ibrakeforRALLYcake!

Slackers!!!

2007-05-08T20:52:00.000Z

Finding sufficient excuses for not sorting out the photos and/or the road book until now (May) is going to be difficult but I'm going to go with being kicked out of the flat, kipping on Fraser's floor and at Kate's mums house (mainly Kates mum's, Fraser didn't do my washing, thank you Jill!!!) and finally moving in with Kate, er and snowboarding.

Anyway I've just returned to the 21st century with broadband and so will attempt to sort through the photos and scribbled notes in the road book so Dave and my Grandkids can tell Grandad to shut the hell up and stop telling the Bansang ferry story for the nth time coz they read it on ibrakeforcake first.

I think we covered most of the prep for the rally pretty well so I'll start from Hyde Park, which is better than me and Dave nearly did as there would appear to be more than one bits of open ground opposite a 'Marble Arch' mmm 4000 miles of navigation to go and we're struggling with Hyde Park..........

Dave brake tests the Trooper

Sold

2007-03-06T11:01:00.000Z

Have only just found out how much the Trooper sold for, which is a bit slack, but both Chris and I have been up to our eyeballs since our return from the P2B. £699.66 was what it fetched, which I am a bit dissapointed with, to be honest, but the fuel pump issue must hasve hindered bidding, even though it only needed a good clean and refurb.

Pictures

2007-02-08T23:24:00.000Z

Sorry one and all if you've been waiting for pictures from the trip. A small selection of the piccies are up on the FLICKR host site that we use and can be accessed by clicking on the image below. Sorry again as I've been really busy with work and completing/knocking down bits of my new house and the piccies took a back seat for a bit, but Pippa and Ian and Jan, DVDs will be winging their way to you next week at some point.

Enjoy the images, they show a bit but do no real justice to how amazing an experience the P2B was...

Messages from a Couple we met en route.

2007-01-16T11:46:00.000Z

Hey Chris,

I checked out your site - How could I not when it has such a great name

I wanted to post a comment to the Sahara update (doh), but the function seems to
be disabled. Worried about dodgy comments from your mates eh?

Here is is anyway:
Bonjour/Hola from one of the Australian bikers! ...well, technically I am
South African and my partner Sean is the Ozzie, but I dont mind the demotion

It was excellently exciting to stumble upon some of the Plymouth-Banjul
crew. Chris and Daves were one of the first cars we saw. 'ibrakeforcake'
provided a few good miles of in-helmet entertainment. It was with amusement
that Sean and I stopped to provide additional assistance to an over-eager
fellow rally car, a little mini-van with the adventurous spirit of its 2
burly german male driver and navigator. The Ibrakeforcake team however had
it all under control as they towed 'Mona' the mischievious minivan out of
the perilous desert sand and away from the ship wreck that had lured her in.
Not bad for a Charade!

Happy travels south boys. And heres to using more female undergarments to
get you there!

Michelle

***

I'm glad to hear that Sean has run into you guys again. It's difficult not
to be able to continue south with him, but then, that's the curse of having
to go back to work eh (all the better for saving up for a complete joint
adventure next time around).

I was happy to hear that your African bush mechanics are workign well -
gravity assisted fuel pumps sound brilliant!!

Good luck with your adventure. It is great to get out and meet such spirited
people who have the balls to do more than just armchair travel! Wey hey!

Happy and safe travels,
Shells

Alive Alive-o

2007-01-16T09:49:00.000Z

Hello

Contrary to popular myth and rumour me and Dave are alive and well having made to Gambia and back in one piece. Full posts/pics to follow once we've adjusted to being back in blighty.

Happy new year to everyone I've not seen

Back in Blighty

2007-01-16T09:19:00.000Z

We have arrived home, a little more smelly, tired and weary. Lots of piccies and stories to tell which will go up on the blog when they're sorted! Thanks to everyone who helped us get the car and equipment ready for The Gambia and the people who sponsored us to get the car there.

We met up with Kemo Cesay, our PAGEANT contact and donated the materials to Sinchu Baliya school, amid one of the warmest receptions I have ever experienced. Really great to see the kids there and the how outside help is changing their school environment. We were also fortunate to visit Bansang Hospital, up country, with the Los Perros Locos boys, who'd arranged to donate their car as an ambulance and donate some medical supplies. This also gave us an opertunity to give over the medical stuff that we'd bought. Another amazing welcome, with more local dancing and a detailed four hour tour of the Hospital's facilities (or lack of them). Quite an experience and great to see the impact that Anita Smith has been able to make there. Google 'Bansang Hospital' for more info - it was on the BBC last Friday, too.

A massive thanks to all the people who helped us along the way - too many to mention in detail, but you know who you are! Special thanks to Steffi and Kate who let us go and supported us, also our Parents, Bob, Cath and Derek. And a Massive thank you to Gav for all the tireless web work and behind the scenes geekery!

Nearly there!

2007-01-09T21:54:00.000Z

Sorry if you all thought something terrible had happened, it hasn't, well not before I last spoke to them yesterday evening. They have had an eventful week, nearly getting lost in the dessert, dodgy guide, pot holes the size of the trooper, dead donkeys, holding areas, kids trying to nick stuff, locked keys in the car and holding up lots of angry ferry passengers which resulted in the trooper being lifted out the way and shaking hands with a crocodile (do crocodiles have hands?)! By and large your average day in Milton Keynes.

Anyway they are safely in The Gambia, Dave sounds like he's had an amazing time, they're off to see hippos tomorrow and are set to come home on Friday.

Sahara time!

2006-12-28T15:58:00.000Z

Got a very quick but informative call this morning, they had left Layoun and headed into the Western Sahara travelling with two Australian bikers. They are stopped fairly regularly by military check points but all is well and they've had no problems with the locals! The car started rattling and they had got sand in the air inlet, so with a pair of tights securely in place they were off again and are now heading towards Dakhla only a few miles north of the Tropic of Cancer. The weather has got hot and even at night they it's mild (not that they know as it seems the lure of hotels is winning over the camping plans!).
Steph

High in the Hills

2006-12-27T15:58:00.000Z

I think MK implied Marrakech Gav, but not to worry! Yesterday (Boxing Day) they successfully navigated the Atlas Mountains over the Tiz-n-Test pass with scenery "to die for" with the weather hotting up and on to Agadir.

Back in time to the lost days of Gav; the boys spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Marrakech sampling interesting foods and fighting off the market traders, but I am assured they have got some bargains. Dave marvelled at the number of donkeys and as it was The Festival of the Lamb, or some such, there were sheep/lambs everywhere, on mopeds, in the streets, in houses...

Generally both boys are in very high spirits and are really enjoying their adventure; jealousy is beginning to seep in - but can't really complain as I am now sitting in the South of France and for the first time in over a week I have seen the sun!

Steffi

incommunicado

2006-12-27T08:07:00.000Z

A quick update from the chaps, we are missing a few posts since some chav nicked my phone the other day...true christmas spirit and all that....

So Chris informed me yesterday (might have been christmas day) that they had left MK, now then, i am assuming that this is some sort of typo for those in the know(and dave should know) MK means Milton Keynes and he left there 10 days ago! S lets make a massive leap here because geography isn't my strong point and its a 5m walk to the atlas and i'm in a rush, so....they left Meknes in morocco yesterday with the Atlas mountains looming in the distance and they do look 'bleedin' high. Well done there chris.

