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- Breakdowns, breakdowns, and more breakdowns. Oh, can you hear that? In today's episode, I reach a truly magical picture perfect oasis, but the fairytale is soon interrupted by some serious issues with my gearbox. My anxiety is through the roof. I've lost faith in this truck. This isn't the episode I wanted to make. In fact, it's one of my worst case scenarios. But reality isn't always a fairy tale. Okay, we've got a new obstacle on our way. Which looks (bleep) horrifying. Huh, so we gotta go down this little hill. I don't know if I can go down this hill.
This looks insane. Oh my God. I mean, I know it's very hard to see the angle of this. So I'm gonna fly the drone and show you guys, but, this looks terrifying. I'm like what the (bleep)? This is very steep. And of course, there were two Mauritanian ladies there just hanging out. What else is new? Okay, shukran. Okay, there's a slightly more doable track there. Yeah, I think that looks a little better. This trip is so much more than what I bargained for.
Ah, boutique. Oh, wow. So, the ladies have got a traditional Melhfa, I think it's called, which is this beautiful robe that they wear. Ah. Melhfa. - Melhfa. So, they offered to let me try it, so I'm gonna try it. Nice. Oh my gosh, this looks complicated. Ooh, put your head through one hole. Put your arm through another.
The Melhfa was so pretty in fact that I bought it. Okay. I'm Mauritanian? The girls just gave me this little ring as a gift. Oh, it's so pretty. Helwa, helwa, shukran. Bye. Those girls really just made me feel so much better. Just know it was so nice to just have a little chat with them and get dressed up by them. All right, we're gonna try this descent from the, the direction that looks kind of manageable.
I'm a little terrified, but the ladies were adamant which means no problem. They definitely gave me a little bit of courage to tackle it by myself. One of the first rules of overlanding, if in doubt, use low range, keep calm, and carry on. Okay, we're just gonna put her in second gear, low range, and just let her do her thing. On the road, everything becomes an exercise in trust. Trust in your vehicle, trust in your own ability to handle stress and crisis. Even trust in some bigger power, fate, magic, or divinity, perhaps, to lead you to safety in the end.
Without trust, you're not gonna get very far. Okay. Almost done. Oh, a little bumpy here towards the bottom. We can do it. Go on, Odyssey. Yes. Ooh. Whew. Made it to the bottom. Oh my God, that was terrifying. This place is so gorgeous. It's like a little hidden canyon with this massive vertical wall of rock on one side, and then dunes on the other.
Oh my God. It was so worth it coming out here just to see this. I'm slowly learning that Mauritania does things a little bit differently. For example, these long, sandy tracks, these massive river beds full of sand, serve as legitimate roads here that connect communities and villages. So, the only way that you could get to those communities is in a four by four truck. Otherwise, they're completely cut off from the rest of the world. Well, unless they walk, of course, which, yeah, you can do, but it probably takes days.
Oh my God, look, camel on the road. Freaking love camels. They are such impressive animals. You know, they can bite on, like, really thorny plants. They can walk for days without any water or food. From the riverbeds and canyons, I headed for an oasis that had been on my bucket list ever since I started planning this entire trip. But on the way there, something unexpected happened, and it stressed me out so much that I didn't even have the mind to film it. Just before reaching the oasis, my gearbox started making grinding sounds and acting very strange.
It reminded me of a catastrophic breakdown I experienced in Turkey a few years back, which was also gearbox related. I managed to reach the oasis though, and rather than springing straight into repair mode, I just needed to give myself a couple of days to chill and relax at the oasis, remove myself from distress and form a more rational plan of action. Just as I thought that my car trouble was over, something new came up, and I think it's very serious. I don't know, but I think it's very serious and I'm gonna have to deal with it soon, very soon. But for now, I just wanna disassociate a little bit more, get the trouble out of my mind and go and swim in the lagoon. So that's what we're gonna go and do.
I'm gonna go enjoy one last swim before reality hits and I need to face this situation, whatever it is. (gentle music) In Mauritania, these oasis are known as gueltas. They're seasonal or perennial freshwater pools scattered across the Sahara and have played an important role for nomads and caravans crossing the desert throughout history. Today, it's less desert caravan and more secret swimming pool.
