Plymouth to Dakar Challenge : Team Spitting Llamas

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 at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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 at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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 at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was our chill day, and it felt good to know we were staying in Zebarbar for 2 nights and didn't have to rush around to get back on the road. We have been on the go for since Gibraltar and it felt good to have a sleep in and relax. The Zebarbar camping ground was very nice. It was in a great location on a little island surrounded by heaps of wildlife. There was a kind of observation tower of very doggy construction in the middle of the island that offered fantastic views of the surrounding area.

After having breakfast we all just hung out in the morning sitting on the banks of the island watching the world go by. It was just what we needed, the day was hot and sunny the whole area had a nice chilled out feel to it.

We were staying close to the town of Saint-Louis that was up the Senegal River towards the sea. Saint-Louis was the capital of the French colony of Senegal from 1673 until independence in 1960. The old colonial city was on a narrow island (just over 2 km long and about 400 m wide) in the Senegal River. A few of us took a boat ride in the afternoon to Saint-Louis to have lunch. I had no idea what to expect and was pleasantly surprised by how beautiful the city was, although it was very run down.

Saint-Louis was established in 1659 by French traders on the island. It was baptized Saint-Louis-du-Fort in homage to the French king Louis XIV. It was the first permanent French settlement in Senegal. Saint-Louis became the leading urban centre in sub-Saharan Africa. Following independence, when Dakar became capital of the country, Saint-Louis slipped into a state of lethargy. As its French population and military departed, many of the town's shops, offices and businesses closed. Due to this the city has preserved much of its 19th century morphology, reminiscent of other cities of the "Creole Atlantic": Havana and New Orleans. It was just like you see pictures of Cuba with all its run down buildings. (As you can tell, Corde copy and pasted that from somewhere!)

I thought it was one of the best cities we visited in the whole trip. We happened to be there on a public holiday and the streets were completely deserted. It is one place I wish we had more time to explore. Saint-Louis is apparently the most characteristically French colonial city in West Africa and has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. After a nice boat ride back to our camping ground (where Aaron accidentally dropped his phone in the bottom of the boat, that happen to be full of water) we settled in for the evening and dined on a very nice BBQ and good company of out rally team mates.

Talking to some of the guys from Team Speed that night they had a different experience of Saint-Louis. They had tried to drive to the city from the camping ground and were stopped by several local traffic police asking for brides. The police went all over there cars looking for any thing they could use as an excuse to give out a fine. One of the teams spent 40 minutes arguing over not having a fire extinguisher in the car. We were so lucky we hadn't taken Rusty for a drive there as she was looking a bit worst for wear by that stage. Another story Team Speed told us about was one of their cars had broken down the day previous in Senegal. They were in a village trying to get it sorted out but were getting harassed by the locals so much they dumped the car and literally ran for the support of their other team mates to escape. The 2 guys never went back for their car and continued the rest of the way in the other cars.

That night Aaron and I decided we would head off towards The Gambia the next morning as we both had to get our flights back to London. The rest of Team Dither were going to stay on in the camping ground for an extra couple of days so we arranged to join up with Team Speed in the morning. With our car in the state it was we wanted to travel in convoy is case it broke down again or we were pulled over by the police, safety in numbers!!!

More photos of Day 18

Posted by Aaron at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After a relatively good nights slept we were woken at 5am to the noise of Team Speed leaving the hotel enclosure. Given our tent was right beside the car park everyone was woken by it. To Team Speeds credit they were up and on the road very quickly (although rather noisily). They had paid for a guide to take them to the Senegal boarder and help them get across. They were told it was a very slow drive in parts and that the boarder crossing would likely be the worst we would experience due to corruption and briberies to get across. We looked at the option of getting a guide for our team but thought, "how hard can it be" the distance looked quite close on the map and we had Pete with us who had done it all before. So as per Team Dither style we got up at a reasonable hour, and "thought" about getting reading to leave. I went out to check on Rusty, the night before we were using the laptop through the 12/240 volt converter and flattened Rusty's battery. The battery was still flat so got a jump start and were ready to go. A few of the guys needed petrol so we went around the town trying to find a gas station that had any. After the fourth one we got lucky - much to the relieve of the petrol cars. Everyone filled up and again were ready to go, however Pete's & Katie's 4wd decided to blow a hole in the oil pressure line to the oil cooler and there was black diesel oil everywhere. The Latvians were straight in there to help out. They tried 3 attempts at fixing/blocking the hole but in the end it was not going to hold, there was too much oil pressure. I was thinking you could just by-pass the oil cooler but many others thought otherwise so we headed to find a welder. Fortunately one was found with out too much trouble and the little pin hole was brazed up. Finally on the road out of Nouakchott about 11.