Glad to be back on the road and in a convoy of at least 8 cars they are now off to Sidiinfi to camp for the Night.

They both wish us a Merry Christmas as we do them!

Good luck guys.

Hola amigos

2006-12-21T10:05:00.000Z

The guys arrived safely in Madrid last night after a long drive through Spain and a night sleeping in the car.

A little game of football to relax in which Dave managed to hurt his shoulder. Fantastic scenary of which i'm sure senor Branfield will be taking lots of porper photos of which we will upload and publish on their return from Da Gambia, innit.

The Trooper is struggling on but is still stripping gearbox in 5th gear. Following a brief conversation I managed to contact the best breakers yard in Gibralter who claim to have a spare tropper gearbox which Chris and Dave will hopefully go and look at today. The budget is tight and if possible they will replace the whole gearbox, good job Chris knows his stuff, i wouldn't want to tackle that job on the road! If the entire replacemetn is not possible they may just replace the 5th gear...we'll keep you posted!

Enjoy your trip to the rock chaps!

Days of oil lives

2006-12-19T11:18:00.000Z

Having gotten totally covered in gear oil, we have refilled the troopers g/box and are planning to leave Bergerac in about 30 mins (12.30pm) about 3 hours behind our schedule. AA european cover has been purchased and we are taking an easier route over the Pyranees (spelt wrong I know!!!)

Hopefully we'll be in tough tonight to say we made Spain!!

Chris

The overnight trip to Bergerac

2006-12-18T17:47:00.000Z

Our first update date from the boys in France!

Follwoing a drive all through the night, Chris and Dave rocked up in Bergerac at 8am, to stay with Chris's friend ian who happens to own a lovely barn, (available to hire) and get a well earned rest after driving 20 hours of the first 24 of the rally!

OK. Thanks Gav. What a 36 hours that was. We have arrived 'safely' in Bergerac and are staying with Annabelle and Ian at their lovely little pile and are slowly regaining our sanity! Sunday was a bit of a blur as we'd got up around 7am after a meal out to say goodbye to Steffi and Kate in Brighton. A little hungover and it was off up to London for the Start Line official in Hyde Park. In keeping with the general theme of disorganisation, the launch was hectic, great fun seeing everyone's pimped out cars and we managed to leave without everyone after getting confused about what was supposed to be happening! Massive thanks to everyone that showed up, it was wicked to see you all!

Off to the ferry for 3:30pm and we were feeling quite sorted at this point and following via michelin directions were steaming south. It all started to go wrong about 2am when the fog set in. May I just say that it was FOG not just whispy uk fog and we were in it for around the next six hours! The 15ft of visability meant that you had to stay 100% concentrated all the time which was increasingly hard the more tired you were. After a breif nap at 3am, things really started to go crazy at about 4am when the gearbox started to make a catching, intermittent whining sound in fifth gear. Bugger. This continued and coupled with our tiredness, started to make us go completely paranoid and we narrowed it down to main drive bearing or one of the gearbox bearings/cogs/synchromesh/dog clutch... Anyway, we pulled over and checked the transmition oil level. Fine. Went 100m and then checked the engine oil level - not much. We toppedup the engine oil, I stood in the oil and covered my shoes, then got in to drive and realised that I couldn'toperate the pedals as I was slipping off! Doh! Drove in sock for an hour whilst Chris wiped my shoe clean. By now complete exhaustion, the limoge effect (when limoge is signposted as 20km for what seems like three hours without getting any closer) and complete runaway paranoia about the gearbox meant we were gibbering wrecks, with one driving,the other pointing out useful facts like bends in the road and that you've got your wipers on full blast in dry air...

We arrived at 8am and let ourselves in and both couldn'twind down enough to sleep for half an hour...

Dave

Alarm woke the pair of us at 11 despite wishing we could sleep for about another day. Personally it took me about 2 hours and a shower before I was anywhere operating at full capacity. Lunch lunched we drove up to see a mechanic Ian knows, turned out he'd had mroe than his fair share of prepping 4x4s for the desert. Having arched his eyebrows at the wagon he offered to try and track down another gearbox tomorrow, loosen all the retaining bolts and show us how the box would come out should the need arise.

We dropped the gearbox oil and found the inevitable glimmer of bearing material followed by shards of wear debris left behind in the drop tray, in short. Either 5th gear or one of the main shaft bearings is wearing rapidly. We're hoping it's only fith and it's not that rapid!!! Tom we will see if we matey has found another box and will top up on relevant lube and bowser so I don't have to have another bath in the bloody stuff!

If this was going to happen on the rally this is probably the best place aside from spitting distance from the finish line, somewhat aggrieved it couldn't play silly buggers a month ago so could rectiywith the help of glorious leader and Gary but 'what can you do', beer calls.

Chris

As mike says.... CHILLAAAAX!

3,000 miles to go

2006-12-18T17:46:00.000Z

An early start for the friends and family of our intrepid Ibrakeforcake rally team as we gathered on an amazing Winters Morning in Hyde Park.

In typical Gav style i had a phone with no charge but had had the foresight before the previous evenings drinks to fourmulate some sort of plan! Off we trotted to Find both Monsieur Lawler and senor branfield looking suprisingly chirpy and excitable as you would be knowing or maybe not knowing what the next three weeks were all about!

In true bodge it style the roof rack was on and strapped down all the essentials our team needs for a challenging 3 week rally...yup a spare wheel and their surfboards! Fear not i did overhear a conversation in which chris reassured someone they were organised and had spares etc...i'm not saying anything, checked you passport this time chris?

So good luck to the chaps, we will be utilising all the latest technologies to keep you all updated of their progress. We wish them safe travels and a superb christmas. I am not quite sure how either of them will cope without the turkey, maybe they have a secret plan? Although looking at them in this photo i'm not convinced! Good Luck Dave and Chris spreading the IBFC name across the lands.

Pageant Delivery

2006-12-13T09:12:00.000Z

Pippa has taken delivery of the resources we will be taking out to Sinchu Baliya, listed below. We'll be stopping by on Saturday to get some pics of Ian and Pippa with the car and get any last minute advice for The Gambia.

best Dave fixes the roofrack on with more than cable ties then, eh Dave

The List

SENTIFIX
Sing & Play: Animals
Big Frog Literacy Pond
First Writing Mat Class Set
Alphabet Zigzag book set
Look, Write, Hear cards etc
Phonix Demo Cards
Sort & Sound word-making cards
Wordmat KS1 class set
Wordmat KS2 class set
Cursive alphabet line
Letter tracing stencils
Grammar through the Literacy Hour Y3
Grammar through the Literacy Hour Y4
Busy Bee workbooks, pack
packs 100 exercise books
3x100 large science practical books
80 metre rules
2x100 junior writing books
13 sets Round the class cards

Total spend was approx £550

Thanks again to Edison for their support of PAGEANT and to everyone who sponsored us so we can get the resources out there!

Sponsorship- Thank You

2006-12-12T09:40:00.000Z

This will get updated over the remaining few days before we go by myself and Dave. Firstly a massive thank you to everyone who has sponsored us. Not only will all of your support help get us to Gambia but we now have quite an impressive collection of equipment to donate (see previous post).