Oh, this is amazing. Hi. You like swimming? Yeah. Is that a good swimmer? Don't worry, this water is safe for both humans and dogs. Oh, we've been swimming here for the last two days. Has been amazing. Hasn't it, buddy? (gentle music) Okay, it's time to go and face my demons. (dramatic music) Ugh, I'm so nervous that my stomach actually hurts. Right, so you may remember from the previous episode that my ignition doesn't really work anymore.
It doesn't really bother me that I have to start my truck by hot wiring it. I don't see that as, like, a real issue because I can still drive it. (engine rumbles) Right? Still turns on. And the new issue sounds like a gearbox problem. I don't know if you can hear this, but there's all kinds of crazy sounds, but the biggest issue is this. So basically, the whole lever that I used to change the gears has shifted to the right.
I don't know how it did, but I used to change gears here. This is where my hand used to be. I mean, I have pretty good muscle memory from that, and now it just shifted to this side. I talked to my mechanic in Poland and I described the issue to him. This guy has been working on Defenders for 20 plus years, and he said that he'd never seen that happen. And the gears just do not sound right. I feel like this spells out an end to this expedition in a way, because from here, I was meant to continue on into the desert for another, like, 500 miles or so, maybe even more, for another 10 days. But given this issue, that's just not going to happen.
I'm just not comfortable going into the desert with the gearbox clearly in trouble. So there's really one thing that I can do now, and that's to drive back to the capital of Mauritania, Nouakchott, which is a seven-hour drive away, one way, and hope that I can get it fixed there, because I've lost faith in this truck. So I really hope that I can make it all the way there. Okay, low range, second gear. Let's go, baby. Oh, can you hear that? Oh. (gentle music)
Oh my God, did you see that? Look at that. Look at the lever. Look at it now. See? It's moving by itself. I'm also struggling to change gears, like the gearbox is just. There's a lot of, like, resistance, which is not normal. Oh. Oh, it sounds (bleep) horrific. Whatever happens, I know that today is gonna be a long day, and I just need to mentally prepare for that.
'Cause even if everything goes according to plan and I get to the capital city, it's still gonna be a very long day because it's a seven hour drive. You know, the one thing that's giving me comfort is that I've got sort of plan A, B, C, and D lined up in my head. So I. That helps me feel a little calmer about the whole situation. I know that something is very much off, but I really just need to focus on fixing it. Good. That's a lot of palm trees.
Ooh. Okay, so I just switched her to high range and first gear would not go in. The second gear went in. So that's good. At least we've got second gear. I guess I can get all the way to Nouakchott at 25 miles an hour. Don't panic, don't panic, stay calm. You've got second gear. You've second gear, that's something. Just don't park on a slope.
Okay, we're on asphalt again. That's progress. And this is the moment to test the other gears. So we're in second now, let's see if third works. Fourth. It works. Oh, holy shit. I might actually have a chance of getting to Nouakchott, the capital tonight and getting this fixed. It seems like a high range is working okay, aside from the first gear. It's just when I go into low range that the car starts freaking out.
Obviously, I need low range because I'm doing a lot of off-roading. But for now, it's just a straight shot to Nouakchott. Pun not intended. On an asphalt road. So I think if nothing goes wrong. I can get there tonight. This is really not how I imagined the end of my time in Mauritania. The last thing I want is tarmac and the noise of the big city and waiting around for my car to get fixed. But I've also learned the hard way not to dwell on the bad things and take events as they come and deal with them with as much positivity as possible.
Keep calm and carry on. None of those things necessarily come easy to me because by nature, I'm really impatient and impulsive. But to paraphrase a cliche, you don't always get the car you want, but you always get the car that you need. By the end of the day, I'd made it to the capital and the city hit me like a ton of bricks. Oh, finally made it to Nouakchott after what seems like an absolute eternity. An entire day of driving in the heat. It's been pretty intense. I think more from Vilk than me, but we made it. That evening, I was so knackered that I didn't even have the energy to film at my Airbnb.
Good morning from our Airbnb in Nouakchott. As you can see, I've washed my hair, I've showered, I've even washed some of my clothes. But yeah, getting here last night was quite stressful. It was a very long day, very long journey. And then on top of that, Mauritania is not exactly your most dog-friendly destination, in fact, quite the opposite. It's one of the least dog-friendly countries I have ever been to. And it was really difficult to find any accommodation that would take Vilk because he's a big dog and, you know, people are scared of him generally out here.
