Minefield ordeal for Banjul Express pair

Cousins Les Hughes, of Glovers Lane, Sidley, and Stuart Franks, of Barrack Road, returned home on Tuesday having completed 4,079 miles of some of the toughest roads on earth in a 1992 1.3litre Fiesta.

And that includes five hair-raising kilometres through no-man's land on the Morocco-Mauretania border where anti-tank and ant-personnel mines are an enduring legacy of a past border dispute.

The challenge was to buy a left-hand drive car for not more than 100, spend no more than 15 preparing it and drive it to Banjul in The Gambia.

This was demanding enough. The minefield was an extra. To be fair, the pair did warn their families first.

And they did send a text message home to say the Fiesta - nicknamed "Banjul Express" - had not joined the twisted, burnt-out wrecks that litter the narrow path through the minefield.

Driving through Banjul's triumphal Arch 22 in a celebratory parade at the end of the challenge was a high-point in an adventure which began with a Sidley send-off on Boxing Day.

"It was about as difficult as we expected," Les said on Wednesday. The roads were generally better than we expected until we got to Senegal, where they were appalling!"

The little Fiesta got the pair to Banjul with just the loss of its exhaust. Other teams hit big trouble. A Land Rover needed a complete engine re-build '“ done overnight for 300 Euros!

Crossing the Sahara was part of the adventure and one of the reason why they took a pair of sand-ladders.

Les said: "There are some rocky bits and some flat but mainly its heavily corrugated '“ the 'washboard' effect they call it.

"It vibrates the car '“ and you!

"There is no road. You keep making your own road. If you go where someone else has been you get stuck immediately. We did.

"You have to go over fresh sand. There is a heavy dew at night in the Sahara. It forms a thin crust on the sand. Go over that at speed and you are OK."

Les said: "There is a way through the minefield. There is a rocky strip where they couldn't lay mines. Keep to that and you are OK. But there were lots of wrecks at the side where people had gone off into the sand where the mines are."

Other frightening moments? Stuart said: "It's not the roads, it's the other drivers '“ particularly in Morocco."

Les said: "You try to avoid driving at night in Africa, though sometimes we would be an hour and a half late, arriving somewhere in the dark.

"Lorries drive without lights. Cows walk out into the road- as do people..."

Bribes and "sweeteners" are a way of life.

The going rate for getting across the border into Senegal is 68 a car. Les said: "All the people we met were good- even most of the police, though there were a couple of coppers who were not going to say 'no' to something.

"We had a lot of Biros which we gave out. We should have taken a load of old mobile phones '“ we could have made a fortune! Generally mobile phone reception in Africa is better than in Bexhill..."

In keeping with the rules of the challenge, the faithful Fiesta was auctioned in aid of Gambia's Olympic appeal.

It fetched 30,500 Dalassi '“ about 870. Another team donated the fully-equipped ambulance they had driven.

Les is still collecting his pledges in aid of No, 2262 (Bexhill) Squadron. He is chairman of the civilian committee. He hopes to have raised several hundred pounds.

Stuart has more than 800 for an animal charity. The pair loaded the Fiesta with time-expired bandages and donated scalpels and other medical instruments to donate in The Gambia.

To drive through Banjul's Arch 22 '“ a privilege normally reserved for the President and state dignitaries '“ those who completed the drive had first to meet the Deputy Mayor and get his permission.

Will the pair get family permission to go on another challenge?

"Perhaps in a couple of years," said Les. "Somewhere different."