dakar - day 3 & 4 - 26-27th december 2011

this is one boxing day i'll not forget, as i went on national television! mesas de campeones, the oldest and most popular motorsport programme. thanks to mariano, who had so far sorted out my hotel, invited me to his family christmas lunch, introduced me to his friends including some charming spanish girls, he now took me into the studio to join a panel of guests for the hour long programme. only expecting to watch, i did end up with about 30 seconds of fame; i recorded the clip below of the television later that day!!

putting on  my make-up

more imporantly, i met gato, a fellow dakar biker, (who had sadly pulled out on day 6 (i think) of the 2011 dakar, but was about to join us in 2012), as well as a number of other competitors, driving cars, trucks, and riding quads and bikes, all from argentina of course!

crossing buenos aires on tubes and buses i really got a feel of the city and it was great having 2 amazing tour guides with mariano and valeria. they even took me to supper at an amzing restuarant where i ate my first (of many) argentinian steaks and they were every bit as tasty as i had been told. i say 'they' as i had 2! normally you could not stomach so much meat, but it really was so tender it just melted in your mouth.....needed to keep my protein intake up : ))

woke up the following day to a, you guessed it,  another blue sky - i was liking this sunshine and heat....for the moment anyway! while we're on the subject of heat, when i left london it was about 3-4 centigrade, when i arrived in ba it was about 28c, mar del plata was a little warmer, but the temperature in fiambala on day 5 went up to a staggering 52c, nearly twice as hot as ba!!!! anyway, today we were meeting jago, picking up our bikes and jago's truck, before heading to the surf club where mariano taught kite-surfing and was hosting a pre-dakar sponsorship party; similar to the gig we had with ross and the dakar veterans back in december, but this was a pool party, at a surf club by the sea/ river, in summer.

jago and his family had left the uk for south america mid december, but flew via rio to meet with his wife's relations there. they had then sailed together on a cruise ship to buenos aires, arriving in time to catch a taxi to my hotel from where we met up with a very close friend of mariano's, andres. in his toyota hi-lux pick-up and mariano's support vehicle, we heading to the port, about 100km north of ba. andres, was a really interesting guy, an industrial engineer who had studied and met his argentine wife in calaifornia. incredibly supportive of mariano's dream, he was going to follow him all the way to lima with his wife and new born child! but for today, he was helping with the transport. 
 

mariano's dkr spirit team van and trailer arriving at the port

queue number 2 inside a container

outside we are greeted by all the trucks, cars, trucks and quads

hundreds of them!

and our bikes!! carefully wrapped up

the ship they came across the atlantic in

stan watt's teamfrontrow gb!

 the bikes were in great condition, they had been loaded with care, wrapped up in polyfoam, tied down in their own section of the large pallet with new straps and there was no sign of any dampness or corrosion. but even though the batteries had been disconnected the battery had still lost it's charge. so we kick-started the bikes in flip-flops and head out of the port.

it was a large port, so it was quite a long drive and being on a bike i jumped the queue or cars. the drivers did not seem to worry, but when the armed police or army, not sure which, tried to stop me, i cut between the cars to the otherside of the traffic and kept going....the armed men were not impressed....i eventually came to a stop! they basically wanted to scan all the vehicles for drugs, arms and illegal imigrants - where they thought i was going to hide mine, i have no idea??

3 bikes loaded onto a 2 bike trailer

having loaded the bikes the next challenge was to find somewhere in town to park jago's truck for 3-4 weeks, a bit like driving into london with a 30-40 foot lorry and looking for somewhere large and safe enough to park that isn't going to cost an arm and a leg and so that was the end to my plan of chilling out in a park or beach somewhere!

"i know i put the keys here somewhere??)

after crossing ba top to bottom, we eventually found the suggested parking spot in front of the holiday inn, in downtown ba - equivalent to the embankment i guess! - and with a little help jago parked up, but the us$1,500 bill meant we needed to look elsewhere. so, via the port for some advice, we headed through the middle of the city to a car-park, that was probably only twice the size of the truck in what was the equivalent of soho. at least the truck had aircon and a good sound system to while away the afternoon ; )

not too much traffic

the bus fits, so sure we can

"yep, stop there jago!"

having made it through to the otherside of town (we've crossed ba twice now), i guessed my way back to the surf club where i had briefly been with mariano the day before. fortunately the owner allowed jago to park there for the night, but the long term parking solution was still to be worked out. still, it was a beautiful location and i was looking forward to the party.

jago's trucked parked up finally, in the safety of the surf club

guests arriving

poolside - behind the crowd are 3 stunning bikes!

lawn to the beach, next stop uruguay!

chilling out in the evening sun, i remember watching the kite surfers, windsurfers and canoeists playing on the choppy sea, when this very skilled, gorgeous, blond, fit, tanned female kite surfer came flying up the short channel to the clubhouse beach, dropped her sail at the last second, jumped of their board, landing softly on the grass, unclipped her straps and jogged over the lawn to her friends, all in one elegant motion, it was a sight to behold!

there were about 250 guests who came to see the bikes, the riders and now jago's amazing truck. mariano, who ran his surf school from this clubhouse, introduced us to everyone, he was a great host. fortunately most people there spoke very good english which made things a little easier. we were invited to be interviewed on the main radio station, live from the poolside, supper and beer provided gratis, we were treated very well and all because of their love for the dakar.

i still found it amazing though, all this support for jago and i, i mean obviously mariano was their hero, but they all wanted us, were willing us to finish and we had not even started!! and this was the case throughout argentina, it was incredible, they really really love the dakar and what it stands for in terms of adventure, hardship, passion and commaraderie, everyone pitched in where they could whether it was a pat on the back, or a lift to the port, they all wanted to be part of the journey, it was inspiring.