Sahara Desert 1 – 0 Team Traa Dy Liooar
February 3, 2008 at 5:48 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentAs has been previously reported the rumours are true… We were beaten by the Sahara Desert.
This one has taken a long time writing. It’s hard to explain how you feel after this sort of thing especially when we didn’t make it all the way. It kind of feels like being in a pool at the end of a waterfall. You’ve spent months constantly going from one goal to the next striving to complete something be it fundraising, preperation or driving 300km to the next town and suddenly you’re back and it’s all over.
However we had an amazing time. Met some great people especially the Taxi team of Roger and John who made the trip for us, will never forget them and you couldn’t have asked for a better pair of people to travel with. The scenery in Morocco was stunning and anyone who travels there and just sees Marrakech or Agadir are missing out to a frightening degree.
A full diary will have to be written up in time with some good photos as well (got over 1000 to choose from!) but for now I’ll just thank you all for your support, it was really appreciated.
Thanks
Juan
Disaster Strikes!
January 28, 2008 at 11:53 am | Posted in Disaster, Sahara, Traa Dy Liooar | 4 CommentsI’m disappointed to have to report that I have received a text message from Juan informing me that Team Traa Dy Liooar have been forced to abandon their attempts to reach Timbuktu.
Working on very limited information it would appear the rear axle of the Disco was badly damaged while crossing the Sahara Desert and therefore the lads have no choice but to abandon the race.
We will update you with all the news as soon as we have it.
Mike (Webmaster)
Marrakech!!!
January 16, 2008 at 6:34 pm | Posted in Adventure, Charity, Isle of Man, Manx, Marrakech, Morocco, Paris-Dakar, Traa Dy Liooar | 3 CommentsHello from sunny Marrakech!!!! Jealous?
ahahahah
Apologies for any bizarre typing in this as the keyboard we are using is not qwerty. Even typing qwerty takes me a few seconds.
Have been driving through Morocco for about 3 days now and so far so good. Have been travelling with Team Running Amok all the way and it has been brilliant, they share our traa dy liooar spirit and we have been taking an easy route enjoying some great local food and fantastic scenery at a reasonable pace of about 50mph. We have been very lucky to stumble across friendly great places every time we have randomly stopped, we have christened this the “Team Winging It” strategy!
Border crossing was a long wait but relatively painless and once out of the cities the 2 towns we stayed at (Assilah and Azrou) seemed a bit off the tourist trap map and therefore hassle free. Even the police are happy to smile and wave us through checkpoints. We have been getting a lot of open smiles and waves from the local children and adults although that probably has a lot to do with the london taxi leading the way.
The sun is starting to come out more and more the further south we go which is evidenced by James growing red glow from his head! In other news the rally beards are progressing well with the minor drawback that Juan is getting called Ali Baba by any and all locals.
We are off out tonight for some food in the local market with a few other teams before heading up the Tizi Test pass tomorrow, possibly for a spot of skiing!!!!
Hope to update soon.
Team Traa Dy Liooar
Gibraltar!
January 13, 2008 at 2:21 pm | Posted in Adventure, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Manx, Paris-Dakar, Traa Dy Liooar, Yesser | 2 CommentsHello all from sunny Gibraltar! Jealous?
1300 miles later we’re finally getting some sunshine. The trip was mostly uneventful apart from a moment in northern france where we couldn’t find any Diesel. It was uneventful until yesterday afternoon when we started to get a wierd vibration from the car when we got above 50mph – we carried on for 20 miles or so before finally pulling in and having a look at the car. After a few minutes of head scratching we suddenly noticed the rear left tyre was…well…. buggered. The side wall had disintegrated and we were driving on an oval tyre. To make matters worse it quickly became apparent we were lacking any equipment in changing a tyre – the spanner we used to remove the nuts bent under the strain and our car jack was about a foot short of lifting the Disco to any useful height (damn you Cret and your crazy rear suspension!). We did however find a friendly spanish garage attendent who helped us immensely to find a local car lifting unit and we managed to change the wheel after a mere 2 hours. It was the first real problem and stress moment but we all managed to pull through with the minimum of angst and it wasn’t long before we were laughing along down the amazing scenery to malaga.
