Wales - Our first London Taxi! - August 1968

When I saw the inside of a London Taxi and saw how much room there was in the back I thought it would make sleeping a lot more comfortable than in 'Vera' the Vauxhall.   There would be space for our goods and chattels, London Taxi’s are diesel which was much cheaper than petrol, plus the bonus of a London Taxi being very smart looking.

David saw one for sale in the paper and caught the train to Dalston N1, North East of London, a Diesel Austin FX3 the cost of which we can’t quite remember but it wouldn’t have been more than £80 to £90.  This taxi already had had some sort of conversion, the luggage space next to the Drivers Cabin was smaller on the outside, which gave us more room inside the Drivers Cabin which was handy.

 Our first trip in our Taxi - to Wales. 

Llanfair-Caereinion, Montgomeryshire.

The first trip we made in our London Taxi was to North Wales on the August Bank Holiday. I found in a postcard to family that our first night in this, so far unnamed London Taxi, caused us much distress when it poured with rain during the night and we discovered the boot leaked so we had wet and muddy feet and everything else, but thankfully the weather dried up and we had a few very sunny days.

 Above Bala, North Wales.

Snowdonia

 Morning shave in a running stream near Bettys-y-Coed.

 I loved driving this vehicle and I had fun making red and white check curtains for the windows, David made strong wooden chocks that hinged onto the two front ‘Dickie’ seats that came down, we pulled the seat part of the back seat to the front so it could sit on the wooden chocks, filled the small boot with our luggage, put the back of the back seat in the outside luggage rack, or in the drivers cabin and rolled out two thin foam mattresses, placed our sleeping bags on top of all that.  Wonderful!  Comfortable and private.  We bought a two burner Campingaz stove, a couple of pots, a couple of plastic plates and we were ready to start our adventures.

Festiniog Railway