We left the charming town of Nouadhibou for the 2-3 day desert run. This was the part most of us had been looking forward to the most. There is now a sealed road that runs the whole way from the border to Nouakchott, but where is the challenge in that? We let half the air out of the tyres before going off the road onto the beginning of the desert. The first day was very slow going due to the large rocks we had to carefully negoiate! With every loud scrape of the undercarriage (and there were many)I was hanging out the window checking we hadn't lost the exhaust (or worse). Priscilla rolls over everything, but with the extra weight of the fuel and water on the roof, she was lowered even more. But we made it through the day with only a small hole made in the exhaust. Steve repaired it that night.
Nights in the desert are fantastic. The sky is so clear and uninterupted, that you can see millions of stars in all directions. We had paid Bumba 100E for a lamb that he was going to cook for us. It ended up being really awful cuts of meat and a complete waste of time and money (sounded like a good idea at the time!). So it was pot noodles for most that night (the effects of that meal did stay with alot of us for quite some time afterwards).
The second day was when we lost the Dons.
Bill and Ted (I mean, Dick) were bringing up the rear in their Jeep Cherokee, when they stopped for photos, lost the rest of us, took a wrong path, got stuck in the sand up to their eyeballs, stayed lost in the desert for the next 3 days while we were running around Nouakchott trying get some help in rescuing them. What was supposed to be the best part of the trip turned out to be the most frustrating, worrysome, desperate time. In short, the Britsh Honoury Consulate in Mauritania, didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry to provide assistance in finding these guys, nor did the Foreign Office in London want anything to do with 2 British subjects lost in the Sahara. So then what do a group of 12 rally competitors do? We found a pilot at the airport with a light plane and we sent up 3 of our guys to find them (thanks to the Norweign army guys). We had noted the last GPS points where they were last seen, and within 3hours they were spotted, a helicopter from a local oil company then went in to pick them up and they were back in Nouakchott safe and reasonably well. All the previous few days wasted because we were promised a ground and airsearch time after time. We were even told that helicopters weren't allowed in Mauritania, there were no Helicopters in Mauritania, that there had been a Spanish terriost alert at the airport so we couldn't gain access, etc ,etc (we heard it all). We even contacted a UK newspaper with the story in the desparate bid that we would get some attention and help. As time ticks by with the knowledge that food and water were running out, we were trying every available avenue for assistance. There was one 5min window when we made mobile phone contact with The Dons, so we knew they were ok, but the signal was cut off and couldn't be retrieved again.
The guide, who we paid 300E to guide us, basically disappeared, only ringing in to ask for the rest of his money (we ended up having to pay him the balance as we were threatened with being detained in Mauritania by the British Honoury Consulate man, if we didn't! Nice, eh?). I shall be posting a picture of Bumba soon, so future teams can stay away from him.
Bill and Dick are at home, probably having to come out of retirement to pay for all the bills incurred during those days! We'll catch up with soon guys, only, we'll come to you!!
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