All the morning while we were waiting I was thinking what could now go wrong with Rusty. Murphys Law strikes and we were on the road for only about 30 minutes when Rusty's engine started to lose power. We pulled over knowing what the most likely problem was, our fuel tank issues raises its ugly head again !! This time though we had removed the gauze filter from the fuel tank and all the rubbish in the tank had blocked up the entire fuel line to the first filter in the engine bay. So we replaced both filters blew back down the fuel line to the tank and got going again. However, 10 minutes later again we started to lose engine power. This time the first filter had completing blocked up with all the rubbish we have blown back down the fuel line into the tank. So the decision was made to by-pass the fuel tank AGAIN. Fortunately for us the damaged radiator had completely stopped leaking and we no longer needed our extra water tank on the roof. So we emptied out the water form the tank and filled it will diesel, hooked up the fuel lines this time leaving out one of the fuel filters under the bonnet as all 8 over them had been used or blocked up. We still had the main fuel filter on the injector so was happy with that. Again hit the road. And again only got 10-15 minutes along the way and the engine stopped. I thought the temporary fuel hoses may have been getting pinched between the bonnet and the guard so to realize some of my tension that was now building I set to adjusting the guard / bonnet clearance to allow the hoses to fit. When I say adjusting that may be a bit miss leading, it was more like bashing the living crap out of the guard. Given the grief little Rusty was giving me it did feel good to give her love back. So back on the road and 5 minutes later we were losing power yet again, by this stage I was getting very concerned thinking poor old rusty was a dead duck. My next thought was to replace the main filter with the one we had changed before we blew out the fuel line. Sure enough when we took the filter of it was full of rubbish from when we blew down the fuel line. Put it all back together and hit the road with that dread something else was going to happen. To our wonderful excitement all was good, but knowing there were no more clean fuel filters if they were needed. So we were on the road again about 12, only 6 hours behind Team Speed, well I was happy Rusty was running so it didn't worry me at all. The next couple of hours driving was good, no drama's and the road was good.

The scenery was changing a lot too. We starting to see trees now and had began to enter the sub-Saharan zone. Also there was a big different in the colour of the people as we were going further south. At this point we thought every thing was going sweet, only had about 100 miles to the boarder, car was going good, life was good, living the dream as we were saying. Then with Pete's guidance having done this all before we found the dirt road to the boarder crossing. Then things started to change, thankfully the car held together but next 100 miles were very slow going with the road/track conditions being very bad. We had been warned in our road book for the trip to expect "pot holes the size of bath tubs" and I was very skeptical when I read it, however sure enough before long we were navigating our way though massive potholes and very tough dusty roads. At the front of the group of cars it was all most a race to get in front so you didn't have to contend with the dust kicked up by the other cars. I was very concerned for Rusty's radiator as it was literally only held on by string and there was no protection under the car if we "fell" into on off these pot holes. If we hit any thing it would have push the radiator straight into the fan again and completely stopped us in our tracks. Another thing against us was the sun was starting to set right in front of us so we could see hardly at all. I was sitting on the door hanging outside the car as we were driving trying to scan ahead for pot holes. As it turned out we did end up in a nasty sand pit at quite hi speed but the radiator survived. We did need pushing out though, but that was fine. Team Bravo Zero did manage to find one of the "bath tub" sized pot holes and have a great story to tell about it. The managed to get out with the help of the spare tyre with minimal damage to the suspension.

We finally made it to the Mauritania / Senegal boarder just on dark. It was a good feeling to have made it with all the drama's through out the long day. Now came the boarder crossing from hell, mainly because of the corruption that was going on to get across. All the officials at the boarder were their to take their personal cut and we were lambs to the slaughter. When got there the team off Irish boys had just got though and about to hed off. They said it had taken them 3.5 hours to get through the bureaucracy. We all knew it was going to be a long night for us. After going to though all the hoops the "officials" demanded of us paying over 160 Euros each for the privilege (120 Euros more than we should have), we were on the other side ready to head off to the campsite. We have since heard we did better than some others getting across but it is still a sore point to know that the corruption is so rampart. We saw an amazing sight just before we headed off. It was around 11pm and pitch black except for a couple of lights of the huts. The boarder people opened the gates and there would have been 150 camels herded across the boarder all in the canter with riders at the front and rear. It was such a surreal sight and then they disappeared into the darkness of Senegal. If only we could have got through so easily. I have no doubt there was something dodgy going on taking them across the boarder at that time of night. A cool thing we did was smuggle one of the Aussy's across the boarder, he was unaware that a visa was needed for Kiwi's and Aussy's. Aaron and I had got ours in London months previous. With it being dark he just walked across and no one realised. Plus he avoided the 160 Euro cost too!!

On the road again to our camping ground, it was on 40 minutes away and made it in good time as the roads were far better on the Senegalese side. A couple of the cars said they had some bad experiences with the local kids throwing rocks at them but they went through earlier in the day. We got to the zebrabar campground at 11:00pm, had dinner a few drinks put the tent up and bed by 3am. It was a long day !!

More photos of Day 17

Posted by Aaron at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Corde and I get up early as usual while the rest of Team Dither are still in bed. We watch Team Speed get up in their normal organized manor and head off down the beach. It is time to fill and test the radiator – It is still leaking, but only at a constant drip, no longer at a flood. As the water tanks are still on the roof, Corde feeds a line from the water tank, straight down to the radiator to keep it constantly filling. Given the heat, we are a little worried that our now reduced radiator and fan might not be able to keep the engine cool. We get all of our cars down from the soft sand, and quickly realize that the Radweld does its trick and all the small leaks sealing up with the hot engine.

After some more procrastination and dithering we head down beach. It is a really nice run along the beach at low tide and the sand hard, we slowed down to navigate around some rocks, forcing us to drive into the ocean for a bit but was no problems. We stopped to watch the Saharan sand dunes being blown into the sea which was quite amazing, just imagining how much sand has been blown in there over the last 10,000 years. We passed a few very modest fishing boats and fishing villages along the beach that really brought home how hard life is for a lot of people. Getting back off the hard wet sand to the road was an ordeal in itself. Almost all of the cars got stuck in the very deep soft sand over the 200 meters we had to navigate and required team work and a very handy Range Rover to pull us through it.

