TOGO – JUNGLE CAMP – 24th November Mango – Atakpame

This day was an extremely long day of 459km of questionable tarmac. There were so many pot-holes we could hardly travel over 30mph at times and had to focus hard on the road ahead to try and avoid them. At times it was even better to run off-road on the verge rather than use the decrepit tarmac. Many people suffered punctures as they tried to push ahead to camp before dark, as advised by the organization. We were all horrified to hear that the Pentax team had suffered a side on crash with a local lorry which was traveling too fast. They were doing a 3 point turn in the road when a lorry sped round a corner in a village. As the Pentax car has no reverse gear all they could do to get out the way was to pull a little further forward at the last minute. Due to the skill of the lorry driver he avoided full side impact and just took out the back of the car. The contact bent both rear chassis legs, smashed both rear lights, ripped off the adventure bumper and caved in the rear boot lid. The lorry then careered off the road, almost rolled over and ripped off its front axle as it came to rest. Despite being heavily shaken, fortunately nobody was hurt. After being checked over by the Rally Doctor, Andreas, some makeshift rear light repairs and a visit to the Police station, the Pentax amazingly continued to our Jungle camp. This camp consisted of cutting a clearing to pitch our tents with machetes, creating a camp fire and being surrounded by lots of palms and bugs. We were advised to wear boot as the there were lots of things that could bite.