Lots of discussions about next years events, groats to fund next years events, and the options around this.

As ever, we have a choice. We could, if we chose, take the Enron approach to raising money and kind of do it in a way that isn't immediately obvious as the most ethical way of doing it. We could also, if we chose, just continue to play a totally straight bat and trust that - somehow - magic will happen. A clear conscience is always the best pillow.

Speaking of Enron, I came across this article the other day in The Economist. Posted only last week.

In it, The Economist dares to think the unthinkable - that Jeff Skilling may be innocent. The grounds for this, they argue, is the testimony of Andy Fastow - the Chief Financial Officer at Enron.

Initially, in statements to the FBI, Fastow claimed that Skilling had known nothing about the fraud and theft that he (Fastow) had been committing. Later, when offered a plea-bargain deal that would guarantee him only 10 years in jail, he changed his story and claimed that he only ever operated with Skilling's full knowledge and approval. Ater Skilling's trial, Fastow's agreed sentence of 10 years was cut to only 6 years, since he was such a "co-operative witness".

There's a point to this, and I'm coming to it, please bear with me.

All of us right now are facing the brunt of this thing called the global "Credit Crunch". In a nutshell, this basically means that there is less money being made available for debt - both to individuals and to companies - as everybody tightens their belts. This is something that we have due regard to when considering how we fund Dakar next year.

Anyway, the credit crunch has its roots in something which is called the "sub-prime mortgage crisis" in the USA. This came about when Banks started lending to people who couldn't really afford it, then sold these risky debts on to other Banks. When the borrowers didn't keep up the repayments, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

A similar thing happened in the USA in the 1980's and early 1990's - this time it was called the Savings and Loan crisis. Basically, there was a lot of lending to people who could not afford to borrow, and then the risky debts were sold from one bank to another. When the borrowers didn't keep up the repayments, everything went pop.

The savings and loan crisis caused a lot of Banks to fail and go bankrupt. The largest of these Banks was called Continental Illinois.

A young executive at Continental Illinois had pioneered this brilliant idea in order for the Bank to make kazillions of dollars. What he proposed, crazy at the time, was that the Bank lend to people who could not afford it, then sell on the risky debts to other Banks. Continental Illinois would get the cash, somebody else would get the risk (and the default).

The seemingly magical technique for creating lots of money in a very short space of time - leaving somebody else to pick up the tab - very quickly spread through the Banking industry. When it finally went pop, so did a lot of the Banks.

Anyway, the young man who pioneered this brilliant scheme was a Continental Illinois executive by the name of Andy Fastow. Yes, the same Andy Fastow who went on to do something very very similar at Enron - build up a huge mountain of risky debt and get somebody else to buy it.

Enron went so spectacularly belly-up that somebody had to be seen to pay for it. Fastow done a deal with the FBI and - despite originally claiming that Skilling knew nothing - laid all the blame at Skilling's door. Skilling got 24 years, Fastow got 6. Yet Andy Fastow was the guy who set up all the deals, sold them, got investors to buy into them and - crucially - made millions for himself in the process. Skilling, personally, never made a penny until he sold his Enron shares. Think about that.

Anyway, we'll see what happens at Skilling's first appeal in a couple of weeks.

Knowing what I know about the mischief that some people can get up to as soon as a bit of money is involved, it's clear that there's really no choice at all for me and The Missus to make. We'll play a straight bat, and something will come up. It's meant to be.

ITM will be on the flight home Wednesday, after picking up new passport and the like from the various embassies in Dakar. Most of the other people go home today, so he'll have a day to just kind of rest and start to get himself back to normal. That said, he'd much rather be home - it's been over two weeks since he saw ITM-ess and his ITM-ettes and he'll want to get home to them.

After such a fantastic effort, putting so much into something that that, what goes through your head? OK, there's a vague sense of achievement, but do you feel fulfilled now that you've done it? Do you want to do another one now? have you got it out of your system? Is everything in perspective now, or are things muddled?

Sometimes I find this the most scary aspect of this whole affair. Money is money and it's always a soluble problem. The bike, that's just an engineering problem. I mean, for as long as I have Dakar as an objective then I have something to focus on. What about when I do it? Will it be salvation? Will it be something else? Will I be cured? The parts of me I don't like - will I be able to leave them out in the desert when I come home, or will they come with me?

Is Dakar the end of the journey, or is it just the beginning of another one?

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