Tuesday, 17 March 2015

Tuareg Rallye 2015

Apologies to anyone who had been hoping to follow my progress at the Tuareg Rallye via this blog. The lack of time and infrequent WiFi meant I was restricted to posting on my own timeline on Facebook. However I will be posting up some more comprehensive, retrospective reports over the next few days.

It was not without it's epic moments, from loosing the keys to the hire car, a loose bolt on day one causing a massive oil leak (luckily spotted before any harm was done), getting stuck for an hour in possibly the only mud in Morocco, two days in the dunes of the Erg Chebi with no electric start, looping the bike off the top of a dune (yet walking away unscathed), my GPS packing up due to the heat just before a dune section where the road book said "follow GPS", A fork seal blowing and losing my side stand on day five to name a few!

Here's a few photos from the rally where I was very happy not only to finish but also to gain third place overall in the Moto Amateur over 50s Category.

  
 
Bike loaded and ready to leave the UK on 03.03.15


The route of the Rally
Day 1: Ouarzazate to Zagora
Day 2: Zagora to Merzouga
Day 3: The "King Stage" Merzouga (Erg Chebi)
Day 4: The "Dune Race" Merzouga (Erg Chebi)
Day 5: Merzouga to Zagora
Day 6: Zagora - Erg Chigaga
Day 7: Zagora to Ouarzazate
 

The Hotel in Ouarzazate





 
The queue for registration
 


 It's a hard life being Team Manager!
 

The Pro Class at the start of the Prologue
 










 









Checkpoint 1 Zagora to Merzouga Day 2



Whoops!





Run out of fuel on the road to Merzouga, luckily I was rescued by another competitor


Sunrise over Erg Chebi








 Doing a bit of Laundry



Start of the Dune Race


End of Lap one, timed out by only three minutes




 The result of a little cartwheel off the top of a dune



With Gary Pitchford at the final checkpoint, Day 4









Checkpoint 4, Day 6


All the kit for a day laid out



Finished!
 


 
 
Lunch stop on the way back to Marrakech Airport, on the Tizi n'Tichca Pass

 
We got a space on the sticker wall!


From Desert to snow capped mountains all in one day