James Stephenson

Safari Park Hotel – Very nice.

Car Park – Big enough to repair scores of cars in desprate need of service crews.

All our work is done, and its lunch time.

Quick mention to Evan’s Waterless Engine Coolant. Fantastic stuff, works brilliantly in this heat. Especcially on really long uphill hauls, previosuly when we ran water we would get localised flash boiling in our engine, causing overflowing radiator. But this stuff doesnt boil untill 180 degrees C, we dont get that happeneing so we keep driving and sensibly watch the 2 temp gauges we have and its just fantastic. On the 38degree day on our pull out of the blue nile gorge, we dont think we could have done that with regular water. Thanks.

And to Mr John Kent, the head you cast and machined for us. Fantastic! Great water flow, great power, great everything. We may not overtake other competitors but we have tottaly shocked everyone at what we do, the locals have no idea whats happening when we pass them. Thanks.

Time to go sit on a deck chair by the pool, while everyone is getting filthy dirty rebuilding cars. 😀
James

This morning was the first time i woke up and instantly thought “where on earth am i.” Then i realised, tent, africa, marsabit, yesterdays hell roads, today. In hindsight, we made another smart move and left slightly early (only about 30mins) than scheduled for a 540km day into Nairobi. The first 150k’s was dirt roads then tarmac. We were also told that the first 30k’s would be bad, then it got better. Well, that was a blatant lie! Most of it was worse then the day before. Hahaha, if those roads where at home i would almost consider not taking my own 4×4 ute (pickup truck) over some of the sections. It was horrible, undescribable roads. Giant rock’s just pocked out of the ground, either on thier own or amognst 50 other basketball sized axel-killers. Once I had to stop and spend a minute planning and picking my route through a minefield of obstables. And the only thing you can do is just idle our way through, blub blub blub blub blub bouncing over everything. Lucky that all the stones and rocks had smooth tops, so puncture risk was down. Today’s moving speed average was ever less then yesterday, at about 13km/hr for almost 100k’s. It was one oclock before we even got to the tarmac, and my god that was a blessing. A  beautiful road that we could blast along at 108kph for the slog to the Safari Park Hotel.

More carnage, more cars arriving on trucks, more broken things (not for us!). We were about the 23rd car to arrive, still so many behind us limping along. Another careful day with great success, we made it for the night AGAIN!!!

News on the animal front:

-Saw a hyena cross the road 20meters or so in front of us! They are MONSTROUS dogs.

– more babboons

– these little animals that look like deer, but minature. ONly like a foot tall. We also saw a dead one on the dirt section (i think Joost van-something-or-other hit him when travelling at light speed)

-Saw some elephant poo, but no elephants. Also, no giraffes yet. Still time to go

Photo’s to come in next post, or close enough.

James

False! More like a slippery slide into the fiery pits of hell itself. Thats one way to describe the road to Mars today. By Odin’s beard it was a tough day. 250K’s took 10 hours for us, the first 190 took almost 8 hours. The fourbies cleared the day without breaking a sweat, arriving in camp some 4-5 hours before us. And we were the 3^rd 2-wheel drive car to even arrive. Then after us there was a steady stream until midnight of the tailing cars to make their way. It was shocking the amount of carnage from today, me and dad between us don’t have enough fingers to count how many people broke shockies. Now and then we would be overtaken by someone, then an hour later see them on the side of the road fitting a new set of dampers.

The amount of service crews here in the carpark is stunning, cars here there and everywhere are high in the air on stands, with entire suspension quarters lying on the ground in some state of fixing/welding/repairing/removing.

We made it trouble free because we just took it slow and steady. No punctures, no broken springs, no hassles. The only big risk we had was hitting our sump on some giant rock poking out of the ground (everywhere) but i took it steady and careful and made it! A true tortoise and the hare story.

Up until a few days ago i was oblivious to a big thing in the rally, i had no idea that Joost Van-something-or-other in the 1973 911 Porsche had nothing inside his car at all. Because he had entered his own car, and 3 other 4×4’s as his personal service team. He is a serious racer. Some mornings we leave earlier then schedule and i would pull over when i see a cloud of dust in the mirror. And he would FLY past us at breakneck speeds. Unbelievable

The campsite we had was awesome! Really really well done. We had nice warm/hot showers from buckets hanging from trees, a cot bed thing with a mattress and blanket, and awesome food. We did however have to shit in a hole, but hey! That’s Africa! Ahhaha

Nairobi tomorrow with a rest day, much needed. I am wrecked!! After one day of Dad driving, i’m back in the drivers seat, with the very occaisonal need for dad to depress the clutch pedal for me when im stopped, fixing the linkage today so i can be back solo driving! 😀 I’ve been asked why I drive everything, and pretty much,  Dad is a fantastic navigator (better then me) and I am a better driver. Stick to what you’re good at i reckon.

James