The challenge is to buy a car for under £100 and then, with minimal preparations, drive it to the finishing point which is somewhere in Africa. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it? Well have you looked on ebay and in the free sheets to see what you can get for £100? Most wouldn’t even get you to Dover let alone across two continents and the Sahara Desert!!! So we actually paid £380 for a Peugeot 405 GTX TD, which only needed the air conditioning re-gassing, from a guy in Herstmonceux, just up the road from my office. And there’s more…
There is absolutely NO outside support, no breakdown trucks, no medics flying around in helicopters, no lorries full of spares, tools & mechanics, no camps set up by the support crew… nothing except what you can take inside your vehicle or find by the side of the road!
And there is even more…
There is no set route, you can go any way you want, but unlike a nice touring holiday to Scotland we will have some really exciting challenges en route. For example:
- Bribery and corruption at the border crossings and military checkpoints in Africa
- Trying to organise repairs and spare parts in somewhat primitive conditions
- Driving through the odd minefield or three, yes I did write minefield. You know the funny shaped things that go bang if you step or drive on to them and really ruin your day.
- Probably the most difficult… once we hit Africa… no TV, and sporadic internet and mobile phones!!!
So that is a bit about what the challenge is. For more info have a look at the Plymouth-Banjul.co.uk website.
