The task today was to get to the Zebrabar camp site at St. Louis, Senegal, for which we needed an early start. One of our problems was that we had spent longer than expected in the desert and our insurance had run out, so we had to arrange another 5 days insurance to get out of the country. John and Andy waved good bye to their Pajero, and Stan and Dimitri were pleased to have anew car. We were also joined by the Norwejians, Tor and Ulrik of Team Balder, driving a 3 litre Mercedes estate. They did not have visas for Senegal and though other teams without visas had been turned back, decided to chance their luck with us. Getting all this arranged took time and it was 12pm before we actually left for the border to Senegal. There are two crossings into Senegal. One is to go all the way on tarmac and cross at Rosso. This has a bad press as there is supposed to be a lot of hassle and corruption is very bad. The other way is to cross at a dam called Diama, which involves driving about 100km on unmade roads, but is meant to be a lot easier. We decided to take the latter route as it had been recommended. Our guide from the desert, Sidi, came along as well, to show the way. This was also for his benefit as he was going to sort out the paperwork for the two cars he had acquired. At least he didn't charge us for this trip.We made good time on the tarmac and found our turning for Diama where we stopped and had a short break. Team Jamu Wachu were having alternator problems, which meant their battery kept going flat and their car stopped. Ours was fine so we swapped so that we could charge up their battery as we drove. We set off again and noticed that our battery light had come on, showing that the battery was not charging. We assumed this was because of their dud battery. A few kilometres into this off road section the car suddenly lost power and came to a standstill. Lifting the bonnet revealed that we had over heated and blown the cylinder head gasket. In vestigation proved that a tensioner on the alternator/water pump belt had seized breaking the v-belt. This stopped the water pump working and the water boiled blowing the gasket. Very frustrating, that a minor fault which we had the spares for, escalated into something quite serious.
There was nothing for it but to tow our car. We had to make the decision as to what to do with it, because if it was taken into Senegal it had to be taken out. There was no way it could be left there. We took the decision to get it to Zebrebar and try and fix it, then drive on. There then followed the slowest drive, being towed by Tor and Ulrik, to the border on atrocious tracks, which we reached in the dark at about midnight. The Mauritanian side was opened and we soon got through the Mauritanian formalities, but the Senegalese side was closed, so we had to pitch our tents and camp right on the road side, waiting for the border to open in the morning. 246km today and 6,334km in total.
