Yes, we are still here. This place really is the pits and we have chosen one of the least attractive parts of town to take up residence.

We are still parked outside the scrapyard. Yesterday we had agreed to a price of 350 Sudanese pounds to get the bus fixed, even if the guy had to work until 10pm to do it. After he left at 6pm, he promised to be back early the next day. We asked for 7am, he reluctantly accepted 8am, he finally arrived at 8.30am. We were tempted to raid his workshop and start grinding and welding ourselves but he showed up just before we did.

They are an ingenious lot the Sudanese. They didn't have any Bristol VR spare parts lying around in the vehicle spares shops, of which there are many. Instead we found some Landrover bits and bolts and took them to the local forge where some chaps beat the pieces in to the shapes and sizes we wanted. The forge was out of another era, powered by a man turning a bicycle wheel. The smithy must have had asbestos hands, he used no gloves. I felt distinctly unsafe as red hot lumps of metal were being thrown around, and my sandals don't have steel toecaps.

So, we finally had the correct pieces and we carried them over to the bus. I still had a dream of being on the road by lunchtime, but as the work neared completion, we found the bus wouldn't start again. Another flat battery. We had had it running for 2 hours in the morning without a problem, why on Earth was it playing up now ? We got the charger running off the generator. With the wheel back on we were in theory ready to hit the road by 1pm. Alas, it still wasn't starting. Bill checked the fluid levels in the batteries and found the problem. Bone dry. Hence the frequent flat batteries and inverter problems since we started. It would appear that our charger is also woefully short of what we require. A few hours passed with us trying different things, dragging in a local Toyota owner to try to jump start. It all failed. Finally the Toyota owner took Bill and I to a local garage where the owner lent us his booster to try. It failed too so he took away our batteries, replaced the tap water with distilled water and electrolytes and put them on to charge. 7pm is the new hoped for departure time.

I really am sick to the back teeth of this place. I think we all are. We've spent a fortune and wasted days. We are now under huge time constraints. We are going to have to tackle the road to Dongola overnight. Probably not wise, parts of it sound abysmal. Just hope the good bits allow us to make up some time.

I'm really on the edge of dispair. Will we make it out of here with the bus ? Who knows ? Will we get to Ethiopia ? Will we do it by Monday ? I really don't know, we'll give it our best shot.

On a positive note, the new leaf springs have raised the front of the bus by a good 3 inches. I might get the others done tomorrow if we are still here.