The green scarab's journey, which is to say our '97 green citroen ax, will start on the 27th of december 2008 from Milan (Italy) and will finish in Bamako (Mali) on the 8th of January 2009. Far away from Milan, there will be only enough time for a drink with Lello in Marrakech and then off we go!... This expedition will touch some of the most fascinating corners of moroccan Sahara, We will then travel further down, along the atlantic coast, across the contended land of Western Sahara towards Dahkla. Again on the road through the corridor leading to Mauritania and its magnificent dunes, we will then push ourselves further down into Mali, and Bamako which lies perched on the banks of the Niger river, Timbouctou is just a step away

The challange
Milan – Bamako: less than 15 days to reach our goal: 1st get to Bamako, 2nd give our vehicle to charity. Our ride is not even 60 cc, it wasn't so even in its golden days when it was new and shiny. Today it's 12 years old and it has built up a 100,000 kms experience and the time has certainly come for it to leave these grey roads of Europe and sail off to Africa (obviously with the help of a ferry from Genoa to Tangeri). In Africa we expect to find a combination of concrete,stone,sand and ground paths.There will be no guide. We will have neither mechanical nor logistical assistance of any sort available. If our ride stalls or should somehing else go wrong we can only rely on ourselves... unless... we might come across a caravan of Maures and we might somehow convince them to exchange our car for a camel or at least a fist of dates or...