Sorry it's a late one tonight guys, I've been away since before 7 o'clock this morning on a training day ahead of the upcoming local elections and I am shattered, but I do bring fantastic news!
They've done it! I had a phone call from the hotel in Bamako earlier this evening on my way home. And from the looks of things, none of the other teams on the run beat them to it, so frankly it's yah boo sucks to their detractors! After eating their chicken and rice (so some food they have eaten is the kind of stuff you find ubiquitously on Earth then..) and spending a beautiful night under the stars with a moon so bright you could be forgiven for mistaking it for daylight, they'd had a change of heart about taking a few days to do the last 275 miles, mainly due to the fact that all the cars have a range of hiccups. Peg herself is still driving ok, but the clutch is slipping a little and the thermostat is wonky (which isn't great when it's 40 celsius outside). They've had a dusty day on the road, seeing miniature tornadoes and developing a strange illness they have named 'grouping cough' thanks to breathing in almost as much sand as air for the last 24 hours. The scenery gets much greener on the way into Bamako though, and it isn't the only contrast to note; apparently the level of affluence is much higher in the capital city and people are a bit more jaded, for example children who see the cars are well used to the fact that these kind of visitors give them presents and almost take it for granted, and some of the cars on the roads are better than the one mum has at home! They are installed in a nice hotel with a pool and a well-stocked bar, and wondering if they are doing the right thing by auctioning Peg in Bamako rather than taking her back into Mali and giving everything away there to people who clearly need it more.
The girls aren't due to fly home for another week yet, and with Peg ailing it might be best to forgo the last little stretch into Timbuktu as that was an optional extra anyway, so they are unsure what they want to do with the remaining time and are even considering just calling it all quits and coming home early (though knowing them it's infinitely more likely that in the light of day they will find a much more fun option). If you're feeling a little lost and anticlimactic too, you might be glad to know that I *finally* (with the help of my brother who knows what domain names Keith owns, because they have no Google listings) found the alternative account of this journey, as told by Jane to her husband, and it is here, so you can relive the trip with a whole different writing style, example photographs of the locations en route and I must say a lot more minute detail! Well done, Keith.
Saturday 26 January 2008
Friday 25 January 2008
A Clear Sky and an End in Sight
Today has gone well enough that there are only 275 miles left to go until the teams reach Bamako. A beautiful sunrise helped to get them moving for seven o'clock, and another crazy day's travelling began. I covered the most bizarre events of the day in my previous post, and it won't surprise anybody to learn that after those escapades, all the cars are limping a little. By 1pm they were over the border into Mali (which means the mobile phones work again - hurrah!) and encountering a déjà-vu situation with four rounds of random stops by customs officials and guards, all of whom (much like the ones in Northern Mauritania) demanded a fee for safe passage. At the point where a conman who clearly wasn't even a border guard decided to try his luck and stop them to demand €10 per vehicle, they decided enough was enough, drove around him and right off the road. They have all covered their number plates so they can't be seen from the road and tonight they have stopped outside Nioro to camp under the stars. At seven o'clock when I last spoke to mum, they were enjoying the stillness and could see the nearest village about two miles away across the plain, and hear the singing from it.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Certainly not the weary travellers. They all want to do different things at the end of the trip so they are likely to part ways soon, which will be something of a wrench after they have bonded so well, I imagine. It doesn't seem like they are going to push on to Bamako in a hurry now though - after all, it isn't a race. Maybe things will calm down for a little while and they will take it easy, but I'm sure I remember writing something like that before and getting it dead wrong!
Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Certainly not the weary travellers. They all want to do different things at the end of the trip so they are likely to part ways soon, which will be something of a wrench after they have bonded so well, I imagine. It doesn't seem like they are going to push on to Bamako in a hurry now though - after all, it isn't a race. Maybe things will calm down for a little while and they will take it easy, but I'm sure I remember writing something like that before and getting it dead wrong!
Predictably Unpredictable
After everything that was said last night about sticking to the black-top routes, I have just had a very quick chat via satellite phone with a very chaotic and giddy sounding mum, off piste and accidentally in the middle of the Budapest-Bamako rally. Mum and Jane have been interviewed for Dutch television and are being waved through by police because everyone thinks they are a team in the race!
