After 25 days driving 4,000 miles across some of the world's least hospitable terrain, a six-hour aeroplane trip brought two Kendal men back to the safer surroundings of South Lakeland.

Clive Bradley and Darren Ready, both 35, drove a 40-year-old Land Rover ambulance to the west coast of Africa as part of a Plymouth to Dakar rally, which stipulates the vehicle should be worth only £100.

Mr Bradley, a management consultant for Kendal-based Dovenest Group, said: "Our objective was not so much to enjoy it but to get the Land Rover there- and getting there was fantastic!"

Across the snows of the Pyrenees and into the sand dunes of the Western Sahara, the pair had to endure corrupt officials, engine rebuilds and "hours of seeing not a lot apart from camels".

Stage by stage, their vehicle, named Meg and referred to by Mr Bradley as "she", churned up the miles to their objective.

Along the 600 miles of western Africa's Skeleton Coast', the Kendal men drove past the spectral hulks of supertankers beached and dumped on the shore to be stripped by the locals, who had built steel huts from their remains.

Further south, on roads with "pot holes the size of bathtubs", they saw chimpanzees, snakes, hippos and crocodiles from the safety' of their 1961 Land Rover.

Mr Bradley said one of their greatest challenges came in getting across borders. At one point, at the Senegalese border with Mauritania, they were directed to the first of three police' huts.

At first, they had to pay 30 euros overtime' for an official to stamp their passports; at the second, they entered into darkness to be told to pay a five euro light tax'; and, at the third, 40 euros for border crossing insurance'.

They were greeted by cheering crowds on their arrival in Dakar and a gift of a Kentdale Land Rover umbrella was proudly used as a parasol by a local chieftain.

The ambulance was given to a local clinic, where, only the day before, a woman and her child had died as she gave birth because doctors could not get to her soon enough.

Mr Bradley said: "If the Land Rover helps save one person, then it's all been worth it."

He wished to thank all those who had helped make the trip possible, including: his employers and Lucid Optical Services for financial contributions; and Land Rover Spares, on Mintsfeet Industrial Estate, for invaluable advice.

Check our In Gear section for the latest motoring news.