PSM Signing out…

That’s right folks, the last update. This is where the story ends.

After 24 days of driving from Tipperary I’d been in Bamako in Mali with my co-driver for a few days and he’d been pretty ill. On evaluation of things the time it would take for him to recover (I’m still not fantastically well myself) we weren’t going to have it in us to make the final stint. Having gone so far and suffered/experienced (equal measures) so much we called it a day in Bamako and got on a plane at around 3.30am today. I’ve not been home long and obviously photos and so on will follow. It’s a bugger that we didn’t make it but the Micra never let us down and it was really a health problem and the fact that driving to and through Africa is really fucking hard work. We did a cracking job getting as far as we did and doing as much as we did. Not all the way but damned near enough. By yesterday morning we had both agreed that Timbuktu would take more than it would give and what we needed was to just get out.

Thank you all for your words of encouragement and support, I’ll be typing up my journal over the next week or so and getting the photos up and doing my best to satisfy any desires people have to know what exactly went on… I’ve written a lot!

We managed 4821 miles through 8 countries and one principality in 21 days on the road. No mean feat in a car 20 years old. The only real casualty to the car was losing the exhaust on the stretch into Bamako. I like to call it the “sports conversion”. I managed to sell the car in the city, and hopefully the Mali tax men will never find me cause I sure as fuck didn’t do the paperwork right but I’m home now and that’s what matters. I may not have swapped my co-driver for camels and/or a life of luxury in a remote spot of the world but we had one hell of an adventure.

Hopefully catch up with you all soon,
Dave

Another Update

We got to Mauritania yesterday having traversed the mine field and border posts. There has been far too much happen to comment on it all right now. You will all have to buy the book! Suffice to say we are both still safe… I have mobile signal but I cant send texts and using this german(?) keyboard is a nightmare!

Will update whenever possible!

Update From Spain

Hi All,

Just a quick update from Espagnolia. We got into Spain yesterday after a longer time in France than anticipated. Now we´re in a hotel for a couple of days because Lee´s water pump has gone. So far the Micra is the only beast to have no mechanical issues at all… lets hope it stays that way!

For those who aren´t in the know, you can track our progress live from the main page using the live tracking link. It wont show a lot of progress till at least Monday now though!

Hopefully will update within the week when we reach southern Spain and wait for a ferry across.

Keep your eyes to the skies,

Dave

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…

It’s Alive! (Again)

Well, I had a fair amount on Monday checking the plugs and then, on discovering that they were thoroughly coated in crap, wondering how the poor Minor ever ran! The kind thing to do was give them a good clean and chuck them back in, which would be rewarded by the sound of a much healthier car. Or not. It was another one of those delightful key turning but non-starting moments.

Today… all the ingredients were right to undo this wrong.

Having procured a set of leads and plugs and swapped them without any ado about anything I turned the key to the sound of a delightfully healthy(ish) 1098 block chugging along happily. No longer does the car kick out plumes of blue smoke either! It did start to produce some steamy looking smoke after running for a few minutes though, so I imagine the head has gone but I do need to check some other vital statistics (as well as borrow a head compression tester) before getting too excited.

One revelation, on driving the car forward and backward a few feet, was that the clutch isn’t… erm… well… great. When I pushed the pedal down I was greeted with a sound and heart-wrenching feeling that I could possibly equate to the moment the last dinosaur died. More investigation will be needed in this respect…

Still, progress is progress. Time to move on to the battle of the Algerian visa.

It’s alive!

After 6 months of standing (with a mere 5 years before that) I was a little sceptical as to whether the Minor would burst into life or sit there idly while I turn the key. My heart was racing… I turned the key and… nothing. Only then remembering that I’d disconnected the battery some time in March I popped her open and reconnected the juice.

One little turn of the key and she rumbled into action, coughing and spitting 6 months of cobwebs and then… well. It wasn’t exactly dainty or beautiful, but she was running. Uneven, too fast, and kicking out a cumulonimbus of smoke. Still… any life is good life. Checking plugs and compressions will be the next step.

Before the triumph of her sewing-machine-like purring I was also rewarded by the gift of a buggered thumbnail and a rear, driver side drum brake. Finally got the bastard off after a combined effort time, over the last couple of days, of probably 90 minutes. All sorted now though so only the front to worry about. Then the exhaust. Then the rust. Then the electrics. Then the engine. Hmm…

Drum Braked

I’ve never been a fan of drums but I’ll admit the ‘65 Minor has a better rear drum setup than the ‘89 Mini… go figure. I pulled off the rear passenger side siezed drum in a mere 30 minutes or so. Pads changed, rust wire-brushed out, sorted. Once you’ve done one the rest are all easy I reminded myself. If only. 45 minutes later I’d moved the driver side rear drum about 2mm and had snapped one of my flathead screwdrivers. Dowsed in 3-in-1 I left it for a surprise attack several hours later. Still no luck.
Tomorrow I’ll find the most leverable and invasive tool I can find and give it the balls. If that doesn’t work I’ll set it on fire and/or blow it up and convert the whole damn thing to discs… or a landrover subframe. Hmm!

To be continued…

PSM Signing in.

Well, there had been a significant number of previous blog entries but with the new route comes a new blog and new responsibilities.

This week I will be mostly getting my car MOT’d. No mean feat. It wont pass, but once I know exactly how many varied and wonderful ways it has failed I can get cracking, get it passed, then get modifying!

Other challenges for the week are sending off for a Syrian visa and starting the carnet process (maybe, depending on what we find out about Egypt).

Stay tuned for disasterous consequences and total system failure.