After the latest overland journey spectacles donated by many in the Dales were unloaded from the Renault Trafic van and delivered to the Sheikh Zayed Eye Care Hospital in Banjul (above - photo by David Milner). The van has now replaced "Mitzi" - the Mitsubishi minibus that David Pointon and Malcolm Garner drove to the Gambia at the end of 2003. (Below - Mitzi crossing the Mauritanian desert)

The 2003 trip, which was completed in January 2004, was the first of David's four overland journeys. For that reason he decided to join the Plymouth/Dakar Challenge. "I thought it was one way of getting out there with support and taking a minibus for the school. There are three rules for the Challenge: spend under £200 for your vehicles; only spend £15 fettling it; and rules are made to be broken. It is a charity run and all the vehicles are auctioned in Banjul and the money goes to Gambian charities.

"As I had a purpose for the minibus I didn't care how much I spent on the vehicle and I didn't put Mitzi in the auction - it was going to a Gambian charity anyway." He knew he wanted a four-wheel drive diesel minibus and early in 2003 remembered seeing such a vehicle which had been parked at the Wensleydale Rugby Club at Leyburn for a couple of years. It was also left-hand drive as it had been bought in Germany by a British serviceman stationed there who needed a vehicle suitable for a large family.

"His daughters had grown a bit and he had bought himself a small car. When he came to the club we had a look at it and drove it around the rugby field, and we eventually arrived at what I thought was a reasonable price."

Malcolm ws among the friends he contacted when looking for sponsorship for this project. "I had known Malcolm professionally for well over 20 years. We served on the same special needs advisory council. Malcolm sent me an email back saying 'Of course I will sponsor you - wish I was coming with you.' He was recovering from prostrate cancer at that time which had been caught and fixed. As he was convalescing I sent him an immediate reply: 'Why don't you?'"

Advertising material was put on Mitzi and she began her travels around England as David and Malcolm collected donations. And then she left England for good. "She wasn't the quickest of vehicles so driving 600 miles down Spain in one day was quite interesting but we did it," recalled David. It was in the south of Spain that they first met up with others on the Challenge.

The journey overland in 2003 was very different to that the teams in 2006 and this year experienced because the road from Noadhibou to Nouakchott in Mauritania had not been completed. Instead the route took them through desert and across a long beach. David said:

"In our group there was a 43-year-old Triumph Herald, an old Mark II Cortina, a Lada and a Triumph 2000. The Lada never got stuck in sand the whole trip but the others got stuck quite often. As we had  four-wheel drive we were pulling them out all the time and the clutch wasn't up to it. When it went we had to reline it with the Triumph 2000 clutch lining." (Below:  Top right - towing another vehicle. Bottom left - the remains of the old clutch lining and the new one fettled in the desert. The repairs went on into the night in the group's desert camp.)

"The repair worked which got us out of the desert but when we got down to the Senegalese border the thrust bearing went making the clutch pedal obsolete. The clutch was still working so we could still get drive. Changing up was no problem but changing down was not possible. So we went right through Senegal and into the Gambia without a clutch."

Above from left to right: "Banjul or Bust" ; David and Malcolm on arrival in Banjul in 2004; Mitzi alongside one of the two buses delivered in 2006.

It cost just £100 to fix Mitzi and then she was handed over to GOVI and spent three years as the school bus. When the two school buses were given to GOVI by the Dales Team of 2006 David and Malcolm repossessed Mitzi. Since then GOVI has sold the vehicles delivered in 2006 and the children are now transported to school by a bus provided by the Gambian Government's Integrated Education Programme (IEP).

David and Malcolm spent a lot of money on Mitzi to try and get her back into good working order. When Malcolm arrived in the Gambia last year the minibus wouldn't go and he had the engine replaced, but to no avail. So it was decided it was time to part company with Mitzi.

The Renault van has been registered as an NGO vehicle with GOVI which has requested that David and Malcolm be solely responsible for it. The van will be used by foreign consultants from the Friends of Govi and Malcolm's Gambian Deaf Children Support Project.

"It is a versatile vehicle because of the table and seating arrangement as well as storage," said David. "With our own vehicle we can be where we want to be at the time we want to be and can stay longer because we haven't got long journeys by so-called public transport."

He added that although there were problems on the latest overland journey, which in general has become more expensive, it had still been cost effective as they had not only delivered toys and teaching aids to the school for the blind, but also now had the van there.