Team Sanddodgers

Sold!! - Finally

Farleyburger — Thu, 03 May 2007 09:26:10 +0000

Well the good news is that the Saab has finally been sold! We did wonder if anyone would actually want to buy the car based on the state it was finally in when we arrived to The Gambia but the good people of the Safari Gardens Hotel managed to work their magic.

”How much?” I hear you ask. Well, an amazing 6000GMD!! (Gambian Dalasi) which equates to roughly £100…….. about £60 less than we bought it for!

I don’t think any of us will be getting into the export business any time soon.

For a full list of all of the cars sold then please check out the auction pages on the plymouth-banjul organisers site. Overall, more than 6million GMD was raised this year for the local Gambian charities supported by the rally. This is an excellent amount and money and will go a long way to helping the schools, hospitals and local businesses improve the lives of local Gambian residents.

Long may it continue, its an excellent adventure and great way to improve the lives of the Gambian people. Why not sign up for this year’s rally. Applications are open!

porn

Manufacturers Shop

Thank you one and all

Farleyburger — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 10:04:34 +0000

It was great to see lots of you at the home coming party last Friday, thanks Pete for choosing such a nice venue and thanks to the Camel and Artichoke manager for kicking out those cheeky city boys that refused to move…. nice one!

We had a nice relaxing eve pursuing the videos, the pictures in Gareth’s little photo album and telling stories of our adventure, it was nice to re-live it a little.

Also, we have done what we believe to be the final final final count up and the grand total for the fundraising efforts is a MASSIVE:

£17046!

A little more than our original £10,000 target I think you will agree. We would like to extent our gratitude to Tearfund, MacMillan and Metronet for their part in our challenge and ,of course, to all of you that have donated so generously to two very worthy charities doing some excellent work at home at abroad.

BUT IT IS NOT TOO LATE! The just giving pages will remain open for the next couple of months and I would love to make Pete’s life a little more difficult by more people donating after the final count up. So if you haven’t donated and would like to, please do. As an incentive, any donations over £30 will result in a FREE Sanddodgers DVD being posted direct to your door, each containing all of our daily diary videos, the team interviews, our promo vids, our final summary video and an excellent photo compilation.

You can’t say fairer than that!

Sanddodgers Homecoming Party!!!

Ethgar — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 18:28:34 +0000

We are back…!

To celebrate we are hosting a Sanddodgers homecoming party at 7:30pm on Friday 23^rd Feb in the fittingly named the Camel and Artichoke

(Just to point out we ate camels not artichokes in the desert!)

We have booked the upstairs room and we will be premièring our final video on the plasma screens.

The Camel and Artichoke is just round the corner from Waterloo Station ( directions here). A huge thank you to all who sponsored and donated!

Currently we have raised over £15,000 for charity and its still coming in!

Thanks

Sanddodgers on ITV London Tonight

Farleyburger — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 14:09:14 +0000

We have finally managed to get hold of a copy of one of the interviews shown on ITV’s London Tonight News. This particular clip was shown on Sunday 21st January after our return to the UK.

For those that missed it, here it is:

The final count up

Farleyburger — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 09:43:05 +0000

Pete has his head in accountancy mode this week as we do the last of the Sanddodgers collecting to work out just how much we have managed to raise for Tearfund and Macmillan. Current count suggests we could be nearing £15000!

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far, you are the best. If you haven’t had the chance and would like to, there is still time. Just follow the link to tearfund or Macmillan below, enter your details and we can even scoop the Gift Aid off it if you’re a UK tax payer…. Brilliant!

Lets see if we can make £15,000

Meet the teams

Farleyburger — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 21:33:37 +0000

One thing we did do before leaving Banjul was a quick interview with each of the teams we travelled through the sahara with, namely: Rob and Andy - Clayton Farm Crew, Sean, Simon and Adrian - Desert Cowboys, Warren & Louis - Fan-belt Warriors, John & Jayne - Team Beeblebrox and Lynn & Carl - Firing on 4.

It was a pleasure to travel with you guys, so many hilarious memories of the journey. Looking forward to meeting up with you all again soon.

Meet the teams vid:

In the news once more

Farleyburger — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 14:28:42 +0000

For those in the London area, Pete, Gareth and myself popped into Kings Cross yesterday afternoon for another inview with ITV London Tonight who are planning to air a little about us and some of our footage either tomorrow or sunday in their London Tonight news show. If you get the chance, have a look out for us, it should be saturday or sunday evening, 5:30-545pm.

Back in Blighty

Farleyburger — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 11:26:33 +0000

Hello all, we have made it home safe and well. After an exciting flight home (via Tenerife due to a lack of fuel in Banjul….) we arrived early this morning to a rapturous welcome from some key family members, namely Jon and Pete’s wives. The 8 hours flight seemed nothing when compared to the arduous 19 day journey in the other direction.

Who would have thought we would make it, at times, certainly not us but here we are, 8000 miles later, a little wiser, a little older, a little thinner and in Pete’s case - distinctly hairier!

Gareth is coping well with his new found coke addition, going cold turkey has proved a challenge but all is well at this stage. Pete has returned to South London to find a razor and smarten up for work and I am looking forward to not having to spend hours covered in grease fixing a car clearly not fit for the road.

Sorry for the delay in uploading the videos, The Gambia and internet connections clearly don’t mix well. Check out the vids below:

Days 17 & 18

Day 19 – Arrival in Banjul!

We’ll be back soon to put up some final vids and tell some of the key tales from our adventure. Thanks for following our progress so closely and come back soon.

Final Teething problems…

Lozza — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:30:26 +0000

So this is the second attempt today to upload the latest video, again with no joy…
So you may well have to wait till tomorrow (tuesday) night, when we’ll be safely back home and sitting on a decent internet connection again.
to whet your appetites, still to come is the trip from St Louis to The Gambian Border, Our limping entry into Banjul to finish the Challenge, and our antics over the last couple of days as we have enjoyed some R&R, including the rare honour of driving through the Banjul Arch as part of a huge convoy of plymouth-banjul challenger cars.
Its gonna be hard to leave the high 20s temperatures and lovely beaches here, but then it’s gonna be great to get back home and see everyone again - we’ve been gone for ages!
The problems with the car continue, we’re so glad it’s only now we have finished as it would have been a nightmare to nurse any distance with the odd complete cut out from no-where, and less than an enthusiastic starting ritual before we get going.

Peace out from Banjul…

Chilling in Banjul

Lozza — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 13:30:34 +0000

Yes Sanddodgers watchers - WE HAVE MADE IT!!!
the Saab rolled off the ferry to banjul yesterday afternoon having spent all morning queueing to get on - apparently we got away lightly with a 3 hour wait, some teams took over 8 hours to get through and ended up camping on the on-ramp amongst hundreds of ‘fixers’.
The car is truly making the most of getting towards the end of her journey by developing all sorts of interesting ignition problems. So we now loose all power at in-opportune moments on the road (including right before the ferry resulting in a Landy Tow, and right before our hotel resulting in a Jetta shove) - thanks boys for returning the favour
We spent the afternoon getting the first few layers of dirt off us in the pool, and hit the local Anglican and Feisty ‘Mega’ Churches this morning to say hi and give out the last of our bibles.
The 1st car auction is in full swing, most cars are making over 500 pounds and some over 2000 which is great. There were a couple of Saab 900s which made it, much newer and far better nick - but hey, there’d be no contest in a drag race with our Turbo!
Anyone in the Gambia want to see who’s got the fastest motor?