But eventually after pleading with the lady that owns this Airbnb, which was kind of like really my last resort, she allowed us to stay under a couple of conditions, so I'm very, very grateful that we have this nice place to ourselves. It's a little too fancy, I would say, but it was really the only option. So my plan for today is to go see the mechanic in a few minutes, hopefully diagnose what the issue is with Odyssey, and figure out what's next. Also, I have just discovered that Vilk is obsessed with camel milk. And I just wanted to try it for myself. It tastes very earthy.
It's a little sweeter than normal milk and I think a little thicker, but it tastes very, yeah, very earthy, like, like, like the desert. Anyway, Vilk is fricking obsessed with it. Freaking licking the bowl clean. There's no more milk in there. He's just like, "Yes, give me." Vilk, it's empty. There's no more liquid in there.
We're gonna leave our nice air conditioned luxury Airbnb and head over to the mechanics. Let's do it. One of the conditions for Vilk staying in this Airbnb is that he must wear a muzzle in all the public spaces, i.e., the hallways of the Airbnb. I keep forgetting that this is my new thing. Right now, I'm staying in what is a bit of a fancy new neighborhood with lots of new houses being built, clearly wealthy people living here.
You know, there's a lot of gated compounds, big walls, but what is, I think, most striking about this neighborhood for me is that, okay, you look around and you see these big new mansions, but at the same time, all around them, just in the midst of them, you see these, like, ramshackle tents and huts with people living in them. And I think we can safely assume that the people who live in them are people who have come here from the desert, from the countryside, hoping to find jobs and a better life here in the city. But for the vast majority of them, instead, what they find, unfortunately, is poverty and squalor.
You know, they end up living in, in these really horrid conditions out here while looking over at all this wealth all around them that is completely inaccessible to them, and it's honestly just absolutely heartbreaking to see. There aren't many Land Rovers at all in Mauritania. This is Toyota country. So finding a good mechanic wasn't exactly straightforward, but after trolling through a ton of forums and Facebook groups, I found this one guy. And his diagnosis, something super weird. (both speaking in foreign language)
Basically, what happened was that my entire gearbox rotated a few degrees to the right. (mechanic speaking in foreign language) The bolts must have sheared somehow over time, allowing the gearbox bell housing to spin on its axis. Bye, Odyssey. Might have something to do with those incessant washboards and possibly something to do with a big gearbox failure I experienced a few years ago. Either way, they needed to take out the whole gearbox and rebolt it onto the truck. Just a camel chilling by someone's house.
Like a dog. Vilk is like, "What the heck are you?" Well, work in full swing. I don't think I've ever seen Odyssey this gutted. They've literally had to take out the entire gearbox and the transfer case in order to reattach it. This looks pretty serious and I don't know if I fully trust these guys. There's basically no Land Rovers here in the entire country, so I just really hope that they know what they're doing.
Time seemed to pass in slow motion in that Airbnb. Yeah, it was nice to have aircon, running water and an endless supply of electricity for once, but that's not quite why I'm doing this trip. All I wanted was to be out in the desert again.
(both speaking in foreign language) Okay. Okay, the car is fixed, apparently. Mm, I don't know if I should believe it. It sounds too good to be true almost, but apparently it's fixed. So I need to get there in the next 40 minutes before Zane has to go. And yeah. Let's go see it. Okay. We made it. Okay, let's see if she starts. (engine starts) She starts. That's good. All right, here we go, let's get her out of here. As a bonus, Zane also offered to fix my ignition so that I wouldn't be hot wiring Odyssey anymore.
Oh, she'd drive so smoothly once again. We've got more weird sounds. (vehicle rumbling) Hear that? Maybe this is just growing pains. Maybe she just needs a minute or two to get back into her usual shape. Let's see. Cool, my speedometer doesn't work now. Does this get me out of speeding fines?
