There's only so much I can write in here, and it's all second hand words. I wish all of you could hear the tone of wonder in mum's voice at times. This is a huge experience, it's no holiday. Having said that, spirits are still high as they take the road for Dakhla - this may or may not have something to do with the fact that they and their friends have decided to go for the four star Regency hotel when they arrive in Dakhla, rather than go to the main campsite. The belief (and partial excuse) is that they will find a better class of guide there too. After Dakhla the roads truly disappear and all teams will need a guide to find their way across the Sahara. Mum and Jane are hoping to find one with very nice shiny sandals, who obviously doesn't end up walking very much!
Police checks are getting tougher but it seems they are much nicer with women, more willing to understand that they are on a charity mission too. Mum and Jane are thinking about going first in the convoy now because they are giving the boys at the front a much harder time. They've also divided up the goods for bribes across the vehicles, which was bound to happen sooner or later. At one point this morning the window stuck open after one of the checks, which needed to be repaired very quickly - it would be bad enough to have your window stuck open in Pembrokeshire today, as the wind is up here too, but at least here you would only have a fine drizzle blowing in. Instead they have an effect somewhat like sticking one's face in a sandblaster. It's mind boggling to think of the range of conditions on the planet where life can be found - there are still plenty of camels and hawks to be seen, it's a wonder they aren't sanded smooth!
It's not only roads that disappear the other side of Dakhla - we can't expect a mobile phone signal for around five days. Mum is going to check in each day using the satellite phone, but it may well have to be just a quick call to say they are ok, so for a while after today, updates might be reduced to a simple daily affirmation that everyone is alive and well, until they are through the other side of the sahara.
Sunday, 20 January 2008
Saturday, 19 January 2008
Hot as the Hob of Hell.
Our intrepid adventurers made another early start this morning, after a very relaxing stay in the posh hotel, with one of the best meals they had ever eaten inside them. They had originally planned to do 450 miles today but decided to split the next leg on to Dakhla into three days' travel rather than two, so they can relax a little more.
Team Teletubbies haven't followed them on from the hotel last night - the five teams who stuck together in Gibraltar are now quite the dedicated herd, very attached to each other and with a whole collection of in-jokes to bond over - do you know anyone else who says "bastard apes!" (in honour of crazy Keith the Gibraltarian tour guide) when a photo is taken? Even so they haven't really lost track of other teams on the route - there was a happy meeting with some of the teams who are headed for Banjul rather than Timbuktu today, and they usually catch sight of other runners at the queues for security checks. There have been six police checks today on the road, but so far very few of them have wanted 'un petit cadeau' in return for safe passage, so with the watches they took with them for this precise eventuality, they still have a few dozen options when it comes to checking the time. Ken and Kenny win 'cheapest bribe', they managed to get away with giving one official a handsome souvenir of two humbugs and a biro!
After another comedy round-and-round lost session in a market town, on market day, stuck behind donkeys and cracking each other up on the radios, the teams headed into the Western Sahara. Roads here are very narrow, which makes overtaking very precarious, and so the drive is tiring even though it's quite straight. The scenery changes depending on how close to the coast they are - sometimes they are surrounded by argan bushes (from which a compound used inface creams all over the world is made, very useful when you are being sprayed with Birmingham Irish's dust!) and sometimes the fact that they are entering the desert is very real - they drove through their first sandstorm today, time to break out the Tilly hat! Best sights of the day have included shipwrecks on the skeleton coast and baby camels. It is very odd to think that they are only a relatively small number of miles inland from the island of Lanzarote, which will no doubt be a haven of bikini spotting and lager swilling even at this time of year...
They have reached Laayoune this evening and found themselves yet another smart hotel with wine and European style bathrooms. I'm not sure what happened to that resolution they all made a few days ago to "camp from now on", but they sound much happier this way! Plenty of 'roughing it' to come in the desert, anyway - one team in the group who are ahead of them have updated the main challenge website to say they have been eating chewy camel cooked by their Sahara guide, nice!
