(Daniel) After a last minute decision to change our next destination from Guatemala to Belize, Nick and I have arrived in a small fishing town called Sardeneha.  The journey here from Orange Walk, our first stop in Belize last night was far rougher than expected, with the white clay roads having suffered badly in the two major hurricanes that hit this area in the last few weeks.  September is the worst month for hurricanes here in Belize, which makes our next move all the more surprising, but I will start from the beginning, and let the pieces fall into place.

After waking up from a peaceful nights sleep in a field at the back of Victors inn, Orange Walk Town.  Nick and I filled and hung up the solar shower from the top of the roof tent.  The shower is surprisingly good, and gives around 7 minutes of very adequate pressure.  After washing we made our plan for the day.  Yesterday, whilst crossing the border to Belize, a man in the Atlantic insurance office, had suggested to us that we visit the small fishing village of Sardeneha, to the East of Orange Walk, the farming centre of northern Belize. 

I had been amazed at how tiny this country was, as we drove nearly 30% of the way through it in around an hour, from Corozal to Orange Walk.  The country itself has a population of only 250,000 people.  Amazing when you think that a town like Croydon in England has over 1 million!

As usual, we had received the usual warnings from locals as we were leaving Mexico to watch ourselves here.  It seems that every country has to look down on someone.  I imagine that the Belizeans, will no doubt warm me of the Guatemalans, who still claim Belize to belong to them.

After driving for an hour or so along the white mall, or clay roads, we came across a sign pointing out a ferry to cross the lagoon separating us from the road to Sardeneha.  At the same corner, another sign pointed out a temple site and a small seafood restaurant.  Having not eaten lunch yet, something which we needed to do, in order to stomach our Malaria medicine, the two of us decided to kill some time by visiting the temple site, then stop at the restaurant for some food.  Afterwards we would carry on to Sardeneha, taking the roads especially easily, as the Wolf was still nursing a broken shock mounting.

The temple site took us a further 5 kms along corrugated tracks to a car park and visitor centre.  The site was empty, no tourists were around. Although it looked as if the only visitors to this place would arrive by boat from the town of Corozal which we could see on the other side of the huge lagoon.  After a short walk through swarms of mosquitoes hanging around in the forest shade, a man approached us, and took our entry fees pointing out the track leading to the temple site.

5 minutes further down the coastline, we came across a group of mounds, surrounding an ancient stone pier, partially sunken in the water. In between the stone mounds, was a temple like structure, with two sets of stucco motifs on them.  Unfortunately, closer inspection proved the motifs, which depicted masks of the evening star and sun Gods, turned out to be recent additions, made from what felt like fiberglass!  A disappointing start to say the least, and certainly something that we had seen before, as with Mexico City’s Teothacan Temple site, where the authorities had chosen to rebuild the temples, ruining what could have been a far more impressive site in it’s original form.

The site did get much better however, as climbing the largest mound allowed us to find a temple at the top, half buried in the earth.  Nick and I took photos, then looking around us, realised that the mounds were repeated all over the site which actually covered a vast area.  This settlement must have been a major port at one time, according to the tickets, around 1000 years before.

After returning to the vehicle, we drove back along the track, stopping to let some air out of the tyres, this helped to absorb the rough corrugations, which shook us like a paint mixer through the harder pressures.  The small restaurant sat amongst palm trees on the banks of the lagoon.  Inside we met a wonderful couple, a Canadian, and her husband a locally born Belizean.  They loved the story of our Expedition, and sat us down to a wonderful meal of fish and chips, with an orange pulp and habanera chili sauce.  Over lunch, and afterwards as we sat with the couple, as they told us all about the toucans, crocodiles, armadillos and other wildlife that fills this area.  As we went to leave they invited us to return for dinner, and stay the night in one of their guesthouses.  I told them that I would love to accept, and would try my hardest to make it back in time.  Little did I know that this decision would be taken out of our hands!

The ferry, which we found a few kms down the next track along, turned out to be a small raft, capable of taking one or two vehicles at a time, the operator, who stood inside a shelter built on the side of the raft, turned a wheel which pulled a rope one way or the other, taking the raft back and forth across the 20 foot gap left between the raft and the other side.  We drove onto the raft, a free service that runs 24 hours a day, although I can’t imagine that he gets more than a handful of vehicles in the day time, and almost none in the night!

One thing which I haven’t pointed out about Belize, is the heat.  It is extremely hot and humid here, day and night.  If it weren’t for the fan in the roof tent, we would have no chance of sleeping in the stifling heat, as we drove off the otherside of the ferry, starting out along the road to Sardneha the midday sun was at it’s hottest, making me drive just that little bit faster. To get the breeze moving through the Wolf, and to arrive at the sea that little bit faster.  We still had a chance of doing some spear fishing, if the water was clear enough!

