Stranded in the desert
Holiday trip to Sousse, Tunisia. A friend and I decided to take a 3 day bus trip into the Sahara desert since around Sousse you won't find any desert. Day 2 of the trip and we are well on our way across one of the dried out salt lakes, on a road originally built by Rommel's advancing troops (or so the tour guide told us). The bus was a completely run down Toyota with 20+ seats. Probably also from the Rommel era. Right in the middle of the salt lake track, smoke poured into the bus, Bus driver stopped without too much panic, and we along with the other 10 or so passengers left the bus to stand in the middle of 40+C blistering heat. The bus driver did some small "repairs" underneath the bus, waited until the smoke had completely cleared from the bus, then declared we could continue since it was now safe again.
As one can imagine, some of the passengers, specifically a Portuguese couple, were not really convinced. So the Portuguese man knelt down and had a look at the underside of the bus. Turned pale with shock, he stood up and declared he was not going to step onto that bus again.
The problem: the fuel pipe had been bent a bit too close to the (steaming hot) exhaust (say 1-2 inch away), probably on one of the previous "repairs". In order to keep the problem under control, the bus driver had pulled away the pipe and fixed it with a plastic cord, also on a previous "repair". That cord had started burning due to the excessive heat, causing the smoke. Now it had been replaced with a brand new plastic cord in the exact same spot.
Learning this, all passengers started a heated discussion with the driver, who saw no problem (it had worked for thousands of miles before, he argued). In the end, he arranged for alternative transport in the form of a passing by normal public transport bus, crammed with locals and also in an advanced state of technical decay. That bus took us to our hotel for that evening, and the driver promissed to organize a new Toyota bus for the next morning.
I am not sure whether the others noticed, but it had the exact same registration plate as the old bus. But it must be said, that old Toyota really lasted until we all had safely returned to Sousse.
( RedWine President of the S.C.U.M., Sun 28 Jun 2009, 22:11, Reply)