A PAIR of explorers from Grove Park have returned triumphant from the Plymouth to Banjul Charity Drive.

Gerard O'Sullivan, 42, and his 22-year-old stepson Sean Coles-Smith, collectively Team Martello, completed 3,700 miles across two continents in a beat-up 1983 Renault 4 with barely a hitch.

Along with around 200 other cars, Team Martello arrived at the finish line in the Gambia on the western African coast after about 22 days of hard driving with the hope of raising £10,000 for the RNLI charity and the Caron Keating Foundation cancer charity.

Gerard said: "I would seriously recommend it. The first week is the hardest as through France and Spain you're on your own and there is a lot of driving. We did 10 to 12 hours a day and at just over 60mph it is not the fastest.

"But the car was brilliant and the only problem we had was a bent wheel after hitting a pot-hole at 50mph. But we used a sledgehammer to straighten it out again and all was well."

The duo left England on December 18 and travelled through France to Gibraltar, via Biarritz and Madrid, where they crossed the Mediterranean to Tangier in Morocco and went on to Rabat and Casablanca.

They spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Marrakech before climbing to 2,400 feet of the Atlas Mountains and then they were in Sahara Desert, where they welcomed in the new year.

Gerard, a telecommunications worker, said: "I particularly enjoyed driving through the desert. There was a town in the Sahara called Dakhla which was fabulous. It was like an old jazz town from the deep American south with lots of colonial houses. It was the last thing I expected to see.

"But the poverty is criminal. They did not have anything and every time we stopped the car it was surrounded by people wanting any sort of handout. That was a real low point."

At the Senegalese border the pair had to wait 14 hours to cross while the guards and authorities worked through the red tape.

To get into Senegal the cars had to be loaded on a ferry ride with bandits.

Gerard said: "The police met us on the Senegalese side and escorted us through the country to a safe venue.

"In a finishing ceremoney we had the privilege of driving under Arch 22, which does not happen very often."

Arch 22 was built in 1996 to commemorate the peaceful coup of 1994.

The cars will be auctioned off with the proceeds going into the Gambian economy. So far the challenge, in its third year, has raised £120,000.

Sean, who is a photographer, kept the team's website constantly updated during the team's trip. For his diary entries and pictures of the expedition in action, visit teammartello.com