated attributes to her character at this time.
AmeriCymru: In Part IV ('The Length And Breadth of Wales') of the book we are treated to a fascinating account of the chapel lecture circuit in late 19th century Wales.. How much prejudice existed against women lecturers and how difficult was it for them to gain acceptance?
It was very difficult. According to the vast majority of people in those days a womans place was in the home and certainly not speaking publically from the pulpit! To some extent Margaret agreed with this, but she also argued that she had a very good reason to travel the land lecturing from pulpits about Canaan, because she was trying to raise money for the Palestine Missionary Fund so that enlightened information could be given to the people living there. Some commentators in newspapers and magazines were very rude about the handful of travelling female lecturers, saying that the world had come to an end when they saw a female lecturer in the pulpit, or that these ladies didnt belong to one gender or the other! These commentators were largely ignored and, to be honest, these lady lecturers were so very popular (in particular with female audiences), that it was a case of men being envious of their success rather than anything else.
AmeriCymru: Again in Part IV we are introduced to another female lecturer, Cranogwen. Can you tell us a little more about her?
Cranogwen was a fascinating lady too, and spent time travelling around the United States also. She was raised in the old county of Cardiganshire and during her lifetime she was a sea captain, a poet, a musician, a preacher, a temperance movement leader, a school mistress and the editor of a Welsh womens magazine. Shed been sent away by her mother at the age of fifteen to learn to be a seamstress. She hated the work so much that she ran away to sea, and enjoyed life as a sailor for two years. In time she would gain her master of the seas certificate. At 21 years of age, she decided to live on dry land for a while. She took charge of the school in her local village, Pontgarreg, near Llangrannog. She was headmistress for six years, before succumbing to itchy feet once more. She was a promising public speaker, and so she joined the expanding popular lecture circuit and started visiting chapels around Wales. She travelled the land for three years, lecturing and preaching on subjects such as Wales, her religion and education, Money and Time, The Home, Things that go wrong and the female Welsh hymnist Ann Griffiths. Cranogwen became more and more well known the length and breadth of the country, and one rather envious poet quipped that she was the two sovereign, difficult Goddess. Cranogwen was paid two sovereigns for each of her lectures. It seems that the male poet wished to ridicule her popularity. She was yet to turn 30 years of age. And to celebrate that birthday, she went on a voyage to the United States in 1869. There she spent several months lecturing to Welsh audiences in states bordering New York City. She then ventured west to the Rocky Mountains. This was not an easy journey to undertake; it would have been even more fraught for a foreign single lady travelling on her own.
AmeriCymru: There is some speculation in the book about the reasons for Margaret's failure to record her experiences in America in the mid 1880s. Any further thoughts on that?
It saddens me a great deal that I havent been able to find more information about Margarets two-year stay in the United States. Several papers record her arrival in New York City in 1883 and the fact she spoke at several Welsh chapels in the city before moving on to Utica. But after that initial piece of information, theres nothing recorded in newspapers at all. For a lady who wrote so many letters and kept a detailed diary, its very strange that there is no more information about her time in the US. It makes me then wonder if her trip to the US actually lasted as long as two years. After all, she was largely on her own there; she didnt have any constant company with her and if she was moving from place to place, it could have been quite lonely for this gregarious lady. Perhaps, after a few months, she decided to go home.
AmeriCymru: Is it possible to obtain copies of Margaret's books?
I used copies held at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth during my research. Margarets two books Llythyrau Cymraes o Wlad Canaan and Morocco ar hyn a welais yno are both digitalized as Google eBooks.
AmeriCymru: What's next for Eirian Jones?
In conjunction with Blaenpennal History Society Im writing and editing a bilingual book about the history of Mynydd Bach in the old county of Cardiganshire (where I was raised) and hopefully this will be published either late this year or early 2013. The book may be of interest to Welsh descendants who live in the Gallia and Jackson areas of Ohio, as nearly three-quarters of the residents of Mynydd Bach emigrated to Ohio in the 1860s.
