BREAKING NEWS...

BREAKING NEWS!!!

Laura the Tourer is home safe and sound!

We left Norfolk at 3am on 28th and arrived at the collection point in Antwerp at 2.30pm. It was fantastic to be reunited with our fellow adventurers! It was a shame it was such a short visit, but a vist none the less :)

Laura had a flat tyre!! but this was ok as we were expecting 4!! Also the tyre which was on the bent arm was badly warn and illegal for Europe and England so this was also changed. We had taken some spare wheels with us and changed these before leaving. These are the only repairs we have made so far. We then changed another wheel at Dunkirk as it had a slow puncture.

We travelled over in Dads vehicle and I drove Laura home, I had forgotten how much fun she is to drive! She runs ok, and was very grateful for some proper petrol! Laura, like me, much prefers the African heat!! she starts ok but takes a while to warm up!!
We arrived home to Dads at 3am and I continued (without Laura) back to my home.

To Belgium and back in 24 hours! all on just 5 hours sleep, then I had another 5 hours sleep before going to work on the 29th!! .... Hardcore!

Laura the Tourer has a busy time ahead of her now, so now the winner is home continue to watch this space! I will post some pics asap!

Check out this fantactic video...
Created by the lovely Joris!

We are the Champions!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X6sJym9bbY

Winners! ... collecting our 'Most Hardcore Team' Award

The Finish!

To answer the questions posted…

Sally,
1. where do you wee in the desert if there's no bushes?
Well this was a tough one! It was ok for the men but for me it was behind a sand dune, a pile of rocks or occasionally a 2cv!! It was easier in the jungle! (but had to be aware of the local wildlife!)
2. what animals have you seen?
A Monkey, Elephant, Donkeys, Cows, Goats, A Baboon, Alligators, Dogs, Cats, Lizards, Snakes, Frogs, beautiful large Butterflies, Scorpions, Stick insects, loads of bugs, Beatles etc and of course far too many horrible Mosquito’s! No Lions though I’m afraid!
3. do you have a tan?
A little, most days when arriving at camp I was pleased with how brown I was until I had a shower and washed it away! The small tan I have now is probably just the African red dust embedded in my skin!
4. are father/daughter relations all well and good?
We had our moments! (as most teams did) but are still good friends! And proud of each other! And both very proud of Laura the Tourer!

Yea I really missed a ‘proper cup of tea’ (I’ll see you Thursday Kay!)
I was very careful not to get sun burnt so no worries Jade
Brayden, the nights were actually very quiet, lots of cricket sounds but didn’t hear any wild cats!

Trevor, I look forward to the Full English at the allotment! I’ll bring the tea bags!

Phil, One team of mechanics (David and Eric) travelled in the sandy coloured 2cv, the desert duck, This is a lovely car and is 4x4! And the mechanics were superb! Really helpful and always singing and dancing!

Grandad and Jean, You may have spotted Laura B (girl guides centenary teddy bear) in some of the pictures, she travelled in between us the whole journey (and on the roof some days) She’s home safe also in condition but covered in African dust still! She also got wet in the water fight at the finish!

Apoligies there are not many pics of Dad, he seems to hide when the camera is about!
I've been reading someof my blog posts and also apoligise for the small spelling mistakes! most of the time I was fighting with my eyelids when typing the updates!

Welcomed home to rain!

We left Gatwick at about 11am and arrived at Dads at about 2.30pm, downloaded our pictures and then I arrived at my home at about 5.30pm. There were small delays on the journey home due to the RAIN! but nothing major. It is strange travelling on the right (correct) side of the road! Its lovely to be at home and be spoilt with good food, as many showers as I want and sleep(although my body clock has not adjusted yet!) The adventurous memories of Touareg Trail will remain forever for me and I am sad that its all over, I really miss all the fantastic people and am surprised that I feel so emotional about it all. We collect the car in about 1 months time and hope to be able to see some of my fellow hardcore adventurers then x

Over the next few days I will post more pictures and maybe videos so keep watching this space...

