We love our car. Really, we do. However, it is important to mention that he is a bit tempermental and doesn´t always like to start. He always -eventually- starts so, you know, that´s a plus! In a moment I will bring you to our present (improved!) situation, but for now let´s hear the back story.

Incident #1

Not more than an hour after leaving London we stopped to get some gas before heading to France via the Chunnel. We were so excited to finally be on the road and happy at the thought of putting our car on a train that would take us (by under water tunnel!) to the next country on our list.

We jump back in the car, still a little shocked at the price of gas, but ready to hit the road again.

Doug puts the key in the ignition and turns.

Silence.

He tries again.

Silence.

Hmmm.

At this point we begin to think we must have left our ipod charging while we were waiting for the rally start. Perhaps we drained the battery? Perhaps our charging system caused a short? We don´t really know what to think, because it hadn´t happened before and we have only had possession of the car for 48 hours. A few mechanics had seen it, and so we were generally confident in the vehicle. Anyway, we decide to buy jumper cables at the gas station, and ask a man for a jump. After rolling our car off to the side of the station, we try to start it one more time.

Doug puts the key in the ignition and turns.

Vvvvrrooom.

We shrug at the man who offered the jump and decide since we have the jumper cables we should keep going, and if we need a jump in the future we will be fine.

We take the awesome ride in the Chunnel, and drive off in France without a hitch. We drive for hours, stop for a gas and food a few times … we are fine, the car is fine. The starting problem must have been a fluke.

Or not.

Incident #2

Around 10:00pm Doug taught me how to drive stick on a small road in the French countryside. It really only took about 10 minutes to get the hang of it, but like most learners I have the occasional trouble getting the car into first gear.

I stall at a stop sign.

I turn the ignition.

The car won´t start.

Luckily within minutes the car decides to start up again. Off we go.

I drive for hours, getting the hang of down shifting on hills and generally learning how to drive in a british right-hand drive vehicle with left hand drive French vehicles all around. All is well.

Incident #3 - more of the same attitude from the car.

Incident #4

Around 5:30 am the next day we stop for gas again and Doug and I decide to switch off on the driving, I need a nap. We clambor back into the vehicle.

Doug puts the key in the ignition and turns.

Silence.

He tries again.

Silence.

We wait 20 minutes and still no luck. We decide to take a nap and figure out what to do once we have had some shut eye. I wake up around 8:00 am to the engine roaring. Doug has turned the key and our little devil of a car has decided it is time to hit the road. At this point, we know we need to see a mechanic but decide to try to make it to Spain for the repairs.

Incident #5
What more to add? The car chooses not to start at some point in the mountains on our way to Caleta de Velez, but we give it a few tries, it starts, and we finally make it to Caleta de Velez to meet our hosts, only a few hours late.

Luckily, when we reached Caleta de Velez, our host Richard guided us to the Suzuki hospital, where our car was diagnosed with a failing starter. In addition to replacing the starter, the mechanic made a few other gratis adjustments, including repositioning our modified engine to help with some of the wholly unnatural sounds which came from our car in second gear. Thanks to your donations, we were just able to pay the nice mechanic and get back on the road! 

Our Suzuki Sam seems to be feeling better than ever and is ready to take the Sahara and subsaharan West Africa. Be thinking happy car thoughts … In the mean time, I´m off to look for a car therapist.

Launch Details

Location: Hyde Park, Central London
Local Temperature: 61 degrees Fahrenheit
Total Journey Mileage: 0

______________________________________________________________________________
Three days since we launched, and it all seems a blur. But before I get into the meat of things I’ll get to the first order of business: where are we at this very moment? Doug, Jessie and I are currently sitting under the shade of a beachside bar in Caleta de Velez, Spain, looking out at the Mediterranean. We are being hosted in a nearby flat for a couple of days by a very kind and gracious couple, Jo and Richard, who are the awesome parents of Jessie’s English friend Cath.

So, here we are recovering from 2 full days of hard driving, resting up before we head across the sea in two days. Those 48 hours driving from London to southern Spain were certainly exhausting, eventful and story-worthy, but there will be more on that in later posts. For the moment I am going to tell you of how we launched out of London, which seems to have set the tone of our adventure so far.