We got to the hotel and met the other teams, got our room and enjoyed a decent Italian meal and good company. There are only 5 or so others here as we were a day early but we’ve already met some good people who know where the isle of man is!
Today we followed a team in a London cab to Gibraltar and have seen a lot of apes – James has bought a new car mascot called Pedro the Ape… it makes a screaming ape noise when you poke it…. this will definitely become annoying as the trip progresses.
General consensus is to head into Morocco tomorrow morning which is grand but unfortunately we have no jerry cans as the team we were getting them from has blown its clutch in Bilbao. Spain shuts heavily on a sunday so we’re in a spot of trouble. I’m sure it’ll be fine.
Miss you all and hope to update you all soon!
Juan, Ben & James
Last Minute
January 9, 2008 at 2:02 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentWith a name like Team Traa Dy Liooar it should be expected, we’re leaving a few things to the last minute. Small matters such as spare wheels having spare tyres attached to them and finding the log book.
What has come as a shock to even me is that I have packed all my clothes and stuff into the Disco the night before – on my track record of “holiday” packing it should really have been done about 5 minutes before the boat leaves dock.
However I also fear I have fallen into the same trap as last time – I’ve packed far too much “crap”…. I mean the kitchen sink? I have a back up kitchen sink. I also have a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that despite ALL this stuff that will be rammed into the Disco we will get out there and have someone turn round and go “what you haven’t brought a <insert obviously necessary item here>????” and we shall stand in dumb silence as we realise what damn fools we have been.
I’m also reflecting a lot on what I shall miss in no particular order…
Real Ale (I swear this is not in order)
Chips, Cheese and Gravy!
People special to me
My own bed
Playing in my band
I really shouldn’t say this but I’m actually going to miss my job a bit…. clearly I need help
Manx fresh air
All in all though I am so excited about going on this trip I just want to be gone now… all the worries of being shot or blown up, I think everyone back home has worried so much about it that I don’t have to worry anymore – having spent so much time convincing others I’ll be back alive I’ve more than convinced myself. My main concern right now is whether or not the boat from the Island will actually sail!
Hopefully the next update on here will be on the road 
Juan
All Hands To Headless Chicken Stations
January 6, 2008 at 12:11 pm | Posted in Adventure, Charity, Isle of Man, Manx, Mauritania, Paris-Dakar, Terrorism, Traa Dy Liooar, Uncategorized | 1 CommentWell!
Less than one week to go and all hell breaks loose on us just when we thought we were doing better. I am, of course, referring to the Paris Dakar Rally being cancelled due to security fears. As many people I know have said “if a multi million pound professional event cancels why are you still going?”… obviously I don’t want to waste the boat tickets we’ve bought!
Seriously though much debate has been made amongst the other cars in our group and amongst our own team about what to do and general consensus is to head off and see what happens when we’re out there. Realistically the same options are there – we can make it, break it or turn back.
On more cheery news the stickers were finished yesterday by Stuart down at Just Signs and they look amazingly good, also the lights now work (ish) and the pink fur is running amok in the inside of the Disco much to ben’s fear of being overwhelmed by the sheer power of pink.
All in all with about 3 days to go spirits are surprisingly high!
Juan
Tis The Season…
December 25, 2007 at 8:31 pm | Posted in Adventure, Isle of Man, Manx, Traa Dy Liooar | 1 CommentMerry Xmas all from Team Traa Dy Liooar!
It’s a bit of a strange period really – 2 weeks to go so time is getting very short but it’s also a great time to enjoy seeing friends, family and a bit of luxury in the form of food and alcohol while we still can – not much in the way of bars out in the Sahara!
