Freetown, Sierra Leone - Friday 7 December 2007 - Shit happens

I must admit, Thursday was the best day since the day before Erik Brandt left me in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Betsy was rolling along as if the last two months has been nothing but a lean rest. Even though it was going to be a long day with my back itching and tired soar eyes, I was in heaven. Even Aisha (my local co-pilot) said something positive at one stage, probably being mostly used to floating around in heavy air-conditioned UN vehicles.
After 100 km of roller coasting gravel roads into Sierra Leone we even got treated with tar road and from then onwards we could turn the CD player on and surprised ourselves with a small hymn of joy.
Aisha felt so comfortable with Betsy that she moved herself in the back to relax horizontally and slept like a baby as we drove towards midnight. The Tar road slowly changed its surface and became more like a moon landscape forcing us to slow down to an average of 20-30 kilometres an hour. Finally about 100 kilometres from Freetown the surface changed again into something very similar to Norwegian tarmac, even with correct white stripes along the roadside (although faded out).
Driving after dark has never been acceptable for cape2cape and still is a "no no..." This day though, I wanted so much to arrive into Freetown that I forgot all about internal rules and regulations and we kept going.... UNTIL THE BIG BANG!!! My heart stopped for a second and the last two months back-slashed into my head again as Betsy now was cursed for ever. First gear dead, Second, Third............ALL gears DEAD. We slowly rolled in front of a gas station and eighteen hours of driving was definately over. No Freetown and a grim outlook for reaching Dakar in time. Aisha called her friends and they came with a mechanic and I wanted very much to call him Gabriel because of his first assessment. The gearbox was fine, but the rear axel shaft might damaged. We were towed the last 25 kilometers to Freetown and are now situated in a Garage for healing and treatment.