Thursday 25th
Mileage 68881
Today we ride the desert! Woooo hooooo!
For approx 120km we were in the middle
of nowhere, well the middle of the Sahara, Every direction you look
is identical.... nothingness! There is 'Camel Grass' (humps of sand
with a hay like plant growing through, these are not good for the
cars, they are really hard! So you may imagine being able to drive
through the desert in one straight line, but no, we must slalom to
look after our suspension.
We found a small tree and all 6 of us
huddled under the shade of it for a spot of (tuna and bread) lunch
and the realisation of where we were was really clear. If you had no
GPS and spun around a few times you would have no idea where you came
from or where to go! There were mirages everywhere as we travelled
and they looked very real until we got closer....its a crazy place
out there!
About 15 -20km before our beach camp we
drove over a small dune of soft sand, keeping our momentum so we
didn't get stuck, as we came over the crest there was a lone vespa in
the middle of the track, Dad swerved to avoid hitting it and then at
the same time bad luck struck and our tie-rod broke, our springs are
open and not in cans so we had to walk back to pick us the pieces of
Laura left behind! We moved the vespa off the track to where there
were 2 more vespas with there riders beside them, We asked if they
were of, one of them (the Father of the other) had fallen and hurt
his ribs so they were resting, I saw a vespa rider laying under a
tarpaullin a little further back so went to check on him, his eyes
were closed and he was almost asleep, I talked complete rubbish to
him for a while then get him some of our water which I poured over
him and made him drink slowley then continued to blablabla to stop
him falling asleep, 5-10 mins later Edwin passed by in his Mehari and
helped look after Mark while I went and helped Dad who was fixing
Lauras suspension. Mark was put into a fellow teams 2cv replacing the
2cv driver who then squeezed himself into the back of Erik's 2cv
(Houdini would be proud) we then helped secure the vespa onto the
back of the Mehari. After all of this in 48 degree blazing sun Dad
was sick, a few times so I took over the driving, once we began
moving and the air began coming into the car dad was feeling better.
Laura then stuck to the back of that Mehari like glue to ensure the
rest of the journey to camp was trouble free, It was 2 hardcore TT
cars and 4 hardcore TT team members saving the day as a team! :)
Camp was paradise! Right on the beach
front with some nice african tents for shade and here we will stay
for the rest of today and tomorrow,.Rest time, swimming, relaxing oh
and working...re-mounting Lauras suspension to make her open cans a
little more horizontal and better.
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