In 2000, a very passionate and commited and somewhat talented young man wanted to do the Dakar. he was a privateer, and didn't have a lot of money to throw at it.

He came up with a rather novel idea. Since he was French, and had a mate lived in Bordeaux, there was only one thing to do. Make wine. Lots of wine. 6,000 bottles of wine. Stick a couple of labels on them, with pictures of dunes, and Chateau du Dakar is born. Then you sell them, and the proceeds go to funding your Dakar attempt.

Now, if you had one of those bottles of wine today - and it was still corked - then it would be worth a lot more than you paid for it. That's because the young man in question was Cyril Despres. He did so well in the 2000 Dakar that he caught the eye of BMW, and entered 2001 Dakar as a factory rider. Now he rides for Gauloises as a factory rider and he is one of the best riders in the world today.

So I spoke to Duff Diode today (my friend who looks a lot like Penfold out of Danger Mouse). Not only is he an expert cameraman - with all of his own equipment - he also has several apple trees in his back garden.

2008 was a bumper crop for him - tonnes and tonnes of apples. Now, there's only one thing to do with tonnes of apples - make cider. Which he duly did. Lovely cider made with real gloucestershire apples.

So, it is entirely possible that - with the help of some sticky labels - "Sahara Scrumpy" may be available in the near future.

Interesting search somebody did on Google, bringing them to 2009 Dakar. They searched for this:

"Using titanium plates to cure mental illness"
They got a match on both of them, but probably not in the way they expected. I wondered about this - is it true? Is such a thing possible? Is it some kind of implant thing, or do I just volunteer to be whacked on the head with a metal bar?

So, anyway, Duff Diode. Not only an expert cameraman, he is also a very passionate one. Wants to document the journey to Dakar. Whether this means that we'll get him in the 4x4 - or even on a bike - remains to be seen, but he can look forward to many hours of fun and games watching Martin and I play "so who can get down that hill quickest then?".

So, as you've probably gathered, there's a lot of ideas flying round about how we can fund Dakar next year, and do so in a way that makes money for Barnardos. The thing about ideas though, is that they have friends. Nurture them, encourage them. The crap ones will come first, but the good ones are not too far behind - they're just waiting to make sure that it's safe to come out.

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