Bus Number 7 is ready to take off

We finished the stickering job last night. Almost 100 sq. meters. Iallt was not easy ast . Just like last year, Miki "Four Finger" Nagy and his friends helped us to dress her up nicely. Thanks!

I'll upload more photos later.

Let's dust this blog...

... and start reporting about the new adventures of Bus Number 7!

The bus was hiding away from the public for several months after her long and exhausting trip to Bamako last year but she's prettier than ever and ready to show her face again.

So what happened?

We started the preparation much earlier this year and thanks to our sponsors we didn't have the terrible financial problems as last year.
We learned a LOT from the 2008 trip so the new bus will be a spacecraft compared to the previous one. Honestly last year's passengers are really jealus when we tell them what are the new features on the bus...

I don't think I can list all the amendments but let's pick some:

- new engine. A lot more horse powers, a better gearbox, a better differential and a whopping top speed of 110 km/h!! For a comparison: last year we managed to climb an elevation on the highway near Marseille with 23 km/h. You can imagine the reactions of the trucks and buses overtaking us. Our top speed was 77,4 in Morocco on a deserted road on completely flat surface (and some wind from the back?). Now this is all gone.

- there is heating. An efficient one! Last year we generously cut the heating system out to have more space (or something). We realized before the start that it's January and the temperature in Europe is way below 0. Sitting on the bus for hours and hours without heating... you can imagine. No wonder we drank up liters of hard liquore in the first 3-4 days.

One of the heaters installed inside this sofa. Seat heating :)

- Stainless water tank on the roof. Last year we had 2x100 liters of water in steel (iron) tanks so all we had was rusted water for a month. It was OK for washing the dishes but we didn't use the shower. These guys will have 300 liters of fresh water so they can even have warm shower if they want. Anytime.



- More storage. We took one big fridge out and installed a smaller one and a cupboard below. So not only the storage room is bigger in the kitchen but we can even use the fridge anytime since we can switch the power from gas to 24 Volts to 230 Volts. Luxury. Cold drinks anytime.

Next to the painted fridge (the tricolor of Mali by the way) you see the gas powered fridge on the top and a cupboard below.

- Bedroom made air tight. So smoke and dust won't over the passengers while sleeping. You have no idea how good this new feature is.

- There's a brand new electric system. All the lights can be switched individually, the bus has 1500 Watts of power all the time through inverters. There are 2 new high capacity batteries supplying this. No need to run the power generator if we want to play with the Xbox or watch DVDs or listen to music or charge many things at the same time.

- furnitures reinstalled. We lifted all the tables so it's easier to take a seat. Cup holders for all seats so the beer and the coke won't splash around when we reach the rocky piste.



- we had a great entertainment system even last year but we installed a new 30cm diameter disco sphere as well since it looks nice if we throw a party in the desert. Still considering of last minute buying of disco lasers and a fog machine.

Let me insert some photos - the bus here is still under construction but almost completed.

Isn't she beautiful??

The bedroom. Not really tidy now, we need to clean up. And refill the AC. And get new sheets for the matrasses.

The rooftop terrace. The wodden bars are closer to each other than last year so a chair can stand evenly on the surface. A lovely place to see the desert sunset.

The back part of the bus with the shower and the bedroom door.

Speeding in the desert – 31st January – Near the Moroccan border

We leave early in the morning, the plan is to work the day delay off and reach the Moroccan border. This means that we need to drive 900 km in the desert. Fortunately there’s a concrete road all the way across it, but there are many villages and goats on and next to it. A quick check in the morning tells us the final result for the day: 1138 km. Most probably Gyula will drive all way on his own. Tuti is still not well, he’s resting in the back. In final need Soma and Aravind can drive the bus too.

In the morning Gyula goes at a crazy speed, the engine is spinning, and we break the African record: the GPS showed 87.2 kmph. Two minor breakdowns slowed us down, but both of them were fixed in 10 minutes by Soma and Gyula.

Proceeding Northwest semi desert takes over the savannah, then comes the red desert with its sand dunes. The team is much more relaxed than on the way down to Bamako. Maybe because we are fewer and we know the route and the roads. I thought it was to be more difficult to get accustomed to the roads again after 2 days off, but it’s ok.

We took a policeman on board he accompanied us until Nouakchott. He doesn’t speak much, he put on his black turban and he’s sleeping. We tried to exchange his policeman badge, but he didn’t give it. Usually we take the hitchhiking soldiers on board, they have their separate reserved places on the bus. They eat our food suspiciously, although we pay attention not to give pork for them. The Moroccan soldiers are the masters of sleeping in sitting position. They fall asleep in 2 minutes in any position, a lot can be learnt from them.

We reach Nouakchott by the evening traffic jam, causing a big stir with the bendy bus. We get lost a bit, and get stuck between a donkey carriage and a broken down lorry. A policeman comes and leads and makes the way for us. Slowly we reach our destination, the Mercure hotel, where we will steal wifi from.

