| Written by Rik ,
on Wed 6 Aug 08
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 19 days and 1 hour after leaving Hyde Park, the Battlestars and their crew have landed safely in Douala. The cars have clocked up 7400 miles each over desert, earth, potholes, gravel and tarmac. We've travelled through 10 countries (including two where right hand drive vehicles are illegal), 7 border crossings, one live minefield and we estimate around 200 police (or variation there of) check points. We've managed to keep a clean sheet with regard to bribery and corruption, yielding not one penny or 'souvenir' to any green-eyed fuzz, nor have we incurred one speeding ticket between us. That we know of. Road kill has been kept to a blissful minimum and not included any mammals, only reptiles and their feathered relatives. Non-organic casualties of our driving have included BSIII, a couple of walls and a police check point barrier/stick - depending on your frame of reference. We've used 7 out of 9 spare tyres although two were prophylactic changes and some of our present spread we couldn't be bothered to change, so we just bashed them back into shape with a hammer. Most of us ran out of clean underwear over a week ago.
The cars - BSII has held up superbly, especially considering the load she's been carrying in spares and equipment. She has had a recurrent problem of exhaustive embarrassment (the exhaust keeps coming apart distal to the catalytic converter and dragging along the floor) although Bruce now has the repair down to a fine art. Currently the BSII exhaust is part machine part sardine tin. Other than a slightly dodgy clutch pedal, she's ship-shape and handling well. Sadly, the same cannot be said for BSIII who is currently giving her occupants a close-to-lethal dose of carbon monoxide poisoning. The hole in the exhaust (proximal to the catalytic converter) has finally given way resulting in deafening noise and poisonous fumes for whoever is lucky enough to be driving. The rear suspension is shot to buggery causing an uneasy feeling of sideways uncertainty as she chews through tyres like she's at an all-you-can-eat tyre buffet. She burns a whole half litre of oil each day, tracks right, the exhaust heat shield is held together with cable ties and now handles like a fat bird on roller-skates. After yesterday's red mud/sand world rally stage both cars/us/this computer/the inner workings of our bodies are covered in red silt which has made our quest to have the cars arrive at the finish looking as though they'd driven across West Africa a success. A mission that almost every hotel we've stayed at over the last few days has tried to scupper by washing them in secret whilst we're asleep. However, any way you look at it, both cars have been magnificent and the real winner is the MkIII Ford Fiesta that has once again proved that with no modifications at all (sump guards are for girls) it is an all-conquering, all-weather, all-terrain, all-sexy inter-continental touring machine. Our journey is now over and we've made it down to Kribi to sit on the beach and drink for three days. We hope you've enjoyed reading the blog and a huge thank you to all our friends and family back home that have been supporting us during and in the lead up to this rally. The rally is for charity so if you have donated - thank you very much. If you would like to, please use the Will We Make It link at the bottom of this page. If you've tried to do that and it hasn't worked please accept out profuse apologies, using Will We Make It has been a disaster but if you would like to donate by cheque - just speak to the relevant team member. Everyone in the team will be doing a post-mortem blog over the next few days so keep checking back for continued daily updates, maybe more photos and use the link to the Adventurist's site to keep abreast of how all the other teams are doing. All that remains is for a quick report on the individual team member’s performance in what Dan likes to refer to as the 'Shit Croque Monsieur'. Christopher 'Crash in Pants' Turner - Splendid results acheived in the fields of accommodation, sustenance and contact with stationary objects Dan 'Binman' Fowler - Exemplary performance in both negotiating black market financial transactions and backseat driving Rik 'Shitmittens' Thomas - A grade at internet access in hostile environments and reckless endangerment of other team member's lives Jo 'Dave' Flitcroft - Now a certified visa/border crossing guard education and picnic stop specialist Bruce 'Betty Swallocks' Forsyth - Mechanical mastermind, repeatedly demonstrating his prowess by strapping increasingly unusual items of kitchenware to the underside of the cars and shouting at everyone |
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| Users' Comments |
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Many congratulations and thank you for such an entertaining 19 days. Of course we weren't really worried (silence from rest of Support Crew) but we will be pleased to see you back home safely. At a rough estimate there don't seem to be more than about 10 or 12 other cars left in the rally.Hope there is still some beer left in Kribi. 
