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Day 19 : Tuesday 29th January 2008 : Banjul
Day 17 : Sunday 27th January 2008 : Handing Over Bert... A lot of formal ‘thank yous’ and then Bert was finally handed over... then had him promptly handed back as he’s our only means of transport back to Banjul. Something of a surprise and a fun journey back with Bert full of people who wanted a lift to the city – at least we were with him on his first day of work! All went well until we arrived at the ferry and during the chaotic pushing and shoving Bert got picked on by a Mitsubishi Shogun that ran down the side of him. Bert’s bull bars stood up well to the challenger who came off rather damaged and very, very angry! A lot of shouting and ‘handbags’, plus us not understanding Mandinka, they drove off – all very strange! It’s going to be strange tomorrow without Bert so we’ll spend the day being just tourists. Flying home on the 29th so keep watching for the final update. Day 16 : Saturday 26th January 2008 : Kudang, Gambia Arrived at the clinic near Kudang where I donated Meg on the last trip to the Gambia, and spent the night at the Chimp Camp. To say it is an amazing place is an understatement – a scene straight from ‘Out Of Africa’, truly magical! After an early night we left early watching the sun rising over the River Gambia and listening to the sounds coming from the island as the chimps began to stir. Two hours later, after the world’s worst roads, we arrived at the hospital in Bansang to be met surprisingly by around 30 people all clapping and cheering. After some embarrassment (thinking we had arrived in the middle of some other celebration) it finally dawned that this was for us, which led to even more embarrassment followed by, ‘hey, this is pretty cool’! An amazing day and am now sat on Bert’s bonnet after a day of remarkable scenes, much hand shaking and meeting some incredible people. Mike ran a great session with the staff whilst I sorted Bert for the big hand-over tomorrow. Hmm, I don’t think it will be easy to let him go so had better practise passing over the keys... Day 15 : Friday 25th January 2008 : River Gambia Crossing A 05:30 start to get the ferry across the River Gambia. It was great waiting for the ferry with at least 10 children hanging around requesting pens, bottles, my T-shirt, hopefully the ferry will come soon. When we got the ball out for a throw around it was amazing to see the children went crazy, it was pretty cool! I don’t recall a tougher game ever! Got on the ferry and handed over our ticket; a few minutes later we were asked for our ticket again and, not being able to produce one, found our explanations falling on deaf ears and were unceremoniously thrown off the ferry. Back on the ferry the chap with our ticket reappeared (oh, how we thanked him!) and after a short delay were able to get on a later ferry. The road on the South side is non-existent so crossing to the North will hopefully make for a better journey. Hoping to make it to the village where I donated Meg on the last trip – can’t wait to see her.
Day 14 : Thursday 24th January 2008 : Gambia Today is a rest day. Well, when I say that I mean we won’t be driving at least but we will be all over Bert checking and tightening before we leave early tomorrow to head to meet his new employers - the Bansang Hospital. Day 13 : Wednesday 23rd January 2008 : Senegal / Gambia Border Great news! The lads have gone 24 hours without a breakdown so we all decided to mark the occasion by giving the Discovery a new name: ladies and gentlemen, may we present ‘Team Wonder Bra’ – providing all the reliable support you could ever wish for! Back to the task in hand, we are heading South through Senegal and hoping to arrive tonight in the small town of Toubakouta, just North of the border with Gambia, and will aim to cross over early tomorrow. Today will also be spent playing a game we have called ‘Just How Much Money Can You Lose in Fines?’ Bert is doing an awesome job and spirits are high. This is such an incredible experience and, it goes without saying, somewhat very different from our comfortable lives back home... Day 12 : Tuesday 22nd January 2008 : Senegal Made it through the border with 20 minutes to spare and finally arrived at our overnight destination at 4am. Very pleased it all went so smoothly, if you can forget about spending 100 Euros for this and 50 Euros for that. We now have a phrase for it: IJA or “It’s Just Africa”! This phrase came in very handy when we left the border and were stopped by the police and fined 30 Euros for having roof lights but not using them, and then stopped again a mile later for not switching off an indicator, another 50 Euros for the policeman or a trip to the police station – an expensive night! Today we’re playing at being tourists on a boat en-route to St Louis – things are looking up... Day 11, part 2 : Monday 21st January 2008 : Nouakchott to Senegal Border We seem to taking one step forward, quickly followed by one step back. Made good progress and headed for the border with Senegal. Arrived at the last checkpoint before the border crossing only to discover one of our team had left their passport 200km behind in Nouackchott. However, this being Africa, someone knows someone who is willing to bring it to us, so for the last 4 hours we have been waiting for them at the checkpoint. Still hopeful of getting through the border before the visas expire.
Day 11 : Monday 21st January 2008 : Nouakchott Yesterday was a long day and we arrived here after midnight, but driving Bert through the desert was fantastic! We are all making the best progress possible through a desert sand storm – Discovery included – but we must be at the border with Senegal by midnight before the boys’ visas run out...
Day 10 : Sunday 20th January 2008 : Nouadhhibou This is going to get crazy! To continue the saga of the Discovery, we finally got through the border and made it to Nouadhhibou. On arrival, Bert must have thought he was back serving with the UN having stones thrown at him (think it’s just the local way of welcoming him!). Found a mechanic to fix the Discovery but broke down again just 5km down the road. We could have abandoned it there but, seeing this as a personal challenge, decided to head back to ‘Dodge City’ where we put the Discovery on the back of a huge hired truck and headed off for Nouakchott! The clock is ticking for the boys as their visas run out on Monday – if they don’t get out, they live here forever!
