Thank You

I think it goes without saying that Mark, Sue, myself and the Sabre Charitable Trust say a huge thank you to all of you that supported the trip! Whether you were one of the 33 people who donated online or the many others that gave something away from the web page, we simply cannot believe the amount of money that Mark and Sue eventually raised. £3,750.56 with Gift Aid! Obviously the charity is always needing contributions, so for those of you who followed our travels please do donate that last Christmas gift.

But there comes a time in every blog writers career, when he must step aside and let the people that actually completed the trip say a few words:

 Sue:

What a life changing experience. 

To be able to travel through eight countries and just have a glimpse of their cultures was extremely exciting and a privilege. 

I was worried about sitting in a car all day, but did manage to wrench the steering wheel out of Mark's hand for a day( but he was feeling under the weather, so i got away with crunching the gears while trying to miss the gigantic pot holes.)

Meeting those who work with the charity and mingling with the children while having a tour of the schools was very interesting and has certainly planted a seed for future partnerships of some sort, although advice was sought regarding the cooler time of year to visit.  

our welcoming party from the local children

Finally for all of those considering working in some way with charities- go for it, everyone gains for the experience.

The finish line with Elmina Fort behind

A couple of pictures showing the common style of school premises

and then the newly designed school paying attention to a

conducive learning environment for the children

Photos!

Here are the long anticipated photographs. As and when I next catch up with the duo, I will get them to let me know where each photo was taken, or at least to the best of their knowledge!

Anyway here we go:

This really is only a taster of just some of the hundreds of pictures that Mark and Sue took, even if the sand did manage to get to the camera in the end!

Tomorrow Mark and Sue will be writing a quick something on the blog and attaching a couple more pictures....Stay tuned!

Home Sweet Home...

Well after what I'm sure feels like their longest ever car ride, coupled with the feeling that they have just completed an amazing adventure, Mark and Sue have arrived safely back at home!

They are both exhausted and requested some certain things on their arrival back home, to make it feel even more homely, one of these being good, old fashioned, Tea!

Tomorrow there will be another update with some photographs from their trip to give you a taster of what it was like for them. Very soon after this, Mark and Sue will be writing their own little update to give you a first person view of their fantastic trip!

Sue the Navigator..or Driver..?

I've had an update via txt giving me some more information.


They have been taking some much needed relaxation in a nice air conditioned hotel in Ghana, which must be a real pleasure given the heat they are currently enduring. Mark has not been very well so Sue has been doing some on and off road driving.
The car has been struggling somewhat and Mark had managed it across the corrugated sands in first and second gear. To say that the Delage looks a sorry state would be an understatement, made worse by the huge amounts of dust and the make-shift hood to keep the heat off. - made from 2 umbrellas, some rope and a piece of tarp! When you consider that the temperature forecast for the UK averages at a few degrees below 0, they have been enduring around 40 degree Celsius temperatures.


I'm afraid I'm not 100% sure where about's these photos are from but none-the-less they are a couple of nice pictures:

An example of the view on the way to Timbuktou

Timbucktou

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I have been waiting for the remaining photos to come through so that I can complete a 'Delage2Africa bumper edition' update!

Timbucktou is now out of the way and has been described as being rather a run down place but certainly somwhere a traveller should go.

Having said that the barber was drunk,
Mark doesn't look his best either!

Mark and Sue have visited a couple of mosques and the famous library, it was the first place that had a university. Whilst in Timbucktou Mark also decided that his luscious locks needed a trim and what better place to get it cut than where the ex-French president Metreon (please forgive me if this is misspelt) had his cut! The fact that the Toureg barber was drunk when he cut Mark's may have made for a slightly different cut this time around!

They travelled there by 4x4 as our cars would not have made it in the time that we had to fit in Timbuckto. The vehicle they used was a Toyota Landcruiser, a car that has proved itself on many occasions with different rallies such as this one. Even so, by the end of the trip with the 7 people in the car and the really unbelievable roads meant the car, which was knackered to begin with was definatley minus its suspension and dampers and the ride back was terrible. 

They have now joined up with everyone else and are ready to do their next stint into Burkina- Faso, with yet again an early start!

Everything where they are is covered with a layer of red sand and Mark is at this moment doing a service on the car in prep for tomorrows long mileage.