Author Eirian Jones at the grave of Margaret Jones, The Welsh Lady from Canaan, in Ipswich, Queensland.
Interview by Ceri Shaw
From the Page:-
"50 of Amazon vouchers to be won!"
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CYMRAEG
Conformist releases his new album ‘Paid To Fake It physically on Monday the 6th of August
By Ceri Shaw, 2012-06-20
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Conformist releases his new album Paid To Fake It physically on Monday the 6thof August it's available to download via all good digital outlets now. This follows on from the well-received single; the crunchy dynamics of Savages Go Modern, which resulted in a BBC, live session and extensive coverage.
28-year-old Michael Simmons is the man behind Conformist, hailing originally from the picturesque village of Dale in Pembrokeshire. Michael's musical inspiration quickened with a move to Cardiff's beckoning City lights. Conformist expertly manipulates and reassembles intricate ultra modernistic layers of sounds, sampling from cable TV shows, shopping channels, talk shows, pornos, the dregs of TV, hacking, editing to extreme levels of complexity, cutting and pasting together a complex patch work quilt of filthy noise the soundtrack to the cities seedy post-apocalyptic consumer obsessed underbelly!
Paid to Fake It is an extraordinary album of post-modern dexterity. From opener and first single the crunchy 808 dance rhythms of Savages Go Modern , through Ladybug Ladybug thats bewildering use of cut up menacing apocalyptic samples ( Everybodys Dead) are driven by thudding beats, post punk guitars and futuristic off the wall Art of Noise -esque soundboard hits. To the deconstructed dub step and movie quotes of menacing album track Post Death Sales Spike to the nightmarish arcade sounds of Mr Grosse and Mr Playfair, Conformist presents you with his enthralling but dizzy rush of ideas and noises . Conformists glum swatches of electronic sound offer a neat line in humour too, morally bereft and cutting to the punch line, exposing clich and avoiding it. Thus his work is built for the dance floor as much as it is for thought provoking head moving headphone sessions in the dead of night.
In the past Conformist has gained airplay on Steve Lamacq's on R1 and Adam Walton's Radio Wales show and earned the praise of local tome The Miniature Music Press and the influential Careless Talk Costs Lives magazine.Whisperin and Hollderin called his work ' audacious and brilliant' while the Daily Post hadn't heard anything this weird since 'Aphex Twin' .
Conformist is also the driving force behind Cardiff's newest audio production facility, Smash Mastering , offering mastering, mixing and acclaimed remixes. See his work on local boys Kutosis ' track 'Islands' and Bury Me in LA 's 'Young Lust Seekers' these served as a taster for his recent single 'Savages Go Modern' and the astounding full long player Paid To Fake It out this August!
We do not often resort to appeals of this kind. We know that its only by making this a worthwhile site that we will attract new members. With that in mind we attempt to be as entertaining and informative as we can and we are always on the lookout for new features for our members to enjoy. Hopefully a number of new and exciting features will be introduced over the next week or so,.... BUT many of you may have noticed that we now have 978 members. We would love to make our one thousandth member by, or on, St David's Day. We feel that it would be a superb way to celebrate a special occasion on the site.
So we are appealing to anyone who may still have friends or family members who they havent invited to please do so now. Also if you've already invited people ...ask them to join again. Uncle Dai needs you on St. David's Day!
( The easy way to invite members is to go to the "Invite" tab on the main navigation bar in between "Home" and "MyPage". Click on it and simply enter the email addresses of the persons you want to invite. Include a comma between each address if there is more than one. You can add a short personal message if you want but either way the email will appear as a personal invite from you in the recipients inbox . Hope that helps. )
Lets make it 1000 by March 1st!
Diolch yn fawr
Americymru
Owain Glyndwr Flag / Baneri Glyndwr
A message from member Sian Ifan :-
"I had looked into this last year following a few enquiries by people but, again, this was left on the back burner due to an ever growing work load but, demand for these extra large flags have grown this year and Ive faithfully promised to get it sorted. However, I will need to order a batch of at least 200 to get them and before Im prepared to order, I will need to have definite orders from anyone that would like to have one or more, of these extra large Owain Glyndr flags. Price each is 15 + pxp. But, I can offer a better price for orders of 20 or more, contact me to discuss.