Ken and Kenny's turbo has blown and is drinking oil, JJ and Martin's brakes are failing (after they already had to take two extra passengers when Ross and Kristen had to ditch their car), and I have no idea how Martin and Sarah are coping with a Ford Fiesta through the sand, but nobody seems especially worried to me. Is this part of the fun?
NB - if you look carefully you will find this post contains links to some of the Witches' friends' sites. Great to look at(particularly Dynamo Dysart's slick site, there are some photos in the blog of some of the places mum and Jane have travelled through, albeit with two grinning Irish lads blocking the view a bit but you can at least get the idea), but not as much news on them as this one - I'm guessing they don't have someone back home by a computer waiting for phone calls!
Ken and Kenny's turbo has blown and is drinking oil, JJ and Martin's brakes are failing (after they already had to take two extra passengers when Ross and Kristen had to ditch their car), and I have no idea how Martin and Sarah are coping with a Ford Fiesta through the sand, but nobody seems especially worried to me. Is this part of the fun?
NB - if you look carefully you will find this post contains links to some of the Witches' friends' sites. Great to look at(particularly Dynamo Dysart's slick site, there are some photos in the blog of some of the places mum and Jane have travelled through, albeit with two grinning Irish lads blocking the view a bit but you can at least get the idea), but not as much news on them as this one - I'm guessing they don't have someone back home by a computer waiting for phone calls!
Thursday 24 January 2008
Avez-vous une chambre avec gecko, s'il vous plait?
There has been an unscheduled break for the herd today: Are We There Yet are now the none-too-chuffed owners of a very broken Fiat Panda and will have to travel the rest of the way as passengers of Dynamo Dysart. Still, if you are going to stop, Kiffa is not a bad place to do it. The children of the village have been singing and women have brought their babies to meet the teams, and people are generally treating their white visitors as privileged guests. Mum's schoolgirl command of French is serving her well, as none of the rest of the group have a useable language, more and more words are returning to her as situations demand her to be able to order a room or similar. Facilities are basic to say the least, but they have found somewhere a little nicer to stay tonight than last night - ok so there are geckos in the bedroom and scorpions in the bathroom, but at least they won't be sleeping wrapped in their sleeping bag liners and mosquito nets tonight. Last night they ate camel - the general verdict is 'chewy, very chewy', but that's honestly not a complaint. Everyone has been humbled by the happiness and love in extreme poverty all around them. Mum and Jane wanted to empty the car and give everything away but for the sake of their survival they settled for giving away the football they took with them this afternoon, to some children from outside the village who were so scared of the strangers that they wouldn't accept the gift until it had been left by the road and the car driven away. They have also taken some excellent photos, so they say, so I shall look forward to seeing those!
Tomorrow has been made a little more difficult by today's realisation that the road they had intended to take is just too rough for two wheel drive vehicles (they still have a Fiesta in the convoy). They will have to take the one available black-top route into Mali instead, which adds around a hundred miles to the journey. Still, it should be much easier than crossing the last border. The border between Mauritania and Mali is pretty much imaginary and there certainly aren't the rigorous and frightening passport controls that exist to enter Mauritania from Morocco.
Tomorrow has been made a little more difficult by today's realisation that the road they had intended to take is just too rough for two wheel drive vehicles (they still have a Fiesta in the convoy). They will have to take the one available black-top route into Mali instead, which adds around a hundred miles to the journey. Still, it should be much easier than crossing the last border. The border between Mauritania and Mali is pretty much imaginary and there certainly aren't the rigorous and frightening passport controls that exist to enter Mauritania from Morocco.
So this is what they came for.
Well, the plan to find a comedy death hasn't come to fruition just yet. They came close last night, nearly driving into camels who were crossing the 'road' in the dark, after a very long hard day which saw the teams stuck at customs for six hours, then driving through a sandstorm for six hours, and then having a further six hours' driving to do in the dark before reaching their destination of Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania and finally getting some rest. Lunch was nothing as extravagant as some earlier meals in the trip - no rooftop terrace restaurants to be found in minefields in the western Sahara, so they cooked army ration pack issue beef stew on an engine block. At least it meant that they didn't have to dig into the remaining supply of Euros - good thing too as it would have meant unstuffing the money from mum's bra.
