rallye du maroc - race day 4 "chegaga : la grande traversée "

the daily stats
514km
97km liaison to the start of the special, given 2 hours
320km special stage, (consisted of 2 x 160km laps)
97km liaison back to the hotel, given 2 hours
start time 0556hrs from hotel reda
return time 1635hrs to hotel reda

bloody early start today as we had to be away by 0556hrs, so up at 0430hrs to catch a lift to hotel reda for cafe au lait and patiseries; no luxuries such as cereals and fruit! this was too early, my brain was barely functioning even after a french coffee, but somehow we made it to the start in time! it was dark when we left, but with clear skies and this would only mean one thing, it was going to be a bright, sunny and a hot day.

in time to watch the pros start, we gathered on the desert, a couple of kms from the edge of the last town before the sahara. at 0810 we were off, straight back into the dunes, this was meant to be the hardest day of the week, two laps of 160km, half of which were dunes, some large some small, but all challenging.

riding the first wave of dunes felt ok, but bikes and bodies were working hard as the sand was soft up top and the wind was beginning to blow. rising up 30 foot cliffs of sand and dropping down the other side, not really knowing what was going to greet you. jago and i had a couple of moments, where the bike would plough into rather than over the dune, but all very tame, however my bike was suffering! and coming to the check point at the end of the dune section, the bracket which holds the roadbook, ico, compass, headlight and front faring, sheered from the brackets completely, dangling free from the bike! hmmm. stopping instantly, jago came over and together we zip-tied it all back together (these are 'big' zip ties!!). unfortunately this meant a few of our competition past us by, and having managed to to stay ahead of them while traversing the dunes, this was a tad annoying. but hey, this is the rally world and no one said it was going to be easy.

now the next part of the course was incredible, a completely dry river bed, it was like a motorway probably 100m wide, i can't remember how long it was, maybe 20-30km. soft white sand, with relatively lush vegetation on top of the of the steep banks either side, it felt like you inside a playstation game! at one point jago and i were racing a quad, sand billowing out in all directions, jago flying through the air alongside one second and the quad bouncing from left to right, all of us fighting to keep the bikes upright as the sand tried to drag you down! rather like getting on the 'plane' on a speed/motor boat, you had to keep the bike going flat out, so all this was going on at speeds of around 80-90km plus, it was mental, but so so much fun!! and then to top it all, the cars had caught up with us and they game bouncing past, ripping up the sand in their wake trying to overtake us and each other. it's hard to comprehend, it all seems so innocent and fun, but in reality the stakes are high.

we made the first lap in about 3hrs 10mins. we had a forced 30 minute break, to eat something, drink more water, and give martin and colin time to check the bikes, check my handy work and replace the air filters, which with so much sand, were in dire need of changing! lap two was going to hard as we were tired, plus the cars and trucks had now torn up the already soft sand and made it even softer and created trenches which we needed to avoid.

back in the dune set, i dropped into an innocent looking bowl but my front wheel dug in and i went over, landing badly on my left shoulder which was still recovering from the accident in marocco in september. "crunch" was the sensation and i shouted out in agony and rolled. on all fours i was punching the sand with my good hand to somehow alleviate the pain! gathering myself i picked the bike up as jago arrived. he'd parked up on the other side of the bowl and run down, he was worried! then it all became a little chaotic as one of the helis flew over, circling low over the top to film (sick maybe, but drama makes good tv!) and check our status. having pressed the 'green' button on the iritrack to signal to the marshals all was ok, jago pressed the sentinal button to alert any oncoming cars. then the alarms started going off on both our bikes as a car came roaring down into the bowl. fortunately the driver saw us in time and it turned and found a safe way out. jumping on my bike, i rode up out of the way, as more cars were approaching! then a voice came over the iritrack, "bonjour! ca va?" but they did not seem to hear us, probably the heli, so we just waved at the pilot and crew to show we were ok!!

shoulder was a little sore, but the adrenaline had kicked in, which allowed me to complete the remaining dunes and the 100km to the finish.

we completed lap two in about 3hrs 30mins, may be less, so considering everything we were quite pleased. then it was a 97km journey back to hotel reda. it was a long but rewarding day.

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 and i made it onto french tv again today as a round up of this event is broadcast in france daily!!