Wales to Mongolia, Timbuktu and now Azerbaijan

Just a quick note to let you know that neither of us can get a signal on our phones at the moment, so if anyone  has been sending us messages we probably wont get them til saturday.

CLICK HERE FOR TEXT MESSAGE UPDATES

We set off from Bamako yesterday with the intention of driving to Timbuktu. However, it is with reluctance that we have had to give up in Mopti. No problems - the car is still running sweet - just a lack of time following a bit of an underestimate of the distances. We covered 400 miles yesterday and are still 250 from Timbuktu, with that apparently mostly dust roads.

So this has become our furthest point! We will now take a leisurely drive back to Bamako to leave the car at a designated charity and fly back to the UK on Saturday.

Mopti is turning out to be a laugh and a half. We stayed at “Mac’s Refuge” in nearby Sevare last night - a hostel run by an American. We camped on the roof! We have met several other travellers and swapped stories. Mopti, a port town on the river Niger, is characteristically chaotic; much like Bamako on a smaller scale. We will explore it further before returning.

CLICK HERE FOR TEXT MESSAGE UPDATES

We arrived in Bamako this afternoon - and have therefore completed the challenge!

We set off with a group of other cars  from Nouakchott on Saturday and headed East. We drove all day and wound up in Kiffa. The trip was complicated by the fact that credit and debit cards don’t work in Mauritania, so we were running very, very short of cash. so short, in fact, that we had to borrow euros off Team Toytown just to buy petrol, and were living on the supplies we had bought for the desert.
We found a hotel that allowed camping in the grounds (which, as the far cheaper option, we favoured). The following day we found it a mission to buy petrol; most stations only stocked diesel. Eventually we were on our way. We reached the border in the afternoon and successfully crossed, with the help of a few euros here and there in various tourist taxes. We camped for the night just off the road near Nioro.
Then today we drove the final couple of hundred miles in Bamako! We have found a hotel, had showers and used a cash point. Time for a nice meal and a few beers!

As for Timbuktu…
…it is “optional” as far as this trip is concerned, but we still hope to reach it this week. How and when remains to be seen.

CLICK HERE FOR TEXT MESSAGE UPDATES

We made it this far!

With about 200 miles to travel we rose early on Tuesday morning to make the border before it shut for lunch. We travelled in a group of five other cars (Nova, Suzukis, Discovery, Golf) and regularly met up with the second group of seven cars. We all camped together.

We met Benny, our guide, at the border.The Moroccan side involved the usual faffing with documentation not helped by a sandstorm blowing in. Then there was a 3km drive over a rocky track to the Mauritanian frontier. There was an immediate contrast in prosperity between the countries. The Mauritanian police, customs and passport control work out of run-down wooden sheds, caravans and a container from a lorry.
With Benny’s help we passed through successfully and convoyed on to Nouadibou. We were directed to a walled campsite and set up for the night. We went to a nice restaurant in the evening and paid well over the odds for Heineken (a rare treat in a country that’s supposed to be dry throughout).

The following day we set off in our two groups. Before long the guides directed us off the tarmac and told us to drop our tyre pressures to 1.5 bar. Then we went out into the desert! The surface varied from hard sand to rock, with regular patches of really soft sand. The guide rode in the lead car. We raced along overtaking, sliding and crashing over bumps, all the time videoing and hanging out of the passenger windows - so much fun!
After a while we came to a hard plain edged by real sand dunes - the kind that the word “Sahara” conjures up in your mind. It wasn’t long before some bright spark decided to drive up one. He raced to the top then shot back down. The mistake was made when most of the rest of us tried to follow suit. After five minutes about ten cars were stuck up to their axles, including the Discovery, an Isuzu Trooper and, of course, our long-suffering Carlton! We soon freed the cars and were on our way, but it was a timely lesson about the hazards of soft sand in a controlled environment.
Just before dusk we stopped at camp and pitched tents. That evening we relaxed in the desert, swapping stories about the day. The local nomads killed a goat which we ate round the camp fire.