They will be back out camping in the dessert, which is basic, as they have to be self sufficient, but, I have been told it is actually prefereable to some of the hotels they have stayed in as they are generally dirty, and at least in the dessert you create your own sleeping areas and personal toilet although open to the elements!

There will be another update coming very, very soon indeed so stay tuned in!

Mali

I haven't heard much for a few days but I did receive an email from the two of them stating that they are both fine and have safely entered into Mali. Apparently the boarding crossing went very smoothly and took little time, especially compared to the other crossings.

It was very important for them to reach Bamako as soon as they could due to the security issues in the country so they had a 'bush camp' for one of the nights en-route.

I don't know if this is the hotel, but it was the best
my internet research could do

On arriving in Bamako they stayed for a couple of days at The Sleeping Camel-Matts Hotel where they seemed to be having a very pleasant stay indeed, in fact it even gave Sue a chance to have her washing cleaned by the hotel, which must make a big change to how they have had to be doing their washing previous to this.


Mail is apparently far greener than the previous countries they have passed through in Africa. They have also met up with some additional members of the group who will compete the rest of the trip with them.
They suffered their first puncture too, only the second one in the group I must add, (so if there's a competition running...) which is hardly surprising considering the state of all the roads. Mark has had a chance to service the car since their email and also to lend a hand to Johnny who has clutch problems with his Lea-Francis.


I've been told there are some pictures on their way to me to upload, but I won't get those until Sue can find phone signal once more. Until then, that's all for now.

Senegal

Mark and Sue have now passed out of Mauritania and entered into Senegal, which to help you all work out roughly where about in Africa they are is illustrated to the left. 


They have been in Dakar gaining their carnet's as they were unable to do this during their 6 hour boarder crossing, a crossing time that is becoming more and more familiar! 


The whole group was completely shattered after their boarder crossing, carnet gathering affair and the leader (who's name I forget, but I shall find out) insisted to the Sabre Trust that the group had a hotel for the night, something that the trust sorted out.


During my very brief phone call, when I asked Sue what Senegal was like, she said "hot"...hmmm... it's no wonder I was asked to write this!


What has become more and more obvious to me is quite how far they have travelled already yet how far they still have to go! I asked Mark if he was okay and he said that they were both completely fine he just fancied a cup of tea, bit of telly and an early night! Apparently it's simply the early mornings and long days that's starting to get to them.


That's all for now!

Too much for the car, but perhaps that was a good thing

I have received another update from Sue courtesy of a text message, which was actually around 5 text's long this time.


Our duo left Zagora for an off road section with their brand new repaired clutch. However, shortly into it they decided to abandon the section and turned around with another traveller (johnny) and his Lea Francis to go the long way round via the road. Mark and Sue were very disappointed to have to turn around as the reason they did the trip was for the roads like this one, but it was simply too rough on the car.


The others continued on the 20 mile section and met up all together the following day. When Mark and Sue saw some of the damage picked up by the other cars they were fairly glad they had decided to turn around! The other Lea Francis had lost most of its exhaust manifold nuts and a spot light. The Jeeps rear axle came adrift and pulled out the prop shaft. The Chrysler damaged its rear damper mounts and even the support truck had to remove its rear crash bar due to the roughness of the road!


Apparently despite these set backs the other travellers enjoyed their route as they were helped out by local nomads with repairs and fresh morning bread!


They are now all back together and have spent a few nights camped out in the desert whilst continuing to travel south through Morocco. It has been quite windy at night and due to Mark and Sue luxurious size of tent they have had to be tying the tend to the car most nights.


They also managed to give some gear to the support truck and this has helped the performance (although performance is a strong word) of the Delage. 


To give all the fascinated readers an idea of a typical day in the desert it usually goes something like this:
Breakfast at 06.30 and at 07.00 they rush to pack up the car in time to leave. They then drive with a few comfort stops along the way until around 18.00 when they find their camping spot for the night then in the tent and asleep by 21.00 absolutely knackered! 


Last I heard from them they had just entered Mauritania from Morocco, it had only taken them 6 hours to cross the boarder, and as Sue will find out shortly, in these parts of the world, thats not too bad a time! Apparently it is now overcast in Mauritania which is a nice relief from the constant heat of the desert.


That's all for now folks!

Perhaps phone signal is getting worse...

...Either that or they don't really want to speak to me any more!

What Mark might look like if he rode a camel

I got my update through via text message today and it simply read:

"Things are ok.
We are currently crossing western Sahara."

