One of the things I was asked for when I'm away was some shots of the bus in some desert and other locations. This was for the Bristol VR enthusiasts club. This is now concerning me. I have plenty of shots of the bus in the locations they want, however the level of abuse we have been dishing out to our poor bus today is definately going to upset them.. It will be like sending photos of pigeons being strangled to a pigeon racing club.

I was up first at 6am, fired up the bus and I was off. I assumed the gentle motion of the bus would help the others to continue their sleep. It didn't. I relinquished control to Eileen. The progress slowed as the washboard got more pronounced. Bill checked the new leaf springs then gave us both a firm telling off for driving too fast. The brackets were working lose.

Soon after we found we had an air leak from one of the brakes. Hope it holds out to Dongola.

This place is dusty. Soon we were all covered in dust. The bus and all of its contents were covered in dust. Twice during the day we took off the cover of the air filter and poured huge quantities of dust out. Poor girl.

We have also taken this poor bus to places buses should never have to go. Up and down banks, over ditches, over rocky outcrops. At one point, with Ian driving, Bill got him to stop on the crown of a hill. Bill got down off the step. It was a good job he didn't have a shopping cart with him, it was at least 4 feet. The bus was precariously balanced on 3 wheels with the front near side wheel 6 inches off the ground.

The back panels have now all been damaged or ripped off. Gaffer tape is not strong enough, we are using rope to hold the bus together.

At about 3pm, Bill claimed we were only 30km from Dongola. A quick visit to a shop in a small town proved he was over 100km out. worse still, we had the section described in Wadi Halfa as 'bad'. They weren't joking. Steep slopes, corrigation, deep sand in places. Maximum speed is about 5 to 10mph for our bus.

We got to Dagio by nightfall, all of us tired, fed up and dusty.. We were all looking forward to tarmac. Looks like it will be some time tomorrow.

So, if we take 7 hours to travel to Dongola, if all goes well and we don't stop, we may reach the border in the early hours of Monday. Its a tight schedule. It has been all along.

Right, I'm going to sleep with the smell of dust in my nostrils. I'm beginning to hate this road.