On the morning we were due to leave for Malawi disaster struck. WE had been hearing a squeeking noise that we hadn't heard before and just as we were due to leave Peter checked the tire pressures and also checked under the truck. He discovered to his dismay a crack in the chassis which can have disastrous consequences and could even put an end to our trip .

In the campsite on the evening before we left we met an English woman who was telling us that she and her husband managed a country club on a coffee plantation in the town of Mbale the last town in Tanzania enroute to Malawi. In the course of conversation she also mentioned that they had a good garage in the town although not having any problems at that stage we didn't really discuss it only that we had heard the name of the garage before in other AFrican cities. We decided we wouldmake for there rather than go back to Dar Es Salaam and we carefully limped the 350k on what luckily weren't to bmpy roads as one more pothole too many may have just finished us off altogether. Peter was very orried and we discussed the consequences of the problem and made plans for what we would do if the worst came to the worst. We made it to the garage at 4.45 just as they were closing. They inspected the damage and told us to bring it in the next morning. We found the coffee plantation 8k out of town and drove very carefully up the track . We had found a lovely place and had the use of a 5 bedroomed bunk house with bathroom and kitchen all to ourselves. We met Francis the Manager and husband of the lady we met at the campsite and he spoke to the people at the garage as he knows them. Peter took the truck the next morning and we spend the day sitting in the sun and washing some of our stuff. The garage kept the vehicle for the whole of Friday and Peter returned on Saturday morning and it was all repaired to his satisfaction. The garage dealy in various models of cars as well as Mercedes and these guys are very familiar with the sort of damage we had as they see it everyday. Peter had been concerned that the truck had let us down and wasn't up to the job but it turned out that the cause of the crack had been some of the preparation work that had been carried out in the U.K. The garage had welded something to the chassis which had caused it to weaken and thus it had cracked.

We were very lucky that we found it when we did and also very lucky we met the lady at the campsite as we wouldn't have known there was a garage in Mbale. It also turns out that this has been a brilliant place to stay. It is in a fantastic setting in beautiful grounds with a swimming pool and lovely bar and restaurant and alos we had somehwere to leave the camper whilst the truck went in for repair.

We are spending another day here and hopefully moving on to Malawi on MOnday.