Yesterday we had final photos taken and an award ceremony, we were extreemly shocked, surprised and happy to recieve the big award for 'Most Hardcore Team!!'

have to go now, food is ready ... you know me!! Flight is 1am I believe so its going to be a long 24hours! I will add some more pics etc as soon as I can, Thanks for all of your comments, see you al soon x

Day 29
Sat 28th is a rest day and a final presentation which should be fun, and then we leave for Cotonu on 29th and fly first to Lybia and say our goodbyes to the Belgian, Dutch and French teams, L and then fly on to London, We believe to Heathrow and should land there at about 10.30am

Norfolk 2 Benin 6,070 miles and loved every single one!!

We made it!! Touareg Trail 2009, Hardcore Edition (and that it was) is complete! I feel a little sad its over but also look forward to going home (to proper food!! - and you guys of course!!)
I feel amazed and a little emotional when I cast my mind back to what feels like so long ago and remember all the challenges we have overcome, all the laughs we have had with the teams and organisation, all of the local people we have met the scenery we have seen and all of the friends we have made its going to be hard to say goodbye to everyone and really look forward to keeping in touch and trading photos and videos.

Day 28
Fri 27th
Benin
Abomey to Grand Popo
Today’s distance 137km
Mileage 71914
Sleeping Hotel
Punctures today 0 FINAL TOTAL 21!! (we think we have a slow puncture but not in need of repair, we just pumped it up and it lasted to grand Popo so not counted!) Bruno and Ales I believe suffered 30 punctures so although 21 sounds bad its not the worst!
On to Grand Popo today the final official rally day! The route was tarmac with one last piece of off road to complete. We drove o the peage (toll) where all of the cars and organisation vehicles parked in a line for photos, I cant describe atmosphere at this point, the beach of Grand Popo was just 3km away and we wore going to drive there in convoy, a celebratory drink was had by all and everyone was congratulating one another. After a short while we drove in convoy and a little further up the road we stopped as the local people had arrange some food for us and the Mayor was going to do a speech. During the convoy the passengers were on the roofs of the cars and we were all having water fights, I managed to stay quite dry however when we reached the building where the food was the water fight had only just begun and I very quickly became soaked! (I blame it on the fact I am short and an easy target!) not that I minding though as it cooled me down! After eating Gert and the Mayor said a few words and the Tourareg competitors sung the white stripes tune (seven nation army - this is Bokkerijders (3 Belgian teams we travelled with most of the time) official song I believe and like a theme tune sung throughout the whole trail!) The local ladies also sung a lovely African song and this went on until there was almost a sing off between the 2 groups, everyone was really enjoying the celebrations until the announcement was made … On to the breach! All of the cars lined up on the beach facing the sand (possibly one last opportunity to get stuck tomorrow and use the sand mats!!) we were greeted by locals with drink filled coconuts and then after a count down all ran into the sea, We were warned its really rough and the waves are strong so were careful and emerged no problems, However I decided to go in again and this time I ended up loosing my sun glasses! (prescription!) and on the way out my knees hit the sea bed (lots of shells) and I now have grazed knees also! Oh well, I was absolutely fine and its quite funny that I have not hurt myself for 4 weeks and then get my ‘war wounds’ on the final day! After we discovered the amazingly beautiful pool and swam for the rest of the afternoon and then the celebrations continued through the night. Because it’s the end and its like paradise here I slept on the beach this night which was a beautiful experience! Falling asleep to the waves! And of course waking up to them!

