Hello from Libya!

Saturday 31st January 2009
Time: 08:30 - 15:30
Distance: 432 miles
Rally Position: 2nd from 41 (2nd in class)
Surt, Libya - Benghazi, Libya

Are we there yet?

One thing I realise that I have been forgetting to mention is the food and the cost of fuel…..

The food is actually pretty good and is typical North African fare, although we are yet to sample camel. Well we are yet to have been told that we’re sampling camel. One thing I can’t get used to is being served tinned tuna for breakfast, so for me it is usually bread and cheese, the cheese being a rip-off of Dairylea….

The fuel, now here’s an interesting situation; two cans of Coca-Cola is roughly £1.50, a litre of 95 Octane fuel is,……….. well so small it’s not worth the calculation, so instead try this. To fill my 24 x gallon endurance tank is around £8 (Don’t you love Gordon Brown). Beer’s also very cheap here… you can’t buy it!

Mean while back to the rally. As I mentioned yesterday we are now 2nd overall and in class and unless I can cut the brake pipes on the Datsun 240Z, that looks pretty set. Unless of course we breakdown in the next 1,500 miles or so, or we crash the car on a timed stage!

Today was a real chore as we drove nearly 500 miles from West to East, heading towards Egypt.




The route was fairly uneventful until on the outskirts of Benghazi we took a wrong turn from the tulip notes (route directions) and ended-up lost in the back streets of Benghazi. It was at that point that we realised that all the street signs are in Arabic, our mobile phones do not work, and we had no way of contacting rally HQ. After an initial surge of adrenaline (I think it’s brown) we started back tracking our route and after some 5 miles or so found the error and headed into the hotel.

The hotel for tonight is a business hotel and seems to a much higher standard that we’ve become accustomed to. Who knows, it might even have WiFi and this blog will live again….

View from hotel room


The actual rally has two more complete days inside Libya and then Tuesday 3rd February we exit into Egypt. It is at this point that the big timed events start including one desert GPS stage that is in excess of 80kms, so I am hoping to provide you all with some more daily action detail etc.

Todays car summary:
Faults: Rev counter, speedo, temp sensor.
Issues: Horn & lights have stopped working, we suspect a fuse.
The handbrake has failed, we need to inspect rear shoes.
Engine rattling like hell, we need to wear ear-plugs!

Generally performing well and travelled all miles today in one block with no stops, only once for fuel. Cruised at 100kms, without issue…. Colin score 9/10


Friday 30th January 2009
Time: 10:00 - 13:30
Distance: 180 miles
Rally Position: 3rd from 41 (2nd in class)
Misrata, Libya - Surt, Libya

Morning, sleep well?

Unusually I am starting today’s blog at the moment of waking, well I say waking…. My question to Ces of morning, sleep well? was not met with much amusement. You see all those stories you’ve heard about the desert being cold at night are very, very true and our accommodation for the night appeared to be an out-of-season Butlins, with Summer time sheeting to match. Whilst the wall mounted heaters did a fantastic impression of actually giving off heat they did in fact simply give off noise and circulated the rooms very cold air! Oh yes, at the moment of writing I am really in-the-zone, mentally prepared for the days challenges, like a coiled string.

A thorough levels check of Colin revealed that the engine oil needed topping-up, but otherwise was good to go.



After a drive of around 120 km’s we arrived at the first timed stage running alongside an underground pipeline. We had deliberately not re-fulled that morning so for once we were light and ready to race. After the initial start all was going well and very quickly we found that we were using top gear (5th) and pulling through the power-band. I glanced at the GPS speedo and this was reading 130kph, not bad considering we were on loose gravel! The car was floating over the gravel and I knew we were in for a good time. Just then the unimaginable happened….. a puncture! Luckily Ces and I had been practising our routine for this and we completed a front drivers wheel change using our trolley-jack and we back driving again within 4 minutes….

Whilst changing the wheel we were overtaken by the Morris 1800 Land Crab but we also saw that the Nissan Pathfinder was in the middle of dealing with a puncture of their own….. they had not been practising! The Datsun 240Z was no where to be see and by now had a commanding lead. After the end of section one we re-strapped all the loose repair equipment into place and prepared for straight into section two. Section one had been a stage of 30kms, whereas the second stage was only 8kms. If we’d only had the puncture on the second stage!

Section 2 went very well and without incident and we recorded a good solid time.

After the timed sections ended we then had a dreary drive to our next hotel for the night.



It was an improvement on Butlins in the sun from the night before, but not much! At least the cars we all together this night and the police we there to help us.



Having settled into the hotel, we stepped out via a back door and over some razor wire and made our way to the local beach. The views were something else and this was most certainly a Blue Flag beach to compete with anything in Devon.