Back on the main road we pumped all our tires again and started on the road again towards Nouakchott – the capital of Mauritania. On the road to the city, we passed mile after mile of rubbish, just littering the sky line, with little piles burning every so often. Naturally there were people scavenging in the rubbish, making it a sobering journey. The Capital had barely any tar sealed roads, no obvious nice areas and the poverty was very apparent.

We found our hotel, everyone was staying the night and set up our sleeping bags in large tents. Poor Rusty is limping in, but now even her battery is dying. Everyone is on top form, no one is sick and we are really enjoying ourselves, but looking forward to a restful day or two at Zebrabar in Senegal to come.

See more photos of Day 16

Posted by Aaron at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We woke up quite refreshed, the sand was oddly comfortable to sleep on. Team dither slowly roused, cooked some breakfast and strolled around to take photos of the desert. We didn't have much distance to cover and in theory would only have to land on the beach to call it a day. The last section of the desert driving got really hard, really deep sand meaning there were no stops unless it was really needed as we wouldn't be able to get the car going again. We had to dig out Rosco and Dave in Bravo 2 Zero about another hundred times, which wasn't helped by the fact the temperature had sored from one day to the next. A couple of the cars had started to over heat in the heat and we they were starting to use a bit of water. Rusty was fine in the heat and we were happy that all the repairs were holding firm.

We broke both of our head lamps on the Ozzies car playing bumper cars – but at this point we didn't mind so much, was all part of the adventure. The team had really started bonding as each and every car got stuck and needed help getting it out. Our guide knew the tricks of the trade as far as getting the cars out of the sand, but did like to ride the clutch to the point we thought a few of the cars may not be able to be driving again after the sand leg. We meet the other two groups on the beach, having only 2 km to where we would set up camp for the evening. Sticking to the harder wet packed sand we made decent progress., But the issue was if we got stuck, Rusty was so heavy and the wet sand so slippery that once stuck, we really need a tow to get going again. At the camp site, we paused on the breach – getting stuck – our new suspension system (sticks) had long come out. With the incoming tide, all of the cars needed to be parked higher in the soft sand. We couldn't get Rusty out, so the guide took the wheel, drove the car pretty deep into the sea to turn it around and gunned it, flying along the beach in order to get enough speed up to make it up the soft sand, at the last minute he turned inland. Some how he managed to hit the only small mound of sand on a perfectly flat slightly inclining beach for miles in each direction. As he did so, we could hear and see the impact from about 100 metres away – we knew that something was broken but we didn't know what at this point.

As we approach the car, our "mate" the guide is walking away going "all is good", all is good my arse we were saying as we could see the radiator water spewing out the bottom of the engine. He had managed to rip the bottom radiator support structures away in the impact, pushing the radiator into the fan, breaking a fan blade off into the radiator causing a 4 inch hole for the water to let go. Corde was livid to say the least, we had been repairing, fixing and maintaining the car pretty much every evening for the last week. Tonight was meant to be a night relaxation, swimming in the sea and having a decent meal around a camp fire. But we had to get back to fixing poor Rusty. We sawed off the opposing fan blade to balance the fan, and removed the radiator. Corde managed to clean up the mess left behind, twist up the coils to stop the leak from one end, and borrow some metal putty to meld into the base of the radiator to block the tube ends. We couldn't start the engine this evening as we needed to let the putty set over night. So the morning was going to be the make or break for poor Rusty. Rusty is starting to look worse for wear now, with lots of rust, holes just "appearing" as the bog fell out.

Very dirty and tired, the group bought some fresh fish from a local fisherman, wrapped it in tin foil and cooked it in the open fire. Sitting on the beach, with the wind blowing off the desert into the ocean, the whole horizon is a massive haze due to the fine dust and sand being blown into the atmosphere. It is pretty amazing and we couldn't get a photo to do it justice.

See more photos of Day 15

Posted by Aaron at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

Posted by Aaron at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It was an early 5am start this morning as needed to get to the Mauritania boarder before lunch time when they close for a couple of hours. We were all on the road before 6am for the 275km drive to the boarder. The country side was getting pretty baron now. Only the odd camel to be seen and random gas stations along the way. The gas stations were there because of the cheap fuel that you could get in southern western Sahara region because of the low tax duties on fuel.

We had been driving for about 45 minutes and little old Rusty started to lose engine power. I looked at Aaron and we both knew what the problem most likely was, fuel filters were blocked due to our dodgy fuel tank and all the grim stuck inside it. The engine then completely died and we pulled over. We changed both the fuel filters as they were a little bit blocked up. We had been pretty good changing them every few days knowing the about fuel tank problem. However we still couldn't get Rusty to started and knew the gauze filter in the tank must be blocked up. It this stage we had been holding everyone up for about 45 minutes and knew we were missing our window of opportunity to get through the boarder before lunch time. I finally made the decision to by-pass the main fuel tank completely and use one of the plastic jerry cans on the roof and pipe the fuel directly to the engine. After a bit of jiggery pockery we had our new fuel tank ready to go. After a jump start for our flat battery later we got the engine to start and we were off with our new plastic 25 liter tank mounted to the roof with bits of sting.

We hit to road knowing we had held our group up for over an hour. We were stoked to be back on the road going strong. We were checking the roof mounted fuel tank while we were driving along and noticed it was going down quite fast. After about 20 minutes we noticed the fuel gauge on the main tank hard gone right to fill position but didn't think to much of it as were going strong and needed to get to the boarder crossing. Fortunately for us we came across a random gas station 10 minutes later and pulled in to top up our other jerry cans. When we pulled into the gas station we have all but run our of gas on our roof tank. We got out of the car a saw a trail of fuel from our car all the way up the road and there was a big pool of diesel forming under the car at the back.

