Motor Sport is Dangerous

Even before the start of the Rally two cars will not be on the starting grid. One of the seven Mustangs broke a back axel just as it was about to be shipped to Dar es Salaam. The driver and navigator have hired a Toyota Hi Lux to follow the Rally to Cape Town. 

Ten kilometres from the point where we collected the cars, one of the Mercedes was involved in a hefty side collision. The steering is affected and it isn't safe to drive - so John and Colleen hitch a ride in the Hi Lux.

It's pretty dangerous out on the open road too. At many cross roads there's no obvious priority and trucks and buses will pull out from side roads in front of you with no warning. 

The roads aren't too bad and there are crawler lanes on the steeper sections - just as well as overtaking is only for the brave. The 200km to our first stop takes us five hours - and this is the A road. Others are quicker but several drivers encounter the local police and are handed on the spot fines. One of the Fangio coupes was stopped for having only one working rear light. It's pointed out that the 1930's car was only built with one rear light. The puzzled policeman was told to, 'Blame the Americans.' The BMW 2002 got away with a fine for crossing the white line because the number plate wasn't on the system. An invitation to accompany plod to the station was turned down. 

R&C of course has a flat battery again so we are jump started but after that it's a smooth run. Some swearing from the driver when other vehicles don't appreciate R&C's brakes aren't up to modern standards, but that's to be expected. 

The first 200km are in the can. 6,800 to go. 

The Road

We are now several hundred Kilometers from Dar es Salaam (I could tell you exactly how far but that would require getting off the bed, and I'm too exhausted to move). As it's a rally I guess I should tell you something about the road itself. 

We have been on the same road (I think the A7) for the entire time, without deviating left or right. Parts of the road are newly made with Chinese money. The tarmac is smooth and the painted lines are clear. We hate these sections because they are zealously policed and subject to rediculous speed restrictions, which are supposed to apply to villages only. And whichever Chinese Mandarin painted the no overtaking lines has never driven a car, as long sections of perfectly straight road forbid overtaking. 

As a result we have been stopped once for crossing the no overtaking lines and once for speeding. The latter is a total scam - no receipt is issued and the fine is simply  pocketed by the traffic cop. I think everyone on the rally has been caught out. 

By contrast the old sections of road are full of potholes and rough surfaces, often the road is rutted and deformed and the white lines have worn away. Here there are no rules of the road and it suits Rhubarb & Custard perfectly. We thrive on deformed roads because the car was built for Mongolia, and overtake when we think it is safe, not when we are told to. It's much more fun. 

Progress is chronically slow as the local lorries are overloaded and gutless or both. Overtaking here is an art form. Our system is that both driver and navigator have to agree to go - R&C doesn't have much oomph in the lower register so overtaking is like winding up an old clock. But we have surprised a few people with what the car can do when we put our foot to the floor. 

All is running well. We have low oil pressure at idle and a bit of oil weeping from the engine seals but nothing to worry about we think. 

Dar es Salaam

Out in the Indian Ocean, between Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar we can see the distinctive triangular sails of Dhows, traditional boats that would ply between Dar es Salaam, India and the Middle East. 

The Dhows have a surprising turn of speed, but the winds are strong here - the menus at the beachside restaurants have to be firmly held if they are not to blow away. 

In between the Dhows are columns of container ships, waiting their turn in port and bringing a world of manufactured goods to Tanzania and all the landlocked countries of Africa that lie behind. 

The Arabs and Indians always traded with the East Coast of Africa and Dar es Salaam. Add in occupation by the Germans and British and the resultant mix combines Swahili with Arabic and Indian dialects overlayed with colonial English. In our taxi the radio news is in Swahili but I can make out 'Manchester United' in English and (lower down the news order) 'Theresa May' and 'Dominic Raab'. Bloody Brexit being discussed even here!

Everyone is trading - the taxi stops at the lights and dozens of boys appear with bags of nuts, tissues, footballs and (strangely) windscreen wipers. Every piece of pavement (for which read dust at the side of the road) has a stall on it. Some with just a few coconuts for sale or offering to polish your shoes, others with extensive selections of bedroom furniture or just plain old junk. The city screams of enterprise and hustle and making your way in life. It's the complete opposite of the socialist republic that Tanzania's first president - Julius Nyerere - had in mind for the country.  I guess that the ancient trading spirit of the Dhows is too deeply in the blood here for any other way of life to take root - and everyone seems quite content that it should be that way. 

