" The lasting impression will be of the camaraderie of the teams running in the back third of the rally - every body traded tools , parts , advice and time with each other - as they say here it was warm and fuzzy. I guess that is the spirit of the early Safaris ."
Paul Haym Car no. 36

"You asked for some comments on "our" rally, it was such a great experience I will try to be brief..
I think like most people shock absorbers were the story. We started having problems on stage 1 and used up 1 of our 2 spares on the first day, which was mentally stressful with close to 5000 km to go. I expect that the springs were suspect too, as the car was riding lower and lower on the second day resulting in a half shaft and exhaust breaking. Rob Collinge was good enough to give me advice at Taita Hills and so were able to pick up more parts in Nairobi. However with no more spare halfshafts , we had to keep our fingers crossed until we returned to Nairobi where ours had been rebuilt. So from Nanyuki through Uganda and back we were cautious in the extreme over any rough sections.

Over the Mau Summit stage our clutch started to labour and was slipping a lot through the Delamere Estates stage so we pulled out and headed for the estate office. Tom Delamere invited us to tea and cakes whilst phone calls were made to Nakuru to find parts. The local fix-it , Mr Mwangi , was able to come up with somebody to reline our clutch plate at 8.30 pm in the evening , so by the time the clutch was reinstalled , we were again fairly late into the Safari Park hotel in Nairobi.

More trouble followed the next day when we hit a rock in the first Tanzanian stage and damaged the steering as well as the sump guard. No aluminium welding in Arusha so we straightened it as best we could the next day, and again carried on cautiously.

So , overall , the roads are much rougher than I remember, maybe it is my memory playing tricks. The lasting impression will be of the camaraderie of the teams running in the back third of the rally - every body traded tools , parts , advice and time with each other - as they say here it was warm and fuzzy. I guess that is the spirit of the early Safaris.

In parting , thanks for all your hard work and that of all your team , far to numerous to mention , and all the volunteers at all the controls. The organisation was superb.

Paul Haym Car no. 36