We've just got the auction result, and our little Renault sold at auction in Banjul for 21,000 Dalasi. That's over £600 in English money, so it sold for more than we paid for it. That's just brilliant for a car that was 22 years old. So, we had a great holiday, raised over £2,000 in the UK for The Cure Parkinson's Trust, and over £600 in The Gambia for The Gambia Olympic Committee, and for the Association of Small Scale Enterprises in Tourism (ASSET). We are very pleased with the outcome.
January 20, 2009
The welcome parade.
On Sunday we went to the Safari Garden and emptied the car of our personal stuff and handed the car over to the organisers. They thought they could get the head fixed to put in the sale, as we had decided we had done enough and didn't fancy taking it apart again.
On Monday was the welcome parade. We were given the use of Stan and Phil's VW Polo, as they had flown home. We met at 2.30pm and went to the Independence Stadium. From there we paraded through Banjul town to the Mayor's Office, where we were formally greeted, then through the Presidential Arch 22 and back to the Independence Stadium. After more hilarity we headed back to the Safari Garden for a free meal given to all competitors. As quite a few teams had gone we blagged extra meals for Kath, Mark, Vic and Tim. We also heard that one of the other teams, who were staying on, would have a go at repairing our car using plastic metal to make good the gasket. We later heard that they had succeeded so the car could be auctioned as a runner.
Day 23. Journeys end. Kaolack to Banjul.
Packed up and away at 9.30am, heading for the Gambia border. The roads were absolutely terrible so we only managed 20-30kph. Stopped for coffee at 12.00 noon thinking it would be another two hours to the border. When we set off the road had been resurfaced all the way to the border, so we made it by 1.15pm. Formalities were straightforward as we were expected. Tor and Ulrick got another ticking off for not having a visa. They just looked blank and explained it must be ok as they had been let in! A $5 tip seemed to cover it and they were let out of the country wirhout further ado. Then the fun started. To get to Banjul we had to go first to Barra, then take a ferry over to Banjul, and finally drive to the Safari Garden which was journey's end. At the first police check we were all in trouble for not having the car stamped into our passports. No one had told the police that they weren't stamped in because they would be sold and would not be leaving with us. We got this sorted only to then be met by loads of bumsters in Banjul Challenge T-shirts, all wanting to guide us to the ferry and sort out our tickets. We had been warned about them, so trusting no-one we drove straight to the ferry. There we learned we couldn't buy tickets for the cars to go on the ferry, so after much confusion we went back to a ticket office where we bought tickets at €5 per car and driver. We had changed Euros into Dalassi and offerred these to pay. They wouldn't take their own currency, demanding Euros as they wanted foreign exchange. John eventually found a €50 note, but they then had no change. We hung about whilst they sent someone for change, then set off back to the ferry. Here we had to buy tickets for the passengers, which cost just 10 Dalassi, and we were then put on the ferry in front of all the other waiting cars. Reaching the other side we were met by Yvonne from the Safari Garden and escorted to the hotel. We were so relieved to spot a face we recognised from the launch party. We had a beer and a bite to eat then headed off to our hotel at about 8.30pm to meet the family, who had just flown in. 135km today and a grand total of 6,820km or 4,228 miles. Would we do it again? Absolutely YES. It was a brilliant trip.
Day 22. Zebrabar to Kaolack.
The alternatives for the car were to tow it back to the Mauritanian border and hand it over to Sidi, or tow it to Banjul where it could be sold, either repaired or for spares. We decided on the latter and Tor gallantly agreed to tow us all the way. Using a rope wasn't very practical, so we had the camp site's maitainance man fabricate a towing bar, which cost us about €20. Again we didn't get away until 12.00 noon as the young revellers found it hard to get out of bed. Tor set off first towing us, and when the rest didn't appear we decided we had to go on as we would be travelling slowly. The roads in Senegal must be the worst in Africa. They have never been repaired and are full of pot holes, some quite deep. After travelling most of the day we came upon the rest of the group travelling the other way down the same road. We had gone different ways, but were all looking for the same turning to Kaolack. We found it and rolled into Kaolack at about 8pm. We ate a meat sandwich from a road side stall, then found a hotel to crash in. We needed beer which the hotel didn't have, but the owner went to a nearby shop and bought beers which he added to our bill in the morning. 299km today and 6,685km in total.
Day 21. Rest day in Zebrabar.