Day 27
Thur 26th
Togo / Benin
Kpalime to Abomey (Benin)
Today’s distance 195km
Mileage 71822
Sleeping Hotel Camp (Chez Monique)
Punctures Today we awoke to 2 Total 21
Last border crossing today to enter our final country, Benin, the end is so close now. Another beautiful scenery day and passing lots of busy little villages. Its was another short day which was great as we arrive at Chez Monique at about 2pm and had chips, we asked for fish also and received fish heads! Nice! They were ok actually but just virtually no meat on them! This Hotel / Camp was beautiful, they make and sell carved wooden objects which are absolutely amazing and beautifully made, I bought a couple of souvenirs from here and Bekke had a guy carve a copy of his 2cv, including all details like the lights etc, This took the guys absolutely hours and was fantastic to watch, the end result was superb, (however I believe it had a spelling mistake so the guy was asked to do it again?!)

Day 26
Wed 25th
Togo
Jungle Camp to Kpalime
Today’s distance 195km
Mileage 71716
Sleeping Hotel camp
Punctures today 1 Total 19
Not much to report today, a nice short day for a change, and beautiful scenery, we travelled up and down mountainous ranges today and reached max approx 963m above see level (max before was about 778 in Morocco) Our tyres are getting very worn now and we have already got rid of one and bought a new one now on the car) from the organisation, the one we got rid of begun to show the metal it was that badly worn, also it had been wearing unevenly as the rear arm is so bent, We have another spare tyre which has a split in it (from the train tracks!) And now our other spare has also begun showing metal so while driving today we spotted 1 tyre amongst a pile in a village which looked about the right size, We stopped and this was a ‘space saver’ tyre the sort cars have which are intended for temporary use only, well we only need it for a few days! we bought it and had it put on the wheel for 10,000cfa (approx 15 euros) #### At camp this evening the organisation showed some videos people had recorded and showed the movie ‘Up’ but I fell asleep half way through … surprise!

Day 25
Tue 24th
MY BIRTHDAY!
Togo
Mango to Atakpame Jungle Camp
Todays distance 459km
Sleeping Jungle bivouac!
Mileage 71771
Car - Laura was made for this trail, literally!
Punctures today 1 Total 18
So today was a good day I still had a sore throat but was cheered up no end when I opens my birthday presents from home! Thanks guys! My where’s the Stig book was extremely popular amongst the other competitors and kept as amused for hours, Thanks Az! When waiting in the breakfast queue the teams sung happy birthday to me which was a real nice way to start the day! Today was mainly off road and was great fun, Its getting so hot now and more humid. This evening we camp in the jungle! Upon arrival an area had been cleared for our car and tent and there was the whole village standing watching us as we ate our evening meal, this kind of event does not happen near then very often! After food I had a birthday drink and the famous jumpers Seppe and Luc got the local crowd to sing happy birthday to me, (followed by the birdie song!) how special!? This was certainly a birthday I will never forget, 29 in a jungle in Mango!

Day 24
Mon 23rd
Burkina Faso / Togo
Po to Mango (Togo)
Today’s distance 374km
Sleeping Bivouac at a Monastery
Car still good!
Punctures today 1 Total 17
My aim was to eat Mango in Mango but it turns out they are out of season! Shame but we pretended with some strange cucumber cross melon fruit! Entering another country, again border control was all smoothly completed. The terrain today was the worst tarmac you’ve ever seen! But fun avoiding all the mammoth potholes! We also had some fu off road tracks today
The monastery was a really nice camp. I was not feeling too well today, I had a sore throat possibly from all of the dust! So I had a good long sleep night.

Day 23
Sun 22nd
Burkina Faso
Leo to Campement de Elephant (near Po)
Today’s distance 112km
Sleeping Safari Hotel
Mileage 71065
Car running well
Punctures today 1 total 16
We travelled from camp to the safari entrance and encountered a puncture on arrival! Driving through the safari park was great fun as I spent most of it on the roof searching for wildlife with not much success, all we really saw 1 elephant, but he was superb! The camp was lovely and had a pool so I had a swim in the dark which was cool! Everyone was really dusty after today’s tracks so it was great to refresh before the next day of red dust!