After a quick inspection what I had failed to realise was the return for the fuel line from the injector pump was still connected to the main tank. When the engine was running the fuel pump was designed to circulate the fuel in the tank constantly. Because we had only put one fuel line coming from the temporary tank to the engine and circuited fuel was being sent back to the main tank. Given we had almost filled up the main tank the night before the circuited fuel had filled the remainder of the tank and then was spilling out the overflow onto the road.

It was an easy fix to put in another fuel line for the injector pump the roof top tank and we were off again.We ended up getting to the boarder about lunch time but lucky for us they didn't close for an extend time and we were out of Western Sahara in 3 hours. It was quite slow going but no major drama's just lots of waiting at each check point for visa stamps etc.

On the other side of the gates we hit no mans land for about 1 km to get to the Mauritanian boarder crossing. This was an actual minefield and there are littered car bodies everywhere. It was quite amazing, cars had obviously been blown up by mines in this area as you could see the underside damage to them where they have been blown up. This was the point where we picked up our local guide to take up though the desert section of the trip. He navigated us though the mine field to the Mauritanian boarder. The boarder crossing was no more than a shack in the middle of no where. It was one of those surreal experiences. Again no major issues getting though the boarder and Mauritanian here we were. It cost 30 euros to get though so quite happy with that. Then it was a short drive to the camping area that the guide's family operated. We stayed in big tents pre-erected for us. It was good to be able to finally get to our next nights stop and sort out the problem with the fuel tank.

Next was put the car on blocks and remove the strainer gauze in the fuel tank. It was completely blocked up so we removed the gauze all together which would allow the fuel to get to the other filters which were more accessible to replace as needed. We also re-installed the suspension raising sticks to the rear springs as the next day was when the desert and sand adventure began. The night was pretty quite and we were happy to hit the sack early.

See more photos of Day 13

Posted by Aaron at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over the next two days, there was very little distance to cover heading to the Mauritanian boarder, so when people woke with the idea of going to the ocean for a swim, I decided that the extra hour sleep would be more then worth it. Corde did some sight seeing along the coast looking at some of the locals "holiday houses" on the beach. Packing up we drove into the town of Dakhla having camped just outside of it. The seaside town was quite modern, and we took to opportunity to stock up, and grab a bite to eat. Looking for something local – we joined some other teams in a road side stall of camel kebab. It is pretty tough meat, which explains why it is not more common the world over.

It was at this point, Ruth discovered she had lost her passport. First thought was to reach for my own – as better her than me flashed across my mind. But we all helped in pulling her car apart looking for it. The search was in vain, and we took her to both the local and federal police to see if one of the numerous police check points might still have the passport. Although they all had walkie talkies it seemed they had a limited range requiring a chineess whispers approach of communication. Back tracking the Aussies and girls went to where Corde & Sally had got stuck in the sand the night before, and low and behold, sitting in the sand, on the side of the road, along a 100 mile stretch of road with no real markings – there it was the passport.
Still to this day "some" believe the passport may have been accidentally hiding in one of their pockets all the time and told the "story" of it being lost in the sand to cover it up, we shall never know.

Reorganized and regrouped, dodging the amazing large amount of wild camels we headed towards the boarder. Knowing it wasn’t far and not knowing if there was anywhere to stay, the group pulled off the road and simply went inland for a few hundred meters to set up camp for the night. The group consisting of about 12 teams quick set up in a surprisingly strong wind. Using the cars for shelter, the Ozzies and Girls pulled out the tagine, and food we had bought a few days before and cranked up a fire. Soon we had the making of real local dish – – but alas Corde and I feel asleep and missed out on the feed however to Ed and Dimitri's delight turning up to the camp after midnight spending all day on repairs to their Rover they had a lovely dinner waiting for them.

See more Photos of Day 12

Posted by Aaron at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Getting up early before the rest of the now aptly named team dither, Corde and I took the opportunity to repack the car. Obviously quite a bit further south down the country and a bit off the beaten track, we were drawing a lot of attention from the locals, but it was only the kids which had the nerve to approach us and ask us for gifts and anything they could lay their hands on. The town of Tarfaya was well off the tourist
track. All the buildings were run down but it had heaps of character
about it. We were getting into the real Western Africa now.

The entire time driving through Morocco I have been looking for goats in trees, but still hadn’t seen any. Sally from Team Manatee was also eager to find them and we gave regular updates to each other in the hope finding them. Going further south, we went past a number of orchards of berry trees which the goats eat from. But I was to learn that it is only at a certain time of year – I must admit I was bitterly disappointed as it is something I really wanted to see. Something for next time.

Having distance to travel, we had a number of rest stops, rubber necked at some upturned trucks and started testing out our roof surfing abilities as we knew they would be needed in the desert.

We were driving along the ‘skeleton coast’, pulling off the road, we drove across to the edge of the land, revealing the ocean 20 meters below. The rock/dirt crumbles away in your hand leaving a handful of ancient seashells and fossils. The ocean had no difficulty eroding the soft shore, creating the 20 meter cliffs in both directions as far as we could see. As the sun started to set, other cars in our rally could see us standing on the edge, also pulling over to watch the sun set. By the time the sun was almost below the horizon about 10 cars had pulled over and were enjoying the moment. The sun set was quiet amazing and well worth the pit stop.

