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!