It is 8.30 am Sunday morning in Douala and team Lipstick eagerly awaits the arrival of the 2 automotive engineers in Cameroun…
A little while later both arrive on a motorbike willingly wanting to take Lipstick to an unknown place of repair but team Lipstick offered instead to drive the car gladly behind them so that they can learn all the tricks in replacing break shoes (and not letting Lipstick disappear for one moment)
Those of you who ever followed a motorbike in heavy traffic might understand the next 20 minutes but the added problem was now a total brake failure. With brake pedal fully pressed down there was not even a hint of slowing down – so over to handbrake and first gear (low ratio) in order to avoid smashing oncoming bikes and taxis.
The new craze in Douala – Cabrio style bikes….
Lipstick came to a stop at some roadside somewhere in Douala opposite an open air repair shop full of semi and fully wrecked cars and was ordered to park right there.
The 2 Sunday emergency repair workers now proceeded behind the car wrecks only to reappear in overalls which were seemingly due for their biannual washing machine and Omro treatment and then bit by bit they fetched spanners and hydraulic lifts as well as planks and an old motor block to support Lipstick whilst without tyres.
Having removed all the tyres the damage became more visible in that all brake shoes were worn to their maximum with one shoe even falling off as soon as the tyre was removed.
Tyre less in Douala….
Both rear disc drums were also so badly worn that they also asked for replacement. Having made a few phone calls one of the mechanics took off on the bike whilst the other one took all the worn parts off Lipsticks front and rear axles.
Top row – new brake shoes whilst the worn shoes of Lipstick are in the bottom row…
During the wait a lots of street vendors offered their wares to the team some of which could turn stomachs around and after a while yesterday’s barman also arrived at the scene and pointing out that he actually lives right next door to the repair place.
Local delicatessens…. For sale on the streets in Douala…..
Whilst waiting for Mr Part’s delivery to return the team spotted a close by designer hair studio and decided to use the time to have a proper hair cut done…
Deciding to use the time to have a proper hair cut done…
Well the parts arrived and under close supervision the automotive experts put part by part back onto Lipstick and Voila: 2 hours later all was well assembled, the team had a good haircut and to their surprise the 2 mechanics on their bike even offered to guide Lipstick through the concrete jungle of Douala and on the right way out towards Kribi.
Team Lipstick with their engineers and the barman (on the left) – Lipstick is ready to go…
Team Lipstick salutes these great guys and are indeed thankful being helped out on a Sunday morning in Douala.
The road to Kribi was most probably the best seen since leaving Morocco and with perfectly working brakes Lipstick was moving speedily through beautiful Landscapes and of course the never ending police stops could not dent the happy mood of the team.
They greeted police with great smiles when being questioned and threatened about the right hand steering and not the slightest amount of US or other currencies changed hands today and some of these officers were gladly waving Lipstick on after listening to a waterfall of German and afrikaans words by 2 highly amused team members which all of a sudden could no longer speak either English or French or any other languages in which the officers wanted to communicate……
One of the nicer species received a cap for wishing the team “Bon Voyage”
A nice place was found right on the beach of Kribi and after the ordeals of Douala the team decided to rest here for 2 nights with the highlight of course being the world cup final between Germany and Argentine.
“Residence” is the French expression for B & B
The owners of this B & B were also great soccer fans and with 6 other guests a great game was watched and the win of Germany deserved a great celebration with a never ending supply of liquid refreshments….
Another great time on the West Coast of Africa…