DXB

Africa, for us, starts at Dubai International Airport. Because DXB, as it appears on airport destination screens, has fashioned itself as the eye of the storm that is modern east-west travel. DXB is the God Hub that all other international airports bow down to. Hardly anyone actual intends to go to Dubai but hundreds of thousands, millions, pass through each year as they connect one flight with another to cross the globe. 

I almost laughed out loud as the passengers from our Londin flight travelling East, crossed a lift lobby with passengers from Australia travelling west. It was as if the whole world was on the move and everyone going somewhere else. With every individual traveller's story being threaded through the eye of the needle that is DXB. 

Invisible from the airport terminal, but astonishing when viewed from the air, is Dubai itself. By making a place where first ships and now planes have to stop, Dubai has found a reason to found a city. A place full of skyscrapers and malls and hotels and theme parks and homes and parks and beaches. But as you look down, at the edges of the city, it is simply desert and sand and nature's chaos. And beyond the relative international normality of Dubai, lies a Middle East that is political sand and man made chaos. 

But our path, like millions of others, touches only briefly on Dubai - 90 minutes - before we reach for our real destination - Africa. 

A Day

It's A day and just a few hours to go before the flight to Dar es salaam. 

It's always a bit nerve-wracking before these big trips. Checking over the paperwork and packing lists in case something has been forgotten. I packed my travel clothes by mistake and then had to unpack them. Idiot. 

Just time for lunch in the West End for a good send off. Skall has already had a Bloody Mary for breakfast. 

Why are we doing this?

Why are we doing this? To raise money for Aston University. Aston has a successful mission to help bright students from Britain's poorest families. These students typically come from backgrounds where they are living in Local Authority care, where neither parent has been to university, are in receipt of free school meals, receive an educational bursary or live in an eligible postcode. Aston's new medical school is taking 40% of its intake from these students. 

We are helping students across the university. All Aston students are entitled to free language tuition in year 1, but after that they must pay for it. 

In a global jobs market these skills are important and we've been supporting a three year programme to offer free language tuition to eligible students who simply can't afford the fees. 

The results have been outstanding with many of the students taking up placements and positions with major international businesses where language proficiency has been key to landing the job. 

If you would like to help to support this programme please use the link below to visit our dedicated Aston giving site:

https://spsr.me/4z8W

Books

We have been reading up on Africaaa! before the trip.  here's our recommended reading list.  rather sadly, whilst there is plenty of reading material about colonial Africa and African wildlife, there is very little written about modern African life and African cities.  Hopefully our blog will help to change that.

The Green Hills of Africa - Ernest Hemmingway
Out of Africa - Karen Blixen
The Shadow of The Sun, My African Life - Richard Kapuscinski
Another Day of Life - Richard Kapuscinski
African History, A very Short Introduction - John Parker
North of South - Shiva Naipaul
A Bend in the River - V S Naipaul
Dark Star Safari - Paul Theroux
Looking for Transwornderland - Noo Saro-Wiwa
Half of a Yellow Sun -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Long Walk to Freedom - Nelson Mandela

Why oh Why?

Alex, my 21 year old son, has just finished university and announced that he's having a gap year. In the meantime I've spent a year trying to get my 1935 Buick - known as Rhubarb & Custard back on the road after an unfortunate accident in France.

It's obvious isn't it that the two were made for each other and so the idea of driving across Africa together was born - from Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania to Cape Town, taking in Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Swaziland and South Africa. A total distance of some 5,000 km in 27 days.

There are some known issues.  Alex has lived away from home for 8 years so spending all day every day together in an old car is going to be a bit of a shock.  Secondly, R&C is notoriously unreliable, it failed to complete the Peking to Paris Rally in 2016 as well as the Flying Scotsman in 2015 and the Blue Train in 2017. Thirdly, Alex has never driven R&C as it hasn't had a fuel tank or steering box for most of 2018 and now the car has been shipped and is currently in Saudi Arabia in the port of Jeddah.

Still, what could possibly go wrong! Apart from mechanical breakdown, getting lost, falling out, tropical diseases, accidents, kidnap, assault......