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Above: The Elan of Peter & Allison Cotes - Still going strong Day 15 Nouadhibou to Cap Tafarit (Desert Camp) ......The big day. This is what we have all been waiting for. A full days test section blasting into the unknown and maintaining a heading from GPS units , and using the best instincts that can be mustered at each moment. Instant decisions had to be continually made as to which tracks end up in the correct direction, or which patch of sand looks the fastest or firmest to use. To virtually everybody here this is a new experience but the split second decision could either result in another kilometre of speedy progress, mean becoming bogged in a giant sandpit for hours, or veering off course and missing the valuable passage controls. The tension and air of concern from most two wheel drive crews has been evident for days and this was amplified on the morning by last minute changes of plan. This part of the Mauritania sometimes never receives rain in a whole year but in the last few days has had several days downpour causing concern about how passable the route may be. After a recce' last night the first quarter of the route was indeed deemed too treacherous to make passage and so a new route was hastily designed and published to avoid the high risks. Competing navigators then faced, on an already tense morning, a new timing schedule and a new route to plot into their navigation systems. After a 17km flat out blast across smooth hard plain, only interrupted by large patches of hard and tufty camel grass, the rally joined the original test route, slightly further down. It was a truly epic Sahara drive through all manner of rocky technical parts, undulating sandy dips and hollows - dodging around huge impassable dunes - and lengthy stretches of wide flat desolation. There was never a clearly defined correct route and a certain amount of luck would need to be on your side for a quick time without needing the sand ladders and shovel. That said, Alastair Caldwell appeared to show some form of unnatural instinct by completing the whole test in record time and without becoming stuck in the sand once. He explained later that he simply kept his foot hard down and launched his self so fast into the sand patches that he couldn't fail to pop out the other side with all the momentum. All credit the Peugeot 205 for being able to handle the punishment. Every other 2 wheel-drive car could probably write a book on today's adventure and most had spent sweltering hours digging their cars out. One particular longitudinal hollow of the soft stuff saw hatchbacks and classics beached as far as the eye could see - in both directions. Of course for the 4x4's this is what they came for and they duly loved every minute. A glance down the results clearly shows how the odd seconds, gained or lost earlier in the rally, now pail into insignificance compared to the hours exchanged here. Eternal memories must be etched in many minds of, amongst other things, blasting flat out down the super wide pistes with others either side and clouds of dust billowing in the wake, as if on some storm trooping exercise. Paul and Mary Kane ripped through the desert in the fastest time and the sound of the V8 Mustang engine could be heard for miles around, but they failed to find and stop at a passage control encumbering them with a 15-minute penalty. Fantastically, the Morris Minor, 2CV and Lotus Elan, surely the most unlikely Desert Raiders, finished the day successfully with desert mission accomplished. By the final passage control at 70Km from the beach side evening rendezvous camp and an hour from sunset, the BMW 2002 of father a son team the Munne's was missing since last being seen at the previous control. The organisation immediately instigated its rescue plan and a small armada of 4x4's, including local guides, spread out and swept back up route to find them. Earlier on the 'sweep' crews had rescued the Merryweathers after they used their satellite phone and GPS co-ordinates to enable an easy recovery. Having had a particularly unlucky day by burying the MG in every soft patch in Mauritania, they called for help in good time before sunset and before sweep vehicles had left the area. For the Munnes however it was not so easy as they didn't carry a sat'phone. They are a capable crew and having suffered a flat battery, and hence unable to start the engine, conducted some sound procedures by marking surrounding tracks with distress signs helping rescuers locate them in this huge and intimidating environment. They were already resigned and ready to spend the night in the car, and await recovery the next morning when they saw the friendly headlights piercing the dusty and dusky evening light, just before night had fallen completely. Remaining rescue crews where then rounded up by satellite telephone and the fleet picked its way back to the beachside camp by moonlight and just in time for last fuel from the bowsers and last grub from the kitchen tent. The final run into camp was aided by 'Paris-Dakar' veteran, Tony Fowkes, who let off his 'emergency firework' after seeing distant headlights of the rescue convoy cresting a ridge. Paul Carter and Sarabel Barquillo continue to make the news with such mishaps as failing to notice that the back door had fallen clean off the back off their Land Rover today. Their luggage was spread across 41 Km of desert before they got to the coastline and noticed it had all gone. |
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