All entries for Monday 30 August 2004

August 30, 2004

A day out in Coventry – and the world

On Saturday Emma and I went on a mission to visit a famous friend of a friend. We have just moved to Kenilworth, near Coventry, and not far from Meriden, the former home of Triumph motorcycles. It was at 6pm on Saturday 6th October 1973 that Ted Simon rode out of the gates of the factory in Meriden on an overloaded Tiger at the start of the round the world ride that would become Jupiter's Travels ( read a review here ). After crossing deserts, mountains, jungles and great cities on an extraordinary adventure, the bike returned home, and has lived in the Museum of British Road Transport in Coventry City Centre.

The museum has recently been refurbished, is now free, and attracts visitors from around the world. Indeed from many places that the bike visited. We found an Indian family marvelling at the sight of this rough looking machine amidst the polished and prized classics.

I explained about it's great journey to the father of the family, and pointed out India on the map of its route painted on one of the panniers. He was amazed, and now I think will seek out the book.

It is such a small and fragile bike. You can see quite clearly the effects of the journey upon it. I'm not surprised that for his latest journey Ted chose something more substantial in the form of a BMW R80GS. His latest bike is similar to mine, and in fact has been sitting next to it in a workshop in Dorset for the last six months.

After leaving the exhibition, we went to the Coventry Retail Market, a place that I always enjoyed and always got lost in as a child. Genuine markets anywhere in the world have the same atmosphere filled with excitement. Coventry has a genuine market. In a big round indoor arena, you can carry on going in circles until dizzy, or stopped by something like this stall:

Full of delicacies from all over Africa, the Ghanain stall holders perform a vital service. I bought some of the biggest, and i guess fiercest scotch bonnet chilli peppers that i've ever seen:

We thought about the map on the side of Ted's bike, and of the people who had come to Coventry from all over the world, deterritorialized but adapting with a cheerful and hopeful ethic. My family had come here from Ireland, Scotland and Newcastle to work in the car industry. My wife grew up in Botswana, and is now starting to feel more at home here (especially now that we have found the Nandos restaurant). There are no real ghettos in Coventry, as I remember from my time at school, it is multicultural and cosmopolitan in the most positive sense.

And finaly, on our way past Broadgate, this wonderful cosmopolitanism came dancing down the street towards us in stunning colours and to the rythm of drum beats from all over the world. A carnival! Led by a maharaja on a camel: