By Ashley Blair
South America – the Last Bantam Adventure
Concluding the incredible story of the New Zealand midwife who rode a 150cc Bantam Major around the world alone.
Joy camping beside an ancient highway in Ecuador. Photo J McKean.
Staff from Skeates & White, BSA agents for New Zealand, met Joy McKean at the wharf in Auckland on 10 November 1957 when she arrived home from the North American leg of her round the world ride. She then rode south to Te Puke where she worked at the hospital for a month before moving back to her old position at Waikato Hospital. Joy liked this hospital very much but did not want to “stagnate” and in January 1959 she left with the Bantam on the Wanganella for Melbourne where she studied for her Midwife Tutors Diploma. During this time she went on shorter motorcycle tours.
Joy’s third Bantam that she rode in South America. Photo Geoff Clarke.
Back in New Zealand she was a midwife tutor at Waikato Hospital for two years. As a tutor she had evenings free for the first time ever so she studied and passed School Certificate. In January 1962 she began working as a midwife tutor at Tauranga Hospital and was to work here, apart from when she was off on motorcycle tours, until she retired. She sat and passed University Entrance, but wanted, “to get going again and see a little more of the world”.
Joy’s Bantam being loaded on the Willem Ruys at Wellington, 21 November 1963. Photo Geoff Clarke.
On 21 November 1963 Joy and her Bantam left Wellington on the Willem Ruys for Callao, Peru. By this time the Pan American Highway was open, apart from the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama. Joy planned to ride from South America north through Central America and on to the United States. From Callao she first rode south through sand towards Arequipa 635 miles away.
Joy in Peru. Photo J McKean.
When she woke up on her first morning in Peru, after sleeping outside as usual, she was fascinated to find herself surrounded by llamas. That day she suffered altitude sickness for the first and only time. She sat under a tree waiting for the fainting fits to pass.
Joy meeting up with fellow motorcyclists. Photo J McKean.
After visiting Puno, Lake Titicaca and Cusco she wanted to keep to the mountains but, “The going was terrible. The roads are fearful, if you can call them roads at all. One day I only covered 90 miles. It was dreadful! I had been up almost in snow and then down to where bananas were growing all within ten hours”. She travelled by train from Cusco to Machu Picchu.
Anticona, also called Ticlio at 4,843 metres one of the highest passes in the Andes. Photo J McKean.
Joy rode over the Ticlio Pass, at 15,806 feet one of the highest passes in the Andes and even today described as “a hairy drive through the Andes” on the Dangerous Roads website. At the top she was very grateful that the Bantam started with just one kick as she had no more energy. “Just one little kick and off it went. 70 miles and I was in Lima.”
Joy at the equator line monument Guachala, Ecuador. Photo J McKean.
Joy rode north along the coast road towards Ecuador. She left Tumbes 20 miles south of the Ecuadorian border which she was keen to reach before nightfall. At the border she crossed a small bridge where a soldier looked at her passport and directed her to the police who also looked at her passport and directed her over the road to customs. She cleared customs in 15 minutes and was then directed to Immigration, thinking all was in order and she would soon be on her way. However, Immigration informed her that all was not in order, and she had to return back over the border to Tumbes for an exit permit! Joy was furious and went over to the police and gave them a piece of her mind. They did not understand English but they did understand her meaning. This was the beginning of the most prolonged and dramatic border crossing Joy ever experienced in all her travels. She rode back to Tumbes, quickly received an exit permit and set off back for Ecuador where she had been given to understand they would stay open for her. But by now it was almost dark, and she decided to sleep out on the Peruvian side and cross the border first thing in the morning. She passed military barracks beside a tiny village, turned off the road and went to sleep under a very large cactus.
About midnight she was startled awake by two rifle shots over her head. She sat up and in the half moonlight could see two soldiers about twenty feet away pointing rifles at her. They made her get up – she always slept in a change of clothes – pack everything onto the Bantam and push it out onto the road. After walking for about a mile and getting increasingly concerned at the situation she put the bike down, turned and slowly and deliberately walked away. After about 300 yards she looked back but they were not following her so she walked three miles to the village and barracks where there was a house with a light on. She knocked on the door and called out so they would know it was a woman. The lady of the house came to the door followed by her husband in his pyjamas. He disappeared for a few minutes before returning fully dressed.
