Robbed in Gilbralter!

Had a really relaxing day off.We took Priscilla to visit the Rock of Gilbralter; she didn´t fancy it there much. The traffic and narrow streets were ridiculously crowded and chaotic; we have definately striked this place of the list of places to live. The whole place is rather strange; a confused mix of English and Spanish with neither doing the job well; and a weird currency to go with it.
The Rock itself was great with views over to Africa. Alas, Steve fell victim to a theft. While eating his favourite brand of ice cream and admiring the views, a monkey ran up his leg and snatched it out of his hand! Cheeky animals are very cute, but do watch your sweet treats when you visit.
Priscilla is running like a dream. Steve was under the car this morning to find the source of a persistant rattle. He spied a loose bolt and replace it with a new one. It has done the trick! Our tickets for the ferry crossing tomorrow have been purchased and we have repacked the car ready for the next stage. We are on the 9am departure from Tarifa and hope to arrive 45min later in Tangiers. The plan is to reach Fes before dark!
We are loving the trip so far!! See you all later.
Oh, we have long run out of Cookie Time cookies! so Andrea, if you could just courier us another supply....

Taking it easy in Tarifa

Hi all, we made it safe and intact to the hotel in Tarifa where we have 2 nights paid for as part of the rally. It was a nice and easy run for Priscilla today from Granada; just cruising along down the sunny coast. There are no more leaks and the exhaust is holding tight,albeit a wee loud. There are quite a few teams here now in various states of repair! Everyone in good humour. The weather is nice and warm :)
Tomorrow we will play tourist again and take a day trip to Gibralter, catch you all again from there.
PS steve & sara - LONG LIVE PRISCILLA!!!

Three weeks in a leaky car

Discovered a leak in the cooling system, somewhere near the bottom fan (phil, where are you???). Threw a bottle of "bars" in and it all seems fine now, how long it´s supposed to last is anyones guess. Temp is all good, so at least we´re not overheating. Developing a few new rattles but we will have to wait and see what falls off to discover where it comes from :)
Drove 500kms today from Segovia to Granada and had a tour of the Alhambra. Steve would like to live in the Alhambra as it seems very defendable against mormans, tele marketers, children and the like. I told him go ahead and I would visit him (in summer!)
Manana short relaxed drive down to Tarifa, hopefully there is a room left at the inn.
Happy 40th birthday to Simon (for the 4th) in NZ, have a good one big daddy.

Hola

Well, after a shaky start with losing the exhaust in France (thanks to dodgy ramps on the ferry), we have safely made it to Segovia, Espana. Steve has so far been in charge of all the driving, which means that we are still on speaking terms :)
Our first night was spent in Bordeaux as planned; arriving late and stayed in a Formula 1 Hotel close to the motorway. At the crack of dawn, we headed for the Spanish border and the mountains, where we have had several strange sightings of oversized bulls perched on hill sides. There is quite a bit of snow on the ground and the mountains in the distance are covered.
Priscilla has been cruising along nicely today and is currently tucked away in a dry garage for the night. We have had one sighting of another rally car - a VW Beetle parked at a spanish service station, seen as we drove by. Met up with Teams Karpat and Cops & Fobbers on the ferry over.
Tomorrow we are heading for Granada and the famous Alhambra.

e noho ra!

Priscilla is packed and we are ready to roll first thing tomorrow morning. We are booked on the 8am sailing from Dover to Boulogne. The date has finally arrived; it feels like a very long time coming! Now my feelings are mixed with slight apprehension!! I've been reading the daily SMS messages from the other teams and alot of the info has been very useful, but sometimes too much knowledge can be scary!! Anyway, thanks (no, really) to the other teams that have been before us and posted their reports. Thanks also to everyone that has helped Priscilla prepare for the journey, and to those that have sent their wishes.
I'll be updating this blog as often as I can, and will be sending frequent text messages to the main rally site: www.plymouth-banjul.co.uk
Look under "field reports" for Lord of the Sands. If you would like to send us messages, then you can text or send a message to this blog (click on "comments" below and follow the instructions), we would love to read them!!
See you soon in Bourdeaux (hopefully):)

The clock is ticking...

With only 2 days to go, I've been running around picking up last minute supplies, and resorting all our gear. The living room has been transformed into the operation headquarters! and we have guests for dinner tonight!! Oh well, the place has that special "expedition" ambience (may be I should serve Cup-a-soup for starters, boil-in-the-bag stew as a main, and dried fruit for dessert, to complete the authentic experiance?):)
Priscilla has 2 brand new rear tyres. She was starting to feel abit wobbley in the steering along the straights. So Phil whipped off(!!!!) the rear tyres only to find that one was so badly warped that it could have blowen at any time. Yikes.
A nice man from the West country donated another spare wheel. Thanks to Andrea for her trip back to NZ to supply us with the necessary travel snacks (Jaffas, Toffee Pops, Gingernuts, Moro bars...).
Priscilla is rearing to go and so are we.

Pimp My Ride