One day before the finish: Bus Number 7 does charity and feeds the tired rally people.

Since they coudn't find internet yesterday we send out the report from yesterday now. The guys (and the girl) are relaxing, sitting in the pool of Hotel Tamana drinking beer.

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It was an absolutely regular (budapest-bamako) day.

We arrived to Kiffa not long after dusk, the place didn't really change a lot from last year, there are more mosquitos.

Kiffa is an OK place, it has a funny market, Szabi and Karcsi are back from the market with the raw material needed for the evening party, 6 kilos of nice fresh beef, vegetables and a great pair of slippers. This was not really expensive for around 18 Euros.
Obviously we couldn't visit the desert crocodile farm again as Idomou, the local guide and 75% of the teams of the competition category are stuck in the desert for the night between Atar and Tidjukja and are trying to escape now. It turned out in the morning that Idomou is not only good in ripping off people but he CAN navigate there!
With his guidance all the teams arrived safely to Kiffa and a tired but enthusiastic crowd gathered around our bus. They like us as we have beer and food and 230 Volts.
OK, not all the guys are selfish like this.

In my conservative estimation we have around 30 new teams now for the Caucasian Challenge 2009. Since I had no chance to print registration documents on the way - the only printer of the town was offline deep under a plastic cover - I asked them to identify themselves when signing up for the event to get the "fellowship" discount we promised all those who intended to sign up during the Budapest-Bamako rally.


Two friends arrived in the evening, Miki 'Four Finger' an unidentifyable mali citizen with short beard and someone else in a hat we cannot talk about. Celebrating this we had to drink some light drinks since Mauritania is a dry country and an Islamic republic...

In the evening the usual hoax started to spread, that based on intelligence sources someone spread the news that islamic radicals wanted to kidnap teams between Southern Mauritania and Northern Mali. We had a short briefing by the organizer in the evening where Idomou assured everyone that the whole rally is safe and by the way everyone should pay the tourist tax for him. We never know if all these guys just simply work fro their own interest or there is a real tourist tax... anyhow, the main point is the friendship of the nations and the fact that there's beer in Mali. Flag Forever Fan Club :)

We were surprised but the organizers had the same idea we came up with, to go to Ayoun El Atrous and then South on the new road called the Road of the Hope to Mali then Nioro du Sahel and at the end of the day stop in Diema where we have a major charity event. There's a foundation of an old French lady, they say you can find her after entering the village and you ask for the English Lady. They teach hjomeless and poor children to different activities/professions which helps them later to make some money like sewing, pottery, etc. We already had a plan back home to dress up the complete foundation and all its members, thanks to you dear friends at home. We'll make lots of photos so you can see collecting all these things were not in vain.

Everyone is healthy and we feel great, no worries.


And of course some photos: everyday life during Budapest-Bamako.



With the organizers in Ayoun el Atrous:



The Savanna in Mali:



A stop by a road check point - nice crowd isn't it?



A comfy place to stay:



Street vendor selling fresh bread:



Our pals on the Kiffa meat market:

Bus Number 7 is in Bamako. Again.

...that's what I say, here from Budapest who oly know that a couple of hours before the guys were on the way to the capital, Bamako. But I suppose they're already there.

That can be the reason why they kept on bugging em to get the exact address of the Hotel Tamana, although I told them to go to the happy district called Hippodrom as the hotel is between the brothel called La Terassa and the Bar Crazy Horse and these two locations are well known by any Bamako male.

I felt the excitement, they traveled on the bus for 2 weeks and since I did this trip with the bus last year I know it's a great achievement.

They excused themselves for not sending any news yesterday but said there was no internet in Diema.. Well, I know exactly how this works - you cross the border from Mauritania to Mali and the first thing you want to do is to drink a bottle of nice cold Flag or Castel... or two. Or more. And news can wait.

I hope they already found the hotel and send some stories and photos for us. Since I know there IS internet available in that hotel :)

Relax in Nouakchott, fish soup and another bus-party. Bus Number 7 turns towards the Savannas.

Nouakchott, Hotel Sabha:


Well, in fact we haven't done anything today that we did in the past 9-10 days, we haven't even started the bus. Currently I'm sitting in a foldable chair on the rooftop terrace of the bus under the umbrella with a beer in my hand listening the sound of the ocean and writing the blog. Our motto for today: "file is hard".Mai jelmondatunk: „szar az élet”.