Where and when can this extra large flag be used:
May 28: Owain Glyndrs Birthday
June 21: Owain Glyndwrs Coronation and Parliament Day.
Sept 16: Owain Glyndr Day
On your homes, on poles in your gardens. On poles outside shops, hotels, pubs, civic buildings, schools, castles, festivals of all sorts, and on poles outside caravan parks and other businesses.
Also, it can be flown throughout the summer as a means of decorating Cymru in suitable and colourful colours and it can be flown at football and rugby and all sorts of other sport events.
Also, of course, it can be flown at protests - and we are going to have plenty of those taking place in Cymru over the coming years as we try to protect our land and its resources from further exploitation by global capitalists.
And, although I dont want to step into the morbid, a number have expressed that, when the time comes, they wish their coffins to be draped in the Glyndr flag.
So, if you wish to have one or more of the extra large flags and wish, at the same time, to assist me to reach the 200 orders required to enable me to go through with the order, please state your interest by the end of this week although payment does not need to be sent until I am certain that Ive got the full quota and then I will contact each one that has stated an interest so that they then can then send their payment.
If you are a councillor anywhere in Cymru, why not ensure that your council orders a quantity of these extra large flags. Towns such as Penrhyndeudraeth, Pwllheli, Conwy, Bala, Corwen and many other places already decorate their main shopping areas with Glyndr flags throughout the summer months, just imagine the impact these extra large flags would have if our towns were draped in them. Good way to drown the Union Rag!
So, no dragging the feet on this one - if these flags are to be in your hands by Dydd Glyndr.
Diolch
Sin"
A Welsh author living in America was overcome by emotion twenty five years since leaving his homeland and became ludicrously patriotic, so decided to write a novel glorifying Wales. Peter Griffiths is a Welsh-speaking author from Cynheidre near Llanelli, moved to Denver, Colorado in 1972, but in the last few years has gravitated back to Wales.
Peter Griffiths said: In 1990, while driving from Heathrow to Bala, climbing the Berwyn from Llangynog, I distinctly remember being moved by the grandeur, and feeling ludicrously patriotic. How could I not write a novel glorifying Wales, its people, and its language? It would be aimed mainly at my circle people in the States, who go weak at the knees over Scotland and Ireland, but rarely over Wales.
The novel is called, Tongue Tied, and is set in the Tryweryn valley and the Rhondda. The novel considers how language has had an unifying and some times divisive role over the centuries. The author said: One is Welsh if one feels Welsh. The novel recognises the tension that arises at times between the majority of Welsh people who cant speak Welsh and the minority who can; and the divisiveness of the language in these instances is compared, with sadness, to its crucial unifying role over the millennia.
Tongue Tied is published by Y Lolfa on St Davids Day. The author now shares his time between Swansea and Denver. This is his first novel.
A message from member Sian Ifan :-
"Roeddwn wedi ymchwilio i mewn ir posibilrwydd yma llynedd ond wedi ei osod i un ochr oherwydd prysurdeb ond, mae na nifer go lew eto eleni wedi ymholi am faneri Glyndr mawr iawn 5 X 8. Gallaf archebu'r rhain ond, maen rhaid archebu o leiaf 200 ohonynt - a chyn y byddaf yn barod i wneud hynny, mae na ofyn i fi gael archebion pendant oddi wrth unrhyw un sydd am gael un or baneri. 15 yr un fydd y pris a 1 am gludiant.
Lle a phryd gellir defnyddior faner enfawr yma:
Ar ddyddiau pwysig yn ymwneud ag Owain Glyndr sef:
Mai 28: Dydd Pen-blwydd Owain Glyndr
Mehefin 21: Dydd Coroni Owain Glyndr a Dydd y Senedd.
