Two British adventurers travelled 2,600 miles from Dorset, England to Timbuktu and back onboard a Ford Iveco Cargo lorry and Land Cruisers, using biodiesel made from waste chocolate.

Andy Pag, 34, and John Grimshaw, 39, set off from the latter's home at Poole, Dorset, on November 26 and arrived in Mali, West Africa on Boxing Day, overcoming sand storms and corrupt customs officials, and driving through a town where days later al-Qaeda terrorists shot dead a French family, to deliver a biodiesel processing unit and the vans to a charity.

"We wanted to do a trip that wouldn't have a detrimental effect on the environment," Andy said.

Both environmentalists, the two claims they helped save 15 tons of carbon emissions with their feat.

The duo are now planning to fly to China in a plane powered by rubbish.