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Some spent the rest day in Nouakchott lazing by the pool and others spent parts of the day checking out the markets, sights and local colour (grey/brown). The majority however, spent at least some of the day repairing or servicing their cars. Wonky Land Rovers were straightened, to some degree, with new glass tank taped in place while others, such as Kevin Anderson and Paul Emmerson's Peugeot 106, required a new clutch. One thing was definite and that was the two service crew's where kept busy for the whole 'day off'. Some of the Land Rovers, before the event, had been beautifully prepared by a couple of professional off road racing specialists..... the 'roll over' score is currently; 'Scorpian Racing' - 3.....v.....'Frogs Island' - 1 The Seat Ibiza of Roger and Michael Stevens, which holed the sump several days ago, had subsequently developed ominous engine noises and they wisely decided to skip the difficult desert sections rather than risk becoming marooned up to their necks in sand. The car has now caught back up with rally, having spent 25 hours on the back of a lorry, and it started again today. The truck journey became an adventure in itself. After breaking down on route South, the Mauritanian truck crew secured the tilted cab with a shoelace and then invited the Stevens underneath the precarious Bedford 'guillotine' to help them fix the engine. Later on they continued trucking while the second driver cooked up lamb and rice for everyone, inside the cab, without so much as slowing down. After nightfall Roger and Michael awoke, feeling cold, and with no sign of the drivers. With few other options they decided they may as well bed down for the night and hope they return by morning. They went to the fetch their sleeping bags from the car and on reaching inside all hell broke loose as the startled truck crew woke up having decided that the Seat Ibiza was the warmest place to spend the night. The job today was simply to get out of Mauritania, through the border, and into St. Louis, in Senegal. The road out of Nouakchott was an easy tarmac run through tiny villages consisting of shacks and huts clustered in the scrub. As usual in Africa there where many Police checkpoints to contend with but passage was unhindered to any notable degree thanks to prior negotiations by the Organisation. The final leg of the run to the border was a long drive along the top of a roughly constructed dyke that serves to protect a huge estuary area from the tide. A stubborn Monitor Lizard measuring a metre and a half in length temporarily halted progress at one place but most of the journey consisted of just dodging goat and cattle and not slipping off the edge of the ridge. Progress through the borders went like clockwork thanks again to 'our man on the rally' Dhafer who is a wonderful diplomat and mediator and has a wealth of rally organisational experience in North Africa. And also to the Senegalese motor club who welcomed us at the border still wearing their very snazzy 'Barcelona - Dakar 2005' jackets. Although a simple liaison day, the roads are still very trying on machinery and of course, the machines have nearly had enough. The Morris Minor suffered one broken shock absorber and one completely missing - whereabouts unknown, and The Escort of Angus Stamper and Mark I'Anson had a shock absorber pierce its way through a turret. Stephen Cooper and Aggie Foster where frustrated to learn that the engine problem they have been dogged with for the last few days was only caused by a blocked fuel filter. Senegal is a wonderfully colourful place and although the roads are still rough as old boots, is giving us even more fresh sights and experiences. The smaller residential parts of town are jammed with activity, noise, beautifully dressed women, scruffy but happy kids, and more goats than you can shake a stick at. After running straight through the middle of the busy and buzzing town of St Louis we crossed two large bridges to be, yet again, staying on a sandy spit of land jutting out into the Atlantic. This one is smaller more sheltered little peninsular however and the 'hotels' are actually really nice holiday resorts with the accommodation consisting of individual little straw roofed circular huts, sitting right on the sandy beach amidst the palm trees. |
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