Sponsors so far

Vegantune
The boys come up trumps again, thank you very very much Rich

Edison
Thank you for buying into the whole idea and helping get the ball rolling, paricularly my Mum, Hi mum

Medlock Construction
Thank you Kate and all her friends at Medlock for sponsoring us and to Warren for donating pretty much all of the non automotive tools and equipment and some of the automotive stuff as well

Our Finances so far

Edison Schools Direct to Pageant.................... £1200
Edison Schools to IBFC....................................£800
BOC Edwards..................................................£250
Jet and Helicopter...........................................£100
Crazy Horses Racing .......................................£100
Pa Branfield ....................................................£56 worth of jerrycans

Chris Friends and Family .................................£430

Dave Friends and Family..................£510

Total Donated ..................................................£3390

Total(-) Edison donation to Pageant.................. £2190

This is the amount that will be taken in cash of various currencies and on a dedicated credit card

Expenditure

Sponsorship money is being used for the following only. All other costs i.e. buying the car, flights, innoculations, accomodation not listed, car tax and insurance etc has already been paid by Dave and myself.

Amount spent is listed if the items have already been bought

Car parts and spares ...............................£200 Crazy Horses, Vegantune, Jet & Helicopter
Car fluids, purchased tools...................... £250 BOC Edwards
purchased equipment, inc 1st aid............ £116.44
Fuel from France onwards .......................£-
Tolls........................................................£-
Med. Ferry ..............................................£-
Moroccan Insurance................................£-
Food supplies ex meals 'out'.....................£-
Camp sites.............................................. £-
Senegalese Ins.........................................£-
Border 'fees' ...........................................£-
Desert/Minefield Guide.......................... £-
Resources for Edison Schools ..................£- From Edisons £800 donation

At the end of the rally the money we did not need to get the car to The Gambia will be donated to PAGEANT, I will complete a matched donation form and BOC Edwards will match this donation pound for pound, doubling what we can give to PAGEANT.

This is NOT a final finanncial account, we will publish this after the rally but it is the most accurate desription of our Sponsorship to date.

Chris

FMB

2006-12-11T16:57:00.000Z

This post is of no technical, historical or narrative value and is simply me saying, 'good god we go this Sunday', fortuntely I have recieved some encouraging words from Ian, proprietor of the establishment at which we will be spending Monday night in France

me and Ed seeing the family before Christmas and handing the car over to Monsieur Branfield fo MK duties

Just been going through your itinerary. ARE YOU HAVING A LAUGH! DO YOU KNOW WHERE BANJUL IS? IT'S NOT THE NAME OF SOME BAR IN SOUTHERN FRANCE. IT'S IN THE BLOODY DESERT! Listen. All's not lost. I've arranged everything. When you get to Gibraltar, speak to Manuel Olitharzibalihez in the customs office. You're booked on the 15.20 fast cat to Tenerife. Leave your kit at the Plaza, kick back for a few days, daub "Banjul welcomes you" on a scrap of paper, quick pickie, ditch the truck and hop it back on the BA flight to Gatwick. You'll be back in time for mince pies.

Ian

Time will tell if Ian knows something we don't.

All the mod cons......

2006-12-05T08:52:00.000Z

.......Like seats that don't try and rattle the fillings out of your head every time a sparrow sneezes at 400yrds in the direction of the trooper or that require you to drive whilst performing a complex variation on the lotus position whilst temporarily dislocating the 5th an 6th vertebrae to accommodate the solid acute angled back support mid spine. In short the old seats were not exactly comfortable

Modified Isuzu seat rails

fortunately Dave salvaged the 'seats' (read armchairs) from the Cavalier which have been duly fitted, not sure if its the comfort level or the provenance in general but sitting in them provokes an instant craving for a pipe, slippers and the Sunday papers probably followed by a nice afternoon nap, which is fine just not on the N21 10hrs south of Calais!

Trial fitting of the new seats

Following a superior level of bodging by myself and Fraser on Friday afternoon (cheers Fraser and his mate with the lock up and power for the drill!!) I trial fitted the seats on Sunday afternoon whilst struggling somewhat through the cheese and port haze from Saturday

Original seat adjustment mechanism retained

A minor amount of tinkering required to retain the sliding mech as I have short legs.

Essential tools

Massive thank you to Kate's dad Chris for letting me use his garage as playing mechanic in the p*ssing rain and wind in the dark is not much fun. The garage floor is covered by carpet very much in keeping with the whole slippers and armchair theme all helped by a constant supply of tea and digestives, thank you Kate. However a little known property of this type of carpet is its unbelievably ability to instantly camouflage and disappear pretty much anything you put on it, I lost an entire seat for about half an hour.

New seat in innit. Can you spot Ed?!

Home from home, the armchair in situ. They are sooooooo comfortable, best mod to the car yet!!!

Chris

Best laid plans.......

2006-12-04T10:05:00.000Z

Me and Davros the 'no longer unready' finally got round to forming what could be passed as something approaching a plan at the weekend.

Press any key to continue. Doh, where's the 'Any Key'

We've sorted out our travels day by day until Agadir in Southern Morocco, after that we're governed by making the Mauritanian border in time to meet up with everyone and head off into the dessert. All of the following is completely subject to change depending how we get on and how badly we get distracted by cool stuff on route! having said that our itinary so far looks something like this.

Sunday 17th Brighton to Hyde Park to Calais to Bergerac !!!

Monday 18th Arrive Bergerac and recover!!

Tuesday 19th Leave Bergerac over the Pyrenees to somwhere in Northern Spain near Zaragoza, stopping when we've had enough

Wednesday 20th Zaragoza to Madrid and a night in an Ibis hotel and city shenningans

Thursday 21st Leave Madrid, arrive Gibraltar to claim our pre-booked accom and meet up with the rest of the teams

Friday 22nd Recover from Thursday and general R&R day

here, here and ....... how far!!!

Saturday 23rd Leave Gibraltar by ferry for Morocco, not expecting to get far by the time we've negotiated out first African border. Stopping around Fes when we've had enough or find somewhere intersting to stay.

Christmas eve 24th Arrive Marrakech for two days with few other teams

Christmas day 25th Day in Marrakech doing touristy stuff

Boxing day 26th Leave Marakech for Agadir via the Tiz n Test mountain pass stay in Agadir

Wednesday 27th Leave Agadir into the dessert, still on road, to Daklar

Thursday 28th Daklar to Nouadibou to re-group pre desert operation

Friday 29th Into the desert for real.

From this point on all bets are off and, although we pretty much are anyway, we'll be taking each day as it comes. We still need to make a certain amount of progress each day but it's such an unknown we're not bothering to plan on being anywhere at any given time in between the various towns and borders.

Will try and get some Google earth links to some of the desert way points or simliar.

Not filched and modified from a Paris Dakar website, honest.

Letter to the Times Educational Supplement

2006-11-28T16:41:00.000Z

Sent to the TES in the hope that our un-paralleled photographical and mechanical skills backed by a formidable mastering of the English language will prove just too much of an opportunity to turn down. Catapulting me and Dave to giddying heights of celebrity and stardom as we enthrall the English speaking world with tales of daring and the crisis management of incidents brought about by a general lack of preparation and a propensity to do daft things in front of a camera... despite being 26 and knowing better.

A good friend of mine and myself are taking part in the 2007 Plymouth to Banjul Challenge, a 4000 mile unsupported drive departing from the UK on the 17th of December and heading to Banjul in The Gambia where the cars we make the journey in will be auctioned and the proceeds donated to local charities identified by the challenge organizers.