This was supposed to be a rest day, but did not quite work out like that for some. John woke at 4.00am to realize that Rachael was not in her bed. He immediately began to worry that something had happened and tried to ring her mobile without success. Fortunately she arrived shortly after to say they had spent the last few hours at the police station. After the night out in St.Louis they had been waiting for a taxi to return to the camp site, when Mike, on the left in the photo, of Kiss the Gurus, a solid lad, leaned against a shop window and cracked it. This caused the locals to go wild, all claiming the shop was owned by a relative and that he had to pay to mend it. The owner couldn't be found so they got in a taxi who drove them, not to the camp site, but to the police station, where he was locked up for the night. To cut a very long story short, the owner was eventually found and after much haggling Mike had to pay him €200 for the repairs to the glass. He was then free to go, but did witness the shop keeper paying a lump of his cash to the police. This place runs on corruption!
Back to the car. We gave the head a final tighten down, then reset the tappet clearances, put the carburettor back on and finished the rebuild by noon. We wanted to leave the gasket at least 24 hours before starting the car so left it until 5.00pm. Then with the help of a little quickstart straight into the carburettor it started. We were elated and drove the car round the camp site, only to find white smoke coming from the exhaust. This was water vapour, which meant our gasket had failed. So, to bed to think on what to do tomorrow.
Day 20. Into Zebrabar.
We were up at first light o get through the Senegalese border. We needn't have rushed because the police didn't open until 8.00am and customs until 9.00am. They were also the worst at extorting money from travellers. We lost count of what it did actually cost, but it went something like this. €10 per car to cross the dam from the Mauritanian side to the Senegalese side. €10 per person to get our passports stamped. After a lot of haggling €70 to allow the car into the country and drive through without a customs escort. We were supposed to have this as our cars were all over 5 years old, which are not allowed to be imported into Senegal. Hence the customs escort to make sure they are taken out. Lastly, we needed insurance, which cost another €30 but also covered The Gambia and lasted 30 days. The Norwejians were also allowed in without their visas. We don't know how, but maybe because their passports were in with a buch of British ones, or maybe it was because they were towing us. We were then on our way to drive about 50km to Zebrabar, which meant passing by St. Louis. Here the police reached new levels for corruption. We were stopped twice and fined for all sorts of bogus reasons, like the car being dirty, or untidy, or too full. Basically they just wanted to take cash from us (daylight robbery I'd call it). After setting the "fine" at €30 per car, they eventually settled for a gift of a couple of packs of cigarettes or a jerry can. Finally we made Zebrabar and after parking up decided that beers were the first necessity. After an hour or two we took the cylinder head off the car, and found that the gasket was intact, and that we had probably warped the cylinder head. We asked if there was anyone in St. Louis who could skim it, but were told there was no one. We then cleaned up all the surfaces and put it back together with instant gasket cement, hoping that this would be strong enough to take the pressure. We tightened the head down and left it until the morning before completeing the rebuild. Then a shower, drinks and a meal at the camp site for John, while Rachael went into St. Louis with the younger ones. 52km today and 6,386km in total.
Day 19. Nouakchott to the Senegal border.
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.
January 19, 2009
Day 18. Into Nouakchott.
Up at dawn for a quick breakfast and decide what to do with the Pajero. It was decided that Kiss the Gurus would tow it to Nouakchott, but Sidi wanted to try and get it going. We found that if we could get it moving it could just manage under it's own steam. After about 2km we reached tarmac, which was a hell of a relief. We then set off for Nouakchott, the Pajero covering about 70km under it's own steam, before the clutch finally died and it had to be towed the rest of the way. We reached a hotel called sahara Auberge just before lunch and all sat down with relief and ordered coffee. After this rest we set about tidying up our cars and sorting any problems. Our car was still running perfectly apart from a bit of wheel wobble and uneven tyre wear on a front wheel. The hotel had rooms, a roof terrace with tents and 2 rooms on the roof. Rachael and I opted for the privacy of the room on the roof terrace. After lunching on tagine, we whiled away the afternoon, whilst John and Andy tried to find someone to repair their clutch. They finally decided it was going to cost more than they were prepared to spend, and they were able to sell the car to Sidi, our guide, for about €500, which was some compensation.