From here the plan was to head to the town of Dakhla to camp the night, meet everyone else in the group who hadn’t made it in time to Gibraltar and get some rest. Unknown to us as we drove away from the coast line, the girls BMW got stuck in the sand (the first car to get stuck – and writing this a couple of months later, we still haven’t got the beer they owe us for that yet).

That night about 2/3rds of the teams ended up in the same camp site. It was a pretty jovial affair and we meet the Latvians (group of 4 cars from Latvia) for the for time. They were different to say the least; all of them would have been at home in a Village people video, with their overly tight shorts and big moustaches. But they had strong liquor and some sort of strong smoked meat which hung from their boot and the cuts off a piece for anyone who got within a 10meter radius.

See more photos of Day 11

Posted by Aaron at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We got up in our respective rooms, looked at each other and knew its time to get out of here. Not sure what is going on, and not sure how people will react. We quickly pow-wow and think everyone will ignore it and assume nothing happened. We headed for the wreakers yard to be there when they open. Abdul came along which made things a bit uncomfortable but we really needed his help still to get our car sorted out. We are a day behind the group now, and the car still isn’t fixed.

The man we needed at the wreckers isn’t there yet, so sit down to eat some local vendor breakfast food. It was a sort of bean-ie soup stuff, Corde very quickly opted to go hungry and not touch it. See him swill the bowl in old water to ‘clean’ it for me before dishing some slopes into it for me. Pretty bland but filling, at least they gave me bread to eat the soup as there was no spoons, at this point I am absolutely positive this is going to make me sick. And we were doing so well on solid content.

We were able to get a replacement CV joint but had to buy the complete left side axle to get it for 1400 duhrams (100GBP). It seemed a bit steep, fair for back home but we figured things should be cheaper out here regardless that it is a hard to find part. Given all we wanted to do was get on the road we bought the complete axle set and headed back to the mechanic to get it fitted.

Unbeknown to us was that to replace the axle on our model Mercedes; the back cover of the diff needs to be taken off to remove a securing clip on the axel. Our mechanic man knew exactly what to do and go straight into it.

I was impressed by the mechanic ability to use a minimal amount of tools to do the work. He did a good job off fitting the replacement axel and we were ready to hit the road just after 12pm. His special service tools he used to get the job done did make me laugh. He was very industrious with the limited resources he had available to him.

I felt the mechanics boss took advantage of the situation to charge us twice as much for the labor to replace the part. But given it was still very cheap we paid the money and hit the road for Daklar(we later pushed on to Tarfaya) on the coast and catch up with the other teams.

We spoke about driving as long as it took to catch up to the other teams. We were talking about a shift rota of sleeping so could keep going. It took us 12 hours of solid driving to catch up, every hour at top speed. The last 2 hours were very difficult and neither of us wanted to drive as we were so tied due to lack of sleep over the last few nights. It actually started to get pretty dangerous with both of us struggling to keep our eyes open. But in the end - we made it to Tarfaya and caught up with the teams Disco Ninjas & Team Manatee in a very cheap hotel, but it was clean-ish and given how tied we both were we didn’t mind at all. Zzzzzzzzzz.

Rusty is starting to look a bit worse for wear now. The Diff is leaking due to the mechanic not sealing up the diff well enough, also we have fuel leaking from the fuel fitter, the dash is leaking oil(don’t ask!) and the wheel bearing is now wobbly due the dodgy mechanic guy. Rusty is GOLD.

More photos of Day 10

Posted by Aaron at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Corde wrote…
The night before we talked about whether we would try to attempt the Tizini-n-Test road  an off road track back through the Atlas Mountains before heading down the coast with everyone else. The decision was to set the alarm at 6am and if we were keen in the morning - set of for the challenge.

The alarm went off 6am and even though we only had 5 hours sleep we thought why not! We will never be back here again with a car to do it.

We tried to find the other cars that were keen but couldn’t find their hotel so decided to hit the road and meet them on route at Asni, (a little town 70km from Marrakesh on the way to the test).

Reading the lonely planet about the road it was described as a dangerous and hazardous road. With our car sitting so low at the back we decided that something had to be done to try and raise the rear suspension. I had the idea of wedging wood between the rear springs so had chopped up some willow tree branches a few days before to fit between the springs.

Given we were ahead of the other guys we stopped at Asni to fit our “suspension raising devices” (willow tree branches). It was also a good opportunity to check out what the ticking noise was we had heard the night before while we were driving. We couldn’t see any reason for where the noise had been coming from and given it had stopped we decided to press on over the pass once the other guys turned up.

Up’n’Atoms were the first to come along, and we followed them into the mountains at an easy pace. The new suspension raising devices were working a treat. We were no longer bottoming out at all. After about 40 minutes of driving the ticking noise started again and this time it was getting louder and louder to the point we had to pull over to investigate.

We jacked the car up and spun the left rear wheel by hand and the noise appeared to be coming from the wheel bearing. Due to the horrendous noise it was making we decided to turn around and head back to the town Asni to find a mechanic and more importantly replacement parts.

It was a real pain to have to turn around and head back but given there were thousands of our model merc on the road still in Morocco we knew we could get it sorted out. We crawled back to Asni, and found a mechanic guy that was very difficult to communicate with due to our lack of Arabic or French speaking abilities. He was trying to sell a break disc to us thinking that was the problem, maybe he just had a few spare and thought we might want one. So the next option was to head back to Marrakesh to find a proper mechanic. We were told by a guy in Asni where the mechanic workshops were in Marrakesh so headed for that area. As we drove the 70 km to get there the noise got louder and louder.