In addition we have been raising money for Pageant a charity supporting educational projects in the Gambia.

Through Pageant we have established links with Sinchu Balyia, a primary school of 3000 in The Gambia. During the summer I met Omar Janneh, the science co-coordinators from Sinchu Balyia whilst he was on a 6 week Pageant sponsored visit to the UK. Omar's trip included visits to several UK primary schools which I was able to organise. Omar will be repaying the favour by taking us round his school, allowing us to take a lesson and introducing us to his family and way of life. He has also written an article for our website.

All the details of our preparations, sponsors, links to charities, Omar's article and the general story so far are comprehensively covered on http://www.ibrakeforcake.com/ The site is well established and contains a significant amount of constantly updated content covering motor sport, mountain biking, climbing, snowboarding, surfing, mountaineering, hill walking, lifestyle and the Banjul challenge and provides much more of an insight into our motivation for taking part.

My good friend Dave works as a professional photographer and I am an ex-motor sport mechanic working in development engineering. Between us we will be filming, documenting and photographing the entire trip for ibrakeforcake and will be centering on the delivery of a crate of educational resources, picked out by Omar and paid for by our fundraising, to Sinchu Balyia.

Having already gone to such an enormous effort and still harbouring a completely unchecked level of enthusiasm for the whole project we are hoping the TES would be interested in running our exploits over one or more articles. We would be more than happy to provide copy and photographs and have already generated a substantial amount of material on which to base one or several articles that could help highlight the lengths that the Gambian people are willing to go to to obtain a fraction of the education we sometimes take for granted.

The above is the briefest of summaries of the story so far and I would be really grateful for the opportunity to speak to you, to fill in the detail and give you a much better idea of the quality of material Dave and myself are capable of producing. Please take the time to check http://www.ibrakeforcake.com/

Kind Regards

Chris Lawler

Dave, what do you think of Team Rallyace

2006-11-27T15:20:00.000Z

picture remains copyright of team Rallyace, like you'd actually care!

Nice, said Dave. Jesus, just look at that boat race.

Update

2006-11-27T15:06:00.000Z

Financial sponsorship is finally kicking into action with Chris and I taking around £250 each from our work/freinds/small children that we held upside down and shook... Our parents have been roped in, in various ways to raise money/kit too. Well done them. Other important news is that Steph is making us a Crimbo cake to take away and eat in a carpark in Morrocco somewhere. Lovely. Also, as promised I finally did the GIF animation. Sorry about the quality and you have to click on the image... sorry, but it really is a feast for the eyes and mind.

We still have car seats, camping stuff and roof rack to sort, various bits of outstanding paperwork, Oh, and the route to plan! Chris will be doing a tour of Edison Schools next Friday and then it really will be pack up and go... I've finally got around to posting the picture of the roofrack and cans, thanks again to those involved. NB that is not my lounge in the picture, its a set... I have much better taste and some furniture!

Dave

Crazy Horses Flame Stickers of Glory

2006-11-27T10:51:00.000Z

.......and here Ed are the stickers from Mr Reynolds, Mr Reynolds is a geezor and helped fix the car that's taking you to Africa, say thank you to Mr Reynolds Ed.

Rack it up.

2006-11-15T14:13:00.000Z

Have got ourselves a sparkling shiny galvernised steel roof rack VERY kindly donated by Richard Grant, a freelance setbuilder/model maker that works with us at our studio from time to time. Thanks for relenting in the end and giving it away! Rich is a top bloke and very good at all sorts of carpentry and building projects and film work, so get in touch at www.rgproduct.com

Nice one.

Clunking Sounds...

2006-11-01T13:01:00.000Z

picture from www.wikipedia.com

Just for the record, Chris and I had a conversation about the Trooper's Diff when we were at Leith Hill at the weekend. Now this could turn out to be nothing or could come back and bite us on the bum like a rabid dog, but the diff is making some grumbling clunky noises when turning - ie when equalling the drive of the rear wheels. Having discussed the work that was done with Steffis dad (an 'engineer' - a dangerous breed liable to melt parts of your bike or set fire to themselves (Mike's dad) at any given time) he said that we should double check what we'd done to the diff, as the pinion gear placement is critical and will, obviousely shred itself if misalinged...

Further talk with Chris and Rich at Vegantune ensued and the general advice is that there was no sign of wear on the oil that came out of the dif housing before it was tightened, old diffs clunk and another 4x4 that Rich had dealt with recently was suffering a similar sound and that it was exaggerated by running different size/profile wheels than those fitted as standard. We are running stupid wheels so we can expect this to happen!

This post is not intended as a 'whos right', but I have a feeling that we might look back on this episode and laugh/sigh for one reason or another!!! Anyone out there who has had similar experiences can get in touch:

chris@ibrakeforcake.com

More Stickers Please.

2006-10-30T22:29:00.000Z

Having given the Trooper a new paint job we are now desperately trying to cover it up with sponsorship logos. WE ARE LOOKING FOR A FURTHER CASH SPONSOR TO HELP GET THE TROOPER DOWN TO THE GAMBIA. Please help or get in touch if you know someone or a company which can help!!

Vegantune Ramblings

2006-10-30T22:28:00.000Z

Right then children. If anyone reads this post in its entirety you got too much spare time and if my Mother reads this I am aware of the atrocious grammar sentence construction and or spelling and intend to do nothing about it.

To summarise I spent a week at Vegantune running myself ragged to get quite a serious amount of work done on the Trooper, what follows is a rambling account of what I got done, not forgetting Mr Branfields contribution on sat, perhaps I'll put up another post about the MkI landrover I'm glad we're not driving to Gambia.

I've the work down by area on the car not by chronolgical order.

Brakes

Both front discs and pads needed replacing, removal of the discs requires removal of the entire auto locking front hubs, handy but at least I know how they work now!

Front right behaved itself generally and the calliper was fine after a brief clean and flush through, it was suffering slightly from excessive pad and disc wear causing over extension of the calliper piston.

The front left calliper refused point blank to be removed from the calliper carrier, closer inspection revealed the upper pivot pin was seized inside the calliper, also the cause of the Trooper pulling to the right under braking. Removing the pin was somewhat emotional and included a trip to the local machine shop but was finally resolved by Gary a blowtorch and a hammer, a deadly combination that stubborn pieces of machinery rarely survive.

Having cleaned and reassembled the calliper an initial bleed of the brakes revealed that the pin was also bent. I think this was already bent and contributed to the pin seizing. The result was to hold the calliper un-parallel to the surface of the disc, when the pedal was pressed the calliper first re-aligned, flexing the carrier casting before applying any real braking force, resulting in a crap brake pedal and the likelihood of the brittle casting failing from fatigue.

The pin was ‘persuaded’ back into alignment by yours truly while someone sat in the drivers seat applying the pedal so I could visual inspect the amount and direction of flex. I would like to point out that was an edited and abridged version of events that that in no way captures the unrelenting stream of appalling language and general level of violence aimed at said inanimate object over a 3-4 hour period.

Rear drums were removed and shoes inspected, all found to be tickety boo. Minor lip to drums ground back, drums cleaned, repainted and refitted.

Brakes re-bled and voila, one correctly performing brake pedal.

