School Bus Run Oct-Dec 08

Journey's End: Resource donation to Besease Basic School

2009-02-11T04:55:00.000-08:00

With the overland journey to Ghana completed in late November, the boxes of toys, books, arts & crafts materials, sports equipment and tools were offloaded at the Sabre Trust's office in Elmina. Aside from the accumulated layers of dust and sand from the Sahara crossing, all of the items collected by staff at Davis Langdon's Birmingham Office were in perfect condition, and were stacked in storage, awaiting a sorting process before distribution.

Making use of the enthusiastic Sabre volunteers staying in Ghana during December, we began the job of sorting through the contents of 215 boxes, filtering the resources for different school age groups. The first items to be tackled were the toys, the books and the sports equipment – the toys would be used to populate a toy library in the newly built Kindergarten School at Besease Basic School, whilst the books would furnish the first ever school library at the same school. The sports equipment would be shared between a local football academy and the District Education Office. The remaining items were to be used on future projects: arts & crafts materials for after school workshops, site tools for the forthcoming construction project at Dwabor, and the gardening equipment for school farm projects.

Almost three months to the day after beginning their journey from the UK, the first boxes of donated items were delivered on Friday 23 January 2009. These were the books and toys for Besease Basic School, which were timed to coincide with the inauguration of the recently completed kindergarten construction project. This was an extremely exciting and long awaited day for the community – they had begun building their own kindergarten school several years earlier, but the project had stalled due to lack of funds. With Sabre's assistance the project was restarted in May 2007 and completed in late 2008. In the absence of formal classroom facilities, the kindergarten classes had been taught in a derelict church building and under a temporary bamboo shelter.

Being a community celebration, marquees were rigged up around the school and chairs set out for over 100 invited guests – community elders, teachers and dignitaries from the District Education Office. At the appointed hour (10.30) Aubrey, Sabre's Operations Director arrived in the Bedford Truck that he had driven down the 6,000 miles from the UK to Ghana. The purchase and delivery of this vehicle had been funded using the £10,421 raised by the Davis Langdon Birmingham Office as part of their 2008 staff day.

During the school opening ceremony, speeches were given by the community chief, Nana Arkoh, the head teacher, Mr Mensah, Sabre's Operations Director, Aubrey Malcolm-Green, and the Deputy Director of the District Education Office, Mr Pinkrah. All of the speakers congratulated the community on their efforts in completing the kindergarten school and applauded the Sabre Trust for their assistance and the donations of books and toys. The ceremony closed with the gift of a full set of chief's regalia to Aubrey, a gesture of thanks from the community, cementing the continuation of their partnership collaboration with the Sabre Trust.

The school teachers, assisted by Sabre volunteers, will now ready the toy and book library for use in the coming weeks.

A big, big thank you to everyone from the Davis Langdon Birmingham Office who helped to gather the resources and raise the funds for the truck, or as we say in Ghana: Medawoasi!

The Final Run to Elmina: Mole National Park to Elmina: 20th November to 24th November

2008-12-10T01:31:00.001-08:00

Imagine this, an escarpment with a small motel, camping area, swimming pool (!) and restaurant. From this point you can see forever over the National Park and wild life reserve. In the distance there are soft blue shapes of tall palm trees and forestation and, directly below us, silver water holes where you can quietly observe animals such as elephants and water buffalo coming to drink. Even at 7.30 in the morning, when we arrive, it is hot.

Some of our group have been here before and they set about giving the bus a massive and well needed clean. This is Jon’s last day before setting off for Accra and his return home to the UK, so three of us take a guided trek in the park and are able to watch antelope, baboons, python and crocodiles close up (but not too close!). Another amazing and very special experience.

Sadly John, Aubrey and the Bedford depart later in the day for Accra. Those of us left camp on the escarpment that night and are joined by baboons the next morning. They came like hooligans looking for trouble and breakfast. The camper next to us had bananas on its roof. An open invitation and there for the taking, plus dried milk and other things which took their fancy. An exciting beginning to the day as we set off for Kumasi.

