It was the journey of a lifetime for a group of strangers who made some never-forgotten memories as they tried to travel around the world in a Bristol double decker 50 years ago. Five of the remaining crew gathered at Bristol Aerospace this week where they reminisced about the many adventures they shared and how their famous Bristol bus sank in a river in Peru.
The group included John Winter, Mike Conway, Sally Mears, Bernice Poole and David McLaughlin. In 1970, Bernice and her late husband Roger bought the double-decker bus for a round-the-world tour and selling British goods. They advertised and another nine joined the trip.
Each put in £200 and they paid £250 for the 1955 Bristol double-decker bus which had been on routes through Bristol and Bath. It had already clocked up an estimated 770,000 miles before being withdrawn from service in 1969.
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The bus was named the Sir George White Special in a Bristol Evening Post competition in tribute to the Bristol Tramways and Bristol Aeroplane Company pioneer. The current Sir George, who was at the reunion event this week but was only 21 years old at the time, joined the Lord Mayor to see the bus off with a bottle of West Cider.
The bus was shipped out to Canada where the team joined it and 22 eventful months started. Mike Conway was signed on as the chef and he said the most ‘budget-conscious’ meal he had to make was braised squirrel when cash supplies were running low.
The group also tried out rattlesnake as a meal, although that was not cooked by Mike. His favourite memory was watching the Apollo 14 rocket launch to the moon. Bernice Poole described how frightening it was when crew member, Don Coles was stabbed in the back in Columbia.
Sally Mears, who was a nurse said she had to dress Don’s wounds a few times. She also had on hand a full snake-bite kit, saying: “You didn’t pick oranges in Florida unless the grass was cut.”
Sally added that travelling through Canada at -40 degrees Fahrenheit when they didn't have proper winter clothes was one of her most striking memories. “I remember the lads under the bus one night trying to fix it and we were giving them coffee and whiskey,” she said.
David McLaughlin said being in Mexico for the World Cup was a favourite memory, although he recalled leaving one game and the bus being rocked as thousands of people left the stadium.
John Winter, who had been a journalist with the Bristol Evening Post and had gone to initially meet the team to cover the story and had ended up joining the trip, said the bus was “too tall for roads” by California road authorities. As the team’s PR machine, he managed to get the backing of politician Ronald Reagan and the bus was allowed to continue its travels.
But in Peru, disaster struck when they had to transport the bus on a raft across a river. Mike said they had watched a large truck being moved across the river on the raft so thought it could be possible. With many hands helping to push the raft, it set out on its crossing, but suddenly tipped and sank.
“We hoped it would dry out, but when two tractors tried to pull it out, it was cut in half. This was the heart-wrenching moment I realised our incredible adventure was over,” said Mike.
The adventure had ended, but came to light again half a century later when Bristol Car Club newsletter editor, Sam Frost spotted a postcard published in America of the Sir George White Special bus which was up for grabs on eBay. When receiving it, he tucked it away for a while but then thought it could make an interesting titbit in his newsletter.
He contacted Sir George who is also a member of the club, to ask if he knew anything about the 1970s legendary bus which "had been engulfed and sank while crossing the river Chira in Peru”. The adventures of the bus had come full circle.
John Winter has just released his book on their journey ‘Bus to Bust’. The remaining crew members said they have kept in touch over the last 50 years, but their reunion at Bristol Aerospace this week was the first time they had been all together for 25 years.
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