Well, I've done it. After developing a permanent stoop from hours of Googling, I have found a 1990 VW Scirocco. I bought it in Glasgow a couple of weeks ago and drove back at unheard of speed down the M1. Never in my life have I spent so much motorway time in the fast lane. This says a lot about the cars I have previously owned but, even so, the 1800 cc fuel-injected Scirocco is a real performance car. I'm growing daily more attached to it and less sure I want to thrash it in the desert and hand it over for a charity auction.

The car, originally from Germany and with 211,000 kms on the clock, had previously been used by an elderly gentleman to deliver Chinese takeaways.

He was changing it for a more economical diesel car, which was really what Linda, my co-driver, and I had in mind. We'd also wanted something with big wheels and air conditioning.

Advice had been generously proffered . . .

go to Germany, go to France, buy from a Pole/Hungarian/Lithuanian. But it wasn't as simple as that.

The time involved, the ferry costs and the difficulty of insuring cars on French or German plates put us off going to the continent. We resorted to stopping outside building sites where we saw LHDs parked and asking the foreman to send out the owner so we could enquire whether the car was for sale. They never were.

We scoured the Polish newspaper picking out makes of car and prices from the classified ads. Then we'd end up on the phone to someone with little English. We did see one Polish diesel estate in the wilds of Clondalkin, but it wouldn't start and had a big scrape all the way down one side. The young man was asking for 1,800.

I must admit to paying more than 200 for the Scirocco, but not much more, and the organisers are not too strict on this, as long as the spirit of the challenge is adhered to. It started off as a spoof of the expensive Paris to Dakar rally and is aimed at those with 'no money, no sense, no worries'.

Linda and I, unmechanical in the extreme, do have a few worries but, according to Joe, my friendly neighbourhood mechanic, the car is well able for the 4,000-mile trip. C&F Motors of Mount Merrion, Dublin have kindly offered to service it before we leave and supply us with some spares.

To get our Mauritania visas, a friend agreed to take our forms and passports to the London embassy. The next day I called him to abort the mission. While the Mayfair-based ambassador demands stg£43 in used notes, I learned on the www. plymouth-banjul. co. uk forum that the visa could be had for stg£20 at the border.

Those with a pre-purchased visa would have to pay stg£20 anyway to have their visa checked.

Our ferry to France is booked for 15 December, courtesy of Irish Ferries, and we are looking forward to Christmas in Marrakesh, New Year in the Sahara and no doubt a few altercations with border guards along the way.

Linda Kavanagh's third novel 'Hush Hush' is published by Poolbeg in January