Day 22
Sat 21st
Burkina Faso
Sindou to Leo
Odays distance 425km
Sleeping Camping
Car engine running better due to slightly better quality of fuel sold here!
Punctures today 0!
A beautiful track with rural landscapes today, we passed lots of sugar cane fields and tasted a piece (note to self, you are just supposed to taste and not swallow the cane!!) There is a lot of red dust which gets everywhere! not much to report today it all went pretty smoothly.

Day 21
Fri 20th
Mali / Burkina Faso
Bamako to Sindou
Todays distance 505km
Sleeping Bivouac
Car still surviving well
Punctures today 0
On to another country today, a long day but quite easy roads and tracks so good progress was made, lots of paperwork to be shown and passports stamped at border control but this all went smoothly and really pretty quick for Africa! To be fair this was thanks to Joris as he helped us through the language barriers on all of the border crossings we completed! We arrived at camp not long after dark and ate chips!!

Day 19 & 20
Wed 18th & Thur 19th
Mali
Manatali to Bamako
Today’s distance 336km
Sleeping Hotel
Mileage70394
Car no change
Punctures today 2 total 14
Onwards to Bamako, Bamako sweet home Bamako, as its described! And on to a very welcome rest day! All of the teams had told me how fun Bamako is so I was looking forward to these days for a while now. The hotel was nice and the 1st thing I done was have a shower, swim, eat and drink! The driving to Bamako was some dirt roads and some tarmac however the tarmac could be described as worse than the off road tracks! I’ve never seen so many pot holes, and so big! constantly swerving to avoid them takes a lot of concentration! There was also some good tarmac and its typical that it was on this part of the route that we experienced another puncture, we (along with the help from about 5 African girls) jacked the car up to change the wheel and I could hear a hissing sound which turned out to be the rear tyre going down too! We have inner tubes so you ma think, no problem? However a couple of days ago our pump had broken so we were stuck, Luckily it was the jump team to the rescue again! They came from behind us and stopped to help, unfortunately again they had no pump! But they had a spare wheel with a tyre on it, bad luck struck once more though as this was not pumped up! So they took their wheel to the next village and had it pumped up and delivered it back to us! Bamako is crazy! The traffic was mental, not as much as Nouakchott but still crazy, all I can say is it’s a good job we have good brakes and a working horn! As soon as ou stop or get out of the car here someone wants to sell you something! Outside the hotel was someone who seemed to take permanent residence there and introduced himself as Mr Goodprice! Nothing was a good enough price for us though! We did use the help of some of the people offering assistance, one showed us where we could get a new pump, and a oil change which was really needed as the oil we had was too thin for the heat here! We were able to get the internet at this hotel which is where I uploaded the previous posts. In the evening we went over to a bar and relaxed with a few drinks! The second day was actually when we had the oil change etc and also went to a restaurant for dinner and the organisation showed a slide show of pictures, It was amazing to see these images, its seems so long ago and it really began to sink in that the TT09 is very nearly all over! I studied the map this evening and cannot believe how far we have come, these cars are fantastic … complete respect to the 2cv!!

Day 18
Tue 17th
Mali
Chutes to Manantali
Today’s distance 146km
Sleeping camping
Car - as before
Punctures today 0
Again today’s tracks were described as technical and this was no understatement! This was however possibly the most enjoyable driving day for me as although people set off from camp in small groups we all stayed together almost the whole day and all helped one another through as the rocky accents were a real challenge for the cars (proper hardcore obstacles!) but is was a good laugh to watch each car tackle obstacle after obstacle! Nothing broke on the car today which is good. After the technical bit was some dirt road and the we had to cross a river, it as about 7-8pm by this time and getting a boat across is slow and costs so we had to take the bridge which happened to be a rail bridge! More train tracks! I’ve seen enough! These tracks were high which meant we scrapped the bottom of the car on the tracks the full length of the bridge! I think there must have been sparks flying from behind! No damage caused from this though!