Medi 16: Dydd Glyndr - Dydd Annibyniaeth.
Ar eich cartrefi neu ar bolyn yn yr ardd. Ar bolyn tu allan i siopau, gwestai, tafarndai, adeiladau dinesig, ysgolion, cestyll, Gwyliau o bo math, meysydd carafannau a bob math o fusnesau eraill
Yn ogystal, gellir ei chwifio drwyr haf fel modd o addurno Cymru mewn lliwiau addas a lliwgar a gellir ei chwifio mewn gemau pel droed a rygbi ac mewn pob math o chwaraeon eraill.
Hefyd, wrth gwrs, gellir ei chwifio mewn protestiadau - ac mae llu o rheini i ddod dros y blynyddoedd nesaf yng Nghymru wrth i ni geisio a gwarchod ein hadnoddau rhag cyfalafwyr fyd eang rheibus.
A heb swnior rhy morbid, mae sawl un wedi nodi eu bod am gael y faner enfawr i orchuddio eu heirch.
Felly, os ydych am gael un neu fwy or baneri - ac am fy nghynorthwyo fi (ar yr un pryd) i gael 200 o archebion, bydd rhaid cadarnhau eich archeb gyda fi erbyn diwedd yr wythnos er, bydd dim rhaid gyrru arian nes byddain gallu cadarnhaun bendant fy mod wedi cael digon o archebion i garion mlaen ar archeb. Gellir cynnig telerau mwy ffarfiol am archeb o 20 baner neu fwy. Cysylltwch I drafod.
Os ydych yn gynghorydd yn unrhyw le yng Nghymru, beth am sicrhau bod eich Cyngor chin archebu cyflenwad or baneri. Mae trefi fel Penrhyndeudraeth, Pwllheli, Conwy, Corwen a nifer o drefydd eraill yn chwifio baneri Glyndr yn flynyddol erbyn hyn. Ystyriwch pa mor drawiadol bydda'r rhai mawr iawn yma ar hyd y prif strydoedd! Ffordd hwylus I foddir holl glytiau undebol!
Felly, dim oedi ar hyn, os am gael y baneri yma erbyn Dydd Glyndr eleni! Diolch."
Neil Dymock in one of the cars along with
Wales players Lewin Nyatanga & Gareth
Bale.
1. What is "Baku or Bust?" and whose idea was this?
"Baku or Bust" is the name of a charity project. A number of Welsh Football Supporters are attempting in May to raise money for orphanages along the way. The idea is to drive from the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff through Europe to reach Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan in time to see Wales play the Azeris on 6th June 2009 in a Qualifier for the World Cup in South Africa. I initially had the idea from reading an article on two people who had driven from London to Mongolia in a charity rally and saw their route had taken them through A zerbaijan. Back in March last year, I drove to Luxembourg with a friend, Gareth Davis, to watch Wales play a friendly there and we talked about the possibility of driving to Azerbaijan. It started from here basically and has really taken off since then.
We started with one of two cars and around 4 or 5 people really interested, but after some advertising in the Wales fanzine I produce called 'The Dragon Has Landed', I started having one or two emails from curious Wales fans asking for more details. To be honest I was making up most of the answers to their questions at that stage as the idea was still on the drawing board, but since last Autumn it has really taken off and we now have over 30 Wales supporters taking part and over 10 vehicles.
2. You're raising funds for Gl and you're a trustee for them - for people outside Wales, what is Gl and what does it do?
Gl came about on a bus ride back back from a place called Valkeakoski in Finland in September 2002, where I had just seen Wales Under 21's lose 2-1 to Finland. Myself and two other Welsh fans, Gary Pritchard and Dylan Llewellyn were talking about our upcoming trip to Azerbaijan in the November and we decided to see if we could locate some orphanages we could help to promote the kind nature of Welsh Football fans. We found three to visit, raised over $2300 to donate and the rest as they say is history.
