Two nutty friends from Aachen, Germany, and their killer ride on a mission from God: To master the Plymouth-Banjul Challenge 2007. Read about their impossible mission here ...

 
Made in Aachen
 

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Crossing into Senegal at Diama Dam

We wake up early. Thank God nothing has happend to us: We didn´t get robbed or killed. We drive the car out of the bushes and have a look around. Diama Dam mainly consists of the customs building and a bridge across the river, not much of a village around. With the exception of a few water buffaloes we are the first on the dam, but after all it is only 8 am. The new plan is to wait for the others and cross with them. We get out our folding chairs and cook up our first coffee of the day. The Africans we meet here are very friendly, not the hurried type like in Rosso. We strike up a conversation with a customs officer, and learn that many people dread the road conditions to Diama. That´s whay this crossing is so quiet.

We spend the morning relaxing until two Englishmen of the PBC challenge - Don and Dave - arrive a t the border. We had met the two previously, and they seem to be on their own schedule away from the large group just as we are. Don and Dave are both retired and now use their time to travel the world extensively, many times by car. They have been doing this type of rallye for almost twenty years now, some of them much more daring than this one, e.g. when they drove real old-timers all the way down to South-Africa through 28 European and African countries. This trip included an air-lift with a Russian cargo plane across the Sudan.

They are breezing through this rallye with an old Renault 5 with no problems at all. They seem to be good company, and we decide not to wait for the others and cross the border with just our two cars. The road book talks of chaotic negotiations and eight-hour waiting periods in Diama, but we agree to an escort fee of 70 Euros for our two cars, and get through the order in less than an hour. After our Rosso experience we cannot believe how easy things can be. Two hours later we arrive at the Zebrabar.

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