Autodämmerung / Going Home

So two thirds of the team is back in the states.  We don't really know where Brandon is, but is should be Limbe, Cameroon.  And Beryl was sold for mad cash to charity.  More to follow when I haven't been in Air France's hands for the last 24 hours.

The truth will out

Sometimes you feel the need to hide certain truths from the ones you love, and sometimes there are coup d'etats in far off lands that have a lot to do with you.

This past week was one of those times.

Because Jessie and I got married at the begining of June, we decided not to tell our parents about the rally until it had actually started.  Technically, I decided not to tell my mother, but that meant de facto not telling anyone.  Obviously I couldn't ask my father to keep a secret from his wife, nor could we ask my new in-laws not to tell my mother that their new son-in-law was dragging their daughter across western Africa in a Vauxhall Corsa.

Enter the lie of omission.  The plan was to tell them we were driving to Mauritania, then returning to England, and, to be fair, that was the back-up plan if we weren't able to get Nigerian visas.  Then the Mauritanians had a coup four days after we left.  Bastards.

Eveyone learned about the coup before we did, so we had no choice but to tell the truth.  We did this at the same time we had planned to, i.e., the day we got visas for Nigeria and learned we could actually complete the trip, but the damage was done: all parents everywhere were worried we were in he middle of political unrest.

The telephone calls did not go well.  It sucks to be caught lying, especially to those you care about.  I still feel I did the right thing: the wedding was great and it would have been less fun had we all been talking about the Africa Rally.  That being said, we were faced with two bad choices, we made a choice, and now we are taking our lumps.

In Mali, boozing again

Today I got an SMS from Christian, asking if we were still alive.  Things were pretty quiet from us  while we were in Mauri, and there is a good reason for that: Mauritania is desert, there is nothing to do, and booze is illegal.  All our efforts were spent trying to get the hell out and into Mali, where we can drink and be merry.

Mission accomplished.  I am sitting in a cyber in Bamako, a Castel beer is working its magic in my bloodstream, and I am preparing for dinner.  We will be here for a few days exploring qnd getting visas, so I hope ze will get a longer update in soon. 

Teaser: We collided with a motoscooter in Fes!

Looking at a bear

After a day off at the Motoring Club's European HQ we are now on our way to Andorra.  A quick detour to check out the bear pit in Bern.

On our way

I´ll do my best typing this out on a wacky Belgian keyboard.  For some reason Belgians use the shift key to type a period and q and a are reversed.  Those bqstqrds;

 

We are currently in Brugge at an internet cafe:  Brandon doesn´t seem to havez broken his addiction to the web yet.  We had an awesome launch yesterday: map reading in London was a problem and we ended up driving around Buckingham Palace and sitting in traffic in Picadilly Circus for 45 minutes before making it to Hyde Park.  We were the second to last team to register, and we won the prize for least decorated car.  We have only had the thing for a week, and most of that time was spent getting her ready.  She will get decorated on the way.

We are planning on getting to Spain on the 21st or 22nd, and Morocco on the 25th, when this will actually become an Africa Rally.

Good times ahead.