On our return, we decided to carry on fundraising and came up with the name Gl which means Goal in Welsh. We formed an informal charitable organisation and continued visiting orphanages, childrens homes and hospitals whenever Wales played abroad. We then decided to help underpriveledged children in Wales watch Wales play at the Millennium Stadium and terminally ill children, those suffering from Leukaemia and children who normally would not have the opportunity to see Craig Bellamy and co play, can now watch Wales. In October 2008, we applied for charitable status with the Inland Revenue and now have a charity number XT14176.
3. How did you get involved with this? Are you personally going on the drive?
I have been involved with Gl since its infancy and have been to all of the 30+ places Gl have visited in the last seven years, bar Moscow and Iasi, with Gl raising around $60,000 in this time. It has been a labour of love during this time, but totally worthwhile, with so many Wales fans involved with Gl, be it by coming along on an orphanage visit or simply buying a raffle ticket. I remember one guy won a tabl football game in a raffle at work and he brought it all the way to Azerbaijan to give it to an orphan. The Welsh Football team can be very proud of their fans, who aim to make a difference at every game. With the papers being sold containing stories of Craig Bellamy's spat with a fan in Portugal the other week, Gl were busy visiting two orphanages in Albufeira, enabling children at the homes to have dental treatment in 2009. The Welsh players are a great help to Gl though, from signing shirts we can use in raffles to having photos taken with children suffering from Leukaemia.
A lot of people ask me from time to time how and why we achieve what we do with Gl. Watching Wales around the world is a priveledge, you make great friends for life from all over Wales, travel to places most people have never heard of and have stories to tell that people wouldn't even think of making up. However the answer is simple, we can ! One of the people inspirational in obtaining souvenirs and prizes to raffle which helped raise the money to donate to those first three causes in Azerbaijan is no longer with us. Maralyn Olsen was a retired school teacher and Welsh Football supporter who did so much for Gl before she sadly lost her fight against cancer in January 2004. She has been a massive loss to Gl and Welsh Football in general. Gl continues with her spirit and those of other Wales fans no longer with us.
I am now one of four trustees the charity has and two of us, myself and Tim Hartley will be going on the drive. Duncan Jardine and Andy Hurst are the other two trustees. We have had so many people who have contributed to Gl though since 2002. Dylan Llewellyn, Gary Pritchard, Rob Santwris, Mark Ainsbury, have been major influences, the list goes on, many fans have all put in a tireless amount of work for the good name of Welsh Football Supporters.
Going back to BakuorBust I don't think Tim really thought I was serious when I mentioned driving to Azerbaijan, but he has and is proving a tremendous help in assisting me with the preparations and has raised over $1500 already. Everyone taking part has been a great help though and given me great confidence that this project will be a resounding success, especially Dave and Jim who have driven to Mongolia before and have the experience of border crossings by car. We aim to visit over 20 orphanges en-route to Baku and raise over $15,000 to spend on these good causes.
4. Have you ever done anything like this before?
No I have never thought about driving a very old car, which drinks oil by the pint over 3700 mile !!! Seriously though I have been involved in a number of Gl fundraising activities, including leading a team to run in Iceland in 2005 and organising a charity walk in London from the Oval where Wales first played in London to Orient where Wales last played. I have always enjoyed fundraising and have run a few times for charity in the past, including Chigaco in 1999.
5. Where are you all getting your cars from? What might they be? Have you got them yet? Got yours?
The first few cars were supplied by Dainton Brothers Garage based in Hengoed, just outside Cardiff. Gareth, Huw and Winstone Dainton have been a tremendous help in sourcing cars for us, refurbishing them and getting them through an MOT. Dial-a-Weld, Part Mart and King David Tyres have also supported Dainto Bros in helping get the cars in a driveable condition with half a chance of making it to Baku. While a special mention to Smart Graphics for designing the advertising that will be going on all the cars. I am driving a very old Peugeot 106, which has done 140,000 mile, while Tim will be driving a Toyota Rav4, which has over 120,000 mile on the clock. We have a red taxi in the shape of a 'London Black Cab', two people carriers and rumours are rife that one of the fund raisers is in negoatiations to obtain an Ambulance. We did have an offer of a Fire Engine as well but turned this down as there were more logistical negatives than positives to driving a Fireman Sam Fire Engine to Azerbaijan.