20:00 edited to add: Mum's just rung to ask me to include the quote of the evening: they're sitting in a fabulous restaurant eating awesome food, and they are discussing JJ's wife, who is pregnant - one of the other lads said his wife was in labour for 36 hours with one of their children, to which JJ looked aghast and said "36 hours! 36 hours?! I've never even done shit I like for 36 hours!"
Team Teletubbies haven't followed them on from the hotel last night - the five teams who stuck together in Gibraltar are now quite the dedicated herd, very attached to each other and with a whole collection of in-jokes to bond over - do you know anyone else who says "bastard apes!" (in honour of crazy Keith the Gibraltarian tour guide) when a photo is taken? Even so they haven't really lost track of other teams on the route - there was a happy meeting with some of the teams who are headed for Banjul rather than Timbuktu today, and they usually catch sight of other runners at the queues for security checks. There have been six police checks today on the road, but so far very few of them have wanted 'un petit cadeau' in return for safe passage, so with the watches they took with them for this precise eventuality, they still have a few dozen options when it comes to checking the time. Ken and Kenny win 'cheapest bribe', they managed to get away with giving one official a handsome souvenir of two humbugs and a biro!
After another comedy round-and-round lost session in a market town, on market day, stuck behind donkeys and cracking each other up on the radios, the teams headed into the Western Sahara. Roads here are very narrow, which makes overtaking very precarious, and so the drive is tiring even though it's quite straight. The scenery changes depending on how close to the coast they are - sometimes they are surrounded by argan bushes (from which a compound used inface creams all over the world is made, very useful when you are being sprayed with Birmingham Irish's dust!) and sometimes the fact that they are entering the desert is very real - they drove through their first sandstorm today, time to break out the Tilly hat! Best sights of the day have included shipwrecks on the skeleton coast and baby camels. It is very odd to think that they are only a relatively small number of miles inland from the island of Lanzarote, which will no doubt be a haven of bikini spotting and lager swilling even at this time of year...
They have reached Laayoune this evening and found themselves yet another smart hotel with wine and European style bathrooms. I'm not sure what happened to that resolution they all made a few days ago to "camp from now on", but they sound much happier this way! Plenty of 'roughing it' to come in the desert, anyway - one team in the group who are ahead of them have updated the main challenge website to say they have been eating chewy camel cooked by their Sahara guide, nice!
20:00 edited to add: Mum's just rung to ask me to include the quote of the evening: they're sitting in a fabulous restaurant eating awesome food, and they are discussing JJ's wife, who is pregnant - one of the other lads said his wife was in labour for 36 hours with one of their children, to which JJ looked aghast and said "36 hours! 36 hours?! I've never even done shit I like for 36 hours!"
Friday, 18 January 2008
From Neverwhere to Nowhere
Arrival in Marrakesh was a breeze - the police waved them through with no security checks or anything (must know who they are, darling!), and they found their hotel without too much trouble. After just one night of camping, the standards by which luxury are judged had come down considerably, and even though the bedroom was tiled and the bathroom wasn't, even though every time two appliances were plugged in the lights flickered, even though there was a three inch gap between the bottom of the curtain and the bottom of the window, it was cause for celebration just to have a bed to sleep in.
Not long after the last time I posted, my little brother had an unexpected phone call from mum, who was having a problem explaining to the local 'fixer' in Marrakesh what was wrong with the car. What use is a son with a degree in French and German if he can't find some way of talking about gearboxes with anyone in the world? He did some sterling work under pressure, and Peg was duly taken away and brought back three hours later with a functioning starter motor and four whole gears - excellent! And all or the equivalent of about £50. They had a salad in a roof bar listening to the prayer call, considered buying a camel but decided they didn't have space to carry it, and then re-packed the car when she was brought back, struggling to maintain equally easy access to shorts and thermal underwear as both are equally necessary over the next leg of the journey, depending on what time of day it is.