Today has been another long day of driving as promises have been made to friends and family to get through Mauritania and out again as quickly as possible. A tough day in its own way, too, although not in the same sense as yesterday. They have left behind the more arabian part of Africa for the real, baked red earth of the cradle of human existence. It's like driving through an issue of National Geographic, the world is a different colour and they are surrounded by the kinds of cattle and children that people who live in Pembrokeshire would only ever normally see on documentaries. Everyone travelling has turned as orange as the scenery around them just from the sheer amount of sand that gets everywhere. The population is markedly different here than in previous legs of the journey, and the people are touching the hearts of our heroines. My mum told me tonight that all she wanted was to go back and revisit the people she has seen and had all too little time to spend with today. They are living in rag tents, they own nothing, but she describes a radiant beauty and smiles like nothing she has ever seen. She and Jane are giving out lollipops as they did in Morocco, but now it is to children who don't even know what sweets are. The hassles of previous stops and security checks throw the warm welcome they are receiving from local officials en route through southern Mauritania into sharp relief; the guards are so happy to see the rally drivers, they wave, salute, cheer and smile.
Tonight they are staying in Kiffa, the satellite phone is working well, they have tasty camel to eat and there is an enormous and spectacular sky to gaze upon, with a full moon. They had hoped to camp tonight but ran out of light before they reached an appropriate place to stop again.
Today has been another long day of driving as promises have been made to friends and family to get through Mauritania and out again as quickly as possible. A tough day in its own way, too, although not in the same sense as yesterday. They have left behind the more arabian part of Africa for the real, baked red earth of the cradle of human existence. It's like driving through an issue of National Geographic, the world is a different colour and they are surrounded by the kinds of cattle and children that people who live in Pembrokeshire would only ever normally see on documentaries. Everyone travelling has turned as orange as the scenery around them just from the sheer amount of sand that gets everywhere. The population is markedly different here than in previous legs of the journey, and the people are touching the hearts of our heroines. My mum told me tonight that all she wanted was to go back and revisit the people she has seen and had all too little time to spend with today. They are living in rag tents, they own nothing, but she describes a radiant beauty and smiles like nothing she has ever seen. She and Jane are giving out lollipops as they did in Morocco, but now it is to children who don't even know what sweets are. The hassles of previous stops and security checks throw the warm welcome they are receiving from local officials en route through southern Mauritania into sharp relief; the guards are so happy to see the rally drivers, they wave, salute, cheer and smile.
Tonight they are staying in Kiffa, the satellite phone is working well, they have tasty camel to eat and there is an enormous and spectacular sky to gaze upon, with a full moon. They had hoped to camp tonight but ran out of light before they reached an appropriate place to stop again.
Tuesday 22 January 2008
Have You Got Any, er.. You Know..
Mum and Jane have become the drug dealers of the Plymouth-Timbuktu run. So far they have offloaded pain killers, two courses of antibiotics and they have a roaring trade in steroid inhalers. Well, nobody wants to sniffle and splutter their way across the Sahara, now do they?
The 'herd' took a rest day in Dakhla yesterday, eating in rooftop terraces overlooking the West African coast and being informed by local residents that the sand storm they had driven through the day before was in fact the worst the region had experienced in three years and the media had warned people not to go out in it. Ha! Softies! They didn't find Dakhla very exciting as a town, much less colour and vibrancy than Marrakesh, so they found themselves raring to go this morning. The japes continue apace as last night they planned to start today by throwing all the car keys in a pile and randomly taking a set per team - like the vehicle equivalent of a suburban wife swapping party - and driving each other's cars for half of today.
They have decided not to take a guide. This isn't as crazy as it may sound. They don't plan to go 'off piste' in the desert - there are hard top roads to go on through the desert, and in the trickier parts of the next leg, where the mine fields and so on are, the routes are already very well marked as they are the last of many groups to travel this way. They have radio contact between the five cars that are travelling together, and know how to navigate using GPS, so they ought to be quite safe.
The satellite phone is not working tonight, but one of the group's mobile phones can still miraculously get enough signal for an SMS message so I have been informed that all is well after their first day in Mauritania, and they will be in touch as soon as possible.
