Pieter Booysen from team “ Halfway” who arrived a day ahead of team Lipstick in order to meet his wife Jenny who flew in the previous day, had met an indian business man who offered any assistance which the Elao teams might require during their stay in Dar es salaam.
Seif – as he is called- met up with team Lipstick early morning and guided them to “Bablas” automotive part business in order to source both shocks and springs required for Lipstick. Despite the original plan to give the Old Man Emu”s another try the shop-owner quickly convinced Andre and Willy that there are better options and team Lipstick opted then to replace the broken parts with Doblinson products which indeed looked much stronger and when measured showed that the spring diameter was 20mm versus the Emu”s 18mm but having the same length.
Andre and Willy now witnessed that indeed it is not necessary to replace shocks and springs in a suitably equipped workshop but that such a project can also be undertaken on a busy pavement adjoining a major double lane road in the middle of an African Capital.
Three seemingly highly qualified shock and spring technicians proceeded simultaneously to lift Lipstick of the ground and supporting her with very creative support structures consisting of a leaking hydraulic lift and various sized concrete blocks and stones. This was necessary to gain enough height for the rear and front axles to drop down enough, so that old springs can be removed and new springs fitted. The presence of an old motor block was also helpful as it could be used as an additional preventing support Lipstick from falling over.
Some three hours later Lipstic was in possession of 4 new shock absorbers perfectly fitted and also having 2 new springs. When driving off Andre and Willy felt like having a brand new car…. until some 45 minutes later an explosion like bang occurred close by from an unidentifiable source. It was quickly established that all tyres are still inflated and Andre and Willy assumed that the noise must have come from another car closed by. It became clear a little while later with sweat appearing on the faces of Andre and Willy that the cause of the bang must have emanated from the air conditioning system.
Fortunately soon thereafter one of the many automotive spare shops appeared on the side of the road and after a quick stop it was found that the rubber pipe between compressor and condensator had burst . Some 1.5 hours later this was also repaired and Lipstick made its way back to Silver Sands in Dar es Salaam in a cool headed manner. By this time ( 7pm ) the other team members also had arrived as well as the bikers from east London and Ladybrand who took the route from Mozambique to Tanzania via Mali.
Oh my word, you are truely in deep dark AFRICA. What patience you mu*t all have. Hope the trip i* going well.