rallye du maroc - race day 1

the daily stats
412km
48km liaison to the start of the special, given 1 hour
310km special stage, given 6.5hrs
64km liaison back to the hotel, given 1 hour
start time 0729hrs from hotel reda
return time 1535hrs to hotel reda

having finally got to sleep at about midnight, we were all up at around 0530hrs, clambering into bike gear not worn for a while, still half asleep and dark outside (what a difference a month makes), before grabbing a lift in the support van to hotel reda for breakfast (as this is where we'll be starting from today). bikes go off first at 1 minute intervals, led by marc coma and cyril depres (think lewis hamilton and jenson button of the enduro world!).

local hire vehicles are a little more heavy duty out here!

a bright morning emerged as we travelled along the road to the special stage, 310km off-road, in a westerly loop through the desert. my nerves have been on a bit of a roller-coaster ride for the past couple of weeks, but now the adrenaline can be put to good use!

going to have to watch the expletives as it will get a little boring by day 3 let alone day 6, but needless to say it was an awesome day. riding the bike and navigating at high speed - as fast as jago and i dared go - trying to snatch a glimpse of the ever changing terrain and beautiful scenery - from twisty mountain passes, to dry wadis and palm groves, vast empty plains and rolling dunes, with a blue sky and blazing sun.....breath taking!

 a small kit explosion

one for the boys

oh, and another!

getting straight back into the rhythm, trying to outrun the cars coming up behind us, then they blast past and leave you blind in a cloud of dust. they do look incredible though and sound fantastic, but nowhere nearly as exciting as the trucks, they literally thunder past! first one went past while we were refueling at a check point in the small dunes, hissing with each gear change.

funny sight today, we were just slowing as unsure about our heading when we noticed a truck coming towards us, followed by a couple of bikes, obviously as confused as we were in terms of the nav ; ) doubling back to our last known point, an unmissable (paul!) moroccon castle sitting on top of a small escarpment, we watched trucks, cars and other bikes speed one way and then the next trying to find the exit from the valley below; we tried to determine the route without using valuable fuel, 9 litres does not go far out here!

pushing the last 80km we made it to the end of the special with about 7 mins to spare, great first day, may be not the best time, but we did it without injury and bikes intact, well mostly; jago's gps came apart so he had to zip tie that together for the duration.

boil in the bag beans and sausages tasted great, straight out of the bag, no heating required, its high 30s here!!

back at zagoura, after a speedy liaison home martin and colin carry out the daily maintenance checks on the bikes and deal with any specific issues e.g. a hole in your fuel tank, or your ico not working.....then we collected the roadbook for the following day, mark it up up and fit to the holder on the bike. and finally supper, starving and the briefing (during supper) at 2030hrs.

log onto npo website for latest info and updates
http://www.npolive.com/maroc2010/en/etape.php?stage=1&rub=include.php

live tracking of our progress
http://vulcain.iritrack.net/tdcom/eviewer/shamrock2010/

and if you live in france, jago, paul and i made it onto french tv today as a round up of this event is broadcast in france daily!!