Launch day was on July 18, 2008, at Hyde Park in Central London. We rolled in at around 9:30 a.m. to register and meet our compatriots. We love our Suzi/Sammy/whatevs, but he was certainly not dressed for the occasion as were some of the other rally cars. Parked next to us were the Sandbox Warriors, whose lovely little steed was sporting a new paint job as Spiderman (click thumbnail for bigger image).

We were all prepared to treat the Sandbox Warriors as our nemeses – who did they think they were with that name? – unfortunately they were really nice guys and we’re thinking of traversing Western Sahara with them in the coming week.

Some other noteworthy vehicles belonged to the Great Balls of Fur, whose team of five will drive two VW buses, one covered (completely) in zebra print fur and the other in leopard/cheetah/some-sort-of-spotted-animal-print fur. We are very interested to see the shape of those vans after traveling through Saharan heat and sand followed by Subsaharan torrential rain.  Matted fur…yummy.

Of course, our own vehicle had a pretty snazzy decoration itself:

What’s that, you ask? Why, that’s our first place rosette – with your awesome assistance, we are currently the top fundraisers for charity in the Africa Rally! We were very nervous that the prize would be a position as the starting car in the rally. We in no way wanted that honor, given that we had no knowledge of London and the rally was scheduled to begin with a caravan of all the Africa Rally cars through London before we each set out on our individual routes to Cameroon. The paper rosette was a reassuring substitute. Unfortunately, our car was parked closest to the starting line, so we ended up heading up the caravan anyway.

Disaster.

We managed to get out of Hyde Park alright, but immediately took a wrong turn. Or so we thought. After making an impossible u-turn, we noted several of the rally cars going in the direction in which we had just been going. Making another impossible u-turn involving some sidewalk driving of which you will never see evidence, we pulled up to the first rally car we saw, rolled down the window, and yelled “is this where we’re supposed to be going?” The response? “No idea!” Hmm. Let’s pull up to that rally car up there. Lean out the window to ask, see the passenger in the car staring at the map while the driver looks over with very lost eyes, and realize they don’t know anything either. Great. We’ll just figure out how to get to the chunnel. Somehow.

And off we went.

Oh my, what a day. It is almost 1am here in London and we take off for Hyde Park tomorrow at 7am. Time for bed for us! Before we turn out the lights, I wanted to share a quick post about our final, crazy day in London.

Had you been a fly on the wall in the life of the Sandbox Savants today, you probably would have gotten quite a kick watching us scurry around London in our awesome no-power-steering Suzi, getting it (gender still tbd) all tuned up and ready to go. I’ll spare you from having to read a play-by-play and instead emphasize that today was all about awesome people, stepping up to help get us squared away and down to Hyde Park for the rally start tomorrow morning.

Our pre-departure activities ranged from rotating tires, mounting our spares, replacing the fan and auxiliary belts,  purchasing a handful of other spare parts, re-welding part of our winch, finalizing our route through Europe …  the list goes on.

Rereading what I just wrote, I suppose it sounds a little like -we- did the handy work. It’s important to note that Doug, Aparna and I didn’t bust out the blow torch and socket wrench. Aside from getting a little grease on our hands strapping our gear to the roof rack, we stayed pretty clean.

Today, Aparna’s friend Benny drove us around to various people and car shops to finalize the car preparations. Talk about down to the wire! I’m still shocked at the amount of work we got done today. Special thanks to Midnight Motors, Andrew’s Garage, Niel, Aaron, Benny and Steve for all your work on the car!

Alright, the bed is calling my name. We will post a few more pictures from today soon on Our Photos page. Also, keep an eye on the website for a link to our SPOT messenger, which should be up and running shortly thanks to my awesome housemate, Matt.

Until we post again, be well!  

Big Brother is actually watching! We three are here in London figuring out last minute details. We just became 100% legal to start our drive (tax/mot/insurance). The cops here actually have cameras which not only take a picture of your license plate, but also instantly tell the cops if you are up to date on everything… even parking tickets.

So with our new found legality we are off to Bedford to pick up our chariot and a few last spare parts. As is, we look to be on track for our Friday start at Noon in Hyde Park!

I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who came out to support my small fundraiser in New York. Through the little raffle we raised another $500 for Send-A-Cow, confirming our position as the top Africa Rally charity fundraiser with $4,464 raised to date. Raffle prizes included an assortment of products from Pangea Organics, a years subscription to Good Magazine, a backpack made from Recycled news paper from Keen, and others.