As that was sorted out, a nice meal seemed in order, so rather than stay at the hotel, the team were brave enough to take along their usual companions to try the tajine at the soukh. Mum was blown away by the transformation of the square: by day there are stalls selling almost anything you can think of (no Burger King though, sorry Cheryl!), including various things that are difficult to even identify a possible use for, and snake charmers (which isn't their friend Ross's favourite part - he hates snakes so much that apparently he likes to get up at 3am just to hate them some more when they're least expecting it); by night it -is- the floating market from Neverwhere - incense smoke mingling with food smoke and a heady mix of scents, all backlit by the lights on the mosque. There was almost an altercation about the price of the meal - traders in Marrakesh are quite savvy about tourists and how much extra they might get away with charging - but there was a fast attitude adjustment when it became obvious that the twelve of them (including ex-army nutters) didn't want to pay vastly over the odds.
Yesterday was a day off in Marrakesh, the girls did plan to go handbag shopping but found the soukh too draining in the end to carry on. There are tiny children pestering and trying to sell rubbish, and women with babies pleading for money and food, and mum and Jane must have soft written all over them, because they were targeted instantly by any of these kind of beggars. They were finding it very difficult. The other teams caught up at the hotel by the end of the day as well, and after another evening surrounded by boisterous british banter, they decided to reconvene at the car park at 7am for a quick getaway.
Today's drive was nothing short of spectacular, despite the fact that Peg's second gear has gone again. The Tiz-n-Test pass runs 6800ft above sea level, through ice and snow and back down into 41 degree heat, cacti, lemon and orange groves, and slowly encroaching desert. Photographs are not allowed up there, some teams have been in trouble for taking them, but mum says it would be difficult to take any that really conveyed the place accurately anyway as everything is a sandy colour. There are houses just cut into the rock in the mountains, and no western people at all. Children ran from their homes to wave, and chased the car for a mile just for a lollipop. OK, that sounds wrong - I don't mean they were holding a lollipop out of the window and taunting exhausted infants running behind them, I mean when they stopped they found children ran to them! On the other side of the mountains, the land was very arid apart from the odd fruit grove, and donkeys laden 12ft wide with some kind of green herb. The teams drove until 7pm, when they reached the small coast town near Tiznit where they had planned to camp for the night. Bad things happened! They should have taken the donkey who joined in with the muezzin (and did a better job) as an omen rather than a comedy moment, perhaps... The camping site was closed and would have been too small for all the teams in any case, and then when they drove back into town they found there were only three hotels - the one they settled for first had communal bathrooms and so on but was acceptable, apart from one small hiccup: they hadn't factored in consideration of the fact their vehicles may need protection! As soon as they walked away from the cars, local people approached and began trying the doors of them, and there was generally a very threatening atmosphere. It didn't take long to reach the conclusion that whatever the cost, there wasn't really any other option than the very smart ex-french-fort hotel on top of the hill, with the secure parking compound. As it turns out, it wasn't all that expensive, and the price includes dinner and breakfast - hurrah, they have found themselves staying in the place with what may well be the last European style loo on this trip!
Here's a photo of mum and Jane, along with Birmingham Irish, Dynamo Dysart, Are We There Yet, Bob Mali and Teletubbies. Don't they all look happy?
Not long after the last time I posted, my little brother had an unexpected phone call from mum, who was having a problem explaining to the local 'fixer' in Marrakesh what was wrong with the car. What use is a son with a degree in French and German if he can't find some way of talking about gearboxes with anyone in the world? He did some sterling work under pressure, and Peg was duly taken away and brought back three hours later with a functioning starter motor and four whole gears - excellent! And all or the equivalent of about £50. They had a salad in a roof bar listening to the prayer call, considered buying a camel but decided they didn't have space to carry it, and then re-packed the car when she was brought back, struggling to maintain equally easy access to shorts and thermal underwear as both are equally necessary over the next leg of the journey, depending on what time of day it is.
