Bean car charity drive: Inside the epic fundraising journey from London to Melbourne

It had been a long wait and a mountain of paperwork for this red Bean 14 roadster to hit the road to the Egyptian capital in the name of charity. Here’s how it played out.

The second Bean car to ever enter Egypt yesterday reached the pyramids in Cairo on the latest leg of its epic fundraising journey from London to Melbourne.

It had been a long wait and a mountain of bureaucratic paperwork for The Daily Telegraph’s red Bean 14 roadster to be unloaded from the ship in Alexandria and finally hit the road to the Egyptian capital.

“This is a dream come true,” enthused The Daily Telegraph’s cartoonist Warren Brown as we threaded through the honking horns, auto rickshaws, battered taxis and wandering dogs of the ancient Egyptian port city.

“I have been trying to do this for nearly two decades,” he said as motorists gave the thumbs up. “I have wanted to visit Egypt ever since I found a postcard sent from the pyramids by my grandfather when he was here with the Australian Imperial Force in 1915.”

Birtles and Bean Round the world trip with Daily Telegraph Cartoonist, Warren Brown and Journalist, Matthew Benns. The pair have made it to Cairo, Egypt. Picture: Supplied.

The result is the recreation of Francis Birtles 1927 drive from England to Australia in the same model Bean motor car to raise money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. It is a 26,000 kilometre journey that has so far raised more than $100,000 for the charity.

At the Greco Roman museum in Alexandria the Egyptian media turned out in force, alerted of our arrival by Sydney-based friend of the museum Prince Lorenzo Montesini.

Museum general manager Dr Wallaa Moustafa was not surprised at the reception, explaining that “here in Egypt we have a respect for heritage and ancient things.”

The age of the Bean, only the second to reach Egypt since Birtles brought his original car almost 100 years ago, pales into insignificance at the foot of the ancient 5000-year-old pyramids.

At the Red Pyramid, the third largest in Egypt, the Bean and its drivers – wearing pith helmets at Brown’s insistence – could easily have come from a forgotten era of motoring when everything smelled of hot motor oil and getting behind the wheel was not for the faint-hearted.

That bygone age was marked at a reception for the Bean team at the Automobile and Touring Club of Egypt which is celebrating its centenary this year.

Club Vice President Mohamed Askar acknowledged the challenges of driving vintage cars in modern Egyptian traffic, particularly Cairo which has a population just shy of Australia, and said it was investing heavily in safety videos.

“It is a bit chaotic,” he said with measured understatement. “We have a very bad safety record.”

Birtles and Bean Round the world trip with Daily Telegraph Cartoonist, Warren Brown and Journalist, Matthew Benns. The pair have made it to Cairo, Egypt. Picture: Supplied.

In the open topped Bean the response from Egyptian motorists has been overwhelmingly positive and friendly but alarming as they simultaneously pip their horns, give the thumbs up and swerve closer to get footage of the Bean on their phones.

“Even in a new car you have to be very careful on the roads here,” he said. “It will be a challenge in a 100-year-old car with old-fashioned brakes.”

But the sands of Egypt are already in the rearview mirror as we head for the pirate-infested Red Sea.

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Originally published as Bean car charity drive: Inside the epic fundraising journey from London to Melbourne