Front Hubs

Whilst removing the front auto locking hubs I noticed damaged to the left inner bearing seal, the inner bearing race was difficult to remove and closer inspection revealed heaving scuffing and pickup on the stub shaft indicating that a previous bearing had seized and rotated on the shaft.

The bearings didn’t look standard and I may have modified the cage a little during removal so the whole assembly was replaced, involving removal of the bearing seats from the hub itself so new matched pairs can be pressed in. The scuffing on the stub shaft also had to be ground back to allow refitting of the inner bearing.

Both sides were thoroughly cleaned and repacked with lithium grease before re-assembly.

Front lower ball joint

The gaiter had long given up the ghost and the joint was dry and on its last legs and needed replacing. Typically the ball joint bone was connected to the upright bone which was connected to the drive shaft bone which got right in the way of ball joint removal so the top joint had to be cracked, the damper removed, hub half disassembled and driveshaft removed whilst levering out the old joint and replacing. Some of the loads in play are quite significant as the front torsion spring is loaded up to allow removal, again bad language ensued before all was well in the land of suspension.

Rear Diff/Propshaft

The pinion shaft on the rear diff was loose and some muppet had silicone sealed the flange between the shaft and diff to preent oil lose rather than re-torque the shaft which was duly tightend. Job done. Oil was dropped and refilled including a dose of Megapower 1010 lubricant additive.

Engine

Plugs, leads, dizzy cap and rotor and air filter replaced.

Inspection revealed the belt round the water pump was mis-aligned. Removal was require anyway to replace the cam belt. Having finally removed the plastic covers I was able to see there was no adjustment in the water pump shaft i.e. the water pump was working but had modified itself, possibly due to the force applied by the crap thermo-viscous fan attached to the shaft. Inspection revealed a polished length of shaft where the mounting boss used to sit. New water pump ordered.

Cam belt replaced amid usual ringing of hands, have I missed a tooth, is the timing out, is this a interference engine, are the valves going to contact and will the world stop spinning. It didn’t.

Various accessory belts replaced with new items during rebuild.

To allow access I removed the rad, whilst it was out I fitted a proper kenlow electic fan directly to the matrix. This removes the thermo-viscous wonder and a now redundant piece of cowling that was restricting air flow which will help cooling no end.

Oil and filter replaced with a Mega power engine flush and treatment.

Fuel filter replaced and re-routed as the pattern part casing was too big to fit in the original position.

Finally the engine was run with a Mega Power FISC system and additive added to the tank to clean through engine internals. Valve heads and seats etc.

The Cost

This is a quick breakdown of costs and value of the work.

Parts at cost £343
Parts at RRP £460
Mega Power FISC £90
Oils and Fluids £60
Sundries £20

Labour 5 days ~ 40 chargable hours @ £65/hour = £2600

Sub Total £3230 + VAT
Total £3795

This is a rough costing but safe to say that you just paid for this work though a garage it would cost well in excess of £3000. Of course in reality, this would never happen as it far outweighs the value of the vehicle but at least it illustrates the value we’ve added to the Trooper.

Finally thanks to Vegantune, Crazy Horses Racing and Simon at Jet and Helicopter I came out from the weekend having spent a net total of £38 pounds!! This is tied up in parts that were not used and could be returned i.e. would could achieve a net outlay of £0 but we’re hanging on to them to donate with the Trooper.

I asked if we could actually have one of each.......

2006-10-16T14:11:00.000Z

..which was a non starter but Simon Gusterson very kindly donated £100 to help out with our parts bill from last week. Simon races with Vegantune and is pictured below at Lydden hill earlier this year.

Thank you very much Simon

Look out for Simon's 2007 attack on the Clio Cup in a new Vegantune prepped vehicle test spanked by Rich at the weekend!!

Brute force and Ignorance

2006-10-16T14:06:00.000Z

Full write up to follow of my week at Vegantune and the work we got done on the car to come. This is just to say a massive thank you to Rich at Vegantune and Gary at Crazy Horses for their help over the week and to Stuart from QLM for the oil, lubricant additives and FISC service. There is no way I could of got a quarter of the work done without your help, cheers chaps.

Watch out Europe.

2006-10-13T15:41:00.000Z

Not quite understanding the true extent of what they are unleashing on the rest of Europe and North Africa (something must have been lost in the translation of 'charging yellow beast' and 'run for the hills'), SeaFrance has just foolishly provided us with a ticket to ride...

The general consensus on the P2B chat portal is that there will be some sort of gathering at Hyde Park on Sunday 17th Dec, where all assembled will cough and splutter past Gav's Dad whilst people look on in shock, horror and disbelief! We will, of course, be there with knobs and warm weather gear on. Good lord, there really is no turning back now!

Knee Update

2006-10-11T11:16:00.000Z

For those interested, I went to the doctor yesterday to have a look at the state of my knee.

It appears that I've torn the meniscus cartilege in my left knee and the joint won't straighten or 'lock'. Looks like keyhole surgery for me, then. With 9 weeks to go before blast off (so to speak), I just hope that I can get seen by the surgon within around 4 or 5 weeks time! As ever, my curiosity got the better of me and I had to have a poke around on Wikipedia to see what they said. It makes me feel a bit sick...

"One procedure involves threading long needles into the meniscus and out an incision in the back of the knee through the aid of a guide tube called a cannula. The suture thread ends are tied together on the outside of the knee capsule layer to bring the tear together. Another procedure requires specially designed devices that employ multiple sutures and knot pusher instruments to allow surgeons to provide excellent meniscal repair with just a single 1 ½” incision.
The majority of meniscal tears are not suitable for repair and instead the torn piece is removed, known as a menisectomy."

Taken from www.wikipedia.com

Yummy! Not even Ed the Crock can save me here!
On the up side, Chris is embedded and making a nuisence of himself at Vegantune and should be doing some updates on the car fixing scenario. The 'One Woman Army' that is my mother, has started fundraising for us with typical gusto and an early report states that £20 has been raised so far at her end. Watch out good people of Wormingford and Colchester! Thanks Mum, we are now looking at a £65 total and I haven't started properly yet for obvious reasons!
Dave.

SPONSOR US NOW!

2006-10-06T14:10:00.000Z

So HOT off the press that it HURTS!

The IBFC Publicity Brigade have been whipped into action and I have before me another graphical masterpiece that any 70s Disco-Night promoters would be proud of.

Chris and I will be brandishing these pieces of A4 wherever we go now and as you stare in disbelief at the cutting edge visuals, we'll be right there harrassing you for as much money as you've got!! Three poeple have already fallen foul of the charm offensive - Many thanks to Sam, Ruth and Pippa who've donated £45 already! Spot on. Seriously, we need to raise around £4000 before our Dec 16th departure date, so give whatever you can, its much appreciated. I'm giving one to Gav for his office, with the promise that if he fills it up, we'll send in a special IBFC cake for their trouble! GET INVOLVED PEOPLE!!!!

SAUSAGE!!!!

2006-10-03T12:55:00.000Z

Yup thats right, with one member using crutches and the other sporting a feindish hangover and the war cry of SAUSAGE!!, Team IBRAKEFORCAKE produced all their secret ninja moves from the government and launched themselves at the Vegantune garage in North London, with surprisingly litle resistance!! Dave...

Me and Davros

Hmm, something missing.

The other cars at Vegantune look on at the Trooper with envy...

