Plymouth to Dakar Challenge : Kiwis on Tour

Conclusion

By the end of three weeks, we had driven about 4400 miles (7000 km) in a 28 year old Mercedes. We navigated vast plains, fresh snow, barren desert terrain, surf and very soft sand. We crossed 8 countries and experienced many diverse cultures. Our treasured Mercedes was repaired and patch up numerous times. Had a few arguments, but many more laughs and moments of amazement. Most importantly we had a fantastic time and made some excellent friends.

Already people have asked if we would do another road trip, without a doubt! In a flash! however next time we may not go with an organized group like the Plymouth to Dakar Challenge as sometimes it felt like there were a lot of backhanders 'built' into the challenge. Next time we may look to get 4 or 5 cars or teams to join us on a road trip and organize it ourselves, who’s keen to come??

We would like to say special thanks to the other teams who really made our trip as fun and exciting as it was.

Posted by Aaron on January 23, 2008 11:15 PM | Comments (0)

Day 20 21 22 23 - Kaolack(SN) to Banjul(GM)

Leaving Koalack(SN) we drove to the border of Senegal and The Gambia, it was the last boarder crossing and a real mile stone bringing a conclusion to the trip. Team speed were up and on the road in true efficient fashion with us in tow. With the sun bearing down, we could easily see the terrain changing again, getting much greener as we got to a more tropical climate. The road however got so rough at times we left the tarmac part and drove on the dirt beside. The dirt track was in far better condition and even the locals were using this "other" road. We just took our time and there where no drama's. Along the way, Dave and Darrel were pulling over to give away t-shirts and various equipment that was no longer needed. It was great to see the massive smiles on some of the people as the got some discarded items – except for the poor guy who got the fishing rod – he didn't seem that impressed.

Then before we knew it we came up on the boarder. The boarder crossing was easy; the event organizers had finally done something right and talked to the boarder guards in advance. As you get into The Gambia, there is a small drive to a ferry which takes you across the river to Banjul on the other side.

We had read and heard horror stories about this crossing, the constant pestering and begging apparently gets very violent and dangerous as the locals start trying to steal everything off and from inside the cars. We had timed it to cross in the middle of the day, and we got across with only minor annoyances and no real incidents. It was a great feeling to get on the ferry and know we were only 10km from the end.

Some of team speed were thinking about selling their cars privately to pay for the costs of their trip, so as we entered Banjul they went off and hid in their hotels while the rest of us signed into the Safari Garden – the meeting point and the hotel recommended by the organizers. What a rip off, we were very disappointed; it ended up being way over priced and we suspected there could have been some back handers involved.

After the first night we checked out with the vast majority of the other teams and looked for new accommodation. We ended up in a great simple hotel right on the beach with hammocks over looking the ocean – and for HALF the price. The Gambia, was again another example of corruption everywhere, in my mind there was no reason for it to be so poor and it really does wind me up to a degree.

There was a huge amount of tourism along the beach and what seemed to be a thriving sex tourism by the number of old men and old ladies with young local boys and girls on the their arms.

It turned out that the rest of Team Dither had decided to make tracks and arrived in The Gambia the next day. This was mainly due to a very anxious Aussy with no visa and not wanting to spend several years in jail if he got caught in Senegal. He was more than happy to sneak out of Senegal to The Gambia as fast as possible. But there was a causality on the way – Edward, the girls car cracked and broke its sump after playing a large pot hole leaving it stranded a hundred miles away from Banjul. While they were very sad, I found a certain irony in it after all the grief they had given us about poor Rusty probably not going to be able to make it.

We had a final team dinner with a few drinks – no one was really up for a big one being totally exhausted and ready to collapse. We went back to our hotel and hung out on the beach sharing stories about the last 3.5 weeks on the road. On the final day, we drove to the airport and said good bye to Rusty. We were both very proud of Rusty after all she had been through and it was a nice feeling to know we made it. We handed the keys over to the girls to use until they left The Gambia a week later and flew back to London taking with us some amazing memories of our trip.

More Photos of Day 20
More Photos of Day 21 D22 and D23

Posted by Aaron on January 22, 2008 11:20 AM | Comments (0)

Day 19 - Zebrabar(SN) to Koalack(SN)

It was a respectable starting in morning hitting the just after 9am. We had now joined Team Speed in a convoy of 7 cars. It was really sad to say good bye to our Team Dither team mates as they were staying on for a few extra days in Senegal and it was looking unlikely we would see them again in Africa.

The day looked like an easy drive as the distance wasn't too far and we made the decision to stay close to the boarder on the Senegalese side and cross the over the next day. Our biggest concern was the corrupt police and knew we would have to contend with in Senegal getting to the boarder. There were two boarder crossing we could have used to get across and were told the roads to both were pretty average but one was reported to be way worst than the other. We decided to go for the easy route as we just wanted to get there by this stage. We were all getting tied of the driving and hassles from the locals and looking forward to getting to the end and kicking back for a few days. We on the road 15 minutes and came across the first police check point, to our surprise they just waved us through. One down and we expected 8-10 to go. The drive though Senegal was really good and it was apparent Senegal was a lot better off than Mauritania. The houses were off better construction everyone was dress in newer/fresher looking clothes, also there were power lines going to most of the houses we saw on the main roads. After the next two police check points we still hadn't been asked for bribes and were starting to think it might be our lucky day but didn't want to jinks it just yet. The cars were all going well; we were going through some really cool towns with lots to see, all was good.

Team Speed were going at a good pace, we got lost a couple of times in some of the towns but that added to the experience. Before we knew it we were at the town Kaolack. Team Speed had planned to stay the night in. It was only 3pm and it felt funny to have such an easy day. None of the police had given us any grief, I believe it may have been because the Team Speed boys were pretty rugged lads and weren't going to take any rubbish from anyone. We talked about the option of continuing on to the boarder that night, but would have meant crossing just at dark. I was keen but Aaron and the rest of Team Speed were not so much. This was cool by me and turned out to be a blessing after hearing a horror story from one of the teams who try when we got to The Gambia.

We found a nice hotel for the night (nice by Senegal standards that is) and settled in for the evening having some dinner and a few beers and compared stories with Team Speed on our experiences through the desert. As it turned out Team Speed weren't driving any quicker, they were just way more organised as a group than our Team Dither comrades we left back at the Zebrabra.

More photos of Day 19

Posted by Aaron on January 21, 2008 11:01 AM | Comments (0)