We found the mechanics area and pulled over. There were people appearing from everywhere trying to help us. A young guy Abdul who spoke ok English and was well educated started to help find a mechanic to help us out. With in 5 minutes there was guy who appeared to know what he was doing and we explained through Abdul we thought the wheel being had failed and will need a new one. The guy went straight in there pulling the bearing apart on the side of the road. We later worked out that was his workshop actually was the side of the road. It was quite scary really as buses, cars & donkeys were all racing past with his legs sticking out into the middle of the road

I was nervous that he didn’t have a replacement bearing before destroying old one but that didn’t stop him pulling it apart. My worst nightmare was he would pull it apart and then it will be 3 days to get a new bearing.

He got the bearing out and showed me and I knew straight away it was not the problem; I was so annoyed with myself for not checking it before he went to town ripping it apart. I then played with the rear outer CV joint and knew it was the reason for the noise.

By this time it was about 4:30 in the day and we needed a new/second hand CV joint and new bearing because the mechanic damaged them getting it out. Obviously I was getting a bit concerned by the situation we were getting ourselves into. Our new friend Abdul said he would walk me to a couple of parts shops in the area to try and find a new bearing set and CV joint. We were not able to find anywhere that sold new CV joints as the car is 28 years old and they had to be specially brought in. Also I was only able to get half the bearing set we needed. So we headed back to the car and got the mechanic guy to put the bearings back together so we had mobile car for the night.

I had a few issues with how the mechanic was putting the bearing back together but just hoped for the best that it would work. Our friend Abdul said he would take us out to a wreakers yard on the other side of town to try and get a second hand CV joint. We were so grateful for the assistance of Abdul as he was our savor helping us out finding the replacement parts. By the time we made it to the wreakers yard it was 6:10 and most of them were close so we weren’t able to get the part we needed. So it was an unplanned over night stay in Marrakech that neither of us wanted to do.

At this point Abdul said he would be happy for us to stay with him the night. Aaron and I look at each other smiled and thought it would be amazing to see a true Moroccan house and family so said yes. The place was amazing but the night did get very odd and worth asking one of us over a beer.

Posted by Aaron at 11:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We got away later then we hoped, all our tents had moisture in them which we wanted to evaporate before packing them away. So we just chatted and cleaned up while the day warmed up. Still only with Disco Ninjas and team Manteray so at least our group was small when making tracks.

Only a few miles away from Togra Gorge, we slid through the small narrow streets and avoiding the now normal sight of donkeys and people wondering all over the streets turning it into a dodgem adventure. Driving into the Gorge it is really impressive, share vertical cliffs a good 70-80 meters high towering very imposingly over the narrow road at the bottom of the gorge. This was the reason for going the extra distance, and like the plateaus it was worth it.

We have the great idea of cooking a traditional tagine ourselves, so we stopped and bought one from a local merchant and lamb/ingredients in the next town.

It was starting to get late , and we still had some miles to cover. So we busted a move and busted to Marrakech. Ruth driving her slightly newer BMW went like the wind, the mad woman was flying around the corners coming back down the Atlas mountains. Our poor Rusty couldnt keep up with her large weight body making the suspension slide side to side. There was a small noise from the back wheel for a while, but it soon disappeared and we are safe in the ignorant theory that Rusty will run forever!

Reaching Marrakech, we struggled to find a place to stay. Everywhere cheap was sold out and we had even more difficulty navigating the streets without street signs. To the point it actually was making us pretty grumpy. After a few laps of the outer roads, we found a cheap place to crash. It was possible the worst place I have or may ever stay in again. But we took one for the team to stay together and stayed the night. All starving for a feed, we regrouped after chasing the cockroaches and flys from our respective roofs and made for a local restaurant to order some traditional tagine. Holding fast to his rule of If I dont eat local food, I wont get sick Corde didn’t eat anything but bread. We were so wasted after the exciting few days that a couple of us were falling asleep at the table meaning it was time to go back and crash for the night.

Paranoid of bedbugs and being eaten alive by other unidentifiable critters, we stripped the bed and slept in our sleeping bags. I feel like a bit of an idiot for doing that now. But it seemed a good idea at the time.

Adding photos to this post showed how big a day it was without a lot happening, over 300 photos to sort.

More photos of Day 8

Posted by Aaron at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Day seven was a very basic day as far as not much happening. But the views and scenery of going up and over the Atlas Mountains into the high plateau completely convinced me this was the correct thing to do after my initial doubts. I am normally not one for vistas but the views were stunning. Climbing up into the snow-covered areas we came across a tribe of monkeys playing in the snow. They were the same type as the ones in Gibraltar. We tried to include them in a snowball fight but they wanted none of it. Every city we passed through had out Merc as its taxi and we started to realize just how in demand it was when we got an offer for about 2000 Euros at a stop. Its nice to be wanted but we are into for the long haul not just a quick buck.

There were a few spectacular spots, which introduced the roof sitting as the done thing. This turned into a bit of habit over the next few weeks. Topping almost 100 km/h while having two or more people hanging onto the roof may not have been the smartest thing, but it sure was fun. The down side is the roof has caved in so much it now hits my head on the inside when sitting up straight. There was a nice moment, when we pulled over into a drive bay to take in the views on a mountain climb and almost ran over a local family. Obviously mountain people, it was hard to figure out what they do up there apart from just exist. Having almost nothing we gave them some food and I think Ruth may have found some shoe laces to replace the long departed ones missing from their feet in the exchange for some photos of the kids and their very weathered faces.

