Dear Bill & Rosemary, Hi there. Sorry not to have contacted you for so long. I guess I understand the adage, "out of sight, out of mind". Anyway, I'm back on the case and have spent a happy few minutes looking at your notes. You seem a long way from Malawi ! I am going to Malawi on 31st March for 18 days - tame compared to you. Things here are just fine. There are challenges as you know, but we are getting there with help from people like you. I expect to be in touch soon with Pluckley school as we have a major schools project, "Friends Malawi" coming up in the Autumn term.

Keep well and I will keep in touch.

Chris

There were two snakes (Tom and Sid) traversing down though Africa
They had been making good progress
When Sid suddenly stopped and asked Tom
Are we poisonous?
Tom replied Im not sure Sid is there a problem
Sid replied I have just bit my lip

Dear Rosemary and Bill. Hope you are both well and enjoying yourselves as not heard anything of you recently.
Must tell you the 1954 Morris Minor made it to Banjul, driving across Western Sahara etc-despite nearly being written off in
a sand gulley. It was auctioned for £425 on arrival! few people expected to see it at the rally finish-not bad going for a
50 year old car.
Auntie Babs struggles on but quite poorly with her various problems. We've had some snow and very cold bright
weather, but expected to turn very mild this week. Take care both, hope to hear news of you soon. Michael.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Michael and Auntie Babs
Sorry we have got a bit behind with our update but we are gradually catching up now. We have been enjoying various places along the coast of Ghana and think we will probably be shipping our land rover further south due to more unrest in Nigeria recently, so we have been busy looking into this also.
Hope Spring will soon be on it's way in UK and hopefully Auntie Babs will also feel better then.
Amazing news about the Morris Minor sounds a similar story to the old Citreon 2CV that we saw in Mopti that had been driven from France and was also going for Auction to aid a charity.
Love to you both xxxxxxxx

Hello Bill & Rosemary

Hope you are well. It's March 1 and a bright but very cold day -most of the rest of the country has snow. Just to let you know that Maria Foster had twin boys in the middle of February and all are doing well. We are looking forward to the sponsored ride season and lots of summer hacking.

Love to you both-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lovely to hear from you both again and to know that you are still following ! Thanks for the news about Maria. Please send her our congratulations and hugs and kisses, we hope they are all doing well! Her hands will be full now but we bet she will get back to her riding whenever she can! Have 'fond' memories of freezing haynets, ice on the water buckets, slippery roads and muddy legs, am sure you can't wait for the spring! Hope you enjoy lots of great sponsored rides and Melon keeps sound for you this year. Very few horses here in Ghana.
Keep in touch, drive safely in that lovely land rover- love to you both.

L & T

2 u 2 roadrunners out there somewhere (but where) ? From Ségou a quick hello 2 u 2, nothing special except that it would be nice to have you here again for a couple of days. I've started working a little and we'll be in BKO soon to purchase my vehicle (what I have to except : they sell you a new car at Toyota that already drove 1.400 km between Dakar and Bamako, unreal !!!)
And you, RoseMary & Bill, what's your story these days, hopefully everything ok and you'll not be needing any help from me but if you do, please just get on the phone or whatever else and get in touch, always a pleasure to give a helping hand to friends !
Himal-tjutju-rÈ-Hõ, Mark ---------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Mark and family
Am sending a message here as we have a feeling that you are not getting our emails. Sent one on the 5th Feb with an attachment of 6 photographs and another long one only a few days ago, both sent to your hotmail.Neither have been returned but we know you would have replied. Can you confirm by email. Until then love to you allxxxxxx

Hi there
Not sure if this may come in handy at some point

Bill wakes up one morning and sees a gorilla perched in a tree near his Landrover . Shocked, he calls the local animal control officer who transfers his call to an exotic animal specialist.

Bill explains the situation, and the specialist asks, 'Is the gorilla male or female?'

'A male, I think,' says Bill.

'Okay, I'll be right over to take care of him,' the specialist says.

A few minutes later, the specialist arrives with a Chihuahua, a club, handcuffs and a shotgun.

The specialist explains his plan to Bill: 'I'll climb up to the gorilla and knock him out of the tree with the club. When the gorilla hits the ground, the Chihuahua will run over and try to bite him in the crotch. The gorilla will then cross his hands over his vitals to cover them. That's your cue to slap the cuffs on him. Got it?'

'Sure. But what's the shotgun for?' Bill asks.

