WE MADE IT!!!!!.....sort of

Right this minute Anthony and I are in or nearby Gatwick International Airport in London. We survived teh nearly 10,000 miles trek from Hyde Park to Kribi!!! However, Lady Deathwish did not make it. After our last post in Nigeria, everything we seemed to put our fingers to seemed to die whether it was our car or the internet [hence no posts for over a week].

The beautiful lady made a valiant effort as the oldest vehicle to participate in an Adventurists sponsored rally. She made it to Cameroon, but fell a mere 1500km short. We had to part ways with our car, our home, our friend in the Northern Cameroon town of Garoua.

The terrible roads of nigeria proved to be too much for her to handle. The last 1000 miles were a frustrating time filled with stops and repairs and eventually disappointment. In her final few days the Lady had to have numerous parts re-welded and finding VW bug parts in this remote area proved to be quite difficult.

A brief rundown of the final repairs and problems:
A) the engine was removed to check clutch and pressure plate, turned out we had snapped the clutch pedal and had to be rewelded. The guys who did the repairs actually fixed up our electrical as well for free. while in the same yard the welder also welded the holes in our exhaust so it didn't fall off.
B) At one point during a treacherous dirt road the VW went airborne at about 40km[25mph] which caused the front end of the chasis to collapse once we nosedived into the corrugated road. The front tunnel houseing our gasline had shattered into four pieces and had to be rewelded. we had to drive the 3km back to the last village with the steering wheel in our lap.
c) the starter was acting up and this may have been in conjunction with the fuel pump concking out because we had to bump start the car for 2.5 days once in a dry riverbed between the cameroon and nigeria border with 15 ft riverbanks with a 45 degree angle.

In the end we got the car towed to the Wildlife College, which works with the Cameroon Wildlife Aid fund, and was a contact of the Adventurists in emergencies.

AFter that we hopped a bus to NGaoundere. Took an overnight train to Yaounde. Then jumped a bus to Kribi. So we made the final party on the 16th. I was so glad that the Adventurists decided to throw me a birthday party. It was really cool seeing the minister of tourism from Cameroon eating my birthday cake.

The party was awesome, with the exception of Ben and Bob, our entire convoy made it for the party and we had a blast. The Sandbox Savants, the Black Sheep, If it don't work hit it, and the Spider-Micra were all there. In total 10 teams showed up and we had a blast. Then on Monday morning we left.

From there we headed up to Douala to book flights home and to see the site of the Auction. Douala looked like a pit. This might have been just a factor of our travel weary minds but the bustle and constant danger of muggings really turned a lot of people off to the placec. Add on the problems the Customs officers [too high import tax] made led to none of the cars being auctioned the first day. Afterwards they reduced the tax by 40% so hopefully next week the auction goes off wiht success.

Now i'm heading back to Vancouver, and Anthony is flying to San Diego tomorrow. It's been a long journey but I'm really glad to have made the trip.

We both plan on putting our 'Final Thoughts' up in the coming weeks so stay tuned. We also plan on throwing up [not litterally] some photos and videos.

Peace!