After I sent the report yesterday we went to the city with Karcsi nad almost died on the back of a pick-up truck when an idiot crossed road from nowhere - but this is completely normal here, we weren't surprised too much.

For all those who've never been in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, some (subjective) words about the city:

- don't drive

- don't worry

- don't forget 2 expressions: 'no problem' and 'my friend'

If you take this seriously you won't have any problem. Incredible african chaos on the roads, tons of trash, dust and not a cheap place at all, since, I love it. I can't explain why but I do. But I still wait for the 3 free days in Bamako, an even better place.

Back to the facts: we've gone 'downtown' to visit the Marche Central this morning. This is one of the biggest handicraft markets in Africa. We bought some nice jewelery but rather wandered around. A good place if you know where you are and keep the above rules. Incredible amount of goods, no way to figure out what is the source of this and that and furthermore what is that for. Interesting.



When we got back the cars and bikes started to arrive into the camping site. The caravan of the organizers arrived too with its deadly tired crew. They told us that people in the competition category couldn't eat and sleep properly, and someone cheats re-painting and stealing the geocaching challenges they suppose to find. What a kind person, I think if they get him they bury him in the sand.

Lots of things coming up today, we hope our friends from Budapest arrive today, we wait for our friends and sponsors Robi and team but we have no news from them. I'll update you tomorrow.

(The update the next day)


Well, we didn't get close to internet yesterday, so I write this to you a day later from Kiffa. By the evening there were loads of vehicles in Nouakchott, we made a party too... a modest one considering we were in an Islamic republic (and it's a dry country). We could have done whatever we wanted but why would we hurt any locals even if we carry the money they need?

The Unimog with the G'Roby team arrived too, they 'played' in the sand for 3 adys, they were dead tired but satisfied. That's what they came for.

Karcsi made a fish soup with vegetables, needless to say it was fantastic, we (and the guests) ate it up until the last drop.



The road to Kiffa today was long but very interesting, we had everything in 11 hours, Sahara, savanna, rocky highlands... but it was enough for today.

So now we are in Kiffa, waiting for the teams, the competition category will arrive here too. I think they'll have some stories to tell...

Greets to everyone, we're fine, no worries.

Some pics to make the blog more colourful...

Fishermen's boat in Nouakchott:


Colours of work and colours of play:



Sort of a shop:



There's Unimog in Mauritániában too:

Bus Number 7 doesn't need a guide! Crossing the minefield again.

Well, dear friends, another wonderful day - and still it's not over.

Yesterday after a shower, filling up the water tank, having som food and a couple of glasses of red wine we set off for the road to Dakhla in a really good mood. We knew it was long but after all this self-pampering we didn't care. We reached the turn-off point without any noticable event but we didn't feel like going to the campsite through the sandy piste at 1Am so we decided to push as long as we could, as cloce to the border as possible.

In the meantime we stopped at the sign of the Tropic of Cancer which was signposted by the organizers of Budapest-Bamako last year. We were pretty tired by this time so we stopped at the next fuel pump and went to sleep...

… our sleep was not long at all as Gyula wake us up at 5AM so we were off to the unpleasant Moroccan-Mauritanian border. Later on we knew this early wake-up was a really good decision.

I wouldn't go into details re. the border crossing, even though we were among the first vehicles and gave away some T-shirts to oil the process it took 2 and a half hours. Then the hard part - we are tough guys, we don't take a guide through no man's land, we did it several times before.

Well, the bus stuck in the sand obviouly. We took the shovels, sand plates, digging, trying, digging again - right on the mid-day sun. We were exhausted by the time we hit the rocky hard surface path again. The set for this performance was made by blown-up, burned-out cars, local criminals and smugglers. We had a great time.

The Mauritanian officers were even kinder than last year, they let the members of „Le Caravan De Humanitaire” on their way really fast.

A quick swim in the ocean and on the road again towards the lovely city of Nouadhibou. They say there's internet in the Al-Jazeera hotel, I'll send updates again.

Well, you know, the troubles and struggles are the best part of this journey. Sounds silly but true.

Welcome to Mauritania! Bon Voyage!

At the Tropic of Cancer:

We don't need a guide!

No man's land:

Bus Number 7 party on planet Tatooine: booze, draft beer and Slovenian girls!

Party Animals vol.1.

Another exciting night but for other reasons, but let's not go so fast...

