Dear all,

Well what can I say?

Team Absolute Citroen's world has been turned upside down. The dust has now settled and I can now offer some explanation to all who have generously sponsored our trip to Cameroon. You may know the situation already but here it is 'officially'. 

On Thursday 10th December we were finally ready for the Sunday start when we got a bombshell from the rally organisers. The Head of Counter-Terrorism at Scotland Yard and a senior representative at the Foreign Office had called in the organisers of the Africa Rally and the Plymouth-Banjul Rally for an urgent meeting the day before. They told them in no uncertain terms that under no circumstances should the rallies go ahead. They had received intelligence that the rallies might be specifically targeted by an Al Qaeda group operating in Mauritania and Algeria. This is the same Al Qaeda group that kidnapped 3 Spanish aid workers in Mauritania earlier this month and who also murdered a British tourist in June. Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant took the unusual step on Thursday of issuing a statement to reinforce the advice that no one should travel south of Morocco on the north-south road through Mauritania which was the route we'd planned and which constitutes the only way of driving from the UK to West Africa (routes through Algeria and Libya are already closed). On Thursday morning the rally organisers decided to cancel the rally 'in its current format' and said that they would come up with an alternative plan that would not involve us potentially appearing on Al Jazeera wearing orange jump suits.

On Thursday afternoon the rally organisers then turned round and said that the 'new format' for the rally was identical to the old format. Their suggestion was that if we phoned someone called Nicole at Tilbury Docks we might be able to get our cars on a cargo ship making the 12-day voyage to Dakar in Senegal, West Africa. We could then fly to Senegal and spend several days trying to get it through customs during the Christmas holidays. There were just a few problems with this idea. Firstly the last ship leaving the UK for Senegal was leaving on the  Monday after the start meaning we had one working day to organise the shipping (a process that normally takes weeks). Secondly, this huge change to our plans would double the cost of the rally with the added worry of all our equipment potentially not making it safely to Dakar. Thirdly and most importantly this would mean that the first 3000 miles and two weeks of a 6000-mile, four-week car rally wouldn't actually involve driving a car. The organisers gave us a whole 21 hours to let them know what our plans were. We agonised over our decision and finally decided that it is better to delay and do the challenge that we'd set ourselves and that you've so kindly supported rather than turn the Africa Rally into the Africa Regatta. That's certainly what the organisers of the Plymouth-Banjul Rally have done. There were 45 teams in the Africa Rally on Thursday. Apparently there were 4 teams at Tilbury Docks on the Monday. Cars are currently driving off into Morocco now as I write this but they are trying to make the best of a nightmare scenario and enjoy some Christmas sunshine.

As you can imagine my team mate and I are just a teeny bit disappointed. However it's not completely back to the drawing board. We have a fantastic rally car, a very detailed route plan and we have every intention of completing the challenge of driving (yes, driving - not sailing or flying) from London to West Africa. Being realistic, the security situation in Mauritania is unlikely to change for several months, possibly longer so we will have to be patient but we will keep you informed of our plans. These plans may involve organising our own rally for all those disappointed teams who, so far, have raised over a fantastic £41,000 for charity. As for Al Qaeda we will be showing exactly what we think of them by adding the excellent Help for Heroes charity to our fundraising in the future.

Thank you again for all your support. It's really appreciated - especially at times like these.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas

Rupert

20th December 2009