The next morning we continued over the sand. After about 45 minutes we were called to a halt and told to drop the tyre pressures to just 1 bar. Then we headed one by one over dunes of soft sand. This really was fun, despite being intense. The key was to keep the revs high and maintain momentum no matter what - even if it meant crashing over a bump faster than felt comfortable. But amazingly all six of us in the lead group made it without getting stuck.
We reached the coast and stopped for lunch and a swim. Then we drove down and followed the water’s edge for miles, dodging and skimming the incoming waves. At one point there was a rocky section which had to be traversed one car at a time with the help of a ramp of sand and sand ladders.
We camped on the beach for the night. Some of the others bought fish from fisherman further along and cooked it on a fire. We each chucked in supplies to make a fantastic meal of fish, risotto, potato salad and mixed vegetables.

Today we rose early to catch the low tide and continued south along the beach. We turned inland and gunned it across the soft sand to the road before completing 40 easy tarmac kilometres into Nouakchott. We are staying at a hotel tonight and have already made the most of the washing facilities!

The current plan is to head southeast tomorrow towards the Mali border, but that is subject to change depending on how many people decide to stay in Nouakchott for an extra day.

Car update: It is performing extremely well. Despite lacking the brute power of, say, the BMW of team “Bones Beamer” it has done very well and we have enjoyed the rear-wheel-drive on the sand. It developed a small differential leak on Wednesday, presumably from a stray rock, but we have successfully topped it up. The air intake has been plugged with a wooly hat which has greatly reduced the amount of sand coming in.
Fingers crossed!

It’s taken about 2 hours of faffing but we now have a selection of photos of our journey so far.

Click here to see them

Enjoy!!

CLICK HERE FOR TEXT MESSAGE UPDATES

We left Laayoune yesterday morning and continued deeper into Western Sahara. The road was long, straight and fast but our progress was occasionally impeded by sand whipping across the road, particularly when trucks passed by the other way. We reached Dakhla about 5pm and booked into a campsite with about 15 other teams.
Today is a rest day, which we are spending doing our final preparations for the desert proper. This morning we have shed some weight from the car and shifted some kit around in a bid to raise the rear wheels out of the arches. We have arrange a guide with a group of four other cars (aforementioned Nova, Suzuki SJs and Golf), and we are about to go shopping for supplies including 40 litres of water. This will probably the last entry until Nouakchott in a few days time.

CLICK HERE FOR TEXT MESSAGE UPDATES

We entered Western Sahara today. It was less hassle than expected, with the only formality being a stop to take pictures of some camels.

On Thursday night in Marrakesh we met several other ralliers in the central square at one of the many food stalls that had mysteriously sprung up with nightfall. We ate traditional tagine surrounded by the bustle of Marrakesh after dark, then walked round the square and took in the many street entertainers including story tellers, boxers and musicians. Then we found one of the few nightclubs that sell alcohol. Several beers and a good portion of a bottle of vodka later I can vaguely remember getting a taxi back to the hotel (well, I woke up there at least).

The next day we set off with Team Toytown in the Nova, all feeling a little worse for wear. The hangovers were soon forgotten upon climbing up into the High Atlas mountains. The road gently snaked higher and higher for a couple of hours, presenting us with ever more impressive views. Near the top the peaks were snow-capped, with some even encroaching onto the road on shady corners.
The view from the summit was simply breathtaking; we looked down over a bowl in the landscape stretching away to mountains that shimmered blue to meet the sky in the far, far distance.
As soon as we descended we noticed that the landscape had become much more arid. We pushed on to Tiznit and stopped at a campsite full of French camper vans; so full, in fact, that we had to squeeze into the corner of a car park. After a cookup of Tesco Irish Stew we slept well, despite being woken by a prayer call from the mosque at 6am.

This morning we set off promptly and drove steadily. The scenery became more and more desertified as we followed the coast southwest. A moment of excitement came in the afternoon when the Nova boys and ourselves failed to stop at a (tiny, low, badly positioned) stop sign in front of a police checkpoint. We were pulled over and asked to pay a fine of 400 Dirham. Henry and I (the drivers) managed to hide everything in our wallets in the cars except a hundred or so, then show the police officer how penniless we were. After a five minute interrogation about our jobs, reasons for being in Morocco, route and the logo on Henry’s T-shirt, he let us off scot free.