I was still struggling to shift gears and they seem to be grinding against each other. Not a good feeling. Ah. Right. Just got back home, not home, to the apartment. And I had a chat with Zane the mechanic who told me that I should come back tomorrow morning and get the new problem checked out because it is a problem. I feel like when I'm driving Odyssey now, it feels like I'm driving her in low gears, in low range the whole time, which is a problem. I can't drive anywhere like this, so they need to fix it. And he said that he can fix it in two hours tomorrow, which, oh, God, if that happens, that would be a freaking miracle, but I'm kind of just resigning myself to the idea that it may not be fixed
and that I may need to do what? Get towed all the way back to Europe. What, what exactly is my choice here, you know? (dramatic music) The next morning, I discovered more problems. I had no electricity or light inside the truck. My speedometer was broken, and the gearbox was still sounding and acting horrific. (dogs barking)
(both speaking in foreign language) (dramatic music) I've kind of lost faith in the truck, honestly, and I've kind of lost faith in the repair. The sensible thing to do right now would be to just go back home along the highway network, so that if I break down again, I can get easily rescued, towed away.
But I feel like if I did that, I would be ending this expedition on, on a really sad note, like I gave up, I'm done, you know? And I think I will regret that. The other option, which is far more risky, is to get back out into the desert and finish what I started, at least some of it. I can't do all of it because now I've lost several days, five days, but at least some of it. And I feel like that would end this expedition on a high note, on a note of I freaking did it, but it's also the far more risky option given the state of the truck.
If I get stranded somewhere out in the desert, which is possible, given the state of things right now then that could be a real issue. But, but what's the right decision? I don't know. What will I regret? What will I not regret? (both speaking in foreign language)
I'm not convinced, but I guess we'll find out. Okay, the car actually feels good now. The gears are going in smoothly. I can see how fast or slow I'm going. That's a plus. So yeah, I think we're good to go. Zane was very kind and he offered to take me out into the dunes here on the outskirts of the city and show me a few tricks for how best to drive in the sand and in the dunes. And see what new skills we can pick up. (Zane speaking in foreign language) Okay, we've let air out of tires, so we're nice and flat now, and Zane is gonna show me what he does.
Oh, my God, oh my dear. (Eva speaking in foreign language) Call me naive, whatever, but I like to think that things happen for a reason. Perhaps Odyssey sent me to Zane because she knew that I needed to level up my dune driving skills ahead of the next leg of the journey. Maybe this dune driving lesson was meant to happen all along, and the gearbox was just the excuse that brought me here. And if anything, this is really helping me rebuild trust in Odyssey. And yeah, in the end, I decided not to go straight home,
but to drive back into the desert for one last hurrah. (gentle music) Okay, so what happens next? Well, after all was said and done with the repairs, I had lost five days, five days in total, which is a lot of time given my relatively constricted schedule. And yeah, I guess the choice was to either go back home, play it safe, or head out into the desert and just have one last hurrah. So of course I decided to have one last hurrah. But in the meantime, a lot of other things have gone wrong. For example, my fridge no longer works.
It just keeps switching on and off the whole time. It doesn't really work at all. My inverter also stopped working, but this time, unlike last time, I don't know how to repair it, and there's nothing I can do. My stove also doesn't work, and while that's something that would be very easy to replace in Europe or in the USA, they just don't have stoves like this here in Mauritania. So every time I wanna cook something or boil water, I need to physically hold down the ignition lever with my finger the entire time. It's a little annoying. So I feel like there's a lot of things that are telling me to go home because everything is just slowly breaking down on me, but you know what?
I'm not giving up that easy. I just wanna have this one last desert adventure. Last night, I came out here from the city and ended up camping in this gorgeous, beautiful oasis. There was nobody else here, and it was like one of the most beautiful places I'd seen in my entire life. Oh, it was so reinvigorating, and I feel like just a few hours spent at that oasis really gave me the inspiration that I needed to just keep going and do this one last adventure, which is gonna be a really big one, I'm about to attempt my biggest desert crossing yet.
It's gonna take me probably three days. It's about 300 miles, 350 miles, and it's a very challenging trail. Lots of sand, lots of dunes. I am really excited, a little nervous. And if anything breaks down there, I'm (bleep). So let's hope it doesn't. The fridge, the inverter, and the stove are enough. Okay, guys, I'll see you for my last hurrah next week. Bye. (gentle music)
