By popular request, Scooters in the Sahara is once more heading down to Bansang Hospital with another team of riders and C90’s on October 2016. Final date has yet to be set, but following a post which I recently put on FaceBook which included a video clip, interest is strong.

Details are a bit sketchy at the moment as I have just started a lengthy tour through Canada and the US, but as soon as I get back planning will proceed at full steam. So if you are interested in joining us have a read of the Rider Info page. It is subject to change as I have put it up due to the amount of interest being shown so people at least have some idea of just what they are letting them selves in for !

Dennis

The 2013 Scoots trip was once again a huge success with 7 Honda C90 being delivered along with a huge pile of spare parts which included 2 engines along with many other new and used parts.

The three week trip was thankfully uneventful, at least as far as accidents were concerned. With the only casualty being John our back-up driver who crashed whilst riding my C90 out to the hospital’s farm project. That is unless of course you include the goat / truck interface on the way back to Banjul. Funnily enough, also involving John, but this time thankfully behind the wheel of the Pajaero. I am sad to report that it was no contest but we didn’t stop for the goat barbecue !!!!!

I think it is true to say that by far the majority of the team enjoyed the trip immensely, with one already aiming to fly out with his young lady to meet us when I arrive with the new team in March 2015. From my perspective it was an “interesting” trip and one from which I learnt many lessons, which I assure you will be put to good use in 2015 ! Not least of which is to try not to leave on a 4000 mile ride whilst in the middle of a severe Asthma attack! However I’m still breathing and raring to do it all again so what the hell !!! The main downer from the trip was the expiry of the Pajaero on the return journey meaning that we had to purchase a replacement vehicle. The Citroen van we acquired turned out not only to be a good one but also very much more economical than the 4×4 and as such it is my intention to use it for the next trip even though it may cause a few issues here and there !!!

The work that the team carried out at the hospital, and in particular the system of wire ropes on which the privacy curtains now run has been really well received not only by the patients and staff at Bansang, but I understand from Anita that the Ministry of Health would now like to see it used in Hospitals throughout The Gambia. Chalk up another success to “The Scoots”! Paul Myers and his wife Vanessa, followers of the Scoots project on ukGSer.com are at present in Bansang and Paul has done a magnificent job and used up the rest of the wires we took out to good effect in the Female and Maternity wards. Looks at though Screwfix may be seeing another order from me very soon.
Anyway, to the nitty gritty! It’s been great to see just how active most of the team have been on this last trip with their fund raising efforts and as a result the Tractor and Trailer that we were hoping to buy for the farm project is most definitely on it’s way. A special mention must go to father and son team Steve and Chris Smith with a whopping £4294 ! Well done indeed to them.

There may still be donations yet to arrive and there is also a possibility that Once Peter’s Scoot (the one that didn’t make it!) is sold a further £500 may be forthcoming. If anyone still has funds which they are holding for the project, please either put them into The Scoots Virgin Giving account or send them to either myself or Anita Smith ASAP.

The final figure to date is £11,912
Which after disbursements comes down to £9086
For a breakdown of figures please see excel file here:

I think you would all agree, a great result which will be a huge benefit to the hospital by hopefully allowing them to grow much more of their own food on the Farm Project and hopefully to become self sufficient in this area in the not too distant future. The last figures that we had for the cost of the Tractor and Trailer was £6500 although this may have risen slightly by now., latest indications are around £7500. My suggestion is that any surplus funds be retained for ongoing preventative maintenance on the units which will obviously be required in due course.

My sincere thanks goes to all who have taken part or assisted us in achieving this goal whether by riding, fundraising, donating or by simply supporting us, without you all it simply wouldn’t happen

Dennis Robinson

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.

Tonight we are camped at La Casita about 20km from Algeciras and the ferry ! We had an interesting ride down through Ronda this morning, having spent the night at a rather pleasant hotel a few clicks north of the town. We opted for the hotel rather than camp as the weather had been awful for the last couple of hours of our ride and we were soaked. This morning the weather had improved although the clouds were hanging rather low.

We stopped at Ronda for the obligatory photo shoot after which the the weather deteriorated once more so we spent the first hour or so riding through very heavy mist and cloud but as we slowly dropped altitude we came out into clearer skyie and by the time we had lost a few hundred feet of altitude we were running in nice dry air although there were still many damp spots on the road to keep our enthusiasm under control!

We’ve spent the rest of the day trying to find Peter a new bike but with no success. So we’ll have another look once we get to Morocco which I think will be more fruitful. We may even end up getting as chinese C90 look alike which I spotted earlier in the year and which looked to be somewhat tougher than the offerings we purchased last year. but only time will prove whether that is actually the case or not.