After sending yesterday's news we were shopping in Guelmim. Pretty cheap: 2 Moroccan clothes for Soma And Ági, huge quantities of food, mineral water, etc - 80Euros. Well not as cheap as Yerevan, but still very friendly prices.

We thought just a few steps on the pedal and we're at our destination at planet Tatooine (an abandoned old movie set most probably, in the middle of nowhere in Southern Morocco). Tan Tan was close and after the second attempt we found the campsite.

I need to mention here that our second driver, Peter is a real blood of Gyula; when the old man drove the 13-ton vehicle full speed on a sandy piste entering a tight gate the young guy just mentioned: Ah, this is not real offroading. Really fanatics.

So we arrived, we moved out the necessary things for the party, Karcsi started cooking, Soma made electricity for us, we started the power generator, put the speakers on the roof and suddenly the Sympathy for the devil filled the air in the campsite. Well, you should have seen those surprised faces...

The party didn't start easily but we didn't give up and it turned out to be a great night after all. Four Slovenians with light sabers, a veteran biker in full set, Huba and Grzegors who are infamouf for drinking and laughing a lot, Englishmen of course... and so on. All the food was gone, we drank one and a half kegs, loads of hard liquore and closed the party at 2AM. we collected into our charity box 67,36 Euros, 9 US dollars, 367 dirhams, 10 penny and 5 forints. To be continued in Nouakchott.

We packed all the things into the bus and went to sleep. Woke up at 6Am. That was cool. We keep on driving since the morning, the landscape turns into the Sahara really fast, the shore with the ocean is amaizing. Sometimes it rains sometimes we have sunshine, but the weather starts turning good. It seems that Boujdour will be the official toilet place for bus Number 7, we cleaned our dusty bodies again in the Boujdour camping. It will be a long day, the destination is near the Tropic of Cancer in Western Sahara, below Dakhla.

Kisses for Eva and Tania!

Market shopping:

African hospitality:

The place where they ask for "le fiche":

Bus Number 7 and the Ocean:

Bus Number 7 party on planet Tatooine:

Bus Number 7 in lovely Boujdour.

I don't really have lots of news, the team doesn't talk too much, I guess they try to recover from last night's party. Just got a message that they're heading Boujdour, Western Sahara to have a shower. There is a pretty camping site in the town with lovely (hot!) shower, we stopped there twice last year, on the way to Babako and back.

They can fill up the water tank there too.And anyways, Boujdour is a nice little town with lovely food.

Since there is internet access in the office of the owner of the camping I hope they send some news and some fresh photos from there.

Szólj hozzá!

We left the solar system. Destination: planet Tatooine.

We had an adventurous night. The Marrakech - Ourzazate road was closed, 2 meters of snow gathered in 2 days. After ashort discussion we and the teams we met there decided to ride towards Agadir during the night. In the beginning we traveled on highway (25 kilometers) then a it of a straight road and after that a narrow shitty road to Agadir.

Gyula switched to zombie-gear so we reached the town at around 1:30 AM. We searched for a welcoming petrol station and everyone fell asleep right away. Wake up at 7:30, after a good coffee breating some fresh air (4 degrees Celsius) and a working a bit on personal hygiene we set off for the 320 kilometers for the day towards planet Tatooine.

We made friends all day, we met lots of teams, we also met this year's Csepel team. Reaching Guelmim we delivered a parcel sent for his relatives by Said,our friend from Budapest. Then we continued driving, there's not even a curve until Tan Tan. No Internet on the way too so at least we'll have time to get ready for the evening party held by Bus Number 7 on Planet Tatooine. We open our first keg of Budweiser, cook something delicious for the teams and most importantly do what we delay for 2 days: cut Szabi's hair.

Everyone's fine, really. Peace of mind in the heads and the machine. Gyula heard some noise in last night but most probably it was the the clutch we used heavily (960 km, 20 hours). It happens sometimes but not a major problem.

Go Bamako!!

And some photos from last day:

Marrakech:

Good morning!

Filling up the water tank:

Shopping meat:

Red Csepel:

Gifts:

Bus number 7 has been hijacked. The weather is not with us.

Our last info is that the bus couldn't get through a pass on the way from Marrakech to Ouarzazate as the road was closed by the police due to heavy snow. That means they couldn't get to yestarday's official camp site to Ait Ben Haddou's famous kasbah and decided to go back and further down on the good roads to Agadir and planned to sleep somewhere around that town.

