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Africa or Bust
Americans join British spoof on an elite international road rally
gcp224@nyu.edu
A team of American trailblazers is gearing up for the ride of a lifetime: a 4,000-mile journey from the fields of England, through the Sub-Saharan desert and past hundreds of ghost ships along the west African coast to Mali. Just to make things more exciting, they’ll be going in a shabby white stretch limo they bought on Craigslist.
The team, LimotoAfrica, will be one of the few in the United States to tackle the Plymouth-Dakar Challenge, a road rally started as a spoof in 2003 by British stockbroker Julian Nowill. The annual event this year dares adventurers to travel one of two courses, from England into either Bamako, Mali or Banjul, The Gambia. There, the vehicles - which must be “bangers” worth less than $200 - are auctioned off to raise funds for local charities.
Although largely a British phenomenon, a few daring (and creative) Americans are jumping on the bandwagon. LimotoAfrica’s crew — Mark Sinclair and girlfriend Suna Taymaz, of San Francisco; Brian Spector of Phoenix, Arizona; Scottie Schneider of Tampa, Florida, and Canadian Christian Peltier — will start December 21.
Unofficially dubbed the “Ultimate Banger Rally,” this is Nowill’s retort to the famous Paris-Dakar, an elite event that showcases some of the world’s most experienced drivers and expensive vehicles.
“It can be quite nice with no money, no experience — to kind of gate crash their party every evening,” he mused in a telephone interview from the U.K.
The Washington, D.C.-based Penitent Yanks participated in a challenge to The Gambia in February 2007. They strapped bicycles to a 1987 short yellow school bus, with plans to donate them to the children of a remote Senegalese village.
They renovated the bus, adding fold-out beds for comfort and a Buddha statue on the dashboard for good luck.
Buddha’s good graces notwithstanding, the bus broke down in the middle of the Sahara, near what team member Scott DeGraw, 36, described as a lawless Moroccan border town. The group never made it to the finish line — but did hitch a ride to Senegal to deliver the bikes.
For the 2005 challenge, Seattle resident Dan Clemens and brother John manned a 1971 Bedford Creamy Treats ice cream van, packing it with about 500 ice cream bars in Gibraltar. They served treats to local children along the way.
“We got everyone to giggle and laugh,” said Clemens. “We’d play the chimes, and their faces would light up.” They even made an ice cream stop in the middle of the desert.
Team LimotoAfrica plans to try to make the Guinness Book of World Records, and to document the hidden talents of passengers they pick up along the way, said Sinclair, a 36-year-old structural engineer.
Named Vegas for its hometown, the team’s 1988 Ford Lincoln Town Car boasts a white vinyl top, red interior, side lights, sun roof and VCR.
“We will be traveling in luxury,” said Sinclair, “….provided we’ll be traveling.”
British rally veteran Neil Rickards, 27, said some of the more memorable moments of his trip included talking his way out of a bribe in Morocco, digging his way out of a sanddrift, and breaking down in the middle of a minefield, where suspicious guards in smuggler camps watched from nearby.
“I was a little nervous in the minefield,” he admitted.
He also miscalculated in provisioning for the desert.
“After three days we found some nomads and bought a goat off them. Fortunately, our guide killed it for us while we got a fire going,” he said.
Crossing borders is one of the more difficult tasks, as guards will often extract bribes.
“Ice cream was a really good lubricant for the border crossings,” said Clemens.
And the cars are prone to breakdowns — it’s a banger rally after all.
In 2003, 40 vehicles participated; this year, there’ll be 250.
“I think the popularity is that people from all walks of life, with no money, can do it and have a fantastic time,” Nowill said. “And the fact that charities benefit is a nice sting in the tail, because other car rallies rip through a country and put nothing into it.”
Copy-cat banger rallies are popping up, like the Ramshackle Rally from France to Poland, and the Mongol Rally, a 10,000-mile trek from London to Mongolia.
“The whole concept hasn’t really gone on in the states, but it’s starting to, and I think it has its place,” said Clemens, who recently directed the first Greaseball Rally, a charity event in which participants had to fuel their vehicles with waste grease from restaurants and fast food outlets along the way. One team spent only $60 on diesel fuel on the 4,000 mile journey from Washington D.C. to Costa Rica, Clemens said.
Clemens is planning several more environmentally-conscious banger rallies, via his website Greaseballrally.com.
“It’s a combination of a great fun vacation adventure, and there’s the satisfaction of having a goal at the end of it, and a purpose,” said Sinclair, referring to the Plymouth-Dakar.
Nowill seems pleased with having spawned this new breed of banger rally fanatics. He said: “This idea of driving thousands of miles in a clunker has really taken off.”
The Penitent Yanks of Washington, D.C., traveled from England to Africa in a yellow school bus. Their secondary mission: to deliver bikes to children in Senegal. Photo Courtesy of Jay Greene.
U.S. team LimotoAfrica bought a stretch limo from Las Vegas for the journey. Photo Courtesy of Mark Sinclair.
Cooling off in the desert. Photo Courtesy of Dan Clemens.
The Penitent Yanks invited hundreds of people to along the route to sign their bus. Photo Courtesy of Jay Greene.
One course traverses 400 miles of desert. Photo courtesy of Julian Nowill.
Drivers pass hundreds of ghost ships along the West African coast.
A West African tire shop. Photo by Neil Rickards.
Breakdowns are constant. Photo by Neil Rickards.
The bus drivers never reached the finish line – but they did manage to deliver their cargo of bikes to Senegal. Photo Courtesy of Jay Greene.