So from this I have concluded that the three of them are fine, the car included and that they are currently crossing the largest desert in the world.

If they see these, they're lost...

Well this isn't strictly true, Antarctica is actually the biggest desert in the world, due to the extremely low levels of precipitation that occurs there, except I don't think they'll be seeing many penguins...but I digress.

I will try and give our duo a ring later and hopefully get a more detailed update.

That's all for now.

Leaving Zagora...Easier said than done...

Their first call of duty for the day was to go for a Photoshoot (like the Celebs they are) at a local garage that helped one of the other cars (a Chrysler) drain out the diesel that was accidentally put into their tanks.


As Mark & Sue went to pull away they heard a 'clunk' and lost all drive from the Delage. Mark being undetterred by this noticed a garge very close by and I assume, push the car over to the garage. The place was run by locals and also had a garage pit, enabling Mark to get under the car and try to work out what was wrong.
He then took out the car floor:

Mark seems happier than ever working on the car (notice the floor missing)

He then also took off the dynamo hooked up to the prop-shaft and then removed the prop-shaft. He then took the gearbox off to find that the clutch plates rivets had sheared off. Mark has managed to get a replacement for the rivets, as the garage was well equipped:

A well organised garage that even Mark would be proud of.

The car is fine now and they did get on their way, courtesy of Mark's knowledge and the accommodating local garage.

Some photos...

To help keep you all up to speed, here are some of the photos so far.


It took me a while to work out what this was exactly a photo of other than a lorry. Then I noticed the British plates...As you may recall, I mentioned that the support vehicle (a Land Rover) had broken down somewhere in Europe and that they were trying to replace it..well here it is! Apparently it's a 30 seater Mercedes Overlander. Well that's what Sue's been calling it anyway!

They've upgraded in size a bit...

The next two show how baron the landscape is. It also suggests a hint of some of the views.

Still a hint of tarmac left

Looks more like a scene from Mars

That's all for now...as I hear more I'll keep you up-to-date.

It's all relative

All photos will follow up on Monday, when I can get the pictures that have been text to me off my phone!


I can now confirm that Mark & Sue left for Marakesch on the 26th and were the first in the convoy to leave, due to them being the slowest car and not wanting to hold anyone up!
They were however, stopped by the police twice on their route. This was not for any offences and I am told that really the police just wanted to have a look at the car!
The traffic, as you may expect, is somewhat different to that of the UK, being made up mainly of donkey carts, mopeds and lorries and they also seem to have little organisation to the traffic flow.
Mark and Sue had a good (although I'm not sure what 'good' is as it's all relative) hotel in the centre of Marakesch. Mark said that it is very reminiscent of Glastonbury, with all the local music, markets and food.
Apparently there are a lot of mosques and gardens which are an oasis of tranquility compared to the bustle and mania of the street markets.


The two of them left Marakesch on the 28th and apparently followed Annabel, who is an ace navigator (although again this is all relative), to help them navigate out of the busy streets.
They should have arrived in Ouarzarzate today (30th). They navigated some fantastic mountain roads with some unbelievable views to get there. Some of the roads are now beginning to get quite bumpy and gravel is now the constant road surface. You will be pleased to know that the car is running well, the fuel pump is getting hot and so Mark has swtiched to the spare pump at the rear of the car, away from the engine heat.
The Delage has had its work cut out at the higher altitudes (7301 feet) as the air thins out, the engine has become a bit 'woolly' but this is expected.


Mark and Sue have now had an authentic Tangine for lunch so hopefully they will have become accustomed to the likelihood of illness during holidays to these areas of the world. They have also had a tour of a local Kasbar, the oldest one in Morocco and have found a fanatastic authentic Moroccan hotel made from earth and straw, with woven bamboo ceilings, all for the very reasonable price of £12.00 a night!


Thats all for now,


on behalf of Mark and Sue

The wedding anniversary photos!

Here are the two photos showing the new Renault Clio fix.

The second radiator, combined with the original

The beer can fix...

Whilst I'm not sure exactly where under the bonnet the second photo is taken, you can see the somewhat make-shift fix that's gone on...perhaps that explains why Renault F1 haven't been doing so well...

That's one way to spend a wedding anniversary!

Photos to follow...


