Windmills

“It is funny how life has its twists and turns. If somebody had told me two years ago that I would be driving a left hand drive car from Liverpool to the Gambia, West Africa, I would have laughed out loud!

In January, my then fiancé (now husband) Joerg and I set off on the Plymouth Banjul Challenge – a charity journey that involved driving 4,000 miles across Europe and Africa in order to deliver a car to the Gambia, which is then auctioned off to raise money for African Charities.

We bought our car, a 1994 Renault 19, for £600 and within the first hour of purchasing the car she had broken down! I had an overwhelming feeling of fear as we were preparing to take her all the way to Africa by land.

Two weeks before our departure there were reports on the news that a French family of four had been shot dead in Mauritania and as a result of the shooting, the Paris Dakar rally was cancelled. I started to wish that I had never agreed to go, yet at the back of my mind was the thought that if I didn’t go now it would be something that I would always regret.

Most of the driving days were long and eventful, travelling for between six and eight hours a day to make the next destination on roads that always had plenty of things happening on them. We tried to make sure we did not drive in the dark when we got into Morocco and beyond, as most of the local drivers rarely used headlights so we felt it was safer to be stationary at this point!

It was a surprise how quickly I got used to the driving style through Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal and the Gambia, particularly as you never know who or what is going to step out onto the road without any notice! There were often a multitude of animals wandering on or by the roadside; a common occurrence in Morocco and Mauritania was to see camels wandering along.

After 19 days of travelling we made it safely to the Safari Garden Hotel in the Gambia, the rendezvous place for challengers who would then auction the cars. It was quite an emotional end to the journey as we were both hot and tired.

Our car alone made a whopping £1,335.40 for charity and, of the 15 cars that were auctioned on the same day, £18,362.96 was raised. All of the cars were bought by local people and the money raised will go to a number of projects that are set up to try and develop and support the people in the country.

The whole trip was a real WLPG (Working, Learning, Playing and Giving) opportunity for me. It certainly felt like hard work at times, we learned so much, played a lot and gave something to the local people.

Mine and Joerg’s latest big adventure was our wedding day on 17th May. Our honeymoon was a million miles away from Africa - we spent it in Northumberland in some beautiful B+Bs (not a tent or old car in sight) but it was equally as special.

Joerg and I would like to say a big thank you to Renault Liverpool and Alexander Macgregor for sponsoring us on our trip.”

For more information visit: www.plymouth-banjul.co.uk.