Bamako Bandits MCC....

[El Loco]

......the Nord-Sud to Sleeping Camel Rally.

Well, as I haven't been able to get out with you lads for quite some time, I decided to organise a wee jaunt through the Malian countryside.

Came up with this route:

Everyone was in top form for the off (even though we were running about an hour behind schedule



and it was all going well through the city



Then the first of four breakdowns; this one was a rear 'blowout':




So, a quick hop to the local bike shop:



The culprit:



Bike fixed then we're off again....but, 100m later:



and the culprit this time?



Off again and got to the ferry without any further problems:




and over the Niger with a wee delay while the recovery vehicles got themselves across:




then we were off again with 25Km of dirt tracking ahead:




Then.......the spark plug cap gave up the ghost - again!!!:



10Km to go and all looking good when......:



...throttle grip broke! 10ft away were these young fellas who fixed it in 10 minutes for 75p!!:




Last 10Km were event free and I arrived at the Sleeping Camel (Clubhouse) in fine nick:



but nothing a cold Beaufort couldn't sort out!



Then the fun and games began with a section of the blown inner tube (now known as the Donkey's Cock) cut out and used as a funnel for straight shots of rum and gin:




We all managed to complete the rally in 5 hours or less which was one hell of a result given the number of bloody breakdowns (and we got pulled over by the local Gendarmerie for a while as well...... . A cracking wee adventure which is captured in this video:

M.

[El Loco]

Hi all, photos and video now uploaded above (just took me 3 days overall to complete ).

M.

[Phil]

Ha Ha, an adventure indeed,


looking like a real knarly adventure biker in this photo




It's great how the locals can fix things at the side of the road, if that was here there would be some sucking air through the teeth "it's a big job mate, I couldn't do it for another week or so".


What I think happened in this photo is, you've got a puncture and the tyre has moved around on the rim thus tearing the valve out, but it's good to see you were able to recycle the inner tube.





It looked like a crackin day out.

[Phil]

Oh and the video won't play, it's private.

[El Loco]

You're probably right about the valve. I would have been doing about 45-50mph when the back end started weaving around. It was pretty sudden though and you see me putting the thing off the tarmac onto the dirt in the video as I thought I was off.

Great craic and I think you fellas would have loved it.

The video should be ok now - not sure what happened there but it's been a while since I've uploaded to Youtube.......

M.

[marty]

Hi dude, looks like you all had good time, had good laugh at the vid, an eventful trip indeed, brought back some memories of us years ago and a certain GPZ LOL, duke will be for a trade in then when you get back dude.

[El Loco]

Definitely put a smile on my face that's for sure. I think the Mutely's safe though......

M.

[marty]

Think feck for that mate thought we had lost you there!!

[El Loco]

May 22, 2014 20:09:45 GMT marty said:

Think feck for that mate thought we had lost you there!!

No chance mate - nothing over here compares to a decent blat along the coast road (or the Mountain for that matter )!

M.