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.