Day 17
Mon 16th
Sleeping Free Bivouac to Chutes
Mileage 69925
Punctures today 2 Total 12
After eating breakfast (the bread the boys bought us) we discovered we had 2 … yes 2 punctures! While I was repairing the tubes I was assisted by 3-4 very helpful, younger boys who were extremely keen to help as much as they could and it was great to work with them, once the cars were running again we gave some gifts and set off for day 2 to reach the waterfalls at Chutes. The journey to the falls was quite a difficult one as we all found ourselves getting stuck un the sand! On arrival at customs there was some dispute negotiating the amount of money we would have to pay which resulted in a severe delay. We still had about 60km to drive (off road) to reach the waterfalls and we left Kayes at about 7pm. The track to the falls was described as technical and even more so in the dark! Unfortunately we hit a hole pretty hard and then heard a knocking sound from the rear of the car, on inspection we discovered that we had badly broken the rear arm (drivers side -we still had a bent arm on the other side also!) The break was so bad we did not think it wise to drive further on it. The 2 cars we were travelling with continued on so we called to make the organisation aware and set up camp on the side of the track We were right beside a small village who offered us to sleep there but we stayed with the car, they provided us with water to wash with and were very kind. 5 other 2cv’s passed and helped us to raise the car then continued on, then at 2am the jump team (Wouter & Gavin) arrived with a replacement arm! (what stars!) They then camped nearby also (and hit a tree on their way to us! Oops!) At 7am Dad and I began to replace the rear arm and we left for the waterfalls at about 8.10am … good going hey!? We arrived at the falls at about 10am and everyone seemed surprised to see us so soon! We set our priorities and almost immediately relaxed in the beautiful waterfalls, we washed ourselves and our clothes and some people tried to catch some fish. We had hot dogs … umm … and were nicely relaxed and ready to leave at 2pm to go to Manatali.

Day 16
Sun 15th
Mauritania / Mali
Kiffa to Chutes de Gouina
Today’s distance 146km
Sleeping free bivouac
Car as before, still pinking also
Punctures today 3 total 10
So the trek today takes us 2 day (a good start was waking up to a punctures before we had started the day!) the route is entirely off road. One of the cars we were travelling with today (otto brothers) had to replace their suspension can so our start was delayed by about 2 hours (which was not a bad thing as I got to write some of this!) Once we set off we made good progress despite a future 2 punctures! The terrain and surroundings have changed again just from the latter part of day . There’s more vegetation, yellow grass is everywhere and the people are also changing their clothes are becoming more colourful. We leave Mauritania today and enter Mali, Together we camped and all 3 cars worked together to build a fire and cook a meal. Some local boys (aged 14 -15) were attracted and came and sat near us (and kept the camp fire going for us) The Belgian teams communicated with the boys and agreed that they were to keep an eye on us and ensure we were safe all night (and that they would not steal) then in the morning we would give them some tuna and water, they were very happy with this offer. After our meal we had some melon and gave the boys half it was a good day for them! We also gave them some money for them to buy us some bread from their village which, as promised, they bought to us for breakfast, after eating we discovered we had 2 … yes 2 punctures!

Day 15
Sat 14th
Mauritania
Nouakchott to Kiffa
Today’s distance 612km
Sleeping Bivouac
Mileage 69843
Car As before with broken arm also
Punctures today 1 total 7
Yesterday was Friday 13th however it was today for us, we made an early start and just 60 -70km down the road the car lost power, the mechanics quickly caught up with us and we altered the 123 ignition and set off on the road again, the car had been ‘pinking’ (tapping sound from the engine) which it turns out was due to the rubbish quality of fuel, (all of the cars were suffering from this) adjusting the ignition did not completely stop the noise but it did help. Not much further up the road the same thing happened again, this time the mechanics altered the valve clearance and informed us that our oil is too thin. After this stop and loosing literally hours we began moving again. Another Belgian team (Ward and Kurt) travelled with us the rest of today (what patience!) The car was still not running right and began sounding more and more like a tractor but is still running! Because of the technical delays we drove the last part (tarmac) in the dark. This was an adventure in itself! Its turns out this part of Africa is home to suicidal donkeys, cows, camels, goats and sometimes the odd person, who decide to cross the road just as a 2cv approaches. It was a long but very funny afternoon and evening! There are loads of signs of where some of these animals have not been so lucky and their remains lay beside the road, I was really surprised to see so many casualties. We were drawn by singing and visited a school in this area and the teachers were very welcoming and showed us around all the classes this was so lovely we gave them gifts in return.