He took Joy to the police station where a policeman appeared in his pyjamas. They looked at Joy’s passport while she tried to explain that she wanted the police to get her motorcycle back to her. It was about 2am by this time and some soldiers had gathered around. Just when she thought she was getting nowhere a large Mercedes Benz arrived and four officers got out. A chair was produced for Joy to sit on in the sand under the moonlight surrounded by a now much larger crowd of soldiers. Her hair was down and much later she thought all this must have been quite a funny sight. One of the officers said to her, “Don’t worry, we will get your motorcycle. This is the Major, you go with him now to his house for the rest of the night”.
Joy went to the Major’s house a short distance away, was introduced to his wife and waited while one of the four children gave up their bed for her. Ten minutes later the Major arrived with her riding coat so she knew the Bantam was just outside. Instead of sleeping, Joy had to spend what was left of the night listening to the Major’s wife complaining bitterly about living in such an awful place when she would much rather be in the bright lights of Lima. Before Joy left in the morning the officers wanted to take a photograph of her. She later wrote them a letter apologising for all the trouble she had caused.
Joy in the Andes. Photo J McKean.
Once into Ecuador Joy found it a fascinating country. She saw for the first time cocoa growing and was amazed at the extent of banana growing after riding for nearly 200 miles through banana plantations and seeing 20 banana trucks lined up at Port Bolivar. On the long climb up to Quito at about 10,000 feet she thought the green landscape with dairy herds was much like New Zealand – except for the llamas. Just before Quito she stopped at a village market where she bought “lovely hot potatoes”. 70 miles northeast of Quito she crossed the equator, with 18,000 foot snow-capped volcanoes in the distance and Australian gum trees growing nearby.
Joy had no trouble crossing into Colombia at the border post which was 10,000 feet above sea level although she did have to show the Ecuadorian border officials where to stamp her carnet as they had never seen one before. Colombian border officials gave her a cup of coffee which she welcomed as it was very cold. The next day she rode up and down through gorges to the city of Pasto on the slopes of a volcano.
Although Joy did not know it, this was to be her last day riding the Bantam on this tour – and the last day she would ride a Bantam away from New Zealand. Ten miles out of Pasto on a wide twisty road under construction, with many washouts and lots of ups and downs, Joy had a collision with a small truck. She was not sure if she hit the truck or the truck hit her, but she suffered a broken right leg, a very deep gash on her leg and a broken finger on her right hand. The Bantam was severely mangled. The driver put the Bantam on the truck and took Joy, sandwiched between the driver and his mate, to hospital in Pasto. Joy faded in and out of consciousness on the journey but became fully conscious at the hospital when something like neat iodine was poured into her leg wound. Joy said she almost hit the roof with the sudden shock. Her leg was put on a piece of board and covered with bandages.
Next morning an Englishman from Cornwall who had lived most of his life in Pasto came to the hospital and talked to her. “The hospital wants you fixed up by an orthopaedic surgeon, but he is not here – he will be back in 24 hours”. When the surgeon arrived Joy found he could not speak English but a general surgeon who had worked in America was able to translate. When her leg was put in plaster she was more comfortable. The cut was stitched but by this time her leg had swollen to a tremendous size. After five days she was x-rayed and when the surgeon pulled her leg most of the pain vanished.
Joy was visited by Peace Corps volunteers and an American missionary. The Bantam had been taken to the Ministry of Transport and then to the missionary’s house. Joy asked about having it repaired and although there were a lot of Yamahas and Hondas around there was no one able to repair the BSA. After Joy had been in hospital for eleven days the missionary said, “They are going to kill you here. You can come and stay with me”. Although Joy did not think the hospital was that bad, and all the care was free, she stayed with the missionary for ten weeks. The Bantam was put in a crate, sent to Panama and onto the Athenic at Balboa for the return voyage to Auckland. It was delivered to Skeates & White in Auckland for repair.
