About Us

The Team

Terry Parker and David Hughes are a brother-in-law team. Terry lives in Banff, Aberdeenshire and works for the local authority as a Leisure & Recreation Manager. His hobbies include sailing, and having recently sold his boat is now looking about for his next one. David lives just outside Truro in Cornwall and works as an Electrician for a construction company. His hobbies include Darts and Euchre (that's a card game). A born and bred Cornishman, David considers himself as the teams “Lucky Cornish Piskie!”. Both men are relying on some pretty basic mechanical skills and plenty of inventiveness to resolve any mechanical problems and a generous amount of common sense and street-smarts to have as much fun as possible, without getting into too much trouble! Team barnaclebusters are also made up of many of our family and friends who are doing so much to support us, we will all be crossing the desert in one way or another!

The Car

We wanted to secure a left hand drive car as early as possible after our application was accepted. So began my first foray into the world of e-bay. We bought “Minty” the Polo from a chap in Essex. It was a reasonable price, for a sixteen year old Volkswagen Polo 1.2 GT 1992 Mk2, without an MOT. I think it's safe to say she is a little scruffy, but she made the trip to the North East of Scotland without any mechanical problems. This seemed like a promising first test. Next came the MOT. I had tried to enlist some assistance towards our plan from Stewart Milne the proprietor of County Garage (Banff Tyre Services). He had not thrown me out of his office, but he did (quite sensibly) insist on seeing the car first! Well, the inevitable fail report came in as a lengthy list, so I prepared to go into Stewart's office on bended knee for whatever help I could muster. Stewart had already made up an extensive list of what work and parts that would be required. To my delight Stewart had done some background checking into the challenge we are undertaking, and he decided to support us in a way I could only have dreamt of. Not only do we have an MOT, but also 4 new tyres, a refurbished steering rack, a new clutch and some replacement hoses for the cooling system. Stewart had said that he “wanted to give us the best possible chance of getting all the way there safely!” This is without a doubt the kind of major sponsor that you want. Not only has he invested a substantial amount of money and man-hours into the project, but he has increased our confidence in the vehicles likelihood of completing the challenge, enormously. Stewart is our honorary third team member. Thank you, Stewart.

Please Sponsor Us:

One of David's Daughters and Terry's Niece was recently diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. This has influenced us greatly in choosing the MS Society GB & NI, as our chosen charity. The MS Society receives no government backing and therefore relies entirely on charitable donations for all its research and other work. We are aiming to raise the modest sum of £1 for each of the 4,000 miles from Banff to Banjul. So please help us to help them.

Visit http://www.justgiving.com/barnaclebusters

We have also put together a sponsors list of all the essential equipment we need to obtain to make this passage successfully. This is a complex voyage that requires substantial planning and logistics to complete. We have made considerable personal commitments to this challenge and would very much appreciate any sponsors assistance in the achievement. Please choose one or more items from the list to donate in person or by funding for us to purchase. We will gratefully attribute that or those items to you.

Finally: Whether you have been able to sponsor us or not, please do send this website address on to 5 or more of your personal contacts within

your directory. This way we hope to contact enough people to make this challenge a real success. Thanks to you.