The destination today is the strange and deserted place once probably a movie set called planet Tatooine. We threw a great party here last year, we hope rally people won't be too tired to party.

We wouldn't mind if the weather got a bit warmer since we'll serve cold draft beer here not grog. At least Karcsi will cook soemthing that will heat up the body and the soul.

It was quite cold after sunset last year so we advise everyone to dress up properly or dance a lot to keep warm.

Bus Number 7 deep inside Morocco

Yes, we recieved all the complaints that there were not enough (frequent) updates from the bus. Believe me, we do our best, but we constantly have wi-fi problems.

We gather experiences, however. We are on the way to Marrakech while I write this mail, but let's stop for a moment to summarize what happened so far. We arrived to the real Africa last night.

We were quite fresh after the arrival to Algeciras. The town and the port is not as pretty as Almeria, but it's an OK place. We drove into the port, that was easy. From this point all kinds of nationalities wanted to help us with various advices where to queue if one wants to go to Tanger. Obviously they told us the wrong line. Then we found the right person, a guy who worked in the port. His advise was phenomenal (he obviously knew the procedures) so we didn't even have to wait for customs and found ourselves directly by the ramps to the ship. Funny enough we had to walk back from the transit to buy the tickets - and do some personal customs on the way. In just about an hour and a half we managed to buy the tickets in the awfully crowded port, for the 10PM ferry.

This was not a problem at all, at least we had time to finally go into a net café and use internet, copy some fiche for the African officers, wait for our friends. Karcsi made a wonderful soup in no time. Gyula doesn't eat anybody's food so he - as usual - ate some cold cuts and drank his Coke portion for the night. In the meantime it got really really cold accompanied with heavy winds.

They told us at 9PM that the ferry would be ready to leave at around 12. After all we managed to embark at 2:30. 2 hours of boating and we got off the ferry among the first vehicles at 5. AM. No fuss at the customs, everybody was sleepy even the officers. But they filled out various papers and forms, smoke cigarettes and smiled. This is OK, we don't need to watch the slow process and the procedures through our "European glasses".

Gyula and Szabi decided not to search for the camping since the chance to find a party at 7AM is pretty slow and they agreed to get right on the scenic Atlantic highway and drive to Marrakech and the kasbah city of Ait Ben Haddou later on. If everything turns out right we reach the destination early evening. Well, we planned to spend some tome in Marrakech: shopping, Internet, etc.

The weather keeps on changing, sometimes rain, sometimes sunshine, but definitely not warm outside.

Gyula repaired the "machine" of three road construction workers in a parking lot, it seems that he's bothered with not having anything to fix on the bus. Who cares, he can spray all the vehicles of Africa with WD-40 if he wants as long as this is the only repair he needs to do. Our friend Huba and Joao (a funny Portuguese fellow we met on the Caucasian Challenge last year and lives in Morocco) are waiting for us in Ouarzazate in a nice little hotel.

Well, that's the situation now, everything's cool, we really enjoy the trip.

Some photos again.

The port of Algeciras:

Embarking at 3AM:

Drivers:

Team photo:

Moroccan fashion:

Gyula repairs the road constructors' vehicle:

Our friend, San Miguel (in Tom's hand):

The smiling team #260.

Tuesday News - Highways and more highways

Ladies and Gentleman, dear all, the Great Bus Number 7 here.

We all know you are hugry for news and we don't give you enough but the highways were not fully equipped with wi-fi so far. Not as the upcoming countries were so famous about wi-fi coverage of their roads, but at least we won't need to drive so much a day.

Anyways, we knew what we could expect, nobody was surprised that it was so monotone, you can only sleep and more importantly drink. So cheer and elation around, also the team members who really knocked themselves out are getting back nicely.

We reach the ferry in 2 hours.

The teams of one of our main sponsors (G’Roby) will catch up soon... we see other members of the touring category quite frequently. However they don't stop very often too so making friends and partying will be done in Africa in Ait Ben Haddou and later.

We plan to go further to Casablanca or Marrakech if we reach the shores of Morocco in time and they won't make any fuss in the customs. But that's the future.

Have a nice evening, kisses and stuff...

A couple of photos to make the blog more colourful.

Driver's seat with driver:

Genova:

Bus number 7 parking:

Somewhere in Europe:

Near Perpignan, France:

Sunset in Murcia, Spain:

Karcsi fashion:

Spanish bus menu:

Technical innovation:

Bus Number 7 crosses the Mediterranean Sea today

Good afternoon!