Lap of honour - 29th January

After approx. zero minutes of sleep we manage to get on the bus and kick off towards home. According to plans we’ll get home on 8 Feb sometime in the afternoon. A tense tempo, with a day off in Marrakesh. We can make it.

From the morning drive I only remember that we stopped once to change drivers and we were literally attacked by 300 kids. I woke up and saw team number 1’s flipped car. They wanted to go around a goat, brake and pulling turning the wheel in the same time, and only the well prepares car saved them. They can be delivered only in a lying position. We had to go for 5 km before we could turn back and head back to Bamako. Right 2 days after the same guard shouted at us that we can’t park in front of the hotel by our bus, is shouting at us again. We shout louder. The ambulance takes the 2 guys; hopefully they don’t have any serious injuries. I wouldn’t mind staying in Bamako that day; Mali plays against Ivory Coast that day in the Africa Cup. But according to plans we leave after half an hour of break.


Bamako 2.0

Some of the participants are waiting for their plane in the hotel hall. This is one of the most difficult part of the rally for them, as one Andrea Bocelli like song is on on repeat item mode volume full on. There are new buyers for the bus, calls are made, boss is coming with the money. We skip the deal of our life and try to get out of Bamako. Soma mends the Norwegians’ hifi, and we finally have music. It’s a very stubborn sound system, it’s willing to play only one song from the USB, which is the Polar Bear Theme Song. It’s a very good animation film song, but gets boring after the 40th time. We manage to get some Norwegian metal and some folk music on as well. Silence, please!

We manage to reach the Mali border by the evening. Everything is faster on the way back. Aravind doesn’t even have to help in filling out the papers. A dude gets on the bus and shows us where the petrol station is. Next to a completely dark road in the middle of nowhere there are two manual pumps. Assistant nowhere. The dude goes for the petrol station guy, and after 20 minutes he comes back with two other guys, one of them holding an extremely dirty milk can. We want to fill up a 200 liter tank with this. We give them two 20 liter containers, and they don’t get it in the beginning why they need two for. Gyula and Soma are filling the tank, while the guys are pumping one after the other. They overload each and every containers, while two if the three of them smokes. We finish in half an hour.

We reach Mauritania, Gyula drives, the others sleep. In the night a guy gets on and shows how we ca get around Kiffa. Then the bus stops.

The last stage – 27th January

Next morning we leave for Bamako. A brand new motorway before the town, proudly announcing it was made from EU donations. We reach the town and we head towards the final destination, a hotel.

Apparently Bamako’s air is very polluted. The town can be entered from the North, and the road leads there from a hill. From there nothing can be seen from the town, it’s just a huge smoke cloud. Although when we get out of the car we breathe in and find the air fresh and nice. After breathing dust in and smell the gasoline for two weeks it really is.

Bamako by night

We reach the final destination, the hotel, a laid back hooraying as everyone is dead tired. We go to out accommodation, a neat African hotel, and we chill. The hotel is in a very good location on a quiet side road in the club district called Hippodrome. Opposite to our street the Crazy Horse is located, which is a bar and restaurant with terrace. A real multicultural environment. The owner is an Indian from Burkina Faso. A Tamil is at the cashier, the waiters are local, but with their ‘I don’t care’ attitude they would do just as well on Liszt Ferenc square. African – international menu and African music. Castel, the local beer is good, just like the chicken with walnut sauce.

We go over to the award ceremony. We didn’t win any prize, with out zero point we are the last. But we made it! I’d like to tell that idiot little monkey on Kossuth square that we are here and we made it, and he can suck my dick. The ceremony is in a disco called Ibiza, apparently the largest in whole West Africa. It resembles me to Dexion in Alsoörs, the dance floor is the same size, and there’s fast food and cocktail bar next to it. The music is more or less the same. The security guards are much nicer n the other hand, although they are double the size than those at home.

The party kicks off very slowly, some of us go back to the Crazy horse, as the beer costs much less there and we can talk as well. We go over to the neighbouring place called Terazza, which is a restaurant downstairs, a bar upstairs and a brothel downstairs. The owner is an old guy from Lebanon. We end up in the bar upstairs. At the bar the girls are sitting in a long row. We can’t order a drink without getting a quote. When they finally realize that we are not the sure escorts for that night they stop. The music is good at some points, but sometimes really annoying serving the red headed fat and middle aged Europeans’ taste, who come here only for the hookers.

This is the real third world. The meat market. But it works the way around as well. A barrel like woman in her fifties pulling a tall toned guy behind her. I’m not in the mood to write about the moral side of this, so do it in the comments whoever feels like and have a stong opinion about it.

Shitty border

After the soldiery evening we headed towards Mali on quite decent roads. Waking up again on the noisy, bumpy bus, so shitting only on the Mauritanian border. The Mauritanian border is quite developed, there are two buildings! Sitting soldiers are around everywhere. I asked one of them where the toilet was and he just pointed out the open fields behind him. I pass some donkeys and go behind a bush, skiflying position taken, and action. Meanwhile all the guns from the jeep turn towards me. I’m not sressing out, I just shit with guns pointing me out for the first time in my life.

