Race To Dakar

This time we’re not on our way to see Charley Boorman or his TV series of the same name but we are rushing north to see the last few days of the Dakar. Hopefully !!!! I have  along way to drive tomorrow as the stage isn’t really where it should be. Its a long way north. Luckily we found some PDF’s of where the viewing points are on the Dakar website. We got a fast enough Wi-Fi spot in good old Copec Hotel (service station and our second home).We missed Santiago and will try to return via Argentina. This is a risky move as we may not be let back into Chile. Fingers crossed so watch this space.We managed to get some washing done yesterday in a Copec sevice station. Would you beleive they had washers and driers but we opted for the outside on the fence drying technique. Its a bit cheaper. My new teeshirts are sun faded already my shorts have an “ass sized” hole and they will soon be binned. Who would have thought sitting on my bum would wear out a pair of shorts.I took the opertunity to wash Matilda as we were now mostly on motorways so we stopped at a busy riverside surrounded by locals from every town in the area. We slept the night after they had gone and washed the car in the morning. I’m not sure flushing dirty car water into the local river system is OK but the locals do it so why shouldn’t I ? I also realised i’ve lost my BBQ stand which I use for the griddle Des gave me in Africa all those months ago. I’ve not lost your griddle Des, I would not dare!  I possibly left it in Ou-Skip campsite or somewhere on the way back from Port Elizebeth…..oh well. I won’t get another here so have resorted to resting it on rocks again.My transfer box is leaking again !!!! Note to Roverland in Cape Town. Your fix is rubbish. Its been fixed, leaked, repaired by you and now its leaking for the second time since you permanently fixed it! I even made the guy that put it together put Silicon on the inter shaft which he’s told not to do by MArtin the owner. I wanted it done for good measure and he did it against his standing orders. Its leaking again Martin !!!! I doubt they will see this but if they do, what are you going to do about it now ! I can think one way, a refund.Did I mention we made it into the local paper. They used the wrong photo and they spelt my name wrong…..