8th January 2014 – The most difficult stage – Akjoujt – Akjoujt
Every day, I think what to talk about and try to choose the most interesting out of that bustle taking place around us. Today I have to start with the stage. No doubt, it has been both the most difficult and beautiful in the Africa Race. The start was located eighty kilometres east of the bivouac on a plain with grazing camels. The initial sixty kilometres led the racers into a wide valley surrounded by high, coal-black rocks. The valley is several dozens of kilometres long and full of nice yellow dunes. A beautiful view of such contrast. This was our today’s journalistic destination – to get there and to find a mountainside with a pass. The racers have to find their way to it and take it to leave the valley. The shots of racing Tatra and other competitors in this environment will make you happy. We get up before the bikers do. That’s the only way how to get to that place. The sunrise catches us on an asphalt road. A moment later, we start using navigation to find our way off the marked routes. The first ten kilometres lead along a “dirt track”.
7th January 2014 – Mauritania – Akjoujt
Races in Africa cannot be held without support of local governments. Both Morocco and Mauritania are more or less camouflaged military states even though Morocco is officially a kingdom and Mauritania a presidential republic. In Mauritania, presence of soldiers is felt everywhere. Moreover, the whole race is fully under their supervision. They usually stay afar, but they know about us. In the morning we went to dunes to wait for the racers to arrive. We had hardly stopped and an army vehicle appeared at the horizon. The soldier watched us by binoculars and then they left. They know about us. Taking into consideration the present state of the race taking part only to the west of the town of Atar, I wondered whether the situation in the east was really so dangerous…
6th January 2014 – Mauritania – Chami
Mauritania is one of the poorest countries of the world. There are many reasons. I am not to judge if it is caused by local politics, insensitive division of borders in the recent past, or lack of raw materials to export. It’s like that and we cannot understand, nor change it in those few days we are here. I’ve discussed this issue with Manfred Kriss, a former racer who organises the Africa Race with René Metge. We talked about the change of perception of Africa in the past few years. The continent, once exotic, has changed due to wars in the minds of thoughtful people into a place to avoid. The situation in Syria stands for an example. But it is important to know that this doesn’t apply to Morocco and Mauritania also welcomes such races with open arms. Morocco is a tourist destination which has successfully avoided recent problems of the Northern Africa….
5th January 2014 – Rest day
Today, the Africa Race holds a rest day. Translated into common speech it means that there is no stage and we don’t have to move to another place. The race has stopped for a while on a peninsula in the Western Sahara, near the town of Dakhla. No one has free time though. The rumble of starting engines is fully compensated with power generators. Cars and bikes are more dismantled than on a regular day. Everyone wants to make use of this time to change everything what time and race regulations allow. Our Tatra requires a preventive change of all shock absorbers, check of filters, and as Tomáš says “cosmetic treatment”, which means to repair torn fenders, to weld cracks on cabin fastening, and other similar works. As you can see, we don’t have to do major repairs today. Once our mechanics have finished, they will help guys from the balais.
4.1.2014 – As Skan – Dakhla
Every day when Tomáš and Vojta summarise their impressions from the stage, I often get statements “very fast, damn fast all the way long”. I sense it as racers’ cliché, but only until I realise what it really means. Europe is sterile. It holds for racing as well. Try to compare your rally experience with facts of today’s “short” stage. Two hundred kilometres of a special. Speed average over a hundred kilometres per hour going through places you have never been to before, thus with no test or notes. Everything takes place in a difficult terrain, under pressure, knowing that everything can be lost in a second, but little gained…
3rd January 2014, Life in Morocco – Assa – As Skan
Taking part in a competition which passes through the countries of western Africa means to get to places free of tourists. Well frankly, mostly there isn’t anything you would like to see during your holiday. At least at first sight. If you use different optics, you will find out that they can offer more than it can be obvious. It’s not about taking photos of interesting natural phenomena. It’s a kind of awakening and real comparison of our culture with the local Arabian one.
2.1.2014 – Stage Foum Zguid – Assa
Morocco is rather stony than sandy, but it has some dunes, of course. The Sahara ends, or begins, near the town of M’Hamid. Yesterday, René Metge used this part of the Sahara to show the racers what to expect in Mauritania. Many of them had big troubles. Today, there was no sign of sand, but rather hundreds of kilometres of stony tracks…
1.1.2014 – First dunes Boudnib – Foum Zgiuid
Refuelling at a local petrol station made me think about how the Dakar competition brings various unusual situations, which are out of the usual pace of not only direct participants. Their solutions are also unusual, sometimes even ridiculous. A convoy of service vehicles caused certain troubles at one of petrol stations along the way. A lack of diesel and petrol in underground tanks was compensated by a placed tank truck, which was, despite light camouflage, directly connected to the fuel hoses in the stands. I ignored the safety view of such an installation and rather observed the way how to solve troubles caused by this. The pressure in the hoses fluctuated as the pumps didn’t count with the solution of a directly joined tank truck.
31.12.2013 Stage Nador – Boudnib
Boarding the ferry always takes place in a bit chaotic atmosphere. One has only a limited time to arrange all paperwork regarding people and vehicles entering Morocco. The organisers always try to speed up this process and to make an agreement with the custom officers about the checks. This year has been the best of all year I remember. Hundreds of people managed to get into their cabins in less than an hour after boarding. Three officers stamped the passports without any detailed examination of what was written there and another two arranged all needed documents for the vehicles. Every saved minute is precious and we can have only a four-hour sleep. In the morning, everyone will be welcomed in the port (with breakfast). All policemen cooperate so debarking is completely trouble-free. We even don’t have show our passports when leaving the port. I can’t help thinking about the Rally Shamrock 2009. We had a civilian car and tried to get from the port in Tanger and it was much more difficult…
