Deserted in Dakhla

Normal service has been resumed: the brakes have gone on the Meatwagon. So once again our valiant trailblazers (can you be a trailblazer at the back of the convoy?) were reduced to scouring the stalls of an African autojumble for bits. Fortunately, brakes are a little easier to deal with than engine/gearbox/fuelpump/UJ/magic elastic band that went wrong last time so they were up and running again by the afternoon. Oh, they do now have to suffer the minor inconvenience of losing servo assistance, delivering a real old-school braking experience of calf-straining vigour. Character building, I tell'ee.

The plot did thicken slightly this afternoon (as you may have noticed it is wont to do) on return to the campsite, whereupon they were rather surprised to discover that the fellow teams with whom they had arranged to travel onward to the Mauritanian border had developed cold feet about delaying the crossing by a few hours and all snuck off early. Bad form on the face of
it, in my opinion, and I hope our questing quartet get a proper explanation in the near future.

Still no pics, so attached is one for the RSPCA to worry about (courtesy of www.kolumn.pl): local transportation is clearly both less prone to mechanical breakdown than 80's Transit Ambulances and capable of similar load-carrying abilities. Perhaps next time, they should try the challenge on these. Cheers - Phil.

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