As that was sorted out, a nice meal seemed in order, so rather than stay at the hotel, the team were brave enough to take along their usual companions to try the tajine at the soukh. Mum was blown away by the transformation of the square: by day there are stalls selling almost anything you can think of (no Burger King though, sorry Cheryl!), including various things that are difficult to even identify a possible use for, and snake charmers (which isn't their friend Ross's favourite part - he hates snakes so much that apparently he likes to get up at 3am just to hate them some more when they're least expecting it); by night it -is- the floating market from Neverwhere - incense smoke mingling with food smoke and a heady mix of scents, all backlit by the lights on the mosque. There was almost an altercation about the price of the meal - traders in Marrakesh are quite savvy about tourists and how much extra they might get away with charging - but there was a fast attitude adjustment when it became obvious that the twelve of them (including ex-army nutters) didn't want to pay vastly over the odds.
Yesterday was a day off in Marrakesh, the girls did plan to go handbag shopping but found the soukh too draining in the end to carry on. There are tiny children pestering and trying to sell rubbish, and women with babies pleading for money and food, and mum and Jane must have soft written all over them, because they were targeted instantly by any of these kind of beggars. They were finding it very difficult. The other teams caught up at the hotel by the end of the day as well, and after another evening surrounded by boisterous british banter, they decided to reconvene at the car park at 7am for a quick getaway.
Today's drive was nothing short of spectacular, despite the fact that Peg's second gear has gone again. The Tiz-n-Test pass runs 6800ft above sea level, through ice and snow and back down into 41 degree heat, cacti, lemon and orange groves, and slowly encroaching desert. Photographs are not allowed up there, some teams have been in trouble for taking them, but mum says it would be difficult to take any that really conveyed the place accurately anyway as everything is a sandy colour. There are houses just cut into the rock in the mountains, and no western people at all. Children ran from their homes to wave, and chased the car for a mile just for a lollipop. OK, that sounds wrong - I don't mean they were holding a lollipop out of the window and taunting exhausted infants running behind them, I mean when they stopped they found children ran to them! On the other side of the mountains, the land was very arid apart from the odd fruit grove, and donkeys laden 12ft wide with some kind of green herb. The teams drove until 7pm, when they reached the small coast town near Tiznit where they had planned to camp for the night. Bad things happened! They should have taken the donkey who joined in with the muezzin (and did a better job) as an omen rather than a comedy moment, perhaps... The camping site was closed and would have been too small for all the teams in any case, and then when they drove back into town they found there were only three hotels - the one they settled for first had communal bathrooms and so on but was acceptable, apart from one small hiccup: they hadn't factored in consideration of the fact their vehicles may need protection! As soon as they walked away from the cars, local people approached and began trying the doors of them, and there was generally a very threatening atmosphere. It didn't take long to reach the conclusion that whatever the cost, there wasn't really any other option than the very smart ex-french-fort hotel on top of the hill, with the secure parking compound. As it turns out, it wasn't all that expensive, and the price includes dinner and breakfast - hurrah, they have found themselves staying in the place with what may well be the last European style loo on this trip!
Here's a photo of mum and Jane, along with Birmingham Irish, Dynamo Dysart, Are We There Yet, Bob Mali and Teletubbies. Don't they all look happy?
Wednesday, 16 January 2008
Sorry, sorry, sorry!
48 hours without a update, I know! I have tried putting my hands on my hips and telling my router quite curtly that the day that mum and Jane cross into Africa is NOT the time to to stop working, but will it listen? No. Maybe it's trying to tell it with a heavy cold, it just isn't taking me seriously. In any case I am at a friend's house borrowing his machine.
So, where were we? The decision had been taken to stay in Gibraltar for an extra day, which they used for a trip up the Rock where the new Irish ex-army friends' influence became evident with a text message from mum that read "How big are the feckin monkeys?! Feck I am not kicking that!", with a crazy Gibraltar-born Spanish-hating guide named Keith who encouraged them to scramble round security fences and take a peek across the water for their first look at Africa, while he stopped for a brandy. And they needed to get the starter motor repaired. Well, that repair was successful, but it turns out mum wasn't joking when she described Peg in the profile for this blog as 'temperamental'. No sooner was one problem sorted than another arose - now they are driving with only first, third and occasionally fourth gears. Fun, especially now they are in Morocco where the word 'motorway' is something of a misnomer and actually just means that tarmac isn't at as much of a premium as on the normal 'roads', so the potholes are few enough that you can engage in fun games like passing sweeties from one car in the convoy to another at 70mph!