We have not only had tons of support in the United States but it has continued in London. My couchsurfing.com host Patty Pullen was amazing, showing me around town and giving me a place to rest my head for the few days before I met up with the rest of the team. Jessie was lucky enough to spend her first jet-lagged day in England with her friends Cath and Barry in Basingstoke, where she was fed and entertained by their two youngsters. Now that we are all together, we are staying with Aparna’s cousins in Barnet. Rekha and Srikanth have been the most incredible hosts, giving us warm beds to rest our heads and feeding us delicious meals. Their home has been the perfect headquarters for last minute rally business.

On Friday, we have some friends coming down to Hyde Park for the Rally start. If you are in town, come by around 10am for the pre-departure activities and stick around for the start at noon.

2 Days.

Two days ago I had the privilege of finally meeting, in person, both Steve and the Suzi.  Everyone say hi.

They say, “hiya.”

Steve is pretty awesome, and the Suzi is coming along quite nicely.  Steve has already: 

• fitted the bull bar,
• added a radio, 
• added some extra strong washer fluid jets, which will certainly come in handy given all the sand we’re facing, and
• added anti-theft locks to the wheels and the transmission, just in case.

Our chariot is in good shape, but we are not resting easy.  Before we launch — in just ONE WEEK!! — we should also have the roof rack and winch installed.  We’ll be picking up some necessary items, including a bunch of extra air filters, some nylon stockings to provide extra protection for the air filters, a basic tool kit, an additional spare tire and some other spare parts.  We’re also working on getting some international car insurance, which is turning out to be quite the pain.  That’s just our to-do list for the car! 

But don’t fret, my friends! Things are coming together nicely, and on Friday, July 18, we’ll be heading out on our escapade, come hell or high water.  

On a related note…

ONE WEEK UNTIL LAUNCH!!!!! 

Can you tell I’m excited?

For better or for worse, ATMs won’t be available to us during large chunks of our journey. And, since the last time I checked most road side food stalls in Africa have yet to partner up with the major credit card companies, cash will be the king of currency while on the road.

We are faced with the unavoidable reality that we will need to carry more cash with us than is particularly comfortable. What makes cash carrying even less fun is that light robbery is an issue in many parts of the world, including some of the places we are headed.

Most money belts are bulky, and the majority of products out there aren’t particularly discrete. Doug found an actual belt with a hidden zipper pocket, but for Aparna and I, who don’t have belt loops, we needed something different.

We searched high and low for all types of money holders, including bra pockets and money belts designed to lay across our chest. After a considerable amount of time searching, we finally stumbled across the most awesome solution!

The POWER POUCH™ sports bra, designed and sold by Gracie’s Gear and Training is a practical and comfortable solution to our money stashing woes! What’s even cooler is that the company’s founder, Gracie, is a dynamic, generous woman! Her company will be donating a variety of Gracie’s Gear threads to outfit Aparna and me for the journey. Gracie is no stranger to philanthropy and in her first two years of operations, Gracie Gives has donated to causes across the board. Her generosity continues with her support of our fundraising adventure, and we are super grateful to her for her enthusiasm, huge heart, and helping us solve our cash stashing woes!

14 Days until we leave London for Cameroon …

Over 150 people have supported us in one way or another. Through your support, we have raised bundles of cash for our charity, Send A Cow, and a nice stash of moo-la, allowing us to buy a car, spare parts and supplies for the upcoming journey.

Also, we have received many thoughtful in-kind donations, and, while offers of half used spare tubes of sunscreen and Smokey the Bear handkerchiefs are incredibly cool (thanks, Dad), the gifts from Jim Ridge take the cake when it comes to awesomeness and effort!

• Jim admitted to spending hours on a Cow Bell Outlet site, picking out “the perfect tone” for our cowbell gift. Also, check out that cool artwork! It’s the Send A Cow logo, drawn on by one of his friends to commemorate our cause!
• And, with our shiny new Samuel Eto’o jersey, we will fit right in upon arrival in Cameroon! This is one border where the guards won’t give us trouble!

Here is a special shout out to Jim Ridge for the thoughtful gifts and for his effort in recruiting the group of HSPH Electricians who Jim persuaded to support us with a collected cash donation!

Check out more photos of the new diggs on our Photo Page!

Introducing our newest communication/safety device/toy, The SPOT Messenger!