Following the cars continual overheating, on Sue's wedding anniversary she was treated to a trip to the local scrap yard, and was bought a Renault Clio radiator and fan, which is now held in place with hoses and beer cans (to protect from the exhaust manifold heat) and thus, with the non-Delage fix, although taken from a French car, the temperature has dropped by around 15 degrees, and the car appears to be behaving itself for now...


Mark has also adapted the bonnet further so that even more air can flow under it and over the engine.


Their journey from Tanger to Rabat went o.k, although the old French wagon is holding up the rest of the pack a little...despite being one of the slower cars, the Delage still managed to pull quite a crowd wherever they stopped!


As for the whole journey itself, everything is going very well, although there was a little bit of a hold up to begin with. No your wrong, this had nothing to do with the car over heating, and in fact it had nothing to do with any of the old cars involved in the trip! In fact, the group was let down by the reliable build quality of one of the support Land Rovers that blew its engine up somewhere in Europe (exactly where I will have to find out).
The driver, who I believe is also one of the main rally organisers, has had to make his way over by public transport, leaving behind all the cooking equipment etc that the group was to use in some of the more 'rural' areas. I believe the plan is that the Land Rover will catch up the rest of the group once the engine has been repaired, but until then, it looks like Mark and Sue will be cooking by open fire, something I'm sure they'll enjoy...

The Exhaust Fix...

I have been provided with a photo of the new exhaust fix. It's hard to tell from the photo but I think this part of the exhaust is the bend just after the manifold? As for Sue and Mark, they are both fine and will be making the trip across the water to North Africa very soon!


I should have an update from then either later this evening or tomorrow but until then this photo will have to do!

The exhaust fix

Mid Spain - Not even started the event and already a problem!

Don't worry when I say there is a problem, the wheels have not fallen off and the car is still going! I'll come onto that in a second, to keep the tension, and to ensure you read all the blog!
I've been receiving the updates from Mark and Sue with ease whilst they are still in sunny Spain, well I say 'sunny', and that may be true, but it is certainly pretty chilly over night.

The frost is present at night, either that or the Amstel beer (left) fridge was left open over night!

Since the chilly night in Spain, they had their first minor issue of the trip. The front most part of the exhaust decided to disintegrate whilst they were driving along. Luckily the exhaust pipe decided to finally fall apart next to a scrap yard and the owner was very helpful in letting Mark use his tools and all (I say 'all' I wouldn't have a clue what to do) Mark had to do was to cut out the old section and weld in a piece of new pipe.

If all else fails, there's a flat bed parked next to the car!

That's all for now folks, but as soon as I hear more I will inform you!

For and on behalf of Mark & Sue

Updates on their way!

I can now tell you that Mark and Sue have begun their trip to the start of the rally!


They are now around Northern Spain and I will be bringing you the latest live updates tomorrow, complete with their first minor breakdown!


For now i'll leave you with that cliff hanger!

The Deadline Approaches...

The Trip Bit...

After the generous donations, we feel like we're on a bit of a roll! On top of this, the Ghanaian Visa's have arrived, and it was a worry that they might not arrive back in time. Also, the 'Carnet' process is pretty much finished.
It is the final meeting of the group next week, after that, the next time Mark and Sue see everyone else will be at the start of the rally. Mark parents have just got back from France, and Mark set his mum to work sewing up the foam strip that lines the desert air filter and he had his dad purchase plenty of engine oil for him from France. Not because the French make particularly good oil, but because its far cheaper! (Mark always was one for a bargain)



The Car Bit...

This post will be a little longer than normal, because I want to add in a few photo so that you can all see how the car is coming along. To see some more pictures, please click here. 


As you can see to the left, the alternator has been fitted and runs directly off the prop-shaft. (There are more photos of this at the link above)

The new cam followers are in and have been machined and heat treated in record time! This has made the car far quieter.Mark has also managed to devise a method for letting more air flow under the bonnet by opening them slightly at the front with a new fix.

Mark has also found space for spare gearbox and diff' oil as well as coolant under the bonnet. He has also got a safe box and is finding somewhere hidden to fit it, but I couldn't tell you where that was!The front and rear bump stops are now nearly finished (right).

A new battery needs to be purchased, but this is low down on Mark 'Vital List'.The new seats need to be installed as the old ones had wood-worm and will not last the endurance distance. The hubs are now finished thanks to Orson who, as I mentioned previously, did a fantastic job.

