my journey to dakar - made it! well, lima in matter of fact....

if you did not already know, i made it to lima on january 15th, in daylight and i was in fact the first competitor onto the podium, finally not at the back of the pack ; )

this signified the end of the 8,500km odyssey which started 15 days earlier and the end to 3 years and 8 months planning and preparation.

there was no overwhelming emotion or happiness, sadness, not even relief, i was numb, going through the motions; i was chuffed for patsy though, i knew how much she had put into this and it went back a lot further than when i first met her and the desert rose team back in feb 2010.

it was a surreal moment. before i left for the rally people would ask "are you excited, nervous, scared even?", i felt none of those emotions, i was just focused on getting on with it and here i was having finished, achieving one of my life dreams and i was numb.

i was really happy for my mum and dad who were there, first time they had been together for over 30 years, that was wonderful.....funny how life is.

going back to my school biology lessons, we are programmed to fight or flight when facing life threatening situations, the mind and body takes over. but i put myself here, (not without help of course), it was my decision to take part and i could have left at any point before or during the race....i had to tell my body to fight, but i can promise you that 'gollum' was trying to find excuses to abandon the rally....

it didn't take long to realise that dakar is a mind game, always teasing, testing, from pages of amendments to the roadbook the night before to leading you into the special with 30-40km of fast flowing terrain before hitting you with some soft sand, an insanely steep climb or decent, constantly challenging, pushing you out of your comfort zone before pulling back, then biting again just as you had started to receover from the previous frightening encounter. it never stopped, it was a joke that would not end.everyday, close to the end, tantelizingly close, you could even taste the day's victory,  that was when the nightmare would begin, the door at the end of the corridor would keep moving away into the distance....

time and distance did not matter, faith, pure blind faith did! calculating time based on speed and distance was a waste of time, you just had to think that this pain would come to an end at some point in the day or night, but it would end if you held it together, that is what got me through. the distances involved and the technical riding meant high average speeds were required, but my level of riding at 60-80% meant each day was going to be long. i did not mind, as i had mentally prepared for 12-16 hour days in the saddle right from the start of this journey. however, nothing can prepare you for the whole dakar experience except for being there and doing it; 4-5 hours sleep, 4am starts, 52c heat, kit being stolen, mountains of sand, bone rattling tracks and the softest fesh fesh.....whilst higher speeds brought their own risks, i knew i would be at the back, fighting with the passing quads, cars and trucks!

here is the dakar story from the underated amateur, dakar virgin and privateer.

rider 187.....prince of darkness!