Khartoum, Sudan - Tuesday 16 January 2007 - We came to a halt...

Its never any amusement to write about Betsy's failures. Luckily it has not happened very often, but it is sadly enough, she has now failed. We are situated only 70 kilometres from the big city Khartoum with all its workshops, but nevertheless, its a good place to brake down. It could have happend between Assab and Massawa in Eritrea, which would have been a scary scenario for both Johan and myself and espesially for Johans Christmas celebrations.

I am not going to explain whats wrong, because I dont know the english terms (hehehehe, not the Norwegian ones either), but it is similar to something that happened 7 months ago in Mozambique. The bottom "bearring" that turns the fanbelt around loosened and I was not able to fasten it in a way that it started turning around again. I had to stop for every 3 kilometers or so to cool down my lady and fasten it again, because it did not stuck. I know there are a few "mechanics" shaking their heads as they read this, but I was educated as a chef, being more used to terms as consomme, hours d'houvre, chicken and chips. Well, there is always hope as long as there is people in oily overalls with rough skin and dirty fingernails. At Land Rover in Windhoek, Namibia they had white overalls and looked like doctors, but thats another world.

I believe in my guys here at the local workshop and I sure they will be able to sort this out on Tuesday. Thats right, the daylight disappeard and as this is not a fancy South African High tech car hospital, we have to wait for the sun to start working again.