It’s also a period for a bit of a wake up call as to the reality of where we’re going as well;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7159420.stm
Anyway that’s something to worry about another day – for now lets just enjoy being very silly and having fun.
Juan
Albert Road School
December 23, 2007 at 1:07 am | Posted in Albert Road, Charity, Isle of Man, Manx, Ramsey, school, Traa Dy Liooar, Uncategorized | 2 CommentsLast month when I’d gone to my old school and shown them the Disco and told them about my trip the headmaster told me they’d be holding a non uniform day on their last day of term to raise money for our charity. I was very touched that they’d do that for us – I was just happy to be able to go back and do a little talk there.
So James and I rolled into the car park on Friday morning not really knowing what to expect. As we get into the building we hear the school assembly singing away and wander up to reception where the secretary was ready waiting for us and hurried us upstairs to the assembly where all the kids are waiting.
It was pretty touching as when we emerged through the doors you could hear the audible wave of gasps from all the children ripple through as they saw us appear with our giant cheque. A couple were chosen to come up and “present” the cheque to us and the local press appeared and took a couple of photos of us.
All in all it was pretty humbling to have all those kids raise £205 for our charity all cause of our trip. The headmaster asked us if we’d come back after our trip and show them some pictures and tell them about the trip, which is another thing I’m looking forward to. It’s like 15 years ago when I was at school I saw all these people appear at assembly with special stories and things that they’ve done and I never thought I’d have the opportunity to be that person myself maybe even inspiring young kids to do something similiar when they get older? Or maybe they’ll have more sense!
Juan
Hot Pink Fur and Even Hotter Glue
December 21, 2007 at 12:14 am | Posted in Charity, glue gun, Isle of Man, Manx, pink fur, Traa Dy Liooar | Leave a commentAs has previously been covered, we need working headlights. With this in mind we knew where our priorities lay. Looking the part.
As we’d got the Juan of Arabia look sorted next step was “pimping” the Disco. I’m sure you’ll all agree nothing says Disco more than large amounts of pink fur and let me assure you – we have lots of pink fur!
Much like the vinyl stickers that have gone before (and will no doubt rear their head in the future) the end result looks cool enough to warrant the sheer hell that goes into making it happen.
After initially getting half of woolworths stock of Bostick all purpose glue it quickly became clear this simply would not be enough so we scampered down to Raymotors of Ramsey and purchased the dream weapon – a glue gun.
This proved to be a roaring success right up until the searing hot glue started dripping onto bare flesh. God only knows what my neightbours thought as the screams echoed around the streets, I daresay 3 grown men referring to it as “searing hot splooge” and sitting in a pink fur covered Land Rover probably didn’t help matters.
Despite these painful setbacks and the extreme cold of a November evening we persevered until we started running out of pink fur…. I thought 10 metres would have been enough but we just kept finding more areas of the car that was begging out for the pink fur touch… even buddy christ might get a little pink fur waistcoat by the time we’re finished.
For now though we’re pretty chuffed with our handywork and seriously next week we’ll get those headlights sorted. Honest.
Priorities
December 18, 2007 at 7:15 pm | Posted in Adventure, Charity, Isle of Man, Manx, Ramsey, Traa Dy Liooar | Leave a commentAfter weeks of having fun putting stickers on and generally tarting the old beast up it became apparent that perhaps we’d better do something mechanically to her.
Thanks to a friend of a friend we managed to get a free “service” at a local garage, which happily gave us 2 pages of faults! But with the new metal cage roof rack attached the steering seems to have improved a fair bit so it can’t be all that bad. Plus it has potential to be used as an extra seat out in the desert!
On the subject of seats we finally sorted out our back seat and seat belts – only something we’ve been meaning to do for about 3 months!
In typical Traa Dy Liooar fashion of course James turned up after it had gone dark to fit the seat so we improvised light wise with a lamp and an extension cable. Professional or what?
Now we’ve got that finally sorted we can really start to spend our time on important matter such as more stickers and pink fur!…What do you mean fix the headlights?
Juan
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