It’s very not alive…

As previously reported, there was a little trouble with the not so trusty steed carefully selected for the transportation task. On a sad and cold Friday the 27th of June an answerphone message was left for me, stating that getting the Minor through any sort of MOT was going to take an act of all known Gods, or maybe the Osmonds. Either way, there was a big creek and no paddle in sight.

I gave the garage till Monday to stop laughing before I called them with the sit rep; the underside of the Minor might as well be made out of cheese is about the response I got. I knew there were a few holes (read colander) but I thought it was nothing that couldn’t be rectified. Unfortunately their estimate on welding was… a tad… steep.

This meant two things… another car needed to be found and there was no time for the carnet needed to get through the more… beurocratic nations. This was a major bugger, as doing the width of the Sahara was the main draw of this route for me. I guess it’ll have to wait till next Summer.

So, the route would be the West Coast with the other guys. The trusty steed…?

Thankfully I got rid of my MR2 a few weeks ago and opted for something that went for more than a month without destroying my bank balance. Some would say I only traded in one Japanese sports car for another. They’d be wrong. My new daily run-around was a Nissan Micra from the fine year of 1988 boasting a whole one litre of displacement (what or where that litre is I’ll never know). Not only was this car old and undeniably shit but it has broken down on my 3 times in the month that I’ve owned it. Therefore there was no other worthier candidate, and the quest for the missing steed had finished before it even began.

Thankfully the Micra has near enough a years MOT on it and is taxed for longer than it’s likely to last in my hands on English roads let alone African ones. So… bring it on.

The last few days has seen money vanishing out of my pocket quicker than you can say “two litre 3SGE anyone?” the result of which has been a stockpile of lots of seemingly useful kit, that will no doubt break or disappear before I get a chance to use it… it shows willing though! Most things have been bought for the car ready for the fab lab sessions on Friday and Saturday getting the formidable Micra into a continent eating rallybeast! Or something.

Still, onward and upward. Half of Team PSM leaves on Thursday to head to Ireland and the start point while the other half waits to be picked up from Poole on Monday on the way through as prior engagements dictate (nothing to do with doubting the fearsome Micra).

Stay tuned. It’s getting close…