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Made it to Senegal |
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Survived the dessert! Unbelivable if we remember what we did to the vechiles. The Mercedes is a bit unhappy since it went for a swim in th Atlantic, but it still runs. Only 400km to go... Te desert part was amazing. Now 2 days off in Zebrabar. Tomorrow we wil head for Gambia.
Kudi (SMS) |
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Waiting in the no man's land
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Night run offroad/rider horror
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The paradise - Zebrabar
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The crowd
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Zebrabar suroundings
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Zebra-BAR
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A long tow for the Mercedes |
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Mercedes died again - carburetor problems and fucked battery. It's now being towed the whole day because we are travelling in the convoy. But we WILL arrive!
Kudi (SMS) |
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Survived! |
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We did it! We arrived in Banjul on 5th of January late night. The last day was a bit tricky... Andy had a co-driver who permanentaly dropped fuel into the open carb, but the Merz finaly made it on its own. The Yamaha was as reliable as ever and was one of the fewer vehilcles without a major brakedown on the whole trip. Finaly the ferry crossing over the Gambnian River, or more exactly the waiting for the ferry, prooved to be one of the major challenges of the trip, some sort of new sport, something like extreem-ferry-crossing... I ended up with a sheet with the words NO on it and pissed of quite a lot of people who were trying to sell you anything between Fanta, food and women...
We're both very tired now, the whole trip was pretty exhausting, ready for a longer break. It was more than 8000km and we think there was not a lot we left out...
We're now trying to get a flight back to europe which is not as easy as we thought it to be. But we hope to get one for end of next week tomorrow. We'll send the exact dates as soon as we have them.
Not a lot left to do, the car auction tomorrow (the Merz will be auctioned on the second one, not tomorrow), the official handover of the bike (the police already nearly occupied the bike during the end-ceremony in the olympic stadion of Banjul:-) and I think there might be a few more beers to be drunken until we leave ;-) The weather is brilliant and between 25-30C so we're looking forward for a few very lazy days in The Gambia... |
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On the ferry to Banjul
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Arriving at the safary Garden
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The start of the parade
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The End |
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That is it, we are nearly on the way home. Our flight leaves tomorrow late afternoon from Banjul and will arrive in Zurich via Brussels on Saturday morning, 11:25 I think (its Brussels Airlines).
We have a few very lazy days behind us, did nearly nothing. We know the whole life of our bar keeper Crocodile-John, raised loads of money for the local brewery (JulBrew) and have a new local friend named Eddie.
A couple of the boys in the hotel cleanded the Merc yesterday, looks like new (at least a lot better than when we left CH)! We still havent decided 100% what to do with it so that is the last thing for us left to do.
Ok, thats it for this time. I will add many pics as soon I have time to do it, there are a few very very nice things we met on that journey, I hope we have them all on film... |
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The Mercedes...
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... The Team ...
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... and the Bike
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Postface |
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Back in europe. Bloody cold here :-(
It took us 18h to get back, but at least we've been to Dakar... the hardest part was to wake up from the dream we lived during the last few weeks. Or is the life here the dream and africa was the reality? I'm really not shure about this...
The last thing we did was to hand over the keys of the Merc to Simon who lost his car, which was promisedto the local hospital, in WS. We decided to give ours as a replacement. So it finaly went to the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital in Banjul.
Again? YES! But at least for me with a few changes: bigger engine, unsupported, more time and less organisation ;-)
Africa, we WILL return!
Kudi 2005'
Additionaly a few newspaper-links concerning the journey:
Allafrica.com - Plymouth-Dakar Challengers Arrive
Daily Observer - Plymouth-Dakar Banjul Rally here again
Daily Observer - Our Merc in the news
Daily Observer - Greets from the DT
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