RBL Women's Section, Little Common

After the exhortation Mrs Turner asked members to stand in silence to remember Lynn McCall, one of our own who sadly died recently. We send our deepest sympathy to her family.

Our secretary Mrs June Mantle received a letter from Queen Alexandra Nursing thanking us for a collection of 84 from an earlier meeting. A letter of thanks also came from Mais House in respect of a donation of 100 we had given.

Coming events include a coffee morning at the Club on 24th March 24 at 11am. On

May 15 we hold our popular spring fair. Later in the year on November 13 will be our Christmas fair and November 19 will be county conference.

Our speaker at our last meeting was Mr Hughes, who told us of his adventures on a charity car run from England to Dakar. The rules of the run only allowed for cars purchased for 100 to be entered. Mr Hughes' vehicle was a 1991 Fiesta with a large rack on the roof to carry water and supplies. The journey took entrants down through France and Spain to the ferry to Morocco where the run really began. Travelling up to 600 miles a day on indifferent roads was quite a trial. The road to Marrakesh was reasonable after that it deteriorated into rough track. The next country was Mauritania, whose border with Morocco is disputed. The track here was narrow with minefields each side. This had left a trail of wrecked vehicles which had wandered off the track. Mauritania is a very strict country with no alcohol, restrictions on using cameras and camping not safe. Though this was the edge of the Western Sahara it was semi arid bushland not purely sand. Further on the route was just sand where the surface blown by the wind formed corrugations making travelling very uncomfortable over the ruts. The next part of the trip was through Senegal which they reached by ferry. Then on to the Gambia. In all the journey had taken 21 days. At the completion of the run the cars were all auctioned off for the charity at a higher price than the original 100 aid for them.

Many nationalities took part in the event. Amongst them were Latvians who were highly amused to find the long life milk sold in the local shops at the final destination also came from Latvia. Mr. Hughes' talk and slides of this unusual journey was most interesting. The chairman thanked members for attending the meeting and wished them a safe journey home.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday March 10 at 7pm. We welcome members and guests to our friendly club.