At 8am yesterday morning, they got on the Ferry to Ceuta, dresses and tiaras bought for the tea party they're going to have in the desert, looking mad in the queue in all the stickered British cars with four other teams: Bob Mali, Birmingham Irish, Are We There Yet and Dynamo Dysart. A quick half hour crossing, so by 10 o'clock they were... passing the port for the fourth time. Ace. Like the Italian job, only reset in Morocco with three gears. I would love to have been listening in on the radio conversations! They did eventually find their way out of Ceuta and made for Rabat through surprisingly verdant scenery, stopping en route for a pizza with chilli oil that they had no idea how much they were being charged for, and to partake in a little car roof surfing as suggested by Ken. Started seeing all those bizarre things that you see on 'rough guide' type programmes on television and never believe; like three people to one moped, and people carrying huge bundles on their backs, flocks of storks, cork trees, donkeys everywhere and locals wearing strange hats that look like a sombrero with a point and tassels, like a standard lamp disguise!
The boys have insisted on camping from now on apart from the one night they spend in Marrakesh, so there was no need to set an alarm for this morning's early start as mum's back woke her up with a spasm that threatened to stop her moving at all, never mind driving, at 4 o'clock. I shall leave it to her to make any comment about camping at her time of life! Downtown Rabat in the morning is enough of an adrenaline shot to have made her forget about that pretty fast though- all colour and movement, much of it made up of cars heading in all directions at once very fast! Today they are heading for Marrakesh, so they get to stay in a real hotel for the last time in a week. They have somewhat given up on glamour, resorting to covering their unruly hair with hats and behaving as though they have won the lottery when they found a garage with clean toilets this morning. It's getting hotter as they head south(ish) and there is yet more for them to see, like the man grazing his sheep on both sides of the motorway (I did say it wasn't quite a motorway as we know them, didn't I?), cactus fences, and the view of the snow-capped Atlas mountains ahead despite the heat as they approached Marrakesh. As I write they have just arrived in the city, heading for their hotel, and the traffic is 'mad' - and I take that to mean something quite different from when one says it about the trip to work in the school run traffic in Haverfordwest...
The plan for today is to find a mechanic to have a look at Peg, and to meander around the spice markets. It's hot there now (hard to imagine from Britain, which is cold, grey, and half underwater)and the local people are nice, though they seem to find mum and Jane funny.. can't imagine why. Maybe the fact that they haven't quite adjusted to the cars, donkeys and scooters from all sides tells on their faces, or in their screams. Who knows?
So, where were we? The decision had been taken to stay in Gibraltar for an extra day, which they used for a trip up the Rock where the new Irish ex-army friends' influence became evident with a text message from mum that read "How big are the feckin monkeys?! Feck I am not kicking that!", with a crazy Gibraltar-born Spanish-hating guide named Keith who encouraged them to scramble round security fences and take a peek across the water for their first look at Africa, while he stopped for a brandy. And they needed to get the starter motor repaired. Well, that repair was successful, but it turns out mum wasn't joking when she described Peg in the profile for this blog as 'temperamental'. No sooner was one problem sorted than another arose - now they are driving with only first, third and occasionally fourth gears. Fun, especially now they are in Morocco where the word 'motorway' is something of a misnomer and actually just means that tarmac isn't at as much of a premium as on the normal 'roads', so the potholes are few enough that you can engage in fun games like passing sweeties from one car in the convoy to another at 70mph!
