Bond Bird in a biplane! She’s flown over Scaramanga’s lair, 23 countries, 13,000 miles and for 93 days – all in an open cockpit. Next stop Sydney... and mission accomplished

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Sweeping over emerald-green water, Tracey Curtis-Taylor steers her antique biplane past the spectacular jungle-clad islands made famous as Scaramanga’s secret lair in the James Bond movie, The Man With The Golden Gun.

Using basic stick-and-rudder controls, she negotiates the limestone cliffs jutting out of Thailand’s Phang Nga Bay near Phuket as part of her recreation of one of the most famous solo flights ever undertaken – Amy Johnson’s 1930 journey from England to Australia.

Her homage to the Khao Phing Kan and Ko Tapu islands – where Christopher Lee fights a deadly duel with Roger Moore at the climax of the 1974 film – was one of the many highlights of her adventure.

Flying solo: Tracey Curtis Taylor during her recreation of Amy Johnsons famous flight. She celebrated Christmas on the island of Bali

In the air: Supported by The Mail on Sunday, Curtis-Taylor is the first woman to fly from Britain to Australia in an aircraft (pictured) similar to Amy Johnson’s Gypsy Moth

The 53-year-old is now preparing for the final leg of her journey, having arrived in Darwin, Australia, on Friday. 

She has flown across 23 countries, travelling nearly 13,000 miles over 93 days – all in honour of Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia.

The self-styled ‘bird in a biplane’ has battled atrocious weather in Eastern Europe, traversed the undulating dunes of the Arabian desert, and been greeted by royalty, even taking a prince for a ride.

Supported by The Mail on Sunday, Curtis-Taylor is the first woman to fly the route in an aircraft similar to Johnson’s Gypsy Moth – although she has avoided the prangs that hampered Amy’s flight 85 years ago.

She spent Christmas Day in Bali, getting into the mood by donning a Santa hat, before taking off on New Year’s Day for a gruelling seven-hour flight across the Timor Sea to Darwin. 

Recreating history: Amy Johnson’s 1930 solo flight took her from Croydon to Darwin in Australia, a 10,000-mile trip. Tracey Curtis-Taylor’s route will be 3,000 miles longer as she has had to avoid sensitive areas in the Middle East, is taking in landmarks such as Ayers Rock and has decided to end her trip in Sydney, about 2,500 miles from Darwin

Adventure: She's flown past Scaramanga’s secret lair in the James Bond movie, The Man With The Golden Gun featuring Christopher Lee (left) and Roger Moore (right)

She is due to complete her three-month marathon in Sydney, via the Uluru, or Ayers Rock, next weekend.

An accomplished pilot and passionate admirer of the derring-do of the pioneers of aviation, Curtis-Taylor began her trip in Farnborough on October 1. 

Dressed in her trademark flying jacket, she was waved off by friends including Dame Diana Rigg.

She encountered unforeseen difficulties almost as soon as she crossed the Channel; she had to borrow a Total fuel card from a fellow pilot to refuel her 1942 Boeing Stearman because the French would not accept cash or credit cards.

Well travelled: Along the way, she has stopped in Bucharest, Abu Dhabi (above), Calcutta and other locations

Then storms and driving rain forced her to land in a disused grass airfield in Hungary, narrowly avoiding a lone mushroom picker, and she found herself turning back after skimming low over trees in Transylvania’s Carpathian mountains because of poor visibility. 

After a ‘marvellous, exciting, exotic’ stay in Istanbul, she met RAF Tornado pilots in Akrotiri in Cyprus, among the forces bombing Isis in Syria, who gave her brandy sours.

The situation in the Middle East forced her to divert from Johnson’s original route, flying over what she describes as Israel’s ‘epic and grand biblical landscapes’.

And in Jordan she was enthusiastically greeted by Prince Hamzah, the son of King Hussein and Queen Noor, and his wife Princess Basmah.

Reaching the Arabian desert days later, Curtis-Taylor was thrilled to come across camels, recalling: ‘I’m always excited to see animals from the air and the first sight of camels, great herds of them, prompted squeals of delight.’

In Asia: At Agra in India, she saw the Taj Mahal (above) ‘loom like a large pearl out of the mist’ and in Myanmar she swooped down over ‘jungle flowering with purple lilac’ and a ‘wonderful plain of red temples, thousands of them, as far as the eye could see’.

In Karachi, Pakistan, 2,000 schoolgirls turned out to meet her, singing, dancing, and wearing headbands with miniature green biplanes attached.

She said one of the most common questions she was asked was how she went to the toilet while in the air, explaining that she didn’t need to as she rarely flew for more than five hours at a time.

She also revealed that, while flying, she only eats the occasional biscuit or muesli bar to stave off hunger, and prefers to listen to the hum of the engine rather than music on an iPod.

Having given a ride to Princess Reema Bint Bandar Al Saud in Saudi Arabia, she took Prince Nikolaos of Greece, the son of former King Constantine II, on a trip over the mountains in southern Balochistan in Pakistan ‘almost exactly where Amy would have passed over’.

Exotic: After a ‘marvellous, exciting, exotic’ stay in Istanbul (above), she met RAF Tornado pilots in Akrotiri in Cyprus, among the forces bombing Isis in Syria, who gave her brandy sours

At Agra in India, she saw the Taj Mahal ‘loom like a large pearl out of the mist’ and in Myanmar she swooped down over ‘jungle flowering with purple lilac’ and a ‘wonderful plain of red temples, thousands of them, as far as the eye could see’.

In another reminder of her predecessor, she found the field in the city of Rangoon where Amy had crash-landed in heavy monsoon rain, damaging her plane and ending her chances of breaking the world record to Australia.

Though she does not expect the cheering crowds that met Amy’s arrival in Australia, Curtis-Taylor will land in Sydney next weekend, with – if all goes to plan – the hope she will have inspired a new generation of female fliers and engineers.

Ms Curtis-Taylor’s principal sponsors are Boeing Aerospace and Artemis Investment Management.