We were amazed by the large number of fossil stores on the side of the road. It would be a gold mine for a collector of such things, with hundreds of fossils, rocks, crystals etc for sale. So we had a good nosey, Corde bought a souvenir and a bit of a laugh.

The French had a huge influence down the West coast of Africa, which is obvious by the fact they all speak French. But there are also old French Legionnaire Forts scattered over the place in the most random places. Some are really impressive but all are in falling apart and abandoned.

It was a really long day of driving, and as the sun set into the horizon driving visibility went to a diabolical distance. This was only capped by the fact that once the sun has gone down; the locals try to blind oncoming traffic by use of the high beam. So it only seemed fair that we join in and return the favor. We crawled into the campsite pretty late, which sits only 10-15 km from Todra Gorge. We finally put up our tent after much fluffing about, and were ecstatic to find all the pieces were there and it was big enough for the two of us.

After a long day of driving, and being tired we hit the sack to a relatively early night after a basic cook up and a few drinks..

More photos of Day 7

Posted by Aaron at 2:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ferry crossing was at 9, so naturally the convoy headed off before sun up as everyone is eager to get going. Thinking it is going to be a drive on, drive off ferry, Corde and I think we are smart by being one of the first teams to get on, so we can get off first at the other end and get through customs quickly. Wrong. Turns out you all drive on, then reverse off, meaning we were last. Sigh.

The ferry crossing is about an hour and half and gave a good chance to chat with a few of the teams we hadn’t socialized with in the hotel. While getting our passports stamped on the ferry, there was a lot of discussion about routes to take and plans. We could either take the path indicated in the book and go straight to Marrakech or head over the Atlas Mountains through a high plateau and the back over the Atlas Mountains down in to Marrakech. We chose the latter but it means losing a rest day and some sightseeing in Marrakech. Something we figure we could do at any time with the cheap flights now available from London.

The ferry lands and we go straight into customs. Just over a week ago, a team got stuck for 5 days at the boarder into Marrakech for apparently no reason, and finally getting released without comment nor reason. So when a little helper came up to help do the paper work, a small tip was given to expedite the process. So with some paper work filled out, the next stage was getting our passports stamped again. This is when Corde stuffed up the system; he went into the processing room on his own without a little helper. So returning, we sat in the car waiting for an official to now release us from customs. It didn’t happen. As all the other teams got let through we started continually asking to be released now working on the more annoying we were, the quicker they would want to get rid of us approach. It sort of worked finally, but it took about an hour longer then it should have. First annoying boarder crossing completed. Enter Morocco. Game on.

The other teams that had also decided to go over the Atlas Mountains waited for us just on the other side. It was just the three teams at this point, team Manteray, team Disco Ninjas and ourselves. With the powers of our three teams combined we became Disco Manterays on Tour. Grabbing some local Dhrams we head off into the mountains. We were straight on the motorway for a few miles on the way to Meknes, we missed our intended turn off so took the next one and ended up taking the ‘scenic’ route to the city. We started a trend of following Ruth as she spoke good French and was fearless when approaching the locals. But on this and other occasions to come, she got us lost, but that’s half the fun. As this was the first town to really drive through, it was a real eye opening treat, he flocks of people in the towns bazaar, donkeys everywhere, total organized chaos.

We got to Meknes at dusk, and head for the campsite to set up. Meknes is a beautiful town, great old walls, markets and small streets. There were no tourists, great people and a nice feeling to the city. We wandered around and took some photos.

We were able to use an old building for shelter instead of putting up our tents. Also we were still a bit nervous about our tent as we haven’t put it up yet since buying it second hand. Corde naturally was accosted by flees or mosquitoes during the night, much to the amusement of the rest of who were completely left alone. I implemented my new double bagging technique for sleeping bags. Having only the two very light summer sleeping bags my parents gave me after a trip to Egypt, I decided to take both and put one inside the other. The next morning proved it to be a total success as I wasn’t cold at all.

More photos of Day 6

Posted by Aaron at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The days are already starting to blur into one as time goes past so fast. Even the long stretches, which I thought were going to be a real bore, have been more then entertaining and glad we did it this way (driving down France and Spain) and not the overnight ferry to the south of Spain.

After treating ourselves to a small sleep in, we did some simple chores like washing our dirty clothes in the bath tab, as this may be the only chance we have for a while. We took notice to enjoy the bed as it is camping from this point onwards in Africa.

It has been a while since we have been able to pull out the ole T-shirt and jandles (flip-flop) but the weather is so nice, it is hard to resist. So grabbing a bite, we drove around the bay towards to Gibraltar leaving most of the other groups in the hotel to nurse their hangovers. Parking up just outside Gibraltar and walking across the boarder between the two countries. For those that don’t know, Gibraltar is basically a rock which is part of England.

Walking around the town, at the base of ‘the rock’, it really is part of England. Double decker buses, bobby policemen, red telephone boxes, and English accents everywhere. It is pretty amusing, but the best part is no tax. Everything is significantly cheaper then everywhere else even Spain all of 500 meters away. Walking through the town, we got to the gondola and headed to the top. From the top we took in some brilliant views of the local harbor, loads of ships waiting to dock, the township of Gibraltar and especially across the ditch AFRICA !