6. How will you do it, in teams? How will they be selected?
Most of the 'teams' have been 'self selected' as a group of friends taking part. A few individuals are taking part so I have matched them up with other team's. The biggest team is from Cardiff, with five driving in an old people carrier nicknamed Val. One team, Marc and Richard from North Wales have yet to find a car and the weekend visits to dodgy second hand car lots go on and you can read about on Marc's blog. www.conwytobaku.co.uk
7. How are you going to choose your routes? Will they all be the same or every car for itself?
The general route will be through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan. We are planning to leave Cardiff on Friday 22nd May, but some of the cars may not leave until Monday 25th as Cardiff City or Swansea City may be playing in the Championship Play-Off Final at Wembley. If this happens and some of the other teams leave late, the plan is to meet up in Istanbul on the Friday evening before traveling together from here. In Georgia we are spending two days in Kutaisi, which is twinned with a city in Wales ( Newport ) and they will be holding a civic reception for us when we arrive.
8. Will you all meet and celebrate when you arrive? What plans do you have for that?
I am traveling to Azerbaijan for a week at the start of May, by plane not by car ! I will be meeting the President of the Azerbaijan Volunteers Union, Sebuhi Rzayev to discuss our plans to visit seven oprhanages in Qazax, Tovuz, Shamkir, Ganja, Goychay, Kurdamir, and Baku. While I will also be meeting Jon Patterson, an Ex-Pat who I met when Wales played there in 2002 and 2004. Between discussions with these two people I hope to organise a celebration party for Friday 5th June in Baku. During my week in Baku I will also be working as a volunteer in two or the orphanages we are helping to get a better understanding of how we can help these places and the children there. All the money raised by April the 30th for BakuorBust will be spent on items that the orphanages we visit, need. I will be ordering a lot of the supplies for orphanges in Azerbaijan during my week in Baku and we will then distribute ihem when we arrive in the country. For example there are 160 children suffering from mental disabilities at the Saray Orphanage just outside Baku and many have towels as diapers as the home can't afford new supplies. Gl will be donating fresh suppliers so the children can have some dignity.
An orphan at Saray Orphanage, Azerbaijan
9. What other fundraising activities does Gl conduct or contribute to?
Gl is always looking for funraising opportunities. I have already mentioned running in Iceland and walking in London as previous events. We have also had people running in London, New York, Dublin and Cardiff. One Wales fan cycled from Cardiff to Dublin, while another took part in the world famous Wicklow Bike Race. On April 12th Owen Williams will be swimming Llyn Tegid in Bala, while next year Andy Hurst hopes to run in a long distance event on every continent in the World. We have also set up online fundraising on a site known as Just Giving. We are hoping people with a Welsh background around the world will contribute $3 per person to our project. For example if just half the members of Americymru donate $3 each, this would raise over $1500. This can be done online at justgiving.com/bakuorbust .
10. How many cars do you think will make it?
I'd like to think they will all make it, but the law of averages tells me its unlikely. The combined mileage of these cars is well in the excess of one million and although they all have MOT's even new cars can break down at any time. We have various back up plans already in place and the basic idea is if a car breaks down and is not fixable within a timely and financial limit, we will arrange to have the car disposed off and the people driving those cars will jump in a fellow fundraisers car. However we have several difficulties to overcome for any of the cars to reach Baku. Right Hand Drive cars are not allowed in Azerbaijan, but we are hoping to obtain dispensation to take the cars in off the Azeri President, Ilham Aliyev. Plan B, is to leave the cars in Georgia and have a bus waiting at the Georgian / Azerbaijan border to take us to Baku. It is hoped whoever and wherever we leave the cars they will be used for good causes, even if it's for a technical college for budding Azeri or Georgian mechanics to practise on !