The plan is to get on the road fairly early in the morning, pick up our ferry tickets on the way to Algeciras and be in either Chefchaouen or Tetoan for tomorrow night.

Day one was as incident packed to a degree I hope we don’t see for the rest of this trip. I was up at about 6.30am and with most of the packing done and dusted had a leisurely breakfast whilst being amazed that the forecast of bad weather had been completely wrong… Now there’s a surprise. Andy from AP Motorcycles in Carmarthen, past Scoots participant and very good friend, having rescued me by sorting my broken exhaust stud yesterday had said he would run me and the Scoot down to meet with the guys at Chieveley Services, a run of about 150 miles. In view of the forecast I had readily agreed as I though it would save me a soaking. However with clear skies and a mild temperature, 8am, the arranged collection time came and went with no sign of Andy! As always at the start of a trip I was already stressing about… well about everything really! At 10 past the hour I phoned Andy’s workshop and spoke to his father who told me Andy had left well over half and hour previous and should be with me any minute. I waited with rising blood pressure for another 10 minutes and decided I simply couldn’t afford to wait any longer. So bags were strapped to the bike, kit donned and off I set to refuel at my local garage hoping that I might meet Andy along the way… Lo and behold just as I approached the fuel stop along he came. He’d been caught behind just about every tractor in Carmarthenshire it seems. Swinging onto the forecourt, the Scoot was quickly loaded and strapped down on the back of his pickup truck and off we went to Chieveley to meet up with 5 riders heading down from up North.
We made good time through the A40 and M4 arriving at just after 11.30; we had arranged to meet at about 12, so time for a coffee and pasty before the others turned up. It was really nice to have Andy and Mike there to see us off as otherwise it would have been a bit of a solitary departure for me from Pumpsaint and I was really chuffed that Andy offered his services so willingly. I’m also hoping he will be on the next Scoots trip in 2015…
Once the others arrived it was clear that we already had something of a problem, with Peter’s bike using a lot of fuel and generally underperforming. Something which it seems had been the case ever since he left Edinburgh and something that should have been sorted weeks ago. Although to be fair to Peter the “fettling” of his bike had been done by a third party who assured him that all was well and ready to go! I guess the moral of the story is that if the “fettler” is of unknown provenance make sure you also check it yourself….

Coffees downed we set of for Portsmouth with Joe leading down the A34 which was very busy, then onto M3 and M27. As we approached Portsmouth Peter stopped on a slip road to refuel, not really a good idea and in view of how close we were to the ferry not really necessary either. However a litre of fuel tipped into the tank and off we went once more. Approaching the junction for the ferry terminal, I overtook the group and led them into a service station to top up our tanks so as to minimise time lost on disembarkation at Santander…. Peter’s bike never ran again. In spite of riding it into the station by the time he had come out from paying for the fuel, his engine had seized solid!!!

We managed to locate another engine only about a mile from the port, but with only 25 minutes left before we really had to board there was simply not enough time to remove the new engine from it’s frame and to remove Peter’s engine as an exchange unit… One would have just about been possible two, just a little too much of an ask. So the bike was abandoned to Chas, Jill’s other half, to take away on the trailer he had fortuitously brought along and Peter boarded the ship on the back of Joe’s bike… with the plan being to travel with Jon in the Pajaero until we could source another suitable machine, possibly in Madrid. Our evening on board passed pleasantly enough, being only slightly marred by an inferior and vastly overpriced meal in the A La Carte restaurant… Shan’t be doing that one again. A couple of beers and off for an early night.

Today, as always is passing rather slowly, the team has yet to meld properly which wont start to happen I think until we get to the camp site at Chefchaouen ,although the visa and bike search in Madrid may expedite it a little. Tonight, against mt better judgement, we head for a rather expensive hotel ( our one and only! ) known and chosen by the two Andy’s; so I just hope it’s a good one! It’s about 50 mile from Santander so should be a fairly easy ride assuming that nothing else bites us. With another 4 hours of purgatory on board the ship left I think I’ll lay my grumpy head down for a snooze……