15kms further down the road, and only 3kms outside the village, I hit a large pothole, the road was covered in these, but I had managed to steer around the worst ones, or allow the good shock to do the work as we went over some.  This one I caught at the wrong angle though, a fact confirmed by the sharp snapping sound as we bounced across to the other side. I stopped and jumped out, a quick look under the arch on the passenger side, showed that the two rear retaining bolts, that hold the shock mount onto the spring retainer had snapped.  The spring retainer, a new part fitted in Laos, was torn across the top, and the whole setup moved freely when the vehicle was rocked.  This would need welding before we attempted to return along the rough roads that had led us here.  Hopefully the small town of Sardineha would have a welder that could help us.

Nick and I climbed back into the vehicle, limping at less than 10mph into the town.  I could hear the shocks scraping the top of the wheel arch as we hit a few small bumps.  As usual people in the town were eager to help, pointing us first in the direction of the local mechanic, who sent us back across town to find a man called Samuel, who was the towns best welder.  At Samuels house, a man slept outside on a hammock, but despite making various noises to try and wake him, he would not budge.  We wandered down to the pier to give him some time to sleep.

At the pier, a couple of fishermen told us that Samuel had been seen “taking his beer” that morning, and that he would not be good for any work until the morning.  The same men told us that the recent hurricanes had stirred up the water in the area, and that spear fishing would not be possible outside the reef areas to the east around the Cayes.  We resigned ourselves to the fact that we would be in town for the night.  The two showed us to a house around the corner, where a Hispanic lady rented us a room for a few pounds.  Then we walked to the hardware store and bought some fishing line, weights and hooks.  With these and a few shrimps donated by the local shop, we sat down to try and catch some fish from the pier. 

As we sat, the usual crowd of kids formed, they came and spoke to us in Creole and Spanish, sharing our fishing lines to try and catch the small grey snapper that swam around in the murky water below us.  I managed to hook a fish, which caught the attention of some fishermen hanging around at the end of the pier.  One of them walked over and introduced himself, his name was Sevlin.  With him, was his friend, the Captain, they sat down with, and after talking for a while we had explained our intention to come here for spear fishing, but that our vehicle troubles had put pay to the idea, as well as grounded us here in the village for the night.  Selvin and his friend explained that they were leaving tomorrow on a 30 foot sailing yacht, and that they would be sailing around the Cayes for a week catching lobster.   They invited Nick and I to join them for free, and explained that as they would be around the Cayes, it would be no problem to jump ship early and take a ferry back to Belize City, where they planned to leave from tomorrow evening.

Ok, lets get this straight, this is hurricane season, infact this is hurricane month!  But the storms originate on the coast of Africa, then either head West, or across to Belize, giving the people here ample warning of impeding bad weather.  The boat will stay around the islands, and so if the radio picks up a hurricane coming our way, we can simply head for an island to take shelter.  At least that is what I hope.  For me, the prospect of skin diving 60 feet into crystal clear blue seas, spearing and pulling up huge red lobster was too good to refuse.  But our problem was the vehicle.  I decided to go and try to find a way to make this happen.  We thanked Savien and the Captain for their offer, and asked for a couple of hours to try and get our problems fixed, they agreed and told us to meet them back here after the town fishing meeting which was about to start.

As we had entered the town, we passed a bus depot, I had seen an arc welder in the doorway of the workshop, surely they would be able to help me?  I sent Nick to the internet shop to send word back home of our arrival, and status in Belize.  Meanwhile I walked to the bus depot and persuaded them to let me use their welding machine.  Some more asking around, found me a boat welder who agreed to fix the shock mount for a modest sum, things were looking up.  I brought the Wolf around to the depot, where the welder and some of the bus mechanics began work stripping the shocks and springs back to allow for a repair.

Four hours later, we had welded a large plate onto the repaired shockmount.  This stronger repair had bought us the extra days, originally set aside for repairing the mounting in Belize city, thus allowing us time to go out with the boys on the yacht.  The only thing missing was Selvin, who had not been at the meeting when Nick went there to confirm with them.  Fortunately as the work was finishing up, Selvin and the Captain arrived, confirming that everything was ok for tomorrow, and that we would leave in the morning for Belize city.

The last few repairs on the shock mount would have to wait until the morning, but I felt confident as we returned to our rented room, that we would be able to get on the road and into Belize city in time to catch the yacht and for Nick and I to have at least one last adventure before he was due to fly back to England. My only nagging fear was about the weather, and our chances should a hurricane hit, but these boys were confident that this was not an issue, surely they know what they are doing?

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