Alaska to Argentina in an Austin 7

Ten years ago, Guy Butcher G'67 sourced, rebuilt and then drove a 1936/28 Austin 7 from Baltimore to Alaska to Punta Arenas in Southern Chile, with his partner Eunice Kratky. 

Guy, who describes himself as "silly Sussex born and bred’, went on to do dentistry after Worth and the same year bought his first Austin 7, subsequently buying numerous old cars (mostly Austins) over the years. Progress through the ranks of the Hospital Dental Services ended with a consultant appointment, initially at Guy's Hospital, before moving to Plymouth. As retirement approached he met and fell in love with Eunice Kratky who encouraged him to fulfil the life long dream of a long distance adventure in an Austin 7.

A suitable car was found and rebuilt in their workshop. Having then collected the car in Baltimore; they drove to Alaska and caught the ferry down the Inner Passage to Bellingham. Urgent repairs were completed before heading south along the Pacific coast of the USA. They raced across Central America, to escape very challenging border crossings to arrive in Panama. With generous help the car was placed into a container for transportation to Ecuador then unpackaged in Guayaquil, for the adventure to then continue south through Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, before ending in Punta Arenas. They had missed the turning to Tierra del Fuego!

As Guy recalls, "The life lesson we learned was that the ability to achieve almost anything in this life depends on the kindness of family and friends. But more importantly it depends on the amazing kindness of strangers. The often-awesome generosity of the people we met on the road. The people who owed us nothing but showed a kindness that was/is breathtaking and inspiring."  They even ended up in Jay Leno's garage!

Guy and Eunice subsequently wrote a book all about their adventures, Austin 7 Around the Americas, all the proceeds from which were donated to the Dame Hannah Rogers Trust, a charity local to Guy in Devon that supports young adults with learning disabilities and their families. They're now going one step further and have decided to raffle the car itself, on Wednesday 14th December, (essentially as it returned from the adventure) with all the tools and spares, to raise further funds for Dame Hannah's.

You can read the car's specification here and to buy a ticket for the raffle go to Guy's Justgiving page.

You'll be able to read more about the trip in the next issue of Worth Society's annual magazine, The Blue Paper, out in December.