At 8am yesterday morning, they got on the Ferry to Ceuta, dresses and tiaras bought for the tea party they're going to have in the desert, looking mad in the queue in all the stickered British cars with four other teams: Bob Mali, Birmingham Irish, Are We There Yet and Dynamo Dysart. A quick half hour crossing, so by 10 o'clock they were... passing the port for the fourth time. Ace. Like the Italian job, only reset in Morocco with three gears. I would love to have been listening in on the radio conversations! They did eventually find their way out of Ceuta and made for Rabat through surprisingly verdant scenery, stopping en route for a pizza with chilli oil that they had no idea how much they were being charged for, and to partake in a little car roof surfing as suggested by Ken. Started seeing all those bizarre things that you see on 'rough guide' type programmes on television and never believe; like three people to one moped, and people carrying huge bundles on their backs, flocks of storks, cork trees, donkeys everywhere and locals wearing strange hats that look like a sombrero with a point and tassels, like a standard lamp disguise!
The boys have insisted on camping from now on apart from the one night they spend in Marrakesh, so there was no need to set an alarm for this morning's early start as mum's back woke her up with a spasm that threatened to stop her moving at all, never mind driving, at 4 o'clock. I shall leave it to her to make any comment about camping at her time of life! Downtown Rabat in the morning is enough of an adrenaline shot to have made her forget about that pretty fast though- all colour and movement, much of it made up of cars heading in all directions at once very fast! Today they are heading for Marrakesh, so they get to stay in a real hotel for the last time in a week. They have somewhat given up on glamour, resorting to covering their unruly hair with hats and behaving as though they have won the lottery when they found a garage with clean toilets this morning. It's getting hotter as they head south(ish) and there is yet more for them to see, like the man grazing his sheep on both sides of the motorway (I did say it wasn't quite a motorway as we know them, didn't I?), cactus fences, and the view of the snow-capped Atlas mountains ahead despite the heat as they approached Marrakesh. As I write they have just arrived in the city, heading for their hotel, and the traffic is 'mad' - and I take that to mean something quite different from when one says it about the trip to work in the school run traffic in Haverfordwest...
The plan for today is to find a mechanic to have a look at Peg, and to meander around the spice markets. It's hot there now (hard to imagine from Britain, which is cold, grey, and half underwater)and the local people are nice, though they seem to find mum and Jane funny.. can't imagine why. Maybe the fact that they haven't quite adjusted to the cars, donkeys and scooters from all sides tells on their faces, or in their screams. Who knows?
Monday, 14 January 2008
Just how does one Burgerk?
Jane is in Burger King! Culture shock or what?!
Another proper job has been done on Peg - split housing? No problem, just give me some wire ties, wood and a big hammer...
Another proper job has been done on Peg - split housing? No problem, just give me some wire ties, wood and a big hammer...
nN + xAB (where N = Nutters and AB = Alcoholic Beverages) = chaos. Find value of n and x.
If the night before last could be described as 'wild' then I am really not sure how one defines the goings on yesterday evening. Far more people than was really comfortable from what I can ascertain - apparently there is a threshold number of rally-goers that can gather in one place and remain civilised and when this is broken, people start to graffiti each other's cars with things like "The Witches tried to turn these two men into handsome princes but the spell didn't work".
Happily, the more testosterone-fuelled and macho-ego teams are mostly kept at bay by the friends mum and Jane had already made, and many of them have left for Africa this morning whereas Peg has dictated (by refusing to stay fixed) another day's stop in Gibraltar. They are out in Algeciras (which between mum's pronunciation and my cloth ears always sounds like Al Jazeera and worries me slightly) this morning, going to a garage where hopefully they will have more effective tools and parts than blocks of old wood. They are also hoping to squeeze in a little shopping - can you believe they left their ballgowns and pearls behind and have to buy replacements en route? Tch, honestly! With that and the china cups and saucers, and the dinner jackets, I am looking forward to photographs of a very dressy tea party in the desert.
So, the ferry crossing has been postponed until Tuesday, but they certainly won't be going alone as they have formed quite a tight little clique with Birmingham Irish and Dynamo Dysart, and will possibly have Team Are We There Yet along too. If nothing else, humour will keep them rolling; every time I speak to mum she sounds like she has just stopped laughing at something faux-coarse the lads have come out with.
