A BID to drive 4,500 miles on a journey across the Sahara desert in a double-decker bus has shuddered to a halt - before it even left Europe.

The red London bus began the journey to a remote Ghanaian village last week where it will be used to take children to the library.

But breakdowns and split opinions among the team have brought the journey to a stop in Spain.

John Knapton, Professor of Civil Engineering at Newcastle University, is leading the expedition in the ten-tonne bus.

With no other means of transporting the bus to his people, the honorary chief, given the name Chief Nana Odapagyan Ekumfi I, decided to drive it there himself.

But driving in 40C temperatures across hills has taken its toll and the driving trip has now been abandoned,

Organisers of the trip are now planning to ship the vehicle from Barcelona after frequent overheating on the three-day journey from Santander to Madrid.

Stephon Weldon, communications manager for Go Ahead, which donated the bus, said: "It's a shame it hasn't worked out and we are obviously disappointed.

"But we sympathise with Professor Knapton's view that in the long term, all that matters is getting the bus to Ghana in a useable state."

In the past three years the professor and his helpers have raised £75,000 to make the lives of villagers easier.

They have sent more than 200 wind-up radios, sunk a borehole to provide clean water and built a school and library.

The overjoyed villagers invited the unassuming Yorkshireman to their home and made him a tribal chief in a traditional ceremony