Well done Niek! Great result and good to see you made it through without a major off. And you made all the waypoints too!! Morocco remains lethal with all the washout at +100kph.
Congratulations Tony with your 3rd place. WAs the rally according your expectations? Here a small clip of climbing the Hausdune on a 570. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cK_AmCzvIzw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
A special of 200km. In the beginning nice navigating over rocky trails and climbing of a steep sandy hill. The rain has washed away a part of the track and we are redirected to CP1 over a gravel highway. I hit 160km/h. After the CP you just have to follow the arrow. I can make a lot of meters and overtaking is not a problem because there are many parallel pistes. Also, there is still quite a bit of sand in, I have it a little harder here. In Merzouga we go two rounds through the dunes. 9th place
Thanks for posting these videos up. Headed to Merzouga this fall and great to see it from a riding perspective.
Hi guys<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> <o> </o> Sorry I've been absent but struggling round as a noob, meant fairly long days so lack of time and limited access to wifi meant I was reduced to posting only on my own timeline on Facebook. But here's a summary of my Tuareg.<o></o> <o> </o> The fun and games commenced the moment we arrived in country....<o></o> <o> </o> Friday: <o></o> <o> </o> Arrived in Marrakech at 6.30pm and collected the hire car, got to the exit to the car park expecting to find some road signs to guide us to Ouarzazate.... No such luck! <o></o> <o> </o> We (my "team manager" John aka Finbar) had downloaded Moroccan maps to our GPS but the detail was insufficient to follow. A local then approached and offered to lead us out to the correct road and jumped on his moped. We then had a mad dash across Marrakech through various short cuts until, sure enough he delivered us onto the main road leading to Ouarzazate. Then of course the negotiations started and we had to tell him we had no Dirhams yet. "No problem I take Euros" he says, yes but we have come from the UK so why the heck would we have Euros? We eventually settled on £10 Sterling, a bargain we decided!<o></o> <o> </o> Then we headed for the Tizi n'Ticha pass over the High Atlas as the light started to fade! This was a thrill a minute drive with crumbling roads, endless bends, locals on mopeds with no lights, pedestrians just ambling in the road and of course for me, all whilst driving on the "wrong" side of the road!<o></o> <o> </o> We arrived in Ouarzazate with the only clue to the location of the hotel being it was "next to the airport", A Policeman guided us there only to find..... nothing! Another local then guided us to the correct part of town and we eventually arrived at 10.30 that night.<o></o> <o> </o> Of course the restaurant had closed and we hadn't eaten since the plane, so headed into town to find the only thing open was a souvenir shop, that thankfully had crisps (chips), chocolate and bottled drinks.<o></o> <o> </o> We eventually turned in ready for a day of admin <o></o>
Saturday: After a comfy night in the hotel, we arose to check the bike over, having also arrived the previous night on the back of my friend Radus trailer with his race car. Then it was registration, Scrutineering and safety equipment checks. This involved an awful lot of queuing in the very hot sun! This was followed by a leisurely lunch beside the pool (its a hard life this Rally lark)! <?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> <o> </o> That evening we sat through what seemed like hours of the first race briefing before dinner and then bed. My friend Radu had decided that sleeping in the back of his converted ambulance, with his wife, his 9 month old daughter Sofia and navigator Elvis (yes thats his real name) was a bit too cramped so retreated to the floor of the room John and I were sharing!<o></o>
Sunday: Time for the race to start!<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> <o> </o> It didnt start well when we couldnt find the keys to the hire car, not too much of a problem for me as I had all my kit for the day but my two crates of spares etc were locked in the boot. Leaving John to sort it, I headed off to the start. Well not exactly as the bike didnt want to start and I managed to flatten the battery trying. I eventually managed to kick start it and was on my way.<o></o> <o> </o> A short drive out of town took us to the start of the prologue, that was to decide our starting times. This consisted of a Le Mans style start and a 4 km sprint up a dry river valley (a Qued) that consisted of deep gravel, not easy to ride at all! <o> </o> My start didnt go too well as the bike once again refused to start! And of course the battery was still flat. I was eventually manhandled from my bike by a bunch of excited Italians, one of whom kick started the bike for me and they sent me on my way. Amazingly I wasnt last as I passed two riders on the track, both of whom it transpired were with the Italian team!<o></o> <o> </o> Arriving at the finish of the prologue, I was given my timecard for the day, my late finish just meant I was one of the last to start the first special stage, that started a couple of Km away along a tarmac road. This turned out to be very fortuitous as it gave me plenty of time to fix a subsequent issue.<o></o> <o> </o> I was chatting to some of the guys racing with Desert Rose Racing when Clive Zippy Town from the team asked why my right boot was covered in oil? I didnt have a clue so we headed over to the bike to find oil pouring from the top of the engine. Zippy took me over to his van and we stripped off the seat and tank, to find a bolt that retains the rocker shaft had vibrated loose, this was the source of the leak. Luckily I hadnt lost the bolt so Zippy tightened it for me and topped up my oil, the bike taking 0.5 of a litre, a bit worrying when it only holds 1.25 litres in total. As it turned out a check that evening showed the oil level too be way too high so it had lost a lot less than we thought.<o></o> <o> </o> The stage got underway and was quite uneventful, long stony trails very similar to what I am used to racing on back home were the order of the day and I had a great time with no problems on navigation. I eventually rolled into Zagora after 240kms. The only down side was at the end as the Moto Pros did an extra 20km of special but us amateurs had nearly 40km of (very straight) tarmac to finish off with . Boring!<o></o> <o> </o> I arrived to discover John was still in Ouarzazate, the keys were well and truly lost! He had gone to the local Hertz office to find them shut but had managed to get hold of someone on the phone and they had turned up. The spare key would have to come from Casablanca and there would be a 600 fine for losing it. The worst news was it would be there until the next day so John was stuck there with all of our luggage. I texted him and said Id pay for a taxi to travel the 150km to Zagora so he could bring the bags and have somewhere to sleep and then for another in the morning to collect the car. I didnt get a reply but was now at the hotel but they wouldnt let me into the room as it was booked in Johns name and I didnt have my passport with me. The Organisation eventually sorted that for me and Radus wife Anny gave me a T-Shirt to wear so I could go and have a shower. I then had to put my dusty, sweaty bike jeans back on and wore the inner booties from my TCX Pro 2.1s as shoes, to go to the briefing that night. <o></o> John eventually turned up at the end, about 9.00pm having blagged a replacement hire car (at no additional cost) and driven over. It turned out there was no guarantee the spare key would turn up the next day so decided we could live without the two boxes of kit and pick them up again in Ouarzazate on the last day. This meant not having any spare goggles or gloves and having borrow, steal, buy or otherwise blag spares etc but at least John wouldnt have a 300km drive the next day, before having to drive to Merzouga! I quickly then changed into some clean kit and we had dinner before hitting our beds. Our room had a nice long sofa, so Radu joined again, he and Elvis had a good day, coming fourth in the prologue in the Pro Car Category in their Mitsubishi Pajero Evo. <o></o>
Monday (Race Day 2): A good start as I discovered I had finished 17<SUP>th</SUP> on the first stage in the combined Moto amateurs (all ages) and 4<SUP>th</SUP> in the over 50s category. After a short ride out of town we started on sandy, dusty tracks which were tricky to ride, especially as I have very little experience on sand but soon settled into the technique, weight back and give it gas! <?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> <o> </o> More fast flowing and stony tracks followed, at times becoming very rocky until we were stopped by the organisation and redirected onto a stony piste for 14km to bypass a section of track that had been washed away. This was a fairly main road and had a lot of traffic. The dust, especially behind some of the big service trucks who were also using the road was horrendous with visibility down to two or three metres at times.<o></o> <o> </o> We switched back to the road book and more fast flowing tracks followed before we went back onto the same piste, that led us into Checkpoint 1 where I was expecting to meet John and re-fuel. Only John hadnt made it!<o></o> <o> </o> Luckily Torque Racing Services gave me 5 litres to top up my tank and I also discovered that both my clutch and brake levers were loose as the bolts had vibrated out on the stony tracks. Luckily I hadnt lost the bolts completely and Colin from Torque Racing tightened them up for me. This was despite almost every bolt on the bike (including these ones) having thread lock applied before the rally. Just as we were finishing John rolled up, the stony road having taken him much longer than anticipated, a fact of life in Morocco we were discovering! <o></o> <o> </o> Some more fast tracks followed then wide open stony plains where wide full open was the order of the day. However slowing to ride through a belt of trees, I went to change down a gear only to find no gear lever! It too had vibrated loose and again I was lucky that the bolt hadnt yet fallen out. A quick stop to tighten it up and I was away again. <o></o> <o> </o> Long open and sandy sections, a small section of dunes and some very soft sandy tracks continued before we came to a sharp right turn to cross the Qued Ramilla. I turned where my trip meter indicated and there were various tracks on the ground but noted that others were carrying on a bit further before turning. I dropped into a small river bed and realised straight away that I had turned a bit too early, so attempted to ride along the side of the small stream back to the correct route .<o></o> <o> </o> At which point the bike sunk to its axles in what appeared to be mud! <o></o> <o> </o> It was in fact quicksand, deep saturated sand that is extremely difficult to extract yourself from. After some considerable time of trying to extricate both the bike and myself, I resigned myself to having to leave the bike, trek back to the correct route and get someone to notify the organisers so I could get assistance. I realised this would be the end of my day and although I would be able to start again the next day, I would receive a whole heap of time penalties.<o></o> <o> </o> Leaving the river bed, I discovered I was at least 500m off the track but whilst walking towards the sound of engines in the distance, a local suddenly appeared on his moped. Seeing me caked from head to foot in the sandy mud he enquired what had happened, so I took him to see the bike. He had a closer look with me and then ran off back towards his bike.<o></o> <o> </o> He reappeared with a huge shovel that he must have had strapped to the bike, proceeded to strip to his shorts and dived on in to attempt to rescue the bike. He introduced himself as Sayeed and showed me how to extract myself from the sand as I frequently became stuck. The technique is to just stand and gradually wiggle your feet from side to side until the suction suddenly breaks and you can haul your feet out. We used a similar technique and lots of digging to get the bike on its side, spun it round and managed to get it back to the bank by following the relatively solid route I had originally ridden along. Sayeed then started the bike, and shot off for a ride! I think he was having great fun compared to his little Mobylette but did return. The rescue cost me 200 Dirhams, nothing to me (about £13) but I later learnt would most probably be a Months wages to Sayeed. I didnt care as I would have paid anything to get out of there.<o></o> <o> </o> The Qued Ramilla turned out to be several kilometres wide and then led into sandy tracks and small dunes that were hard work. After reaching a secret checkpoint, I discovered I was still well within time and continued as the trails got rocky again before making it to the final checkpoint of the special. Soon after this I could smell burning oil so fearful that my engine was leaking again, I pulled up to find the right hand fork seal had blown. Nothing I could do but carry on so I did, but soon after I ran onto reserve. <o></o> <o> </o> I had decided that I didnt need the 5 litre rear tank that day and the 13 litre front tank should have been plenty but I had lost a lot of fuel when the bike was on its side in the river bed and this was the result. I soon got onto tarmac and it was a straight run to the fuel station in Zagora. Unfortunately I didnt make it and ran out with 15km to go. <o></o> <o> </o> Luckily Michael, another British rider was the next to come past and we managed to transfer some fuel using a plastic sandwich bag!!! It wasnt much but got to the fuel station about 7km outside Merzouga .<o></o> <o> </o> I bumped into my friend Gary who like me was running on fumes only to discover they had run out of petrol!<o></o> <o> </o> Again a local came to our aid and led us on his moped to a local village about 2km where the shop had petrol. I managed to get to within 100m of the store before running out and having to push in. We bought our fuel, dispensed in a 5 litre plastic bottle that once contained olive oil and were able to return to Merzouga and the finish.<o></o> <o> </o> I then rode to the Touareg Kasbah, our hotel for the next three nights and a much needed shower, which turned out to be cold but by then I didnt really care!<o></o> <o> </o> To be continued!<o></o> <o> </o>
Mad cow you are supposed to stop and fix the problem not take pictures of it Great write up looking forward to the next thrilling chapter, How many more problems could you have?
That sounds like a great adventure, Mad Cow! My day 3 Four rounds, 2x60 , 50 and 27km of dunes. The Le Mans start failed because the majority stays on his bike. The first round is delicious. Nice surfing on the peaks. Meet Dutchman on a WR. CP is behind a very high dune. Together we attack and eventually come up. Wow what a big hole down. At CP we laugh together. 2nd round I crash in every possible way and consider that this may be because the amount of fuel on the back and sit more back on the seat. This is a lot better. After the 2nd round I let them fill up the rear tank. This drives a lot easier. In the last round, I only see very few participants. Also, I drive in a virgin like dune area no one around and no tracks. Eventually only 15 riders get all CPs 11th place