Day 14
Fri 13th
Mauritania
Atar to Nouakchott
Today’s distance 486km
Sleeping Campsite
Mileage 69477
Car Managing well! bent rear arm and still no fuel gauge
Punctures today 1 Total 6
Another day of tarmac today and would you believe we got another puncture! Other than this the day went well. When we arrived at the capital Nouakchott it was dark and really busy on the roads. They say London’s traffic is bad, that’s nothing compared to Africa! It was a free for all and you really have to push your way in to get anywhere. There was a man in a fluorescent jacket who its assumed was a traffic warden but this was debatable! The cars in Mauritania are not dissimilar to what we would see in a scrap yard, they drive with no lights as they are smashed, bucked wheels and dents all over, in fact the only thing that seemed to work on ever car was their horns! Everyone beeps at everyone, often it seems for no reason? We had to quickly adapt in order to get anywhere! It was crazy but extremely good fun!

ok ... so that should keep you going for a little while, I'm forever grateful to my fellow competitors for updating their blogs as i know many of you have been following thiers too and i will thank them for this (thanks nik)
its hard to get time to do much other than drive, navigate, eat and sleep (plus remembering to take pics - which is hars as we are moving most of the time) and then when it comes to writing the blog i cannot think what else you would all like to know so feel free to add suggestions, let me know if you wanna know anything!
I still have to update you from 13th to today and wil do this asap, Apperently the tracks get a little easier from now... we will see!! this is the hardcore edition after all!!

thanks for your comments guys see you all real soon, missing you all loads but missing a good ole English fry up more!!!!

x

Day 13
Thur 12th
Remainder of the 566km to take us to Atar
Sleeping Campsite
Mileage 69158
Car - In need of repair! - Bent rear arm, no fuel gage (nether a real problem) broken starter motor - loss of power when lights are turned on!
So we paced up camp as soon as it was light and set off for another long day, the sand was softer today. We began running low on fuel supplies as did all of the teams so we arranged (through the organisation) to buy some off the black market (a little more expensive but we had to get out of the desert, day 1 was ok but we had enough by day 2 - this really was hardcore!) we gave 2 of our jerry cans to a local in his 4x4 and hoped he would return! Which he did! Unfortunately the English and Dutch teams we were travelling with went ahead so we were ‘adopted’ by 3 Belgian teams (who we had travelled with a couple of times before) (Bekke and Koen, Joris and Kristof and Peter and Tanya) They are a great group and although the day was hard they all kept in good spirit! We had a good laugh and worked together to get all 4 cars through. We began having problems starting the car fo from about 2pm til we arrived at camp at about 8pm we could not turn the engine off! Because the light was fast fading a local (who got the fuel in his 4x4)) offered to lead us through a ‘short cut’ so we could make up some time and although the Sahara was a great experience none of us were sad to leave the desert behind! In addition to not being able to start the engine with out a push we discovered that if we turned the light on we would loose some power to the engine. So the last part of our off road journey today was completed by driving between the Belgian cars using their light and holding a torch out of the window! … the Sahara adventure truly did not stop til we reached camp!! It was a lovely camp site this evening owned by a Dutch man who was really welcoming, we had dinner (sheep) which we ate at a table with proper plates and knifes and forks! (ahh the little things!) Then we worked on the car. The problem , we revealed, was the starter motor, which after stripping down and cleaning the bushes we had it working again and had solved the problem. I also repaired our many punctured inner tubes this evening! So we were ready to fight another day!

