travellin Gal

Although it’s now in the loving custody of Stef Manoli, the story of this 1974 Vespa Sprint Veloce starts in Western Australia with a bored teacher called Neil Doig. “I grew up in Kalgoorlie, a gold mining town with a population of about 30,000. I’d been apprenticed as a boilermaker, but managed to secure a position at teacher training college in Perth,” explained Neil. “For transport I bought a used Vespa that I named ‘Bessie’. Although she broke down 100km short of Perth and I had to return a week later to complete the 600km journey, Bessie never let me down. I used her for trips around Perth until a Vauxhall Viva beckoned and I gave Bessie to a friend. Little did I know, but this