'If the gorilla knocks me out of the tree, use it to shoot the darn Chihuahua!'

hope you are having fun

all the best

Colin and Karina---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi there thanks for the joke ,we had a good laugh and await your next one!
Great to hear about your new job,very pleased for you and very envious, will give you some off roading tips when we get back! Do they need anyone in Africa! Hope you enjoy driving all the fancy new Land Rovers, a bit different from our off roading days.
We are deciding now whether to ship or drive further south as there are have been lots of problems in Nigeria recently.
All the best to you both

Olà you two out there, excellent to read you and find out you are getting along. That's the spirit, lever look back just ahead and then sometimes give us a life sign. See you down south you two lucky stars !
Keep on enjoying every minute, best wishes and kisses from us in Ségou...............
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Ola to you all also, still trying to find others going south, unfortunately missed a good oportunity to travel down with Andreas a German guy we met in Accra. We are both well and enjoying Ghana. We very much look forward to seeing you again in Nambia .
Best wishes from us.

Dear RoseMary & Bill, the Nigeria News just got in from Mister Kingsley, our Cargolux contact from Ghana and he checked with someone in Nigeria who said it would be ok to drive through Nigeria but not spend too much time there and be extremely carefull where you rest or/and spend the night, crime levels a little bit on the high side !!!! Well then now you know and now you just go ahead and double check please, you can never be too careful and you want to get to the 'nice parts' in one piece and in peace too, ha,ha ! All the best wishes and kisses to you out there, be good and enjoy. Over and out from Ségou, MARK
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Hi Mark thanks for the info re Nigeria, it does not sound too bad, we have also now heard bad reports about the other countries i.e Cameroon, Congo etc. We are in contact with others who may drive down and if this is possible it will be great.
Will let you know. Love to all in Segou.

Dear Rosemary and Bill
Hope things still going well. Auntie Babs somewhat better with extra tablets and oxygen, but rather frail and
immobile now. Saw Michael Palin in W. Africa and Timbuctu recently, you seem to have spent some time there.
You will be interested to know someone will be attempting to take part in the Plymouth to Banjoul banger race
driving acrossEurope and West Africa in a 1954 Morris Minor! can almost hear the gasps of incredulity. Not
sure if he realises what he is taking on, but hope he makes it-stranger things have happened! Very mild here
at present 52f today. Take care. Love from us both. Michael
...................................................................................................
Update has lapsed due to getting to working internet cafes, hope Auntie Babs still improves. We also watched M.Palins travels in Africa and enjoyed visiting some of the same places. Am sure the M.M will make it as we recently spoke to some French people who drove a Citroen 2CV down to Mali, it was covered in kids paintings from a school in France.
Weather here not bad about 32 C but quite humid at the coast.
Now we are in Ghana have to decide wether to ship or drive through the dodgy areas such as NIgeria,Congo etc.
Love to you both

U 2 out there, where exactly I can't tell, unfortunately no news. No news about Nigeria, except for a piece of news I overheard on CNN, trouble somewhere on the oil platforms of Shell, they even evacuated some staff because of violent outbrakes, whatever this means. Well, don't you go into Nigeria before getting better info. For the rest, all the best, keep save and in touch, Mark
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Hi Mark, thanks for your efforts and info re NIgeria. At present we are on the coast near Accra,see www.akwaaba-beach.de
Now have to decide whether to ship or carry on driving but need to check out the situation further south.
Has your project begun yet or are you still a man of leisure.
Hope Glicia and Chayanne are well and also the dogs. Will keep in touch as things progress.
Our best wishes to you all.

Hi Bill and Rosemary, Just got your card dated 9/12/05, pleased to hear that everything was going well. we got back from Spain after three months in the sun, just in time for the birth of new grandson. That was lucky!! Pat would never have forgiven me if we had missed it. Just to let you know we have had snow, I guess that you do not miss the cold. Card was from Mali, where are you now, is it the red dot on the map??Shooting tommorow 15/1/06, and I will try to miss the Wildebeast gently roaming over the Little Chart savanna and hit 60 clays, all very unlikely! Hope everything is going well, and look forward to seeing updates on the message board. See you whenever John
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Congratulations on your new grandson, glad you got back in time! Hope you both enjoyed your time in Spain. We are now in Ghana by the coast with quite hot and humid weather. We are still trying to catch up on our site update, it is not always easy. Cocentrate on the clays and not the Wildebeast and dont forget to say hello to all from us.

No news on the situation in Nigeria Yet, I keep on trying and keep you up to date should anything get in. All the best and happy trails to you two.... MARK