Anti bonnet mishap device

no trip would be complete without.......

Dave and myself have been up to Vegantune to give the Trooper the visual once over and get a handle on what’s hot and what’s not before I have some time off in the week beginning the 16th October to actually carry out the work proper. Thanks to Gary, now next door to Vegantune at Wild Horses Racing, for some appliance of pry bar and a vast amount of experience where necessary.

Minor Works Carried Out
Fit bonnet pins and catch as the original catch is broken
Re-wire RH rear light cluster as the side light wasn’t working
Topped up and checked engine and transmission oil
Battery terminals replaced
Battery refitted properly
Air filter is horribly clogged
More stickers!!

Results of a stern looking at
Front pads and unfortunately disc are completely NFG
RH front caliper is very, very sticky
Front lower ball joints, excessive play. Need replacing
Rear live axle diff drive very loose

I am now on the look out for a local motor factor who might be willing to help us out with some if not all of the parts we need including a roof rack. Next up, pilfering visit to the local scrappy to look for interesting bits, mainly spot lamps.

Laters

Ladies and Gentleman

2006-09-19T14:04:00.000Z

Presenting ibrakeforcake's Plymouth to Banjul Challenge Vehicle. I don't think anything else needs to be said, it's yellow, Ed likes it and it the whole world is gonna see us coming, Hooyah.

Desert rat Lawler

Whats that comming over the hill, is it a MONSTER?!!

2006-09-17T21:59:00.000Z

Wow. What a weekend, I seem to have barely stopped! Disregarding the glorious weather and not going for a ride, Chris and I have been really busy this weekend up in MK and the Trooper has been thoroughly seen to. I stripped the decals during the week, it was then washed, de-greased, sanded and finally given two coats of Brewers finest yellow gloss, loosely colour mathched to De-Walt yellow. Its been a long slog, but it looks unbelievably good and better than either of us expected. We've done a timelapse progress photo-montage which I'll get up as an animated .GIF at some point with some pictures of the finished article! Ed the crock was instramental with the brush, as was Steffi who came and did all the fiddly things our fat bloke fingers couldn't get to. Proper chic, I tell thee.
Dave

Tonka Toy-tastic, my default colour scheme for any car I'd like to own is red with black wheels/trim however our Trooper looks outstanding, literally, in yellow. Even from this here teaser photo you can't begin to imagine what an eye polluting glare it made when we'd finnished it. I felt rough this morning after getting stuck on the M'cotton pickin'25 for 2 hours last night, compounded by blue boogers as a result of getting blue paint dust everywhere, if we can get the mechanicals as sorted as the paint job we're Africa a go go.
Chris

Crikey!! Where's Irwin when you need him.

2006-09-15T08:29:00.000Z

Breaking news. IBFC member savaged by fluffy crocodile in horrific office attack. IBFC member Chris Lawler is glad to be alive after the 71cm fluffy critter launched a viscous and unprovoked attack shortly after 10.00am this morning. In a further bizarre twist, the wily reptile was later captured and tamed using techniques developed by the late Steve Irwin that included a stern talking to and good behaviour rewards of yesterdays office doughnuts that wouldn't go soft even when dipped in coffee. The IBFC member and 'Ed' the crocodile, have now become firm friends and the little furry b*gger will be accompanying the intrepid and adventurous rally team back to 'Ed's' native land in Gambia.

Pre-Press Release

2006-09-14T15:10:00.000Z

Things have got moving again on the car front after a summer of flying around on our bikes and it is being de-decalled and prepped ready for paint. Many thanks to Frank at Brewers paint store in MK who has kindly donated the paint for the beast and Darren my Director of Photography who has allowed us the use of one of our studio warehousing units to paint her up in... More photos to come after the weekend.

Filthy blondie, Gav Wren is also on the case with the first set of vinyl stickers to adorn the Trooper in its new livery. Many thanks to him too, as he is in theprocess of setting up a new graphics company of his own and is rushed off his feet. Knowing Gav, It'll be a successful venture too. Good luck mate!

Edison Meeting

2006-08-09T15:26:00.000Z

Following Omar’s visit to several schools in the Thurrock area Pippa, Ian, Omar and myself drove up to Edison’s office in Colchester to meet with my Mum and other interested parties from Edison. Dave was due to meet us mid meeting, arriving in the Beast itself, however, as with all the best laid plans the M25 scuppered it well and truly rendering Dave unable to get anywhere near Colchester in time.

I was getting myself ready to have quite chat with 3 or 4 people until it began to dawn on me that the whole office was going to be involved including staff from the schools Omar had already visited. ibrakeforecake.com served as a useful talking point while I ran through why Dave and myself are doing the rally, how we got in contact with Pageant and what we could do for Edison. Pippa spoke for a short while about Pageants role in Gambia and then handed over to Omar who spoke for about 40mins about his school and community, from what I could tell the whole room was fascinated by what he had to say and he spent some time after speaking fielding questions.

We broke for tea and something to eat and a more informal chat with some of the Edison staff including Kevin Crossley who used to be the head of the 6th Form I attended and a couple of people who’d previously worked with Dave’s Dad, small world!!

Generally speaking the meeting was a success with everyone feeling like they’d gained. Me and Dave are both pretty busy until IBFC trip to the alps in a fortnight after which tying up loose ends with Edison and rally prep in general will get under way with a vengeance.

Chris

Message from Omar

2006-07-17T15:29:00.000Z

My name is Omar Janneh. I was born on 03/03/67 in a village called Kaur Janneh Kunda, which is to the east of The Gambia on the north bank of the River Gambia.

Kaur is large and is one of the oldest towns in The Gambia with many different ethnic groups such as the Mandingoes, Wolofs, Fulas, Manjakos, Serers, Mansuwankas and others. It has physical features such as low hills, streams, lakes and rivers.

A primary school was built there in 1947 for the children in Kaur and the neighbouring villages. Later, in the 1950s, a Junior Secondary School was also built. Now in Kaur we have Primary, Junior Secondary and a Senior Secondary School.

I attended Kaur Primary School from 1973 – 1979 and then went to Kaur Junior Secondary School from 1979 – 1982.

I further went to a vocational training school in Banjul from 1983 – 1987, where I was trained in bricklaying, block-laying and concreting, and acquired a City & Guilds Certificate.

I worked as a masonry craftsman for a few months and then, in September 1988 I joined the Education Department as an unqualified Primary School teacher. I taught for a few years and then in 1992 I joined the Gambia College to be trained as a qualified Primary Teacher. I completed my training in June 1995 and then, on 1 September 1995, I was appointed as a qualified teacher. Since then I have been teaching as a qualified Primary School teacher up to the present date.
I am now teaching in Sinchu Baliya Lower Basic School, which is one of the largest primary Schools in The Gambia.

I am married with two sons and three daughters. I also have two adopted children, a boy and a girl. My hobbies are scouting and gardening.

Pippa, Ian and Kemo Ceesay met me at Sinchu Baliya Lower Basic School in October 2002 and gave a microscope to my headmaster so that we can use it in our Science lessons. So, being the Science Resource Co-ordinator in our school, the headmaster gave it to me so that we could start doing microscopical drawings with my Science Club children, and we did. Then, in February 2003 the group came back to award prizes and certificates to the children who came out with the best drawings.

