Did you know...

You need a SatPhone and a CB permit for Morocco (at the competitive price of 50 EUR)?
That you need to pay 90 EUR if you want to take a 5+ year old car into Senegal?
That additional insurance is needed the moment you drive out of Morocco - 220 EUR for 2 weeks?

You do now. :)

Uhh...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19938905

If they accidentally shot at their own dictator, er, president...


I just hope they know NOT to shoot at the card with the Budapest-Bamako logo on them :D

Car, part 2.

Status update:

Car had it's service... 708 EUR, but now I'm confident that it will survive the trip... The only thing I forgot to ask them to check (idiot...) is the AC - and I have the distinct feeling that after 16 years, it's in need of a top-up. (I get that from the fact that it doesn't cool, per se). So, one more thing to do.

Onwards to other things:

1. Still waiting on the suggestions how the outside of the car will look (remember, we're in the "Spirit of Bamako" category, it has to be... colorful.
2. The CB unit and new stereo have been ordered (eBay - gotta love it) and are on the way.
3. A large amount of totally non-regulation exterior lighting ordered - we 'll be more of a moving Christmas tree than a car if I manage to get all of it it on. 
4. On that note, the 4 spotlights, yellow warning light and daylight running lights are on the way as well.
5. What I'm missing is an electical guy to install all of this... And replacing the front "lights" (which I'm convinced are hamster-powered) with a nice set of 100W 4700k lights (just need to go see which "H" size it actually has...
6. Roof box cross-bars are in the trunk, but we need to pick up the roofbox next time we go home... We might need to mount the spotlights on that...
7. Need to go buy a full-size spare tire and a steel rim for it...
8. Satellite Phones checked and ready (A Globalstar and a Thuraya one...)
9. Radar detector (not that we'll be going fast enough ;)) will be my backup Cobra - just in case.
10. Front-facing Camera ordered and on the way too.

Fortunately, we'll be able to borrow the Satellite locator beacon, sand ladders, the second GPS, gas cans, etc. from Mark, so that's  good (any costs that can be avoided, should be avoided...)

Next steps: Detailing tomorrow, so that the car is actually... you know, clean. Then, stickering of the car itself (I hope, it needs to be done by Nov. 15), and after that, electrical and roof box (and AC somewhere in there as well), and we should be good to go! :)

V2!

Dear reader. (Yes you. You're the only one anyway, you know who you are.)

So, yeah, last year didn't work out all that well - two of us made it, one (me) - didn't... But this year... THIS YEAR...

The wife and I are going.
No, really.
No, REALLY.

Stop laughing. And fuck you. :)


Of course, we're recreational drivers and are taking this as a joke, so we're not going in the race category - but rather going as contestants in the "Spirit of Bamako" category, which means that we need to have a crazy car to be allowed to go.
So, we compromised. Crazy, but something that's unlikely to actively try to kill us, that won't be a menace on the road, or doesn't have proven tendencies to die randomly 100km away from civilization (anything made in France between 1975 or so and 2000, I'm looking at you).

So, we have a car... I don't know what we're calling it yet. But it's a 1996 Subaru Legacy 4WD, 4-speed automatic with 190.000km on the odometer. And right now, it's sitting in the shop getting the initial service done, and hopefully that will be it.
But because god doesn't always seem to feel the same way I do, I'm sure there will be another problem that will need to be fixed.

Pictures to follow tomorrow, after we pick it up and drive it back home to Budapest. Call it a test drive. :D

And for the fun part... I just ordered 150$ worth of LED lights from china to put on the car.

We did mention it's supposed to look... crazy? :)