Plymouth to Dakar Challenge : Team Spitting Llamas

Day 14 - Campsite(MR) to Desert(MR)

Posted by Aaron on January 16, 2008 11:20 AM

Today we head into the desert, although you would not have been able to tell our excitement by the slow pace in which we got ready. Packing up, we got the car back into single file, the guide in the front and headed into the capital of Mauritania - Nauabhidou. This gave us another chance to top up with supplies and gas. We were surprised just how easy it was to find places along the way which had gas and food. The teams driving petrol cars were a tad more concerned, they had to visit 4 or 5 petrol stations before finding their source of go-go juice.

The city was simple squalor, there was only a handful of tar sealed roads and people littering the streets. The mood was somber and in truth we simply wanted to leave and get on with our journey. It amazed us that this was the capital of the county, truly the country is in poverty like we had not seen before.

We got some bread and given our new fuel problem, emptied a few of the water tanks and filled them with diesel. Apparently a few years ago there simply wasn’t a road joining the countries together down the coast, but a couple of years ago they built one a few miles inland. Heading towards this road, the terrain was becoming more and more baron; then guide simply pointed and we turned off the road and started driving into what looked like nothingness.

We paused briefly to let our tires down, the ground was very firm like baked dirt with a light powdering of sand, by letting our tires down we should be able to get more grip on the sand. Everyone was keen to get going and you could tell everyone was very quickly going to turn into big kids. After about 3 minutes of single file everyone started darting in every direction. With nothing around us, no trees, shrubs, rocks and no rules – we were off. People started nudging each other, doing donuts, flying over bumps and raises trying to get air. People took turns on peoples various roofs and hung on the back of the 4×4s.

The space is just huge, in no time there was nothing in any direction and only a few large sand dunes scattering the landscape. Apparently it is completely random how many and where they are – constantly shifting. Along the way, we passed the odd group of camels, each time trying to fathom just how they survive in the desert.

We all started a new hobby – digging out team Bravo 2 Zero from the sand. Their little Cleo got stuck more times than our big gas guzzling Merc had filled up for gas in the last 2000 miles. The thin tires simply loved the deep sand, but the only redeeming feature of the Cleo was that it was super light and easy lift out and get it going again. We blew out one of our rear tires and didn't realise until one of the other teams team driving beside us pointed it out. The sand was so soft at times you couldn't "feel" what the car was doing at all. Needless to say we completely trash that tire driving on it to long while it was flat.

On one of our many stops to help out, we discovered that our new CV joint had sprung a leak with the boot splitting, and was spitting grease out everywhere. We didn't have time to fix it then and there, so had to leave it until night time. Corde was quite concerned about all the sand that was getting into the new joint but couldn't do anything about it for the time being.

Few hours later, we found a nice sand dune to set up camp behind to shelter from the evening wind. We got straight to work on the car – just another evening working on the car instead of relaxing. But Corde got it taped and bagged up, giving us time to join the rest of the group around the camp fire, cooked dinner and enjoyed the millions of stars. Few brews later it was time to hit the sack.

See more photos of Day 14