Part 1

It started in the autumn 1979; I was a third year apprentice at the British Leyland dealers in Truro (Mumfords) and had been rallying a Mini Cooper S the Garage had agreed to prepare two mini’s for a round the world trip and I was asked to do the work. It took a couple of months, all unnecessary trim was removed a safety roll cage fitted, the body was seam welded and strengthened, rally seats and underside protection added. In early 1980 I was then asked if I would go on the trip as the mechanic, I had only recently met Mary, my now wife, and was only part way through my training. Although everyone else said I should go I wanted it to be my decision so firstly agreed to go on part of the round England publicity tour. After getting engaged to Mary and agreeing a year sabbatical from Mumfords and the college decided to was too good an opportunity to miss. As well as the garage there were several other sponsors, from Compair Holmans, Kuhne & Nagel and the BBC’s Nationwide programme, the trip was to raise awareness for a Stop Polio Campaign in Malawi to prove Polio could be eradicated if a cold chain was set up. So in April 1980 we drove the cars to London and had a big send off at the BBC with Save the Children fund and Ian Drury of Blockheads fame a Polo Suffer.

To begin with it was just Tony Clarke (34) an entrepreneur from Penryn whose idea it was and the expedition leader and myself (20). In Paris we met up with our first (more about this later) cameraman Previn Thakur (now a Bollywood film producer) and then drove to Marseille to catch the ferry to Algeria.

I am sure the BBC decided to support the expedition as they thought it would not be possible to take two Minis’ around the World and in fact British Leyland at the time said they would not guarantee and Land Rover could do it! So we very naively entered Africa and had our first encounter with bribes, baksheesh, backhanders whatever you like to call it. There were over 30 ships stuck in Algerian port and with the help of the British Embassy we managed to get the cars and camera equipment through customs and headed off towards the Sahara. The first 1000 miles the road was tarmac, not very good in places and only one lane wide which meant when someone came towards you moved to the left keeping one wheel on the tarmac the other in the dirt, unless they were bigger than you, which let’s face it most cars are, and you moved completely onto off the road. We bought extra water and fuel plastic tanks to carry on the roof rack of Jack to extend our range.

 At Tamarasset the road ended and we were forced to join a convoy of vehicles to cross the next 250 miles of sand to the border with Niger. No roads, no water, no towns this was possibly the most dangerous part of the whole trip and we had only left a couple of weeks ago. We joined with a Trans Africa expedition Bedford truck with Australian’s, Americans, New Zealanders and English youngsters all after the African adventure and a French light commercial truck with two lads who were going to Niger to sell it. The night before we left we decided to have a good meal and ate with the locals having the first time couscous and the last time Camel! It was tough as old boot and once you got it in your mouth it was very difficult to get rid of. The crossing was meant to take 2-3 days so we all filled every water container we could carry and set off early in the morning.

The road surface varied between rocky mountain type passes with corrugations (which rattled the cars to pieces and soon ripped out the rear shock absorbers one Jill ) deep sand which meant the cars kept getting stuck due to the small wheels and low ground clearance. The width of the road varied from single track to sometimes being almost a mile wide with oil barrels painted red & white to show the way, but these could be several miles apart so navigation was difficult.

 As the cars got stuck more and more often it slowed progress considerably, water was rationed so in the morning we had a cup full to wash & clean your teeth. Eventually the Overlander’s and French guys decided they would help no more and were going to abandon the cars in the desert. This would have been a disaster to give up after only a couple of weeks of starting. Then on the horizon we saw two red ex German military vehicles approaching. They turned out to be three German Missionaries who were preaching the bible to nomadic tribes in the desert. They were well set up for desert living with 4 wheel drive, fridges and cold water. Yes they would tow us to the border with Niger but it would cost all the cash we had. Luckily I had £250 in several currencies personal money to last me the whole trip and they took it all! At least we were on the way again and after another two days we arrived at the Niger Border. The temperature was now peaking at over 50 C and in fact two people had died at the border post the previous week filling their water tanks in the midday sun. We went into the small shop/store but all they had for sale was jam, with the labels all in slightly different positions to make them look different. There was still several miles of sand until we got back onto tarmac so it was decided to hire a truck and load the cars to take us the next 200 miles or so. Somehow without any Arabic being spoken we managed to negotiate a price, the receipt being written in the back of my diary!

 The cars were loaded and off we set in the truck, two of us in the front with the driver and one in the back with the drivers mate. One of the delights was the goats skins he had for water, one of nature’s wonders means the water always stays cool, even if it tasted funny, was a strange colour and has the occasional goats hair in it! The desert changed from soft sand to burnt black rock as far as the eye could see, in the heat haze we spotted a gazelle and the driver started to follow it, we thought so we could get a closer look. He chased and chased the animal until exhausted it stopped running, his mate then jumped out and killed it. The driver then used the air line from his truck and a knife to skin the animal keeping the skin and meat.

 We drove on south and after a few miles came to a Check point manned by the army. They had seen the driver chasing the gazelle, an animal that heppended to be the National beast of Niger and protected so the driver and all of us were arrested and all the vehicles impounded. After several hours of pleading our case in school boy French we and the Mini’s where released, the army then sorted out a replacement truck and took payment from the original driver.

As a celebration we found a hut that sold beer, it was kept in a fridge, well I say fridge it was a freezer half full of water with the ‘Flag’ beer bottles in, I never drank beer until that point! This truck was at some times full with passengers riding in the back with the Mini’s on the Niger version of a bus service, we gave up our front seats to let a pregnant lady ride in comfort, very much to her surprise. I can remember stopping late one evening for a meal, the Arabic culture is tremendously generous when it comes to food and they will always share what they have and in fact become insulted if you do not eat with them. After we had eaten with the driver beaconed us to follow him. With slight trepidation we did so and came to small oasis of thermally heated water, we all had a dip in the quite hot water and after ½ hour or so were told to get out so the ladies travelling to bath without the men nearby.