A RATHER battered classic Rolls Royce is on its way home to Monikie, having successfully negotiated 5000 rugged kilometres of India, Nepal and Bhutan in a month, narrowly avoiding sacred cows, skirting the foothills of the Himalayas and less successfully failing to avoid a demented lorry driver.

But Pete Webber and partner Morna Milton, of Craigton House, Monikie, said they had been bitten by the classic car rally bug and would do it all again—once their 1935 Rolls Royce Sedanca Deville is restored to its former glory.

The car, the couple and Morna’s eight-year-old son Ruaridh, a pupil at Monikie Primary, were one of 16 entrants for the Himalaya Rally 2007, with the aim of doing some fund-raising for children’s hospices Rachel House in Kinross and Robin House at Balloch.

Pete, who is retired from the television industry and a classic car enthusiast, said last night, “We thought we knew what we were in for but it was much, much, tougher than anyone had imagined.”

The cavalcade was flagged off by the Maharaja of Udaipur in India, and for a month crawled, slithered, climbed and rumbled over rocky roads and mountain passes, through Nepal and Bhutan before ending back in India at Calcutta.

The car on occasion travelled all day without getting into top gear as the altitude climbed to 8500 feet, tough on both the car and the occupants, but crowned, as the couple said, by watching dawn break over the Himalayas.

Morna said, “It was only watching our videos when we got home that we realised what we had done, since we were so busy concentrating on the atrocious roads, and avoiding cows, people, and cars and buses going the wrong way.”

In Bhutan, however, their luck ran out when they met a lorry driver on a hairpin.

“It wasn’t our fault.

“He wasn’t paying attention!” said Morna.

But within 24 hours, the wings were patched and resprayed and the Roller was back on the road.

“There were so many memorable moments and despite Ruaridh being stuck in the back for around 24 days of driving, he had a wonderful time,” she continued.

“He was interviewed in every country and was in every newspaper.”

What Morna described as their “poor, poor car,” limped on through ever-changing terrain, from plains to Himalayan foothills, sometimes chugging along on watered petrol.

Pete said the trip, particularly the 200-mile Himalayan range, was indescribable, having started on the Annapurna side and run the car along the foothills for a large part of the journey.

“We stopped for cups of tea in the most remote villages and met people who had never before met Europeans or seen a car like ours, especially in Bhutan, where until the 60s there had been no roads and is only now being opened up,” he said.

“Some days it was 14 hours of solid driving, since we were given a route book every morning and had to make it to a hotel for the night.”

The couple raised around £2000 for charity and another rally is on the cards, after the Roller has finished its trans-ocean return journey and had some TLC.