At the time of writing the blog, we have seen the results and despite the puncture we still came in ahead of some of the other cars. Plus stage two was quicker than I had expected, so I am pleased to report that we are now 2nd Overall and 2nd in Class.

A long transit day tomorrow, so I suspect a limited blog to follow….



Thursday 29th January 2009
Time: 09:30 - 17:00
Distance: 180 miles
Rally Position: 3rd from 41 (2nd in class)
Leptis Magna, Libya - Misrata, Libya

The wheel’s wobbling….

A leisurely start in Libya was down to today being purely a transit day, so positions remain unchanged.

We drove for around an three hours to our first port of call, an ancient Roman city called Leptis Magna, recently made famous in ‘The Long Way Down’ series.






What these pictures of calm and civilisation fail to show is the chaos on the roads of Libya. Traffic law is easy to remember here, there isn’t any except that you must stop for a red light. Other than that overtaking, undertaking and driving the wrong way along a dual-carriageway are all genuinely acceptable and seen frequently. The Ring-Road around Tripoli is something I shall always remember!

There is also some interesting cargo carried.



It was whilst fighting for survival on these roads that I noticed that at any speed in excess of 120kph, the steering wheel began wobbling and I could feel some vibration through the pedals. So long as I kept the speed down all was well, but this lack of speed caused two issues. Firstly when the roads did open up, we couldn’t use them properly; And secondly or perhaps more importantly, tomorrow (Friday) there are two more timed stages and both sound to be fast. Therefore once at the nights stop I decided to jack the car and examine the steering. The fact that I had a spanner in my hand, seemed a shock to everyone and even the rally photographer took a picture of this momentous occasion.



It soon became apparent that the inner track rod ends had failed on both sides of the car, even though they were new at the time of departing the UK and so some additional tools and assistance was sought from one of the sweep mechanics, namely Simon Ayris. You may recall from my earlier script that Simon built Colin for the rally and fortunately as part of our equipment list, we were carrying spares!



Once the repairs had been made we then carried out our other basic checks and found that the gearbox oil level whilst within acceptable limits, had started leaking at a greater rate and now needed a two daily check. The exhaust manifold was blowing on the first cylinder and the engine was still leaking. No rev counter and no speedometer were minor issues as was the rattling top-end.

Tomorrow we need to at least hold our position and hopefully climb the board. More track rod ends will be ordered from the UK tomorrow and will join us in Egypt. We need to push and nurse at the same time, not an easy task!


The timed stages tomorrow take us along the edge of a huge water pipeline in the desert and for the first time we will be relying on GPS for navigation. The route involves a mix of sand and gravel.

On a lighter note Ces is very keen that I share with you a couple of pictures of our wonderful hotel room.




Later blog fans….


Wednesday 28th January 2009
Time: 09:30 - 17:00
Distance: 160 miles
Rally Position: 3rd from 41 (2nd in class)
Sabratha, Libya - Leptis Magna, Libya

Welcome to Libya

We awoke to blue skies and bright sunshine, however the look was very deceptive as the temperature had just about reached 10° and a cold wind was blowing in from the North rather than from the warming Sahara to the South.

A routine check of the car revealed nothing out of the ordinary just the usual small oil marks underneath the gearbox and engine itself and all the rest looked good, if not a little dirty from the previous days stages.

The results of the previous days stages showed that we had been beaten on stage one by the Datsun 240Z by 23 seconds and on the second stage by around 35 seconds. This moved us into 2nd in class i,e, classic rather than vintage or special and into 3rd overall.

1st Place overall being held by the Datsun 240Z.
2nd Place overall being held by a Nissan Pathfinder
3rd Place overall being held by Colin-the-Cortina



The only apparent hazard at this time was the local wildlife in the form of camels….



As we neared the border with Libya we noticed lots of small stalls at the side of the road selling what looked like bottled water. This was in fact smuggled fuel from Libya and the advise we later received was that it wasn’t so much the octane content that was the problem but more the donkey liquid content that bulked it out!




We arrived at the Tunisian exit border at around 11:30am and crossed into no man’s land without issue. Once at the Libyan border post we had to hand over our passports and wait……



And wait……


Three hours later we were issued with our local number plates and allowed to leave.



The police were very helpful and escorted us to our hotel and once there also kept an eye on our cars and the exit from the hotel, to keep us safe.




They also kept a watchful eye on us on the beach, in case there were any problems etc.

All in all it’s proved to be a very long day with little mileage, but at least the car is still running very well. Unfortunately my mobile telephone will not connect in Libya and so I suspect that this blog will not see the light of day until Egypt on the 3rd February.

And now for a quick drink (fruit juice) and then to dinner.