As Peter prepares to leave his home in Edinburgh tomorrow for the long run south to Portsmouth, the rest of us scurry around like demented things trying to desperately remember if we’ve forgotten anything !!! Thursday will then see Peter and Andrew, riding down to join up with Steve, Chris & Joe in Leicester, the five of whom will thy hopefully rendezvous with me at Chieively Services on the A34/M4 junction. The aim is then for us to meet with Andy, Jill and Jon at Portsmouth as they are coming from the south west area.
With departure of the ferry scheduled for 1700 hours and arrival in Spain at 17.30 on Saturday it promises to be an action packed start to the trip. Hopefully we can get a fairly quick exit from Santander to allow us to at least put in a few miles before the sun sets… Nothing booked for the first night ( or for the rest of the trip for that matter) as you can’t easily make up time on a C90, so it just depends on how the bikes are running. My plan (such as it is) is to try to clear the urban surroundings of Santander, possibly putting in around 50 miles before we look for a place in which to spend the night, be that a layby, a camp site or heaven forbid a reasonably priced hotel…. Whatever we find I’m sure the fact that we are at last up and running on our 4 week adventure trip will still bring a grin to most if not all the teams faces,
We have a small (9 people) team this years due to a few unfortunate withdrawals; 3 due to business commitments and a further 2 due to motorcycle accidents. So what could have been a team to equal last years fantastic trip, at least in numbers, is in fact something a little more modest. However I still have high hopes for the fundraising efforts of the team with father and son duo, Steve and Chris getting things off to a magnificent start. Only time will tell how the group will shape up, but they will have to go some to top last years lot, which on a personal level hit an all time high….. Watch this space!

That’s meeting number three well and truly done and dusted. I think everyone went away happy but thoughtful. As usual we had a lot of ground to cover but cover it we certainly did. The whole team is getting anxious to be on the road, but whilst the next three weeks are going to drag for some, they are likely to pass in a mad blur for me as I head off to London tomorrow to collect the visas for Mauritania and then fly out to Madrid to check out that the newly instigated visas for Senegal are going to be forthcoming…

I think Jon may be fairly busy too as he preps the Pajaero and trailer for it’s second round trip to Bansang. If it runs as well as it did last year I for one will have no complaints. Our chef, Andy was busy trying out his recipes on us Friday night and if that is the quality of food being served up en-route I’m sure everyone will be very happy; I can’t see us losing much weight this time around! One team member not quite so happy was Chris, with a second engine disintegrating on him on the run across from Leicester! It appears that they have both suffered the same problem; lack of oil. However the oil had been right up to the mark when he left Leicester about 150 miles earlier. The strange thing is that it is seemingly exactly the same issue I had with the first Chinese engine last year; Most odd!

With a little over three weeks left before departure thoughts are now turning from preparation to the reality of the trip we are about to undertake. 4000 miles on a 90cc motorbike really is quite an epic journey. It is not only physically tough but also mentally challenging; testing both riders and machinery almost to their limits. One thing is certain, nobody comes back from the experience unchanged !!!

With October rapidly approaching preparation for the forthcoming trip is now reaching fever pitch! Next weekend sees the last of our three planning meetings at Wonastow, but I still have a lot of work to do including getting to London to organise our Visas for Mauritania which I haven’t been able to do yet due to various people being out of the country so not having their passports…. As always the meetings so far have not been without their little controversies, and the last one will I fear be no different.

Nearly £2000 worth of spares for the Hospital bikes have been purchased and are ready to be loaded onto the trailer. Every year it seems to get harder to get spares donated by bike shops and suppliers! It also looks as though I may have another 2 C90s turning up this week to strip for spares. Additionally screwfix and the various courier companies have been kept busy delivering a host of other stuff for the hospital along with last minute bits and pieces for the trip.

The trip itself will follow the tried and tested format of using a mix of campsites and wild camps, along with the odd hotel or cabin where absolutely necessary. Costs are kept to a minimum to ensure that the hospital gets the maximum possible benefit from the monies paid by the trip’s participants. As this years trip is relatively small with only 9 of us, the along, the budget will be under a some pressure to stretch.

Our route will also be similar to previous trips once out of Morocco and into the wastes of Western Sahara, but after my recent recce trip on the airhead I have found a slightly different and hopefully better route down through Morocco whilst still making the obligatory stop over at Marrakech!

Whilst we are at Bansang Mike White from last years fabulous trip will be flying out to fit the new Dental Surgery that he has sourced along with a qualified dental engineer and Nick the Plumber will also fly out to sort various plumbing issues and do a bit more training of the Maintenance units plumbers. It’s always nice when previous trip participants and other sponsors return to offer more assistance.  Also there to meet and great our arrival will be a host of sponsors and dignitaries so I think it will be a spectacular arrival for the team.

This years final team are: Jill Ollis, Chris Smith, Steve Smith, Andy Powell, Jon Davis, Andrew Duckworth, Joe O Carroll, Peter Wright and of course yours truly Dennis Robinson. Jon & Peter were missing from this team pic.