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!