3 years

well its been nearly 3 and a half years since the last blog!
we made it down in 2012 and then we did another trip last year in march!

we are planning an other run next spring!

it will be basicly the same route as the last two trips! Scotland to Portsmouth to Santander then south to Gib. Then into Morocco south to western Sahara, Mauritania Senegal and then the Gambia.

we leave on the 25th of March and hope to be in Banjul around the 8th or 9th of April.

Archie the ambulance went with us in 2014.

day 1 Departure day

well I finished the bus packing at 1am, got everything in!! (bar the kitchen sink that is stainless so the scrappy got it!!)
I will be at the Fife mews in Braemar at 1145 for the send off!!
first stop tonight is my parents near edinbrugh,
will up date then.

preparation

well things are now progressing,
I have fitted the nav system, the CB, had to purchase two new batteries as the old ones were goosed, all the other sparky jobs are done, the bed is in but needs bolting down as it is a tad mobile!! stickered up one side between rain showers the other side will get done on Monday.
I have sorted the not wanting to stop on the key problem (snakes wedding of wiring!!)

I started the pack tonight all the shoe boxes are now in,
still working out the logistics of water storage,
cannot believe I leave on Wednesday.

Week on wednesday

Nearly a week to go..............I will leave the mews (opposite the Fife) at 12pm on Wednesday the 7th of march.
please come along and wave me goodbye!

Getting close

I have decided that I will be leaving Braemar on the 7th of march. I will drive to my parents near edinbrugh and overnight there. on the 8th I will drive the length of the UK to Portsmouth to meet the rest of the Rainbow runners.

The local scout group are very kindly doing shoe boxes for me to take to the kid in The Gambia,

Braemar School is donating some school books,

I have acquired a wheel chair from somewhere and a mate who shall remain nameless has donated a hospital bed, (my bed for the run) and this will be donated along with the bus and every thing in it!

preparations are ongoing, yesterday involved Tesco a Trolley and about 100 assorted tins and other food items, (this gave me a fuel voucher and a discount voucher for more!!)

the ferry bookings arrived yesterday, 

the bus is in Aberdeen being fettled as we speak, I picked up the spare seats for it last weekend,

I have been used as a pincushion several times, the last being the expensive one Yellow fever. 

gosh it is getting really close.

I will keep you updated!!

winter

This was the view from my back door last night, winter has arrived! 

the road over the hill is closed! (in fact all the hills!)

Back to work tomorrow after nearly a week and a half off! 

preparations will start next week for the trip!!

Flights

after a lot of thinking I went on the interwebby thing and started to look for flights back to the uk after the run, I tried a few of the big names and got the "sorry only return flights" until I found The Gambia experience,
flight back with one of the 'other' big names all to Manchester £400, at least I have a return date on the books to keep my boss happy. 

planning will start in Ernest next week once we have the festive season over with!!!

happy new year to you all