Since then our relationship has developed through their helping the school with teaching and learning materials. Pageant built a Science Resource Centre for us and Pageant members are now sponsoring many children in our school. Every year Pippa and Ian visit the school in February and October and now both the children and teachers are benefiting a lot from their sponsorship.

Pageant's meet Omar day

2006-07-11T15:56:00.000Z

On the way back from the launch party, still feeling slightly funky, I stopped in to Pippa and Ian's for their ‘meet Omar day’. They had some of their members round and were keen for me to talk to people about the Banjul Challenge.

I spoke to Omar about his visit to the Edison supported schools which he genuinely enjoyed, being pleasantly surprised by the level of interest and questions that the pupils had for him. Thanks to Jonathon Miller at Edison for organising what sounded like a pretty packed day fro Omar.

I also met Kemo, Pageant’s representative in Gambia and spoke to him for a while about the kind of things that Pageant are doing and he was really keen to show Dave and myself round when we’re in Gambia, we also have his number in case of logistical hiccups at the Senegalese/Gambian Border.

At some point soon we’ll be launching a couple of files containing lists of car related equipment that we are looking to ‘acquire’ before we leave that will be auctioned of with the vehicle and breakdown of our costs and donations.

However as an item that is highly prized in Gambia and is easy to transport.

We’re looking for old mobile phones, those bricks you’ve got sitting in a drawer somewhere ‘just in case’. We want them! Chargers would be good but it’s not essential.

Solar panels are also really high on the wish list, not that anyone is going to have any lying around but a contact would be useful if anyone’s parents relatives or partners etc have any connection with the industry.

One of the Pageant members, a German lady whose name has unfortunately escaped me due almost entirely to a complete lack of sleep Saturday night, has raised the possibility of a GPS unit and possibly satellite phone donation from the company she works for which would be seriously helpful.

Next in the diary is a meeting between Omar myself and Dave and Edison.

Laters

Sponsorship.

2006-07-10T14:37:00.000Z

www.bluedotdisplay.com

Chris and I would like to say a big thank you to Gav Wren at Blue Dot Display for supporting team IBFC in the sticker department. I went to Uni with Gav and recently badgered him for some graphics sponsorship for the car. Luckily for us, he's a top bloke and has agreed to supply the stickers for the techni-coloured visual assault that will be the Trooper, in a few weeks time once she's re-painted... Once again, many thanks and please visit the company at the URL above.

Launch Party!

2006-07-09T21:26:00.000Z

Dave
After finishing work on Friday night, Steph and I bundled our camping gear into the car and set off for the 'official' launch party for the rally, being held in a field in Devon! It was soon established that we'd not brought a map, but hey, who needs maps?! On arriving in Collumpton we discovered, unbelievably, that the local supermarket was shut (it was 10pm), there were no off-licences and we had no beer! However, this soon faded into insignificance as Chris had arrived early and bumped into some fellow Group 1 Swiss boys who'd flown over from Zurich. Being Swiss, they were on the case and far more organised than us, sporting a homemade table, a digital pen-knife and most importantly, a big bottle of Pimms, lemonade and all the correct fruit! This set the scene nicely and we started to put up our tent and say hello to the people that had already arrived...

Chris
..........friday night continued with groups of people arriving up until fairly late, my recollection starts to get a little hazy from here on inverse proportion to the amount of Devon scrumpy I had left to the point that the next thing I’m completely sure about is Sat morning.

Sat morning was whiled away in Exeter generally blundering about, most importantly we replenished the stock of alcohol and ate brekkie in possibly the most pikey Woolworths I’ve ever been in.

General discussion was being had about a sociably acceptable hour to resume drinking when someone wandered past the tent about 12.30 with a can of Fosters which we unanimously decided was a good enough excuse to crack the bar open. With about 8 litres on Number 1 on offer I think we managed to greet most people in Group 1 with a complementary glass and ended up with a big ole group of people hanging around for the Group 1 leadership ‘election’.

We modelled the democratic process directly on Monty Pythons Life of Brian, blessed are the meek, blessed be the Pimms, follow the Holy Sheesha etc etc. Seeing as we didn’t have anyone called Roger or Roderrick we appeared to decide Fionna was now our leader mainly thanks to her son handing her an important looking file at an opportune moment, nice one Harry.

Dave
Next up was the hog roast, more drinking and a massive question and answer session, with Julian standing proud on a ladder and doing a very good job of giving out all the info, considering the rain and the large, drunk crowd! Now the real fun began, with a couple of bands playing in the barn and bit of a disco ensuing. I danced like a God as usual and the music was going well into the daylight hours... May I also point out that Chris thoroughly lived up to reputaion, furthering Group 1 and international relations... hehe. Other points of interest where the compulsive urge to wheelspin, handbreak-turn and do dohnuts in any vehicle being driven anywhere in the field. Top car surfing by the boys in the volvo.

Chris
Gernerally I had an excellent weekend all told, it being reassuring to find out that there was a really nice mix of ages and nationalities and that in general Group 1 rules. Had a good chat to veterans of the run and the odd team showing off their wheels. The film unit from Thailand (with Bloody Mary in hand on the morning of day 3) were floating the idea of Group 1 get together closer to the time……?

Oh yeah, and we picked up some maps and stuff. Into the desert, Hooyah

More pics to come and some stuff on the Pageant meeting I went to on the Sunday on the way back to sunny Brighton.

Death of the Cavalier

2006-07-04T18:58:00.000Z

Those that know me will already know of my illustrious career of cars (starting with a mini, when I was 16, which I bought for £70 and proceeded to take apart, never to re-build!). It is therefor with a little tear in my eye that I finally got rid of the Cavalier, donated by my Grandpa when I was at University and sat on my parents' drive for two years after buying the thoroughly sensible Volvo! However, all is not lost... Not only did I have it scrapped for free, but I also managed to salvage some rather useful bits to transfer to the Trooper! I pulled out the front seats as they're just in perfect nick and I couldn't chuck them (not sure if we can make them fit, yet!), but most importantly we now have a booming, desert flattening, Essex-style sound system, with my old 6x9s and head unit! Much jiggery-pokery involved in sussing out the home-made wiring that Uli has put in, but it all works and you can hear it outside the car, so all the kids will look us. Sorted.
Have also discovered that the tail light problem was not as simple as first thought as it lies somewhere in the loom, which in some places sits outside the shell and is exposed to the elements!

Pageant Meeting

2006-06-30T15:59:00.000Z

Chris and I scooted over to have a meeting with the chaps from Pageant last night...

http://www.pageant.org.uk

Pippa nd Ian set up PAGEANT some years ago with the aim of providing funding and resources for Gambian schools and communities, constructing buildings for teaching and helping to educate and offer greater opportunaties to following generations and their communities. We arrived in Surrey to meet the gang, which included Omer, a Gambian teacher from Balakaar, who is in the UK to observe British teaching methods and generally gleen useful information to take back to his school. Chris' mum works for Edison schools and has arranged for Omer to have a few tours so that he can see how they operate and what their learning units have to offer.
We had a brilliant evening, discussing the trip, working out the most useful things to take out with us (I can see a trailer becomming involved at this rate!) and listening to Omer's stories and descriptions of The Gambia. I now feel as if we've really got things rolling and am have realised the extent of what is to come!Thanks again to Pippa and Ian's kind hospitality - the pizza was lovely!

First Freebie!

