And so another Scooters in the Sahara trip draws to a close as we head out to the coast and a little bit of luxury before the team fly home and Steve and I prepare for the long journey back overland to the UK. We will probably be spending 3 nights at Banjul relaxing and meeting up with Sulyman as well as having a last mealand debrief with Anita and Co as they arrive on Saturday afternoon. One problem we face is that with the temporary closure of the Barra ferry for repairs, we have to drive all the way back to at least Soma and maybe even Janjangburreh to cross the Gambia river river before heading north for the Zebrabar

Its been a hectic few days for those of us that stayed at Bansang, but I think all who stayed at the hospital have thoroughly enjoyed it and all would have liked to have just a little more time here but such is the schedule on a scoots trip, it just can’t be done. The work done by the guys has been magnificent with most of the mosquito screens put up and a completely new systems of wires setup in the newly refurbished male ward to carry privacy screens which can be pulled around any bed, replacing the old broken portable screens. The system wouldn’t look out of place in an NHS ward !

For a variety of reasons communications have been a little difficult this time around with WiFi being very hard to find and incredibly slow when it was found. Even mobile phone didn’t want to work once south on Morocco in areas where we have never previously experienced difficulties. Hence the lack of blog and website updates for which I can only apologise. It also hasn’t helped matters with me suffering with the worst and most sustained asthma attack of my life which has been leaving me feeling pretty exhausted at the end of each day. Couple that with the stress of having to deal with a whinging willy every moment of every day….. well I’m sure you get the picture. However the other guys (and lady) have been great in the support that they have given, which is probably the only reason that there isn’t a body buried somewhere deep in the Sahara Desert….

If you want to catch up on the real flavour of the trip our youngest (and newest) rider this year Chris Smith has been avidly typing into his smartphone at every available moment as only the young can! Chris has give his blessing for me to copy it over to my blog, or I thought better still you can read it in its entirety at http://critsmit.tumblr.com/ It is very well written and certainly gives a flavour of the trip from a different perspective.

Today (Saturday) Steve and I will be trying to sort the trailer out to make our lives a littler easier on the road back. We will also be popping up to the local supermarket for some food, as whilst we still have a huge amount on board I think if either of us has to face another 5 bean chilli or curry we may well scream… in fact I don’t think I will ever be able to look a chilli in the eye again!!!!

Hopefully the truck will be OK after it’s interface with a rather large goat at some considerable velocity on the way down! It’s made a bit of a mess of the front panel and aircon radiator, but as the aircon wasn’t working anyway it should be too much of a problem. I think both Steve and I will be running somewhat slower than Sutay’s pace when we set off, not least we are both looking forward to being able to just stop whenever we wish for photos of anything else.

I may get a chance to upload another short update before we leave otherwise expect silence at least until we arrive in Morocco.