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| Ricky Dangar raises the risk through inapproprate desert-wear. |
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| At two-o-clock on day two in the Sahara, we reach the dune beneath which we should have camped the night before. A morning tea-drinking excursion with some nomads didn't help our overall progress, but did provide some good CliveMobile rock-crawling action. |
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| The CliveMobile looking smug, having been the only member of the Magnificent Seven (with the possible exception of the fire engine) to have made it through a long stretch of quicksand without getting stuck. If you look closely, you can make out seven cars lodged behind us. |
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| The patented SCR '60mph Sideways Sand Attack' driving technique gets us though another patch of soft desert, leaving those with front-wheel-drive sinking in our wake and suffering from BHP envy. |
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| Left to right: "Straight Outta Chorlton", "Desert Gropers", "Porridge Cannons", SCR, "Dynamo Madame Sepia". |
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| We meet up with group leaders team Leak. Perhaps unwisely, the Porridge Cannons' steed is branded "FUBAR 2" as the car-less team FUBAR hitch a lift. Probably as a result, the Escort was rather more banana-shaped by sunset, due to a heavy landing on the front-left wheel. |
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| Desert storming through a huge patch of nothing. |
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| Camel slalom. |
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| A fine specimen of the aforementioned. |
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| Our moment of shame. On day three, we finally sully our record by getting properly stuck. Team Live Like Yer Dyin' sympathetically ditch their monster Mercedes alongside and offer their services. Eventually both cars are freed and slide off, leaving RD and RJB stranded in the middle of nowhere. Dynamo Madame Sepia are sent back on a rescue mission. Taking an off-piste short cut behind Live Like Yer Dyin', CE drives off a dune, landing the CliveMobile's nose squarely on a moderately-sized bush. Luckily, the impact is absorbed by the hard-as-nails sump guard and CE's soft skull. |
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| SCR orbit the convoy like a huge metal three-brained guard dog. |
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| Julian gets swamped by locals as we return to civilisation, of sorts, before hitting the beach. We arrive at Nouakchott with 20-minutes of 2004 to spare. After repeated showering, toilet celebration and much removal of sand from innovative areas, we are too tired to have it especially large (Julian: "I'm tucked lads I am"). RJB attracts the attention of a middle-aged lady of the night, who sits by him for hours giggling happily at random points in the conversation. |
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| "I loves it I do" - Colin West, Welsh ambassador and Original Beddau Bedouin. After two moderate-to-heavy accidents in the desert, the Hafan-a-go Trabant makes another attempt to kill it's occupants by shedding a wheel on the way to the Saint-Louis border crossing. The offending suspension arm is re-attached using a hearty smear of Welsh bloody-mindedness, and they make it to Zebrabar before bed time. |
Clive Aid
Contacts
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Current galavants:
'08 Iron Curtain Tour
Future galavants:
'09 India?
Past galavants:
'07 - Nurburgring
'07 - Banjul-Zwickau
'06 - Swindon-Vladivostok
'05 Plymouth-Banjul