Meanwhile Joy travelled by bus to Panama where she tried riding another motorcycle, but it caused too much pain. She carried on by bus to Popayán, Bogota and Cali where she began to feel ill. She stayed in what she called an “awful” hotel and the next day was feeling worse. Joy had to travel by boat from Buenaventura to Panama, as there is no road through the marsh and forest area of the Darién Gap. The Dutch shipping manager in Panama asked if she was feeling all right to which she replied that she was, “Better than yesterday”. The manager said, “You are jaundiced, your eyes are yellow. You have to see a doctor and have blood and urine samples taken.” He took Joy home to his wife who said, “Oh, I’ve had that. Everyone gets it here. It’s serum jaundice from dirty syringes.”
Joy with her leg in plaster entering Costa Rica. The Bantam was on its way back to New Zealand . Photo J McKean.
Joy stayed in Panama for two weeks and then travelled by bus through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and then on to Mexico where she eventually had the plaster taken off her leg in Mexico City five months after the accident. In Los Angeles she stayed with the Bennetts who she had first met on the coast of Greece and with whom she had formed a lifelong friendship. After visiting her aunt in Davis she flew from Los Angeles back to Auckland.
Joy at Managua capital of Nicaragua with her leg in plaster after the accident. Photo J McKean.
Joy was asked to take charge of the Maternity Annexe of Tauranga Hospital, a position she held for the next sixteen years until she retired.
Sister Joy McKean on duty. Bay of Plenty Times 23 July 1964.
Although she subsequently travelled overseas extensively it was always by air although she did travel within New Zealand on the Bantam and she did use it for commuting to work. Joy became a very familiar figure riding her Bantam round Tauranga where she was very highly regarded by the community. In 1973 while in Penang she could not help herself and hired a Yamaha for sightseeing.
When Bernard Kerr cycled to school in Tauranga he used to see Joy’s Bantam parked outside Tauranga Hospital or Joy riding it wearing her long riding coat. Later he learned about her world travels on the little bike:
As a youth my interests were somewhat removed from looking at a rather tired looking Bantam. However, in the mid 1970’s I got to meet the owner of the bike, albeit for a short time. As a young man blissfully unaware of the perils of child birth, I sat with my wife as she struggled to deliver our first child at Tauranga Hospital. Enter Joy McKean with a doctor. Joy was probably in her late fifties at the time and had an air of confidence about her. A woman who knew her stuff!
On reflection it was obvious she wasn’t buying any of the doctor’s opinion and when he left, she carefully examined my wife. Joy was a kind and caring woman and a skilled nurse. She probably also had a bit of clout in the hospital because it wasn’t long before a specialist was on the scene and the baby was delivered by ‘C’ section. There was no doubt in my mind that without her input things may have turned out quite differently.
In 1982 Joy published a book called Mother and Her Baby in Hospital which was well received and went on to two editions. A review by a supervising midwife said, “the book has a great deal of appeal for nursing staff as it deals with the emotional side of the maternity experience”.
Joy McKean published “Mother and her Baby in Hospital” in 1982.
Joy had a lifelong interest in Lesotho (formerly Basutoland) and in particular Emely Semoko’s family and her village of Ha Ramohapi. Every year when she was back in New Zealand she sent parcels with clothes, pattern books, wool and cooking utensils. She funded homes, schools, medical care, tree planting and water reticulation schemes always with a focus on those who were struggling and who with some assistance would be able to help themselves. After her retirement Joy lived in Ha Ramohapi for five months running sewing and knitting classes, encouraging gardening and teaching English to 400 primary students. The people of Lesotho benefited from Joy’s estate.
Joy passed away in 2000 and is buried at Rangiwahia. She is very fondly remembered by her nieces, nephews and other relatives and by her colleagues as a very kind and caring family member, as a highly proficient midwife and as an intrepid motorcycle adventurer. Her exploits on a humble BSA Bantam deserve to be much more widely known.
Acknowledgements
Suzanne Barnaby
Geoff Clarke
Annice Collett, Vintage Motor Cycle Club
Steve Foden, BSA Owners Club librarian
Lynda Goulden
J. McKean
Bernard Kerr
Liz Robertson
Jane Skayman
Heather Woods, New Zealand Nurses Organisation
References
McKean, C. Midwife on World Safari. Privately printed for the McKean family.
Interview with Naomi Margaret (Joy) McKean, Date 21 May, 10 July 1984. Ref OHA-2175. Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand.
The Motor Cycle.
Trove. https://trove.nla.gov.au/