2006-06-26T20:10:00.000Z

Well the blagging and borrowing has already begun. I received the first bit of free stuff for the car, kindly donated by my next-door neighbour Malcom, who works for the PR side of Renault F1 and was probably wondering what the hulking great piece of scrap metal was outside the house! Anyway, he passed on a bottle of Motor Max super coolant, that he'd received as a gift from their rep. Lovely! Also on the cards is a borrowed GPS from my soon to be brother-in-law, Guy...

2006-06-19T12:31:00.000Z

Well the deed is done, we have a car!!! Saturday was quite an action packed day for Chris and I, travelling up to Nuneaton to see a possibly suitable car, owned by Uli, an interesting sounding German chap. After the usual getting lost trying to read 'streetmap' printouts, we arrived to see a blue LHD Isuzu Trooper parked up on the side of the road and it all felt alarmingly real all of a sudden!

Uli turned out to be a really nice guy who was thoroughly interested in what we were planning on doing, himself being a bit of a vehicle bodger/traveller (having welded an engine to a pushbike in Cairo and then driven it back to Germany, then to the UK!). There were various things wrong with the vehicle, which you'd expect from an 18 year old car, but nothing major. After a good look over and spin round the block which highlighted just how bad the brake pull was (under hard braking, apply lock to 10 O'clock or so, to counter a sticky front calliper!), we were quite satisfied that it had the potential to get us there in one piece. Down to negotiations! Uli very kindly agreed to throw in the workshop manual as a present, brilliant news, even if it is in German, as those puppies cost serious bucks! After a bit of haggling we settled on £500 which included the Tax until December and as the MOT is good until then too, it was a bargain!

Chris drove the beast back down to Steph and my house near Buckingham, before loading up with bikes for Sundays’ ride and then headed off to see Rich in London, for the official Vegantune look-over and some priceless info on desert mods and driving tips. This was my first real experience of driving a left hooker and predictably I reached for the door handle a few times whilst changing gear – generally I was impressed with the high position and how solid it felt. Having driven down to Kingston and out to Bracknell on Sunday, driving back to Buckingham afterwards, the car experienced no more problems, so all is good, with work beginning in ernest in a few weeks time.

2006-06-16T09:14:00.000Z

Calm before the storm

Another diary type post so we can look back and see if everything turns out the way we thought it was going to (unlikely).

On the car front a couple of weeks of digging turned up two Isuzu Troopers, both with identical specs in the same part of the country for roughly the same amount of money. Two cars however, turned out be one car being sold by the current owner and an aggro sounding wannabe car dealer trying to sell us the German’s car on his behalf without the German knowing and diddle us out of £150 odd quid in the process. Expletive

Dave and myself are therefore heading to Brummie land tomorrow to view said Trooper, buy it if its what he says it is and then head to the Village to pay Rich ‘two hip’ Marshall a visit. NB ‘two hip’ not ‘too hip’

Talks with Pageant continue, we now have an ibrakeforcake section on their website and we are feeding them news as and when. Dave and myself are meeting Pippa and Ian who run the charity and Omar, the science co-ordinator for a Gambian school of 3000!!! primary school pupils, on the 29th of July. Hopefully we can get some local knowledge, find out the kind of challenges schools in Gambia are facing and how we can help and put to Omar the kind of resource and information we’d like to bring back for Edison Schools.

During his visit it looks hopeful that Omar will be able to visit a school supported by Edison for the day and later in his visit meet the Edison MD with Dave, myself and Mum. I’m of the opinion this venture should be a trade of knowledge, contacts and teaching resources for English schools in exchange for resources, funding and teaching material for Gambian schools rather than a cut and dried donation of money.

Dave and myself have both started reading through last years PB challenge road book, a compilation of advise, hearsay and tales from the dessert and both gulped simultaneously, although we already knew it, this isn’t gonna be a walk in the sand dunes. Talk of sponsorship blah blah blah is all good but there is a real risk if we don’t get our prep and groundwork right that we won’t even make it as far as Gambia.

As an aside I’ve been reading Robert Young Pelton’s highly entertaining ‘Dangerous Places’ a tell it like it is guide to the Worlds more interesting destinations. Also see the aptly named comeback alive website. Granted it does include sections on the lethal range of various firemans but also some very grounded chapters on the far more likely event of falling ill (getting the shits), dealing with officials and bribes, helpful tips on personal and vehicle documentation and generally how not too panic (see also hitchhikers guide to the galaxy!!)

Hopefully the next post will be full of car pics!!

Laters

www.comebackalive.com

above picture remains copyright of www.comebackalive.com

2006-06-13T10:44:00.000Z

A copy of the original application letter. No idea if this had any influence on us getting a place or not...

Dear Sir

Both my co-driver and myself are looking for a challenge, an adventure and the opportunity to make a real, if small difference at a local level Gambia by importing a vehicle suitable for the local terrain, raising money for local community projects and raising awareness of current West African issues in England, prior to departing.

We are both becoming more and more obsessed with the idea of ‘travelling’ in a non-conventional manner. Ewan McGregor’s round the world motorbike trip ‘The Long Way Round’ is a perfect example of the type of experience we are both looking for and we both followed the progress of the teams this year with a growing sense of excitement at the possibility of being involved.

I am a graduate mechanical engineer with several years’ hands on mechanical automotive experience in motor-sport and general service. I have a range of contacts in the industry that have already indicated their willingness to provide support by way of parts and services. Our potential main sponsor has a considerable amount of experience travelling and working with local people in West and North Africa and is very keen to be involved.

I have spent 8 months living and working in the South of France and both me and my co-driver(Dave) speak French reasonably well. Dave is a photographer and between him and my brother who works in audio visual production we would be looking to use their contacts to raise money and awareness through local press, television and radio, our recently established website www.ibrakeforcake.com and would use our vehicle to generate interest at the various tracks and motor sport events I am involved with.

I am convinced that, between Dave, myself, our contacts and an appetite for a adventure we would present an organised, well supported, properly prepared team that puts at least as much back into your project as a whole as we get from the experience itself.

Regards

Team ibrakeforcake

2006-06-09T09:33:00.000Z

Hello

This is more of a diary entry than full on post. Our search for a car continues, we've seen a couple of possibilities but we're holding out at the moment for a 4x4, as we get closer to the launch part on the 8th July this might change.

We've made contact with a schools charity called Pageant and are tentativley making arrangements to support them officially, hopefully with a tie in to the eductional consultancy firm me Mum works for, hi Mum I'm on t'internet. As part of this tie in we are planning to meet with a Gambian teacher who is in the UK for 6 weeks on a funded exchange as of the 23rd June to establish contact and find out first hand the kind of support schools in Gambia are in need of.

Glorious leader of Vegantune has sent me a relief map of the Western Sahara wich looks suspiciously like a piece of 150 grade sandpaper with a 'you are here' X and a North arrow, cheers Rich, picture to follow.

All for now, Laters.

http://www.pageant.org.uk/

2006-05-31T16:49:00.000Z

Welcome, one and all to the TEAM ibrakeforcake Plymouth to Banjul Blogspot!! Chris and I are in the early stages of setting things up for the Plymouth to Banjul Rally. We are in Group 1, leaving the UK on 19th December 2006 and at the moment, have no plans in place, no car and no garage to work on the hypothetical transport! It can only get better, then!

Dave