The desert air filter is now fitted, to cope with the extra high levels of dust on the rally. The exhaust has been wrapped under the bonnet to help keep the temperatures down under the bonnet.

I have spoken to Mark and Sue about the usual 'things they are both most and least looking forward to' section and they told that they were 'far too busy to think' so in summary of that statement I can tell you that they are both getting very excited now about the approaching deadline. They just want to make sure that everything is ready by then!

A huge, massive thank you!

We are so pleased by all the donations that we have received so far, that it deserves its own separate post!

To say that we are pleased, would be an understatement, to say that we are really impressed and touch by peoples generous donations would sum it up better.

Please take a second to look at our fund-raising page here to see what we mean. We are now getting ever closer to our £4000 target, just a little more to go!

A special thanks goes out to all our family and friends, but particularly to The Renault F1 team who donated £100. On top of this the everyone within Renault F1 that Mark spent all day talking too have helped us move a huge way towards our goal, raising around two thousand quid between them!

A huge thank you to everyone, we really appreciate it, and so will the Sabre Trust and the end user!

The Road ahead is a sandy one...

The Trip Bit...


Mark and Sue have been very busy getting the car seen as much as they can, and following their successes making it into various newspapers they took the car to the Longworth Fete and the East Hendred Car Show.
The Longworth Fete was fantastic, on a lovely summers day Mark managed to find even more spares at the jumble and also a nice sun hat!
At the Hendred show they bumped into a lot of friends who were very supportive and gave some donations, all of which were hugely appreciated! To keep an eye on how their fund-raising is going and to donate please visit here or visit virginmoneygiving.com/delage2africa
Sue managed to sell about half the jams she took with her and it was a great day explaining to people about the trip.


The car then made the long trip, (although nothing compared to what it is going to do!) to Reims, France. This acted, as I said previously, as a shake-down for the car. Due to Marks work commitments, the preperations for this trip were hurried and after only getting 5 miles down the road, realised that they had forgotten the map, money and the bonnet was open! (hmm..bodes well for the real trip!) The car made the 3.5 hour trip to Dover and still made the ferry despite the false start!


When the duo eventually made it to Reims the commentator; Guy Loverage did a fantastic job of announcing (to the English speaking public) that the car was there and this sparked a lot of interest in the car. The French commentator also did a good job in letting the French speaking public know the same thing, although neither Sue or Mark can vouch for this themselves!


Reims also presented the opportunity for Sue and Mark to bump into many people that had been on similar trips to the Sahara 2010 trip. They ended up talking to someone who had driven from Mopti, Ghana to Timbuktu, or Tombouctou if you're French. He informed them that this particular road, is pretty much non-existent and is in fact not a road, and just sand! They also had some very helpful advice from a German man who had driven in Morocco, as well as, a very generous donation from him.


Other than Sue and Mark's very busy schedule I can report that the house is covered in strategically placed sheets of notes to remind them of what they need to be doing next!


The Car Bit...

Prior to Reims, the car started to develop a rather unpleasant rattle and a worsening oil leak. Neither of these got better during the trip, so once they were home, off came the cylinder head to fix the gasket leak. It was at this point that Mark noticed a crack in one of the cam followers. Which was actually a great find now, and not in the middle of the desert! While it was all apart, Mark also got it all de-coked (Made it gunk free, for those of you, like me, who had no idea what that meant!) 

The Cam follower has been made and is awaiting heat treatment, once this is finished it should mean that the car will run far quieter.


The new desert air filter, modified from a Kia Pride has been running very well, along with the gearbox and the diff is also running fine. As Mark said the steering and suspension is 'working as expected' read into that as you will!


As for the future, the car needs a new altenator to be fitted that runs off the prop-shaft and the new hubs need to be fitted when they arrive. The luggage compartment is in its design phase and Mark says that it will be nice to do a bit of carpentry as a change. Mark has also hinted that despite owning the car 7 years and never putting the hood up on it, he is looking at some kind of make-shift hood to keep the sun off!


All in all, everything is going very well and despite the start of the event closing in fast (24th October) I have every confidence that things should be ready in time, as long as they remember the map!


Sue
The Best Bit: A nice relaxing weekend in Reims.
The Worst Bit: Catching up with all the garden vegetables so that they have some food left when they get back!


Mark
The Best Bit: Switching off from preparations in Reims.
The Worst Bit: The cracked cam follower was disappointing, although a blessing in disguise discovering it now!