We arrived in Laayoune and treated ourselves to a hotel and a restaurant - possibly the last for some time.

Tomorrow we head for Dakhla, Monday we take a rest day, and Tuesday we will aim to enter Mauritania.

CLICK HERE FOR TEXT MESSAGE UPDATES

We’ve now arrived in Marrakesh!

We got up just before 6 on Tuesday in order to make the early ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar. Boarding at the port of Algeciras was fairly straight-forward, with several rally cars in convoy. Once docked in ceuta (a Spanish territory just across the water) we promptly all got lost, doing at least a lap of the city before peeling off one by one to make our own way to the M|oroccan border.
The border crossing took about 90 minutes, no thanks to our fixer hired in a vain attempt to make things easier. Once through, we drove in convoy with two other teams: Toytown in a red Nova and Saffas in Africa in a red Suzuki SJ. We stopped in chefchaouen for lunch and met the True Saffas in a silver Suzuki.
We drove along a beautiful route meandering through the Atlas mountains, before reaching Fes in the early evening and stopping at a campsite for the night.
Yesterday we were taken on a tour of Fes by a local guide, including a tannery and weavers’ shop (where we were vigorously encouraged to buy everything in sight…) We then headed southwest over (amazingly) snow-topped mountains, stopping for lunch on a snowy plateau and attracting the attention of a large herd of goats.
We drove on steadily and reached M|arrakesh just after midnight. We checked into a hotel that one of the others knew and slept well.

A car update: The water leak discovered in Spain seems to have fixed itself, so we have elected not to disturb it further. Yesterday the nearside front brake began binding severely. It eased off enough to allow us to drive to Marrakesh, but something had to be done about it today. We took it to a local garage where a man-with-a-jack disassembled the caliper, washed it thoroughly in brake fluid, replaced the pads (thankfully we were carrying spares) and put it all back together for a total of 30 euros. After approximately 2 miles of testing it seems to have done the trick. Watch this space…

This afternoon we will explore the old town of Marrakesh, before setting off for the coast tomorrow.

CLICK HERE FOR TEXT MESSAGE UPDATES

We’ve made it to Gibraltar - the first real milestone of the event. Here’s a recap of the first days:
Jim set off from Cardiff on Friday morning and battled his way through blizzards to Hay-on-Wye (recently twinned with Timbuktu) to pick me up from work near Leamington Spa. We then sped down to Banbury post office to get our international driving permits (left until the last minute as part of the grand plan - honest!). We reached Portsmouth in the early evening and had plenty of time for a pub meal and a trip to Tesco to buy supplies.
We boarded the ferry and set sail at 11:45pm. We met another rally team in a VW Golf, then made the most of the 6 hour crossing with some sleep.
Upon docking at Caen we drove solidly through the day. The weather was perfect and the roads were fast and quiet. We drove high into the moutains near Bourges through a winter wonderland of pristine snow. Just before sunset we reached the spectacular Viaduct du Millau just north of Montpellier. We then drove on into the night, crossing into Spain and finally calling it a day near Barcelona. We found a hotel and slept for a long time.
We awoke to find a puddle of coolant under the car. It had come from the flange connecting the top hose to the engine, which had clearly been previously repaired. We sucessfully tightened one bolt but managed to shear another. With little other option we topped up the radiator and hit the road.
We drove solidly again, along the coast past resorts such as Benidorm and Alicante, before veering north into the moutains. We climbed to 1390m at one point, before descending along a rollercoaster of a motorway into Malaga.
We finally reach the Hotel Las Camelias in Sotogrande at about 10:30pm. The car held up fine, with not a drop of water lost and the temperature gauge resolutely refusing to go above half way. We sank a few beers and exchanged stories with many fellow ralliers.
Today we drove to Gibraltar and did the tourist thing (monkeys, the rock and full English breakfasts). Tomorrow we catch the boat to Morocco and the fun really begins.