On the Mali side there’s nothing unusual, although Aravind has to tell the officer what to write what in the form. The border is very funny, as there’s only a hut in which a guy is sitting in his uniform and a pair of slippers. And instead of goats we see donkeys here.

Mali is a nice place

Compared to Mauritania Mali is the paradise itself. The terrain is getting greener and the trash is significantly less. Proceeding South more we pass more and more villages with mud wall huts than nomadic tents. There are markets by the road. The meat rottens on the sun, just like up in the North, but we can find grocery items around here as well. And the most significant difference: we can buy alcohol! And something interesting: almost all the restaurants have a Maggi sign painted on the front. That’s about the authentic local food.

When we stop 200 children are surrounding us right away, the usual ’give me a present’ situation. The Mali people, especially the women have a very beautiful poise, maybe due to the fact that they carry everything on their heads. We should introduce it in Europe too. Many locals have flashy brand new mobile phones, and not from the 30 Euro category. It feels strange when a person who has better mobile phone than me begs for my dirty trainers.

We camp on the savannah, set up a big fire and have the left over beer. Unfortunately we didn’t buy goatmeat, so we have to eat what we brought.

The stars shine extraordinarily bright. The Kevin couple and the Norwegians climb on the roof to sleep, and Attila, Tamás and I stare for long at the burning out fire. A beautiful night.

The way back

Bus number 7 kicks off for home tomorrow, 29 Jan. It will be a long drive…

Some people were interested in buying the bus today, they told really nice prices. Of course, none came back. It was very suspicious from the beginning, that none wore any shoes.

Correction and apologies

I received some feedbacks that in the Savannah article I hurt Gyula. This is not true, buti f someone would feel so, I apologize in here too, as I already did on the bus. Everyone on the bus is 100% thankful to Gyula, that we made it here. If it wasn’t for him, we stay in Budaörs. Turning back from the middle of the savannah was a common decision, not Gyula’s own, although he initiated it. As we heard later, even the 4x4s had difficulties with that stretch. We turned back trusting his expertise, experience and knowledge. It can easily be that this is the only reason we are still alive. Thank you very much, Gyula. I1d like to ask everyone to read the other articles as well, and judge the Savannah post based on them. Neither in style nor in content differs from the others.

In Bamako

The bus reached Bamako at 10.30 am local time. Everyone and everything is fine.

Savannah then concrete road again

The morning shift left the English behind without remorse, so we had to turn back for them from the petrol station. They are here now, we played craps all morning. Today is going to be awesome, as we’ll turn off from this road at some point, and we’ll head to Mali. Sunrise is unbelievable! In the morning we go slow (bus), but in the afternoon Tuti gets the wheel and eat up the miles. The roads are very good, at home I’m sure a Minister would officially open it. A big difference is that around here many goats and camels are passing. There’s more and more grass on the terrain, then desert, then mountains. We pass a few dusty towns then at 3pm we turn to the offroad leading through the savannah. The real adventure begins: go across the savannah and some small villages.

The bus does very well. We get stuck once, Gyula says we got till here, but in the end we continue our route. We get off from the off road to the real savannah; the soil is harder in here. We are passing and turning at trees, the thorns tear the stickers to pieces on the side of the bus. Aravind goes ahead of us with the Norwegians, figuring out the route. We reach a dried out river. We stop. Gyula says the bus wouldn’t make it across. Aravind comes back, tries to convince him that it will. The fake arguments come. That the other bus didn’t come in this direction. Great, here’s the chance to prove! But the bus will fall apart. Then we got this far, that’s it. We are stuck there on the savannah. We have food, we have water, we have a house in the bus, and there are other rally participants around us as well. We’ll need to spend the night on the savannah. That’s awesome; we came for this, right? The fear starts to evolve in others as well. Gyula turns back arbitrary. That’s about Africa! A hole appears and we run like the proud Hungarian soldiers at Győr. Back to a concrete road that is better than the 81 back at home. We go an average 60. I tell Kevin it’s like when a sailor would say I won’t go out to the sea, because the waves are tall. And anyhow, what should we go out to the sea at all, it’s dangerous! We’ll get sick on the road. And it might be that there won’t be ice for the gin tonic where we go. Our heart is bleeding, they would have went through by the Polski.

We go back, all in all we had a 400 km extra, and we gave up at the first difficulty. We stop to chat up some nomad woman with their kids. They are very nice and very beautiful. They didn’t ask for present, moreover, they want to invite us to their tents. Their pride, strength and spine is unbelievable that’s written on their face. Again the arguments come, that is’s gonna be dark soon, and the Norwegians, who don’t have lamp left us. No tea. It gets dar, and we meet the support car of the Dacia team, the owner of the car didn’t let them to go offroad, as he wants to sell the car in Bamako. There are a few policemen around us, they will watch out for us during the night. Everyone calms down, although I don’t think anyone would have suffered anything without them. I’s rather slept with the nomads, I’m sure they have guns too.

We open the last beer barrel in the evening and we invite the soldiers for dinner. Attila tells me the next day that the nomads brought sheep head, and he tried it out of respect. I missed that.