Shipping company booked. Truck should be arriving in Freetown by mid February. Mark & Jules flying out there on the 13th/14th and Vivi & I a week later.

A few pictures from the trip

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Change of plans

It’s now decided that the truck will be shipped out in February from Tilbury in Essex to Freetown. The journey should take around 2 weeks and the boys and I will fly out to meet it there.

Moneywise this probably won’t cost more than driving it there which is a relief.

The boys felt they still wanted a bit of a driving holiday though so they’ve taken Mark’s old Sierra down to Morocco for a play with some of the other teams. They are currently in Madrid with some friends of mine and will head for Tarifa tomorrow.

They were lucky to escape the troubles in Eurotunnel and have so far had one stopover in Ruffec where Jules lives and then they stopped in Biarritz for some pizza and wine.

Until next time.
x

Trip delayed

The trip is delayed after the FCO strongly advised against travelling through Mauritania, Mali and Guinea, which is three of the countries Mark and the boys would go through.

In Mauritania there is the worry about kidnapping and one option would be to have an armed escort. Takes half the fun out of it though.

In Guinea the president was shot on the 3rd December which means the country is in a bit of a state. We spoke with someone who had been there recently and he said Conakry, the capital, is not a good place to be in, but the rest of the country is ok, but tense.

We’re all upset about it, but still determined to get the clinic there so we’re now looking at other options.

Mark is waiting for quotes from shipping companies to see what the cost would be to ship it to Freetown from either an English or European port. They would then fly out and receive the truck when it got there and then fit the other engine into the old mobile clinic they already have. (The one that’s broken.)

If the quotes come back far too high they might have to go anyway, but if so I can’t go as it’ll be too late for me to catch my flight back from Madrid.

If anyone has any good advice, get in touch.

Cheers
Vivi

Only one week to go!

It’s very hectic at the moment, not many days left before we go now. I’m both pleased and sad I’m not going the whole way. I’m glad I don’t have to combat the border guards and wait for hours on end for no reason, but I’m sad I’m missing out on the adventure.

Below are some recent pictures from the truck. Enjoy!

Cheers

Vivi

 

Front view with the reception area folded out

 

 

Custom made stainless steel sink in the front operating room.

Front room operating table. It swings up so the bed underneath can be used.

Food! We need light food like noodles that doesn't weigh too much

Team t-shirts are here!

And they look great!

Testing blog email from blackberry…

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WSPA Donate page

If you wish to donate to this project via the WSPA Donate site, please click on this link;

https://donate.wspa.org.uk/form.asp?id=1010&j=10007020&e=puritito.tomate@gmail.com&l=2175322_HTML&u=84513153&mid=52985&jb=0

Twitter and general update

Hello all!

Paul has added a new Twitter account solely for this trip, SL_Rangers. Make sure you add him to your twitter account for the latest updates on what the boys are up to. I’ve changed the account in this website so they will come here for all of you who hasn’t got twitter.

Further updates are that the flooring has finally been decided. Mark has got a company to come in and put down professional hardwearing lino with proper sealing around the edges. The old carpet will come up and new wooden floor will be laid and on top of that the hardwearing hospital-level lino put in. We went for a green colour as green usually means safety and is calming.

He’s also been in touch with a company to sort out the rest of the interior; building a stainless steel shelf/table which will be used for operations and also contains a sink, installing the operating table donated by Dr. Moore from the Corner Vet in Sutton (http://www.thecornervet.co.uk/) and various other bits and bobs. Still not sure what’s happening with the generator so if anyone knows of a good generator that needs a new home, get in touch!

Cheers

Vivi

Sponsorship

Thanks to Miriam at FR for sponsoring me today

Paul