Funny enough, apart from its immense history, Gibraltar is known for wild monkeys, which live on the rock. These were introduced hundreds of years ago apparently from Africa, but have flourished – especially under tourism feed dinners. We found a spot on our own with about 15 monkeys and watched them for a good hour or two. It was great seeing them outside of cages going about their normal routine. They were fascinating to watch and I think we took a hundred photos, they were grooming, jumping, fighting, playing, more grooming, sun bathing, more grooming… they were the highlight so far I think. Very cool, and lots of photos/videos of it as well.

Being done with Gibraltar, we flicked our mind over to the task at hand, Africa. We got ferry tickets for tomorrow, food supplies and few personal bits and pieces. We are ready to go!

Final part of the day consisted of a free group meal in the hotel. It was simple and nice but most of important was the planning of the next few days. The plan as it stands it to cross the straight, head to Fez and stay the night. Next day cross the Atlas Mountains and drive south on the East side of the mountains before crossing back to Marrakech. Staying one night and then heading back over the mountains again through Tizi-n-Tesi before a pushing to Agadir on the coast. I agreed to all this at the time, before thinking about it and getting a little stroppy due to tiredness and a little to much sun. I was questioning why we were trying to drive so far, cross the mountains three times and what for? I am sure it will be great but I still don’t know what exactly we are going to see extra for all the effort. Still - seeing it all is the point, I am looking forward to the adventure and Corde is amped. So bring on AFRICA!

More photos of Day 5

Posted by Aaron at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Corde wrote…
Woke up in Valencia bright and early to use the internet in order to update the website of our travels. The hotel we were in was charging a fortune to use the internet so we decided to try our new 12v-240v inverter in the car and drive around Valencia to see if we could pick up any free wireless connections. It only took about 5 minutes and we had a strong connection. Photos are a bit hard to up load at the moment though so it is only wordy stuff, photos to come shortly.

Got on the road about 9am and then it was continuous drive over for 9 hours. We didn’t even turn the engine off over the whole time. I checked the oil in the morning and noticed we had used about ½ a liter the day before, so I guess the smoke coming out the back is blue in colour, but we are driving the little merc quite hard so it is to be expected. We brought 5 liters of oil at one of the gas stations along the way and I just poured in about a liter in while the engine was running.

The scenery from Valencia going south down the coastline is beautiful. Even though it was a long day, it was a very enjoyable drive. We started to see cacti on the side of the road, which was kind of cool.

We have come to the realisation that our little merc is quite hard on fuel. It may have something to do with traveling at an average speed of 140+km nearly all of the way. It rides really nice on the road and the motorways are fantastic for cruising at high speed, if only we had a Bugetti Veyron then it would be a cool trip. We have now spent 440 euros(!) on fuel to get to Tarifa. About twice my initial estimate. That’s about 13 miles to the gallon!!!

Because we were on a driving mission for the day it was just snack foods at each gas station along the way. We really struggled to find any decent food so stuck with the classic bread and packaged ham sandwiches to keep us going. The food options at the gas stations were pretty average at best.

Got to Tarifa about 6pm, driving in we saw the famous rock of Gibraltar, it looked very cool. One of the teams that we started off with had driven all through the night so were there before us. Not a bad effort on their part, they had only 3 hours sleep over 48 hours of driving.

There were a bunch of other cars there when we arrive so checked them all out. Everybody is very excited about the trip. We had dinner, pepper steak for me, which was awesome after all the crap food I have been eating all day. Then I hit the wall and headed for bed. It was quite a long day of driving but really enjoyed it.

More photos of Day 4

Posted by Aaron at 12:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Corde wrote…

Slept in to 8am, I was so tied, must have really needed the sleep in.

On road at 9:45. Team Thatll Do got further the night before (they did only have 3 hours sleep though) so we were off to Millau Bridge to catch up. It was about 250km to cover.

Road was very scenic with lots of old medieval towns on the hillsides. As we got closer it was getting quite cloudy and we were worried that by the time we got to the bridge it would be all clouded in.

We put the car to its first real test as climbed over 1000m (3000 feet). It preformed very well although does blow out quite a bit of smoke when putting the foot down. Just don’t know whether it is blue or black smoke.

We got to Millau town about lunch time and meet up with Thatll Do, had a quick French roll then headed from Bridge. It is very imposing coming up to it. I had seen quite a few photos of it and knew what to expect but it was still very impressive. We stopped at a look-out to admire the view. Fortunately for us the valley was clear of cloud so we had a good view of the bridge. We crossed over it and headed for Spain.

We crossed into Spain about 5pm and stopped for gas. We are finding the mighty Mercedes uses lots of fuel. Luckily as we are getting further south it is getting cheaper.

It this point Aaron started to have a few issues with getting the car into reverse gear. The gear box was crunching in gear each time. Also we had been noticing that there was oily liquid dripping on the drivers foot mat. I was thinking it was the clutch master cylinder that had failed. On closer inspection the liquid was engine oil coming for the oil pressure gauge on the dash. As it was only minor we are going to leaving it for the time being and see what happens. I have had a quick look at the clutch hydraulic cylinders and cant see any major issues. The gear box seems to work alright if you take it easy so we will hope for the best. A quick training session with Aaron about gear changing 101 and all is good, fingers cross.

The team Thatll Do were having issues with their electrics that was causing it to run the battery flat. They headed off ahead of us to see how far they could get before dark and would need lights.

So it was back on the road for us to see how