Againn, today Bus Number 7's biggest task was to eat up the kilometers, the crew has done some repair today too, a major repair indeed, they fixed the lock of the cupboard door under the sink. That was all the problem for today. Ah, and another one, Tom complained that the sun shines directly in his eyes.

The team left Malaga (info from early afternoon) and now they check which ferry should they take from Algeciras to Tanger in the evening.

They have 2 more tasks in Algeciras, try to get the Star Wars IV DVD somewhere and copy tons of fiche (a piece of paper they'll need everywhere in Africa).

Fresh news soon.

Bus number 7 already in Southern Spain

Bus number 7 currently goes full tear somewhere after Valencia to reach its destination today in Almeria. The bus runs really well, it's +20 degrees Celsius outside and bright sunshine. Irrespectively of the warm weather several members of the crew got hoarse since they were singing all day long thanks to the drinks they drank on the way.

The team already regret that they are in the touring category as they think they could beat anyone with this wonderful beast. Now they're not in a hurry, they enjoy the scenec vista and the goods carried by the bus.

The most serious technical problem yesterday: the fruit didn't come out of the liquor bottle. It seems that even the most prepared team can face a mean problem. After long discussions, international meetings and video conferences they solved the problem. We hope they switch to Spanish red wine from now on. An amateur shot of yesterday's accident.

Further news: the crew of the bus saved the Lidl gorcery store in Girona from bancrupcy with their shopping. Karcsi, the chef still cooking and the food is still excellent.

More news soon. Don't go far.

One and a half days

There are bits and pieces of news from the team which I'll forward to all of you. It's simpler since I'm around the computer in Budapest all the time and cheaper too which is an important factor since we generated a 2000 dollar moblie internet bill last year in just 3 days. Eek...

So no mobile internet this year.

The bus arrived to Venice around 20:30 yesterday and as I've heard through the phone the crew was in a very good mood. Well... we've seen that before. And it's such a wonderful thing when you finally set off after months and months of hard work.

The hotel is the same as it was last year, basic but cheap and close to the highway. It worked so we had no reason to switch.

2 things they thougth it was worth to mention:

- Gyula was driving in flip flops
- Peter (alias "Gyula Jr.") was driving in short sleeve T-shirt

Conclusions: either the weather was really gracious for them or the heating worked well... or they drank up half of the hard liquore reserve.

This morning they continued towards France, the destination today is Perpignan. More than 1000 kilometers but we did it last year so I'm sure the new bus won't have any problem with that. In the last reports they sent it was +15 Celsius and bright sunshine.

I'll upload photos when I receive some.

Hot Wine, Start, Hangover

The day before the start we parked the bus at the start position at around 5PM. We were not really in a very spectecular spot, but we weren't unhappy, only those were who couldn't find us and missed the party.

Bus Number 7, the catering bus threw a farewell party that night for friends, sponsors, and anyone visited us and was interested about our project.

Karcsi made 40 liters of hot wine (really delicious!) we had hot dog sausages, mustard and everything else we needed to soak up the booze. I also remember drinking some hard liquor then some Cuba Libres and who knows what else.

There was always a small crowd around, but we got even more attention when we installed and switched on the disco sphere and put the party speakers on the sun deck and started to play Tiken Jah Fakoly, the reggea king of Mali. Cold didn't matter anymore.

All in all, we managed to close the bus at around 3AM and got home somehow. I don't want to talk aout the wake-up in the morning...

The start ceremony was OK just like the previous years, but the process was obviously slower due to the huge number of vehicles. 90% of the teams set off with a more or less prepared 4WD cars and only a couple of crazy people left who chose a totally unsuitable vehicle for the journey. What a pity. Respect for the minority!

Before the start we were giving away our special edition retro Bus Number 7 calendar. People didn't really understand the concept of it but they appreciated the idea. The headline is" Marry Christmas and Happy New Year!"

There was another bus parking in front of us. We knew them since they contacted us months ago. I hope we helped them and answered all their questions. A funny and good-tempered crowd and they are crazy enough to fill the short Ikarus with 19 (!) people!! Well, that's an achievment! We'cheer for them too.

Some of us who stayed home were on the bus when she rolled under the start gate but we were quite sad to unboard a hundred meters later.

I was still sipping my beer with my ice cold fingers when the bus disappeared in the distance...