AN ADVENTURER from Poole yesterday hit the road on a marathon journey to Timbuktu - in a lorry powered by chocolate.

John Grimshaw, 39, and fellow explorer Andy Pag jumped on a ferry from Poole at the start of their 4,500-mile drive across the Sahara in a Ford cargo lorry, powered by fuel that began life as chocolate.

John, an electrician in Poole, and Andy, 34, from Croydon, will take the ferry to France, then drive through Spain.

They will take another ferry to Morocco, travel the length of Morocco to Mauritania, where they will cross the desert until they reach the mythical city of Timbuktu in Mali.

Both travellers are keen environmentalists aiming to raise awareness of the benefits of bio-diesel, which produces lower carbon emissions than fossil fuels and is made from renewable resources.

Andy said: "Timbuktu is a city which is being eaten away by the encroaching desert. It's at the sharp end of climate change.

"Timbuktu is renowned as being the back of beyond, the furthest place away that you can possibly imagine.

"If we can make it there with bio-fuel there's no reason why motorists can't use it on the school run or on their commute to work."

The sweet-smelling diesel has been assessed by independent experts who say its use and manufacture emits just a tenth of the carbon of a fossil fuel.

The pair are taking 2,000 litres of bio-diesel made from 4,000kg of chocolate mis-shapes -- the equivalent of 80,000 chocolate bars - to fuel the journey.

They wanted to make their trip carbon-neutral and approached Ecotec, a firm in north-west England which makes fuel from renewable resources.

Ecotec had been in talks with a large chocolate manufacturer about recycling chocolate seconds into green fuel and the project was born.

The expedition will also be delivering a bio-diesel processing unit to MFC, a Malian charity, which will allow bio-diesel to be produced locally from sustainable sources.