With Aparna and I struggling through our first few weeks of graduate school and Doug off Burning the Man, we’ve all had less time to post on our beloved blog. We promised you, dear readers, more stories and photos and I want to assure you that we will not back down from our commitment! It may be a slow process, but we WILL keep posting for the next few months, sharing more tales from our time in Africa.

In an attempt to keep you up-to-date on post-rally fundraising activity, below I have copied an exciting e-mail sent to us by Ants from the Adventurists about the charity car auction that took place in Cameroon.

As you can see, our car fetched over $2,100, which is more than we paid for it in London! A sincere thanks to everyone who helped us purchase the car; it not only got us to Cameroon but also helped raise more money for charity! Also worth noting, of the 41 teams who left London (there -were- originally 87 teams signed up for the rally), these seem to be the 25 cars that made it … !

Check out the first few albums that have been posted to our Flckr page. More to come soon, and thanks for sticking with us!

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Dear teams

After much hoo-ha and procrastination by customs, and in the midst of a tropical rainstorm, the auction of the mighty Africa Rally steeds finally went ahead on Wednesday. The crowds gathered, tensions rose, the rain hammered down and the cars girded their loins for a new life in Africa. All that was missing was the auctioneer. As time ticked on and the crowds began to shuffle their feet impatiently, it became clear that the auctioneer had taken fright and was not going to turn up. Either that or she had been bound and gagged by customs.

More heated discussions ensued and twenty minutes later the first two cars had gone under the hammer of a replacement auctioneer for 460,000 CFA and 430, 000 CFA respectively. The replacement was none other than Ed Hawkins, of the Fairbridge Car, who did a truly marvellous impression of a seasoned professional and sold all but one of the 25 cars in less than three hours. The irony is that the one car not sold was his very own trusty VW.

Despite the rain and the hold-ups the auction was a big success. The top price was fetched by Wrong Way Down’s Daihatsu Mira, which went for a whopping 1510000 CFA (£1819.23), the lowest by the Adam’s Brothers’ Nova Merit, which went for 180,000 CFA (£216.86). The total given to CWAF, our chosen beneficiary of the sales, was 7964689 CFA (£9596). They are going to use the money to build a much needed new quarantine at their forest site in Mefou, near Yaounde. So a very big thank you to all of you for not only doing the rally but for giving your cars to such a good cause.

Auction Breakdown

Hope life is treating you all well and see you at the reunion on December.

Thanks

Ants
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