What is a worst case scenario? Yes, I know it’s an album by Deus, but that’s not exactly what I mean. Well, in fact it is what I mean. We got that alum as a present before we left. But when are we supposed to put it on? How can we know in the middle of our journey? Is there a worst case scenario for the car and one for ourselves? If there is one for the car, what about the Sudanese roads or rather what the Sudanese roads did to our car: The Sudanese roads are not too good. In fact, they are really really bad. They make the suspension work a lot. If the suspension is too soft this may cause problems, the workload I mean. It may make the shock absorbers fly skywards. In order to do so, they need to break lose from the frame. First, it’s only one that may go but the remaining absorber may be reluctant to do all the work on its own. Therefore it’s very likely that it also goes. When both shock absorbers are gone the axle is all free to do what it likes. It likes to jump like a mad bull on a stampede with the body of our Land Rover being the Cowboy. The bull normally will be released after 7 seconds and little harm is done to the rider. Our car was riding the bull for two days carrying 160l of fuel, 80l of water and a mad Italian hitchhiker named Paolo. Paolo, besides being a very nice person, was a bit of a smartass. If I was the car, Paolo alone would have caused me to break down. The jumping axle started to bash the exhaust pipe making it break on several spots. A broken exhaust makes a lot of noise. It really does. Anyway, that’s not yet a worst case scenario. What made the bad scenario worse was again the axle. This time it started to kill the break pipe. I could floor the break pedal without resistance (otherwise nice as it goes so easy). So we ended up in riding a crazy bull, roaring like a starfighter on afterburner and unable to stop. That is definitely worse but not yet a worst case. It only got a worst case scenario when during all this, Paolo started to explain elaborately how he would have done it (always stressing that he was not a mechanic, but….).
No, he is still alive. However, his ride was over soon after (the official explanation: weight reasons).