The other important piece of news from over the weekend is that mum has given up smoking. She had three or four cigarettes while crossing Europe (obviously opportunities were scarce as she didn't want to gas Jane) and then decided after a chat with Kenny that she didn't need them and handed them over! Congratulations mummy!
For anyone who is reading this blog and wants to keep track of all the teams I am mentioning, and see mum and Jane's SMS updates, click here and look at the field reports for group five.
11:50 edited to add: The car is now fixed again.
Happily, the more testosterone-fuelled and macho-ego teams are mostly kept at bay by the friends mum and Jane had already made, and many of them have left for Africa this morning whereas Peg has dictated (by refusing to stay fixed) another day's stop in Gibraltar. They are out in Algeciras (which between mum's pronunciation and my cloth ears always sounds like Al Jazeera and worries me slightly) this morning, going to a garage where hopefully they will have more effective tools and parts than blocks of old wood. They are also hoping to squeeze in a little shopping - can you believe they left their ballgowns and pearls behind and have to buy replacements en route? Tch, honestly! With that and the china cups and saucers, and the dinner jackets, I am looking forward to photographs of a very dressy tea party in the desert.
So, the ferry crossing has been postponed until Tuesday, but they certainly won't be going alone as they have formed quite a tight little clique with Birmingham Irish and Dynamo Dysart, and will possibly have Team Are We There Yet along too. If nothing else, humour will keep them rolling; every time I speak to mum she sounds like she has just stopped laughing at something faux-coarse the lads have come out with.
The other important piece of news from over the weekend is that mum has given up smoking. She had three or four cigarettes while crossing Europe (obviously opportunities were scarce as she didn't want to gas Jane) and then decided after a chat with Kenny that she didn't need them and handed them over! Congratulations mummy!
For anyone who is reading this blog and wants to keep track of all the teams I am mentioning, and see mum and Jane's SMS updates, click here and look at the field reports for group five.
11:50 edited to add: The car is now fixed again.
Sunday, 13 January 2008
Rocking the Rock!
After a fairly wild night of lowering the tone in a posh Italian restaurant with 12 other people crazy enough to take on this challenge (including portuguese Team Zissou, who are the only team to have started from the Paris-Dakar starting line this year), a leisurely start was made on fixing Peg this morning. That air jack (that so many people said they wouldn't need) was put to good use, and as mum and Jane's vehicle was the only one in need of repair a large cast of friendly, lovely people assembled to help out. Ken and Kenny AKA Birmingham Irish took the car to pieces and discovered that the housing for the starter motor was in a sorry state, with a bolt entirely sheared off, but with the help of Dynamo Dysart, blocks of old wood, plastic metal and a dash of genius they got it fixed in time for lunch. The witches are very grateful indeed.
Now it is time to relax in the Gibraltar sunshine with the other teams who have got this far, before crossing into Morocco tomorrow. At last report Witches Abroad, Birmingham Irish, Bob Mali and Dynamo Dysart were having an hilarious trial run of travelling in convoy with radio contact, heading out for some great olives and seafood overlooking the Rock.
It turns out that the flip-down dining table in the back of the car and the rather classy rations packed inside do not make our mad women any madder than the other teams out there - Birmingham Irish have packed china cups and saucers from which to take their morning Earl Grey, and Team Running Amok have packed dinner jackets!
Now it is time to relax in the Gibraltar sunshine with the other teams who have got this far, before crossing into Morocco tomorrow. At last report Witches Abroad, Birmingham Irish, Bob Mali and Dynamo Dysart were having an hilarious trial run of travelling in convoy with radio contact, heading out for some great olives and seafood overlooking the Rock.
It turns out that the flip-down dining table in the back of the car and the rather classy rations packed inside do not make our mad women any madder than the other teams out there - Birmingham Irish have packed china cups and saucers from which to take their morning Earl Grey, and Team Running Amok have packed dinner jackets!
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