Stan and Dimitri were happy too, as there were some Latvians there who had been turned back from the Senegalese border for not having a visa. They had to fly home, but were happy to give their car to Stan and Dimitri to complete the journey. This was a Vaz, which had belonged the Latvian fire service and had a siren. It also had a broken rear spring, but they found one of a similar size off a Mercedes and soon had it fixed. There had been rumours of rioting in the streets of Nouakchott in response to the Israel/Gaza conflict and there were quite a few riot police about. However, we went into the city in the evening for a meal and all was quiet. 111km today and 6,088km in total.
Day 17. The Beach.
This morning we were in a race to get to Nouamghar by 10.00am at the latest to catch the beach before the tide came too far in. We should have left the campsite by 7.00am, but didn't get away until 8.20am. There's a recurring theme here! We had a brilliant high speed dash to the coast without any problems, arriving at 10.15am. Sidi decided we could still do it so set us off onto the beach, telling us not to stop, as we would then get stuck. The problem was we had to get over soft sand to get onto the beach and the Spanish team got stuck immediately. Once everyone was on the beach we set off on one of the scariest parts of the journey. The problem was that the only firm sand is that between high and low tide which has been wet. As we were late and the tide was well in this band of sand was fairly narrow. The trick we found was to run on the beach following the edge of the water. As the waves came in we ran back up the beach until the sand became too soft, then back down onto the firmer sand as the waves retreated. As there were some small dunes running up the beach we were also bouncing over these into water at the other side. We had the windows open when we hit the first one and got a thorough soaking.
We were leading at this point and all went well until we hit a particularly large wave which swamped us in water, wetting the electrics. We developed a misfire, lost power and stopped. Fortunately the others stopped and pushed us out to get us going again, as we had water lapping around our wheels. The heat of the engine dried the electrics almost immediately and we were off again. We carried on down the beach not able to see any other cars and not knowing what had happened to them. Phil and Stan who were in front eventually stopped and pulled up onto dry sand to wait for us. Kiss the Gurus, Sand in m'Crack and ourselves arrived wand pulled up alongsde them. Sidi now considered it too dangerous to continue so we had to sit it out on the beach until the tide went out again about 6pm. The problem we faced was that we had lost Team Jamu Wachu and Alba Adventures. When they didn't turn up Sidi walked back up the beach to find them. We whiled away about 6 hours before we suddenly saw both cars coming down the beach. Seemingly, Sidi had walked 12km back along the beach before he found them. The Spanish car had been having the same problem as us, in that every time it got wet it stopped. Having the sensible ones, John and Andy with them, in the Pajero, they had got the car onto dry sand and also decided to wait for the tide to go out.
With the teams back together again we set off down the sand with the instruction to stop for nothing until we reached a fishing village where we were to pull off the beach and camp. We reached this village without problem, just as it was getting dusk, and eventually found our way off the beach. Again we had the problem that there were no Spaniards or Alba Adventures. After half an hour the Spaniards arrived being driven by Sidi, as they had once again had loss of power through water on the electrics. This only left the Pajero of John and Andy. When they didn't come we asked a jeep which was heading up the coast to take some of us back to help. This he did while the rest of us set up camp. An hour later they arrived, being towed by this truck, who charged them the extortionate sum of €150. Their clutch had finally gone and the car just would not travel under it's own steam. We were finally all back together after the most eventful day so far. 132km today and 5,977km in total.
Day 16. More desert.
The plan today was to go into the desert and end the day back at the coast to camp at Nouamghar. We didn't manage an early start as when we woke up How Hard Can It Be's car and Team Jamu Wachu's car had been buried up to their axles in the sand. Some people just have too much energy!
We also spent the morning fixing the radiator and oil cooler on Stan and Dimitri's car, so didn't get away until 12.30pm, somewhat later than anticipated. Unfortunately we only managed 12km before the vibration split the radiator repairs which had been made. After much discussion it was decided to abandon the car, much to Stanislav's disappointment. The Pajero went back to the village and returned with a truck to tow it away. The problem was that the car was on Stan and Dimitri's passport, and, having come into the country, it had to leave. This was overcome by signing the car over to our guide, Sidi, who would acquire the car, then come to the border, and grease a few palms with €100 to get the necessary stamp in their passport, as if the car had left with them. A nice little earner for the guide, as the radiator would easily be repaired with a proper work shop and he would have a decent car to sell.We then had to set about getting rid of surplus kit, which went into Stan and Dimitri's car, so we could take them on as extra passengers, or their luggage. We made room for more luggage and off we went again, racing for the coast. Unfortunately it got dark long before we made it, so we pitched camp behind a large dune. Only 71km today and 5,835 in total.