Day 9 : Saturday 19th January 2008 : The Sahara Camped last night in the Sahara – awesome! The morning didn’t start well when the stereo broke – little did we know it was going to get much worse. With around 100km to go before we reach Nouadhibou our support vehicle has broken down - their water pump seems to have expired – and we had to make a choice of abandon the Discovery or give them a tow, so for the last 180km we have been giving them a tow through the Sahara. Progress was slow and we still had the minefield to navigate. We made it to the border and went through the formalities of handing over ‘gifts’ to grant us passage, then into no-man’s land and the mines. No roads, just sand tracks and the thought that two vehicles were blown up here just last month... and one of those was a Discovery! Lurching through a sand dune, the tow rope snapped and, I will admit, we did consider abandoning the Discovery. Decided to do the decent thing and towed it through before night fall and, hopefully, Nouadhhibou. Day 8 : Saturday 19th January 2008 : The Sahara We're currently stuck in the Sahara, with around 100km to go before we reach Nouadhibou. Our support vehicle has broken down - their water pump seems to have expired - so for the last 180km we having been giving them a tow through the Sahara. Progress is slow and we still have the minefield to navigate. Hopefully we'll be arriving in Mauritania tomorrow. Day 8, part 2 : Saturday 19th January 2008 : Laayoune to The Sahara Left the town of Laayoune this morning. We arrived there well after dark last night which, I can appreciate may not sound all that significant, but to drive on these roads in the dark is an adventure in its own right. The roads go from 20ft down to just 8ft wide without any warning, with just sand on either side – add to this the cars with no lights and the very large lorries and believe me it’s an adventure! Currently on the Skeleton Coast heading towards Dakhla with the most amazing landscape – truly unbelievable! The weather is getting hotter but we’re refrained from wearing our shorts and scaring the locals. Bert is performing really well and looks up for the jobs that lay ahead.
Day 7 : Thursday 17th January 2008 : Marrakech to Tiznit  Much to our relief, all went well with our French speaking mechanic: not entirely certain, but we’re sure he was wanting to introduce us to his daughter... All is well with Bert – just has a slight leak from the transfer box, which shouldn’t be a problem as long as more stays in than pours out!
On leaving Marrakech we headed West to the coast and Agadir, and then South to Tiznit where we camped on the beautiful beach with huge waves rolling in from the Atlantic.
Tomorrow will be a big drive down to Laayoune and at some point during the day we will lose phone signal. Before we sign off, just would like to say a big thank you to all who have been sending messages of encouragement to us and the Support Team – greatly appreciated! Day 6 : Wednesday 16th January 2008 : Marrakech Currently in a garage in Marrakech having a sli  ght oil leek attended to. We left the garage with the mechanic driving Bert (not sure exactly why he insisted on driving, but there you go) and were taken to what can only be described as a scrap yard.I’m wondering if there is something my French speaking friend is not telling us...
Here's a thought: you never see Zorro and Michael in the same place at the same time... Day 5 : Tuesday 15th January 2008 : Rabat to Marrakech Left Rabat early this morning and are making excellent progress. At 12:00 GMT we are passing Casablanca and our aim is to make Marrakech later this afternoon. On arrival we’ve planned to head into the souk and find a hammam to relax and freshen up. Basically, a hammam is just a huge communal sauna and steam room, however the main difference being that in the ones here in Morocco you get beaten up and slapped around by a little guy in Y-fronts... Current mileage total is 3265km since we departed on Friday. Day 4 : Monday 14th January, 12:00 GMT: Morocco Border After managing to find a boat for the short crossing from Gibraltar we find ourselves at the border for Morocco. There is only one word to describe the scene: chaos! It is just absolute chaos!  I’ve done the decent thing as you would expect in this situation and left Michael to sort it all out. I don’t feel that I was contributing much and it is actually quite amusing watching him fend off the so-called ‘fixers’ demanding money for just about anything (borrowing a pen has already cost us 5 Euros).
Michael is currently attempting to buy car insurance – like that’s going to be worth anything... Day 3 : Sunday 13th January 2008 : Burgos to Gibraltar Another long day of driving but we’ve decided to push on through Spain to Gibraltar. It’s been fantastic driving through the Spanish scenery today and, despite the snow and ice, we even had time to throw the rugby ball around for half an hour! Made it to Gibraltar around 8:00 this evening and made provisions for an early start tomorrow as we need to find a boat to take us to Morocco and North Africa. Day 2 : Saturday 12th January 2008 : Caen, France to Burgos, Spain After the events of Day 1, today has gone very well indeed. Bert has cruised through France at the end of a very long day saw us end up just North West of Burgos, Spain. Spent the night camping rough and surrounded by lorries – a very cold night with a very early wake up courtesy of the French Police who wanted to check if we were asylum seekers! Weather is very cold but Bert is performing well. Day 1 – Part II : Friday 11th January 2008 : Kendal to Portsmouth Oh dear, spoke too soon... Day 1 didn't go quite to plan thanks to an unfortunate incident with the cam belt! We genuinely thought that all was lost until good old Kentdale Land Rover found us the most fantastic garage in Stafford. Ashley from ashley4x4.com came out, towed us to the garage where Bert was set upon by four incredible blokes who got us back under way in less than two hours. Unbelievable!!! Our thanks to Ashley and the guys - well worth having their number! Raced to Portsmouth for the ferry and were able to relax with a very welcome single malt.
Day 1 : Friday 11th January 2008 : Millness, Kendal
Bert is looking brilliant and the guys at Kentdale Land Rover have done a superb job. It’s a typical January day: cold, grey and damp, and a total contrast from what lies ahead. Keep coming back for regular updates and the latest from Challenge Gambia 2008. Bert and Crew depart Millness |
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