Day 12
Wed 11th
Mauritania
Nouadhibou to Atar
Total Distance 566km
Todays Distance approx 330km
Sleeping Tent Somewhere next to a train track in the middle of the Sahara!
Car
Punctures - 5 (over 2 days) Total - 6
Today and tomorrow we travel across the Sahara desert. For safety we travel in groups of 3 cars and the Trucks with spares and catering will not be able to follow us due to the terrain, so last night we were each given some food and instructions on how to bake bread and set of for 2 days of hardcore adventure! And that’s certainly what we got!
So it starts with 100k of tarmac and then onto sand! The plan was to not stop until we reached 300k, we made great progress and covered about 360k I think and the other English team, Eleanor and Richard collected wood on the way (its hard to find dead wood in the desert!) It was funny to see a tree on top of their 2cv! Later in te afternoon it got tougher and it got hotter! We all began getting stuck ad the sand got softer in the heat. We travelled, for the biggest part, on the train track which was hell for the tyres but less getting stuck (lesser of 2 evils!?) We were driving with one wheel inside the track (the 2cv actually fits perfectly jus inside the tracks but is even worse for the tyres!) Luckily the trains do not pass often but we still all kept alert both ways! Whenever we got a puncture or 5! We were on and could not get off so it was a real rush each time to change the tyre (inner tube) keeping one eye open for the train. If it were to come it would probably of been goodbye to Laura! Thank goodness luck was on our side! In that respect anyway!
Big Thanks to Autotest and Bosch for the inner tubes we thought of you lots over these 2 days! When the light was lost we got away from the tracks and set camp, as were ere setting camp the train passed … wow what a train, this has GOT to be the longest freight train in the world! And because theres literally nothing in the desert (except 20 2cv’s!) you could hear it for miles before and after it passes and then complete and utter silence again! We baked our bread in the sand and ate it in the morning, it was … sandy! And a bit hard but fun to do!

Day 11
Tue 10th
Morocco / Mauritania
Dakhla to Nouadhibou
Todays Distance 380km
Sleeping - ABBA Camping site
Mileage 68804
Car - Good - Bent rear arm
Punctures today - 0!
Today we cross the boarder from Morocco to Mauritania. The boarder crossing went very smoothly as Brigitte and a couple of others from the organisation arrived hours before the 2cvs and worked their charm to ensure all was ok for or arrival. Crossing from the Moroccan to Maritanian boarder there is about 5k of no-mans land. I have seen pictures of this on TV etc, theres a track through and we were advised to always stick to the track as there are land mines! The blown up cars on the sides of the track highlight this also! Needless to say we were very cautious and made it through with no problems. When leaving the Mauritanian boarder you can notice an immediate change, Morocco is not particularly clean but Mauritania is really dirty, there is rubbish everywhere (mainly plastic) and it really smells, Its defiantly a noticeably poorer country. However the people are all really ‘smiley!’ (I think they like the cars!) Some people warned us that they were not the nicest of people but everyone we met here was lovely (perhaps we were just lucky) We arrived in Nouadhibou at about 2pm and went into the town to get some fruit and a wrist watch for Dad, I asked a local lady (in my ‘bestest Mauritanian’ accent … un watchy?!) and she took my had and lead me through various market streets , 1st to a man repairing watches and then onto someone selling watches … success! All the way she was chewing on a stick, laughing and saying, Deux Chevaux (2cv) English! She was really funny! Dad meanwhile was desperately following us through these streets in the car!
After shopping we returned to camp and removed part of the roll cage as it was agreed by ourselves and the mechanics that this was not needed and therefore unnecessary weight, so our it came, Don’t worry though we are still sufficiently protected if we were to roll over … which we wont!!