We purchased this little guy for a couple of reasons. First of all, he allows friends and family to check our whereabouts on GoogleMaps. This is a fun feature, but it also allows all of you who care about us to feel at ease, knowing our location at any given time. In addition to being able to track our journey on GoogleMaps (which is pretty darn cool), he has a feature that also allows us to call for help or notify a search and rescue company in the event that we get into serious danger.

Time and travel to remote areas will determine if this was a good investment, but the idea is great and we are hopeful that it will work on our journey! According to the service map on their website, we should get coverage during most of our journey, even in the Sahara! Towards the end of our trip, however, coverage may get spotty.

Check back soon, as we hope to create a newly designed map on Our Route page that will combine our planned route with the live updates from the SPOT.

I tested him out last night while at the Milford Drive-In movie theater in western Massachusetts. You can see where we were by checking our SPOT map page!

More on the device soon, but we are pretty excited and wanted to share!

18 Days until we leave London for Cameroon …

As you know, we got a car.  Let’s take a moment to chat about Monsieur Le Chariot, or Suzi, if you will.

As it turns out, our gender-bending, identity-seeking vehicle has got a lot more under the hood than expected.  When we bought the Suz, we thought we were getting a used car in good working condition with a 1.3 litre engine.  We were psyched.  Then we got a couple of surprises.  Now we might be close to overjoyed. 

First, we got a little extra oompf,

The previous owner, Steve Simms, has replaced the 1.3 litre engine with a newer 1.6 litre engine.  A little extra oompf to assist us on our voyage, but certainly not enough to transform our adventure into anything too easy.  Our mettle will still be tested.  We wouldn’t have it any other way.

but now we must pay! We could use even more oompf from our fans…

While this is great news, it also has fundraising implications.  As you know, to enter the rally we needed to raise at least  £1,000 (approx. $2,000) for Send A Cow.  With your support, we have surpassed our initial goal of $2,000 and raised $2,600 so far, which is absolutely fantastic.  Now that our engine is a little bigger, we still need your help!

As a “penalty” — in quotes because it’s charity! not a penalty! — teams that have engines bigger than the 1.0 litre must raise an extra $200 for every additional 0.1 litre. With a 1.6 litre engine, we’ve got a “penalty” of $1,200, and our overall goal (including the “penalty”) is raised to $3,200.  With $2,600 already raised, this means we need to raise an additional $600. If you have been thinking of donating, now’s the time to do it!  You can donate and read a little about Send A Cow here.

Then, some divine assistance!

As it turns out, Steve Simms, the Suzi’s previous owner, is actually a mechanically-inclined guardian angel.  Of the wingless variety.  Steve was really fired up when he heard about our adventure, and offered to help us out.  Boy did he ever.  In the 7 days since selling us the car, he has:

• found a friend who agreed to sell additional parts at cost;
• found another friend who can sell us additional tires very cheap;
• obtained a radio and power point which he then installed in the car;
• fitted his old bull bar  and winch to the car; and
• has begun creating a roof rack for the car out of used steel from a junkyard.

If you are not bowled over by his fabulousness perhaps you should re-read that list.  This is a man, who did not know us before last week, going out of his way to make sure we can actually make it from London to Cameroon in his beloved Suz.  All he asks for in return? Pictures of his babe in action.

Right now I think Doug, Jessie and I are all competing to be president of the new Steve Simms fan club.

Thanks, Steve!

From time to time we use this blog to thank all the companies who have contributed to our fundraising adventure. However, one person who has yet to be directly thanked for his contributions is my dear friend Paul Kafasis. Paul is actually the mastermind behind the layout and functionality of this wonderful website, and I can’t believe we haven’t given him a proper public shout out!

Not only is Paul a steller guy and an exquisite milkshake maker, he also happens to be quite good with technology of all sorts. This is probably a good thing, considering he is the CEO/lacky/co-founder of an outstanding software company called Rogue Amoeba.

In any case, Paul spent time helping us build the site from nothing and he did an awesome job giving us a public face. Truly none of our successes would have been possible without his help and we get lots and lots of compliments on the site, so thanks Paul!

When you have a moment, I suggest you visit Rogue Amoeba’s website and consider buying some of their fantastic software! I particularly like their product Radioshift. You can use Radioshift to listen to over 50,000 radio listings from around the world and then subscribe and automatically record any of thousands of radio programs. It’s really cool, you should check it out!