Sorry, I can't fulfil the request for more photographs as the one I included in an earlier post was sent to me when the teams were last at a hotel where the Irish boys could get an internet connection, but I can assure you that as soon as they are back home mum will need little encouragement to grace her blog with her own fair and witty presence and will no doubt fill pages with the photos she and Jane have taken all the way. There really will be pages, too - in keeping with their manic tendencies to prepare for every eventuality twice they did have memory card space between them for around 800-1000 shots.
The 'herd' took a rest day in Dakhla yesterday, eating in rooftop terraces overlooking the West African coast and being informed by local residents that the sand storm they had driven through the day before was in fact the worst the region had experienced in three years and the media had warned people not to go out in it. Ha! Softies! They didn't find Dakhla very exciting as a town, much less colour and vibrancy than Marrakesh, so they found themselves raring to go this morning. The japes continue apace as last night they planned to start today by throwing all the car keys in a pile and randomly taking a set per team - like the vehicle equivalent of a suburban wife swapping party - and driving each other's cars for half of today.
They have decided not to take a guide. This isn't as crazy as it may sound. They don't plan to go 'off piste' in the desert - there are hard top roads to go on through the desert, and in the trickier parts of the next leg, where the mine fields and so on are, the routes are already very well marked as they are the last of many groups to travel this way. They have radio contact between the five cars that are travelling together, and know how to navigate using GPS, so they ought to be quite safe.
The satellite phone is not working tonight, but one of the group's mobile phones can still miraculously get enough signal for an SMS message so I have been informed that all is well after their first day in Mauritania, and they will be in touch as soon as possible.
Sorry, I can't fulfil the request for more photographs as the one I included in an earlier post was sent to me when the teams were last at a hotel where the Irish boys could get an internet connection, but I can assure you that as soon as they are back home mum will need little encouragement to grace her blog with her own fair and witty presence and will no doubt fill pages with the photos she and Jane have taken all the way. There really will be pages, too - in keeping with their manic tendencies to prepare for every eventuality twice they did have memory card space between them for around 800-1000 shots.
Sunday 20 January 2008
Welcome on Board Dakhla Airlines, Wine Will be Served Shortly
Mum and Jane are playing at being air hostesses with their friends. No particular reason, just being bonkers as usual. They have arrived at the Regency Hotel in Dakhla so they are furnished with as much Western luxury as one can find in the Sahara.
En route today they practiced driving off road and navigated their way through sixty miles of non-stop sandstorm, running down their fuel reserves with some help from a couple of the other teams who asked their convoy/herd for help as they had completely run out and hadn't brought jerry cans. When they finally reached Dakhla they were able to empty a whole bucket of sand out of the air filter - a small proportion of the amount that had brought visibility down to ten feet and made strange noises pelting the cars.
There is a discussion planned for this evening - some of the teams in their convoy have promised family members at home that they wouldn't cross Mauritania, so this may be the point at which they part ways. However, given the improved state of affairs and reduced risk, they may come along the whole way. Whatever happens Mum and Jane will be going on to Timbuktu, and I will edit this post as soon as I hear about a final decision. edit 22:17 - They are definitely all going ahead! Exciting stuff, very happy news. Exciting enough to merit quite an alarming excess quantity of exclamation marks in the text message, apparently. And exciting unless you happen to be JJ's pregnant wife, just possibly. Very understanding wives these boys have.
En route today they practiced driving off road and navigated their way through sixty miles of non-stop sandstorm, running down their fuel reserves with some help from a couple of the other teams who asked their convoy/herd for help as they had completely run out and hadn't brought jerry cans. When they finally reached Dakhla they were able to empty a whole bucket of sand out of the air filter - a small proportion of the amount that had brought visibility down to ten feet and made strange noises pelting the cars.
There is a discussion planned for this evening - some of the teams in their convoy have promised family members at home that they wouldn't cross Mauritania, so this may be the point at which they part ways. However, given the improved state of affairs and reduced risk, they may come along the whole way. Whatever happens Mum and Jane will be going on to Timbuktu, and I will edit this post as soon as I hear about a final decision. edit 22:17 - They are definitely all going ahead! Exciting stuff, very happy news. Exciting enough to merit quite an alarming excess quantity of exclamation marks in the text message, apparently. And exciting unless you happen to be JJ's pregnant wife, just possibly. Very understanding wives these boys have.
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