Arriving later in Kumasi was like taking the lid off a beehive. Noisy, swarming with people surrounding the bus but ignoring its existence. Momentarily overwhelming, exciting, intimidating and massively attractive at the same time. The centre of Kumasi is a huge market, selling everything from chickens to second hand flip-flops. It took some calm and careful negotiation to drive through to find the Presbyterian House Lodge, which was our home for the next two nights. Set in its own grounds, an old colonial style building with camping and rooms.

Our last day of the journey finally arrives and it is with some mixed feelings that we drive into Cape Coast to meet up with Aubrey who has arrived ahead of us with the Bedford and the volunteers already established in this area. The drive in is along a coastal road stunningly beautiful, with the sea crashing onto mile upon mile of white beach lined with palm trees. We have arrived a little travel weary and despite the dust and dirt, everything we originally set out with in the vehicles was unchanged – however, the travellers certainly weren’t! Full of incredible memories, experiences, sights and sounds which will take months to unravel and digest.

Arriving in Ghana: Bandiagara to Mole National Park: 16th November to 20th November

2008-12-10T01:23:00.000-08:00

The customs procedure at Burkina Faso seemed to go smoothly, the officials were very nice and everyone was happy. Unfortunately we were directed to go in a certain route as we left and the Bedford took down another telephone cable outside the customs area. Everyone took a sharp intake of breath.

Undeterred and perhaps practiced at this by now, Aubrey and team hastily and miraculously fixed it together and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

We drove until dark looking for a good place to camp. Supper was a ‘dig deep into the food box’ affair which we were glad to eat and finally in the dark we all gazed at the black sky and there were shooting stars everywhere on this night.

As often has been the case we awoke on Wednesday morning at the crack of dawn to a sea of little faces peering at us. All children, of various sizes, they stayed interested in us for a while and then slowly drifted off.

Burkina Faso has great place names like Ouagadougou and Grom-Grom but we are going today to Bobo-Dioulasso. Bobo-Dioulasso has a very famous market called the Grand Marche. As there is some business to do and food to buy, we also snatch 30 minutes in the market and which is heaving with activity and what we have become familiar with in terms of a local market. Exciting, claustrophobic and an attack on every sense.

Following this, the day’s drive through arid flat country side with images and sights which in many ways even a camera would find hard to capture.

Another and final border is close. We leave Burkina Faso and pull in for the night with the Ghanaian border in sight.

This is probably one of the worst night stops ever. We even have to sweep the rubbish out of the dust to find a clean spot to set up but everyone gets on with it and tea and beds are prepared.

In a cloud of red, red dust the next morning, we arrive at the ‘Welcome to Ghana’ sign. This is in English and in big letters over the entrance to the Customs and Immigration post. It feels so close to the final leg of the journey that we are both happy and sad at the same time, but, as a final hurdle, it turns out that we don’t all have visas to enter the country.

It is agreed with Immigration that in order to obtain the visas we will drive to Wa with an official who will accompany us to the visa office and sort it out. This will involve additional costs and undoubtedly in-depth discussions, but we know it is possible.

For around 2 hours we drive on a sandy dirt road, sometimes a corrugated surface and potholes or half the road missing. You cannot stay on the right side of the road just pick your way through and everything passing does so in a cloud of red dust. Meanwhile we are pumping in dust which bellows in through every gap and moves around the bus.

The official is a smartly dressed young man in uniform who wears a hanky over his nose and tries in vain to keep clean. At some checkpoint we are also joined by a fireman who needs a lift. He is also very clean.

To further complicate the day’s events there is a loud bang from the tyre and we have a puncture. Fortunately we have just reached a tarmac road and this helps the repair considerably.

The fireman, the immigration officer and 3 police officers who were just passing by, plus the Sabre team, change the tyre. On we go but before we reach Wa it is obvious the radiator is leaking and after obtaining the visas this will also need fixing. On top of all this there is a presidential election on December 7th and the president is parading through Wa this afternoon. There is an air of chaos and excitement in the streets.

