After Team Norwegian helped with locating one of the other challenge teams which had got lost in the desert, we made our way down to Banjul, 7000km from where we started.
The auction will be tomorrow, so hopefully the car will raise lots of money as well.
What a trip!
Brede and Vegard
Saturday 24 February 2007
Tuesday 13 February 2007
Resting in Dakhla
We're writing this from Dakhla, a 'Desert Oasis' on a little peninsula in Western Sahara. The Sahara Regency is giving all the participants a special rate, so yesterday we had a small party on top of the hotel with a superb view of the Atlantic Ocean with about 15 other teams, including the American school bus which we found broken down en-route.
I'll add some pictures at the bottom of this post, but if you look at the link on the right, we're putting all the pictures in the web-album.
So, since Vendrell we've made it a few thousand kilometers down to Dakhla. As soon as the car was ready, we drove straight to Tarifa in southern Spain, which was quite uneventful. We met Team Click Sargent at the ferry, and got the 9am ferry to Tanger. Once in Marocco we got about 10km out of town before we decided to stop and check why the gearbox was making so much noise. Turns out it was completely out of oil. 2 hours later someone had kindly dropped off a few litres of gearbox oil, and we were on our way again.
We met team Short and Sweet in Marrakech, and then made it to Mirleft the next day, where we started meeting more teams. The hotel was run by a french lady who was very nice and the food was excellent. We even managed to get some exercise done, although Brede was feeling slightly worse for wear due to not having exercised because of the broken toe in January...
After Mirleft we had another long day of driving to Laayoune where we spent the night, and then finally we made our way to Dakhla.
In Dakhla we met up with loads of other teams (see picture below of car park), and there was a small celebration, as this is where we start hitting the real desert off-road driving sections.
Most teams left this morning, but 7 of us decided to have a rest day and leave tomorrow instead. Between us we've got 2 4WD vehicles, 2 satellite phones, 2 GPS units and even some people with knowledge of cars! So, as we couldn't just actually rest on our rest day we decided to go quad biking instead. Absolutely amazing experience, thoroughly recommended! Again, see pictures below and in the web-album.
Right, I think that's it for now. Keep reading, and if you are reading this then we would love it if you added comments as we don't really know if anyone is actually keeping track of what we're up to... :-)
Brede and Vegard
I'll add some pictures at the bottom of this post, but if you look at the link on the right, we're putting all the pictures in the web-album.
So, since Vendrell we've made it a few thousand kilometers down to Dakhla. As soon as the car was ready, we drove straight to Tarifa in southern Spain, which was quite uneventful. We met Team Click Sargent at the ferry, and got the 9am ferry to Tanger. Once in Marocco we got about 10km out of town before we decided to stop and check why the gearbox was making so much noise. Turns out it was completely out of oil. 2 hours later someone had kindly dropped off a few litres of gearbox oil, and we were on our way again.
We met team Short and Sweet in Marrakech, and then made it to Mirleft the next day, where we started meeting more teams. The hotel was run by a french lady who was very nice and the food was excellent. We even managed to get some exercise done, although Brede was feeling slightly worse for wear due to not having exercised because of the broken toe in January...
After Mirleft we had another long day of driving to Laayoune where we spent the night, and then finally we made our way to Dakhla.
In Dakhla we met up with loads of other teams (see picture below of car park), and there was a small celebration, as this is where we start hitting the real desert off-road driving sections.
Most teams left this morning, but 7 of us decided to have a rest day and leave tomorrow instead. Between us we've got 2 4WD vehicles, 2 satellite phones, 2 GPS units and even some people with knowledge of cars! So, as we couldn't just actually rest on our rest day we decided to go quad biking instead. Absolutely amazing experience, thoroughly recommended! Again, see pictures below and in the web-album.
Right, I think that's it for now. Keep reading, and if you are reading this then we would love it if you added comments as we don't really know if anyone is actually keeping track of what we're up to... :-)
Brede and Vegard
Tuesday 6 February 2007
Some pictures from the trip so far:
The first picture is from Norway at the Norwegian Army driving school where we received a course in 4WD driving.
The second picture is of course in Paris, where we arrived on Saturday morning.
The third picture is somewhere in France where the engine trouble monster started rearing its ugly head. As you can see, we thought we had fixed the problem. We hadn´t...For more pictures, have a look at: http://picasaweb.google.com/teamnorwegianarmy, which can also be found in links section on the right...
Monday 5 February 2007
Engine in trouble
We´re currently in El Vendrell where the engine is having a bit of trouble.
We noticed trouble when the temperature suddenly started increasing, and suddenly heard a big bang as the main rubber tube from the radiator to the engine block exploded. This happened 50 metres short of the petrol station we had been trying to reach in order not to stop on the motorway (which apparently is quite dangerous - thank you Neil, I was paying attention). A tow-truck took us to a garage, which of course was closed on Sunday night.
We spent the night in the car, which was surprisingly comfortable, and we´ve been hanging around in the workshop all day, watching our engine being taken to pieces. Apparently the head gasket might have gone - so we´re waiting to have it tested. Meanwhile, a UPS truck is somewhere in Europe with a replacement, so we´re hoping that´s the problem, and we can continue on tomorrow or the day after.
Will keep you posted...
PS. The map on the right shows our current position.
We noticed trouble when the temperature suddenly started increasing, and suddenly heard a big bang as the main rubber tube from the radiator to the engine block exploded. This happened 50 metres short of the petrol station we had been trying to reach in order not to stop on the motorway (which apparently is quite dangerous - thank you Neil, I was paying attention). A tow-truck took us to a garage, which of course was closed on Sunday night.
We spent the night in the car, which was surprisingly comfortable, and we´ve been hanging around in the workshop all day, watching our engine being taken to pieces. Apparently the head gasket might have gone - so we´re waiting to have it tested. Meanwhile, a UPS truck is somewhere in Europe with a replacement, so we´re hoping that´s the problem, and we can continue on tomorrow or the day after.
Will keep you posted...
PS. The map on the right shows our current position.
Sunday 4 February 2007
Check the SMS updates
The SMS updates on the Plymouth-Banjul official page (see link on the right) will be updated much more often, as we only occasionally have internet access. Please check there if you want the most up-to-date news (of the latest disaster to strike us...).
Click on Group 4, Team Norwegian Army (T7454) and then click ´VIEW TEAM SMS FIELD REPORTS´ at the top.
Click on Group 4, Team Norwegian Army (T7454) and then click ´VIEW TEAM SMS FIELD REPORTS´ at the top.
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