Super petrol works out at 2.5p a litre, or if I you’re feeling stingy, regular costs just 2p.Dozens of the roadside wrecks traffic along Libya’s main coastal highway testified to the lethal mixture of ‘get-out-of-my-way’ gangsters in blacked-out Mercs and lopsided farmyard bangers piloted by granddad in coke-bottle specs. We located what seemed the right place and ploughed into the sands where the Isuzu soon mired. I managed to get it running and driving well, and began to modify it, adding Superwinch hubs and beginning to stockpile a load of parts for it.
As expected, I was a lot quicker than Rainer’s ex-trans African Isuzu, but I didn’t mind stopping and waiting. We all knew we’d bitten off a bit more than we could chew, but the end was surely in sight.We got going early but by nine next morning the bike was halfway down a dune and out of gas.
Eventually, a mysterious internet connection provided an invite at a price and my permit was telexed from Tripoli in early April.
A week later I was walking down Harley Street with the requisite stamp. A vehicle that can go anywhere also needs to be able to have great stopping power. There is no easy option: back off, the front wheel digs in and you’re off – go too fast and you risk crashing. By mid-afternoon the temperature had risen to the high thirties and out of the blue the bike started spluttering. Down in the grubby basement mean-looking guys ground another fag into a Brit passport and ignored you purposefully. A story of a guy who’d driven out into the storm sounded especially grim.With a weather eye out for the ghibli, by the next afternoon I was close to the Libyan border with a wodge of illicitly bought Libyan currency stuffed down my crotch.
My guide book says it’s much more scenic than the boring direct route.’‘I doubt I’ve got enough fuel to go that far, especially if the piste gets sandy.’ We paused for a moment to consider the implications.‘Well, I have some spare petrol, about six litres.’ said Rainer whose Isuzu was diesel.We topped up the bike’s tank and decided to take a gamble and press on.But by late afternoon we’d got ourselves lost.
A brief chat revealed that Rainer and Katja were also heading across the Red Plateau and would be happy to have another vehicle along for safety [Katja took most of these pictures from the car with my camera but I’m sorry to say I have not photos of them].The aptly named the Red Plateau, a barren, undulating prairie of rust-coloured gravel cut by dry water courses.
We’d seen no other vehicles since we left the highway at Derj, so there was nothing for it but to lug out twenty litres of water and watch the Isuzu chug off over the sands in search of fuel. There was no such noncing about at the Libyan Interests Section in London’s Harley Street in the late 1990s. Once you ride off tracks, however bad they are, you find yourself walking the bike down rocky slopes, blundering up dead-end valleys or edging towards drops. By now temperatures were climbing steeply right across the Sahara and with it, expected water consumption and a host of other problems.A couple of months earlier a New Year’s meet up with a guy who worked in the Libyan oil fields actually put me off the whole idea. $62.99. The next GPS waypoint was through the hills to the south, but our track was now heading west towards Algeria, the wrong way. The Trooper had a blown engine and we had a 2.6L Isuzu Trooper engine sitting around from a previous build.
Just the spot to enjoy a spring break on a bike.It has taken me months to get to this point. Charming. Now the roadsides were only marked by posters of the Brother Leader, hands raised in a ‘we’re all in this together!’ salute.As I rode into the desert on super smooth blacktop I wondered when the real heat would begin. I felt like I’d done a four-day enduro on a heavy loaded bike in 40-degree temperatures. We choose this axle housing axle housing because it is the smallest shape possible and strongest shape too, there are also no abrupt edges to hang up on passing rocks.The axle has a very strong wall thickness by using 3 1/2" x 3/8 DOM steel.
Back across Tunisia, back across the Med, another Motorail to save the chain and a quick coffee in Paris.By accelerating very, very carefully I just made it to the Channel, but after only 2000 miles of riding and with the chain adjusted as tight as I dared, 20 miles from London the sprocket turned into a greasy knurled disc. I did my share of both and finished the day exhausted by more shades of soft sand than the Cote d’Azur.By now I was already cutting into Rainer and Katja’s water reserves, so we needed to find a well. Search by price, view certified pre-owned Troopers, filter by color and much more. But there was one thing which bothered me…‘Rainer, shouldn’t we be at Bir Gazell well by now?’ According to my speedo the landmark should have been close.‘Bir Gazell? Here, look. The vapour lock was easily fixed with a cardboard heat shield (My French guidebook (all that was available) claimed the route across the plateau was a straightforward 450km gravel track with a well half way.
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