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Have you heard of the Paris to Dakar rally? Highly paid professional rally drivers, power through West Africa in unbelievably expensive, highly modified rally cars, a trip of speed, excess and money.

Well the Timbuktu Challenge is nothing like that!

Team Traa Dy Liooar is made up of three Manxmen, Juan McGuinness, (that’s me) Ben Watterson and James Jones.

The ethos for the trip is simple, raise as much money as possible for charity, whilst having the adventure of a life time in our £300 Land Rover Discovery.

We set sail from Douglas on the 9th January 2008 in our 1990 Land Rover Discovery.

The route to Timbuktu in Mali is around 4500 miles and we will hopefully make it in three weeks.

The planned route will take us through the UK, France, Spain, Morocco, The Islamic Republic of Mauritania and hopefully we will end up in Mali.

We will travel across numerous surfaces and terrains including dirt tracks, gravel and sandy desert. This terrain should test our driving skills and endurance to the limit.

We will cross the Sahara Desert, an unmarked minefield between Morocco and Mauritania and partake in three ferry journeys.

The whole trip is completely unsupported, if we break down, we have to repair it ourselves, we won’t have a film crew or support vehicles following us!

While this may sound like fun (or not as the case may be) the aim of the challenge is to raise money for various charities in Mali.

All the vehicles that make it to Bamako will be auctioned off.

Last year the event raised a total of £12,750, which was presented to the Rotary Club Bamako Amitié and has since been distributed to a number of projects in Mali.

We will also be raising money for the, Make A Wish Foundation by selling advertising space on the Land Rover. We feel their work holds considerable relevance to our challenge and the money we raise will give families affected by disability the opportunity to go on a holiday together.