Meanwhile the practicalities of overland travel have to be dealt with well into the evening in an atmosphere of oppressive heat and dust. The final destination of the day, having obtained the visas and fixed the radiator was a village on the edge of Mole National Park, reached by a further drive on red dust roads in conditions which were challenging and apparently fun to drive on! There were also snakes on this road.

Crossing Mauritania: Nouakchott to Bandiagara: 12th November to 16th November

2008-12-01T01:52:00.000-08:00

Careful consideration took place regarding our next stage. After relaxing for a couple of nights, a most welcome rest involving showering, clothes washing and most importantly, not moving! The heat in this city is stifling; it is really noticeable as there is no wind. The journey down was at least windy! We planned to make a border run in a one go, this was due to security issues along the road to Mali. The reality of the proposition did not hit home until we had reached Mali! The road was over 500miles long before the turning we needed. After an early start our great plan began to be eroded by circumstances out of our control - a local transporter lorry had jack-knifed across the road on a downward slope. With desert all around, this meant there was a queue, approximately 60 other vehicles lined the road.

We were going nowhere. Well actually this was not entirely true as other cars were working out a detour through some little villages and we decide to do likewise and, as they say, "cane it" over the sand, where we get stuck (page 3 of the sabre handbook "digging trucks out of the sand"). Time moves on slowly in the heat and eventually we get going after a massive team effort and return to the road. The jack-knifed lorry is moved and we all move. Despite the fact that the landscape was stunning, with terracotta and rose coloured dunes, soft green low spread trees, chiselled cattle with elegant camels silhouetted against the earth, there is a sense of urgency to get to the border as soon as possible and cross into Mali. We passed through Aleg with a feeling of unease, remembering that this was the place where a group of French tourists had been shot by bandits the previous year. Nothing prepares you for this town - a sea of waste and rubbish with makeshift huts squeezed together, hostile, edgy and we are out of our comfort zone.

We need to be clear of this area and it looks like we will be driving through the night. So we stop briefly and Kerry produces a Master Chef style tea from bits and pieces in the food box. Back on the road, we drive until 4.30am. At times we almost ran out of road which became track, rock and potholed. It became an endurance test for the drivers. With everyone exhausted, we stop early in the morning for a brief sleep and then push on to Foulani and then the border. Everyone, without exception, is hot and tired and the day is spent driving. Getting through the border presented the usual headaches, not helped by the Bedford demolishing the telephone wire to the customs post, but eventually we arrived in Mali and immediately felt the difference in mood and atmosphere. Donkeys are replaced by 125cc motorbikes, there are crops growing in the fields, good(ish) roads, and a much greater sense of affluence. It is now Saturday and we rough camp on the road between Bamako and Segou - a great camp where we attracted some considerable attention from the local community and ended the day by exchanging teddy bears for freshly picked groundnuts and cementing relationships.

Sunday morning and we set off early, the roads are good and busy, there is plenty of activity with people travelling to work on bikes and carts, minibuses, totally overloaded, some with goats on roof racks. We arrive in the early afternoon at the Auberge Kansayp in Bandiagara in the Dogon region of Mali. This little auberge, with its flowers, lizards and flaky paint with a river alongside full of people washing themselves and their clothes, was our starting point to meet our guide for our long awaited trek to the Dogon villages and the spectacular cliff top site of Teri. So at 7.30 the following morning three of us and Abdullah, the guide, set off in the bus. The drive itself was incredible. At first, through rich agricultural land of onions and potatoes, followed by a massive, rocky terrain, the sheer scale of the landscape with its panoramic vistas was overwhelming. The road conditions were challenging to say the least but we visited three villages and for us it was one of the unforgettable highlights of the journey. The uniqueness of the region, the architecture and culture provide lasting and rich memories. That evening, on our return, we packed up the bus and set off.

We rough camped that night and prepared to leave early on Tuesday morning to visit the largest mud mosque in the world at Djenne. To reach Djenne at this time of year we needed to take the ferry which we caught by passing through flooded fields interspersed with beautiful pools filled with white, spiky water lilies and looking like a French Impressionist painting. In contrast to this Djenne turned out to be slightly disappointing. Although the mosque itself is impressive and the shadows cast from the sun upon it resemble the abstract shapes of the local Bogolan cloth, only Muslims are allowed into the building and the town itself is not particularly appealing. We returned to the ferry and made tracks to the Mali border and Burkina Faso.

Into the Sahara: Agadir to Nouakchott: 06-Nov - 11-Nov

2008-11-11T10:07:00.000-08:00

After the Anti-Atlas Mountains, Morocco begins to change. The people become friendlier, blacker and more colourfully dressed. Jalabas start to disappear to be replaced by desert clothes – brighter colours and much more head covering. The landscape changes too. Now it becomes flatter, broken and stony, even desolate in places. Yesterday we covered hours of bare, sandy scrubland with just a thin ribbon of blue, blue sea on our right and the occasional little fishing hut made out of whatever assortment of wood, metal, nets and bags that could be found.

The presence of security forces on the roads is becoming much more obvious. Checkpoints are more frequent and often come in threes – first the police, followed a few kilometres further on by Customs and finally the army. Most stops are blessedly short; a few questions, show the passports and then be waved on. Others are a little more tense and intimidating.

Our first sight of the desert proper was stunning. Nothing (not even Michael Palin) prepares you for the light, the colour, the sheer, crushing space and size of it. Hundreds and hundreds of miles of wind shaped terrain in every direction. And empty. You leave the vehicle and walk for a few yards into the sand and you could be the first person in a thousand years to stand on that spot. This is a harsh, unforgiving landscape that takes no prisoners, and the first sandstorm that we experience confirms all those impressions.

At this point I need to add that there are some brave and slightly eccentric people travelling through the Sahara. We first meet Brian a South African cycling on the road after Dakhla, red headed with a mass of blond hair cycling on his own to Cape Town from the UK. We met him continuously from then on at various stops. There was also a man in a go cart called Jose. A convoy of French Medics with some gorgeous biscuits. Also a group of young social workers taking 3 children with special social needs to Burkina Faso.

It’s now Friday and we arrive at Dakhla in the early evening. Aubrey goes to sort out visas for Mauritania while John, Tom and Kerry start to convert the truck into a campervan, which may be an important issue at the border. Despite the beautiful views and idyllic beach at this site there is a lot of work to be done and the group work late into the night. The following day we continue our journey. By this time, the empty oil tank on the truck has been filled with extra diesel to get us through Mauritania. The extra weight begins to pose a problem and possibly leads to the first blowout of the day on the trailer. By the end of the day there were two others and we finally camped in the desert with the evening meal taken on top of the truck waiting for Tom and Kerry to arrive with the new tyre. The rest of the truck conversion next day takes place in a sandstorm. An exfoliating experience that some people would pay a fortune for. Everything, including KoJo the dog, is covered in a coarse, dusting of sand. Distribution of the weight, the diesel, tyre pressures, and vehicle maintenance become priorities and we carefully continue on through the most amazing rock formations, like sleeping dinosaurs, arriving at the Morocco/Mauritania border by late evening and park up.

Going through the border was an ordeal for all of us and took over six hours of patient queuing, smiling and negotiating. It helps to be efficient and constantly vigilant, quick and polite and, perhaps above all, French speaking. These things may apply in any number of border situations, but add in tension, heat and corruption and things can be a bit difficult. The Law is there, but the situation appears lawless. The Moroccan guards relieve us of a few tennis balls while the Mauritanian security forces help themselves to phones, diesel, money, sunglasses, and the rest. It could be worse, and there is a great feeling of relief as we finally pass through, get moving and get out of there. An unasked for piece of advice from the Moroccan side of the border was to keep driving and stop for nothing when in Mauretania. We take the advice and drive through the night to the wonderful (hot showers!) Auberge Sahara on the outskirts of Nouakchott.

On the road in North Africa: Portsmouth to Agadir: 22-Oct - 05-Nov

2008-11-10T08:44:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago and in another life we went from e-mail communication to the reality of overland travel. Europe came and went in a blur and it is difficult to remember what exactly happened when, because everyday is a mixture of events and experiences.

Highlights, so far, a great group of people to travel with, funny, patient, experts in all sorts of things, inventive and good company. Incredible and imposing landscapes, tagines, kebabs in Marrakesh (Marrakesh by night is a must !), entertaining taxi drivers, the tannery at Fez and the thought of reaching the desert.

Downsides – border guards and border bureaucracy. Self-important men asserting power and wasting time. As I am, at the moment, gazing at the snow on the Atlas Mountains, this pales into insignificance. So far, everything we are carrying is intact and headed in the right direction, including ourselves.

The passage through Europe was indeed swift. Within three days we were a stones throw from Africa. Many hours on the motorways and a few in the ‘Aire de Service’ catching our breath! A little excitement on day two just after entering Spain was the blow out of a rear tyre on the truck. We deduced that the extra weight both in the truck and the trailer combined with a slightly under pressure tyre was to blame. The first of what we assume to be, many ‘team building’ exercises got under way as we changed a wheel weighing well over 200kgs on the side of a Spanish Motorway.

The final morning spent on the European mainland consisted of repacking the trailer and back of the truck. The effect of an inappropriately balanced trailer cannot be underestimated! With a large amount of excitement and a splattering of disbelief we secured a ferry ride to Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the North African peninsular. It was nearing dark when we arrived and border formalities seemed to be going very smoothly until the ‘Douains’, or Moroccan Customs wanted to inspect the truck. With a raised eye brow he called for his superior who had several questions of our intentions. The long and short of it was that it would be a further three days before we crossed into Morocco.

John joined us in Rabat as another driver and from there we travelled to Meknes, on to Fes, down to Casablanca and on to Essouira. For the first time for days the rain stopped and the journey took on a new dimension. While John and Aubrey went in search of a second oil tank for the next leg of the journey, we were able to spend a few pleasant hours exploring this lovely fishing port , collecting food supplies and enjoying a well-deserved beer on the sea front. Last night we rough camped in the bush on the way to Agadir, cooked a delicious meal, chatted around a campfire and slept under the stars.

This morning we left at first light and headed down the coastal road to Agadir and then to Tiznet through stunning and panoramic landscapes – photographer’s heaven – camels pulling ploughs, goats in trees, small busy villages, empty, endless beaches and blue skies.

The Sabre Apprentice Challenge: Birmingham: 17-Oct

2008-11-10T06:26:00.000-08:00

Victoria Square, Birmingham rang with the sound of Ghanaian drums on Friday, 17th October as the 2008 School Bus Run got underway through a partnership between the Sabre Trust and Davis Langdon's Birmingham office. The staff at Davis Langdon had elected to use their annual staff day for a good cause: to raise £10,000 to purchase an overland vehicle and then fill it with much needed resources to drive to Ghana.

Visitors to Victoria Square were also able to enjoy a performance by Ghanaian band One Drum; traditional Ghanaian dancing and hair braiding, whilst later in the day Partners from the firm were confined to the stocks.

Members of staff spent the morning collecting donated items of toys, arts and crafts, books and sports equipment as part of an ‘Apprentice’ style challenge they were set over the last month in which they were asked to source enough items from local businesses, schools, churches and sports clubs to fill the vehicle.

Towards the end of the day all the donated items were packed and loaded into the vehicle which set off on their 6,000 mile journey to Ghana.

“The event was a huge success,” comments Birmingham office Partner Tim Austin. “We had a great turnout, with people enjoying the various activities and helping us in our goal to send these much needed resources to Africa.”