Amageza goes to Dakar 2015

Because of the very generous support from Amageza Rallye competitors, supporters, South African rally enthusiast, Kamanya, Jagsding & the KTM950 Club, Alexander Nel (aka Camelman) has been provided the financial means to take up the fantastic offer from ASO, the Dakar Rallye organisers.
They've invited Alexander to come and experience the 2015 Dakar Rallye from behind the organisational scenes  :deal:

Hopefully this thread will give you a pillion seat to this journey  :thumleft:

I will try and update this as I receive information from Alexander. Enjoy

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Amageza to Dakar 2015: Day 1

It all still seemed a bit surreal. Not one to get excited about stuff, I can say that as the dude at the boarding gate in Cape Town International pleaded for the last passengers to IMMEDIATELY BOARD, making me have to up my leisurely pace to 4,5 km/h, I felt a ping of excitement. About the same as when you’re blasting down a river-bed and you’re faced with a drop-off.

A day after the Amageza 2014 was finished, I was informed that the competitors are sponsoring me a Dakar trip from their tracker deposits, okay, most of them. I was worried. With only 6 months to plan Amageza 2015, could I spare 2 weeks? Andrew Johnson and Justin Bennets were adamant. Go, they said. Devil and a deep place. You live once. Was’nt this why you started Amageza? I say to myself. I chat to my wife. I have not been home the most of 2014. Now I have to leave over Christmas and New Year. Go, says my wife. I’m a lucky man. Who would have thought it, when in 2011 I strapped a sat-phone to my handlebars and a 14 man emergency kit from Dischem on the rear of my bike and chased after the first Amageza entrants, that I would be going to Dakar 4 years later. Invited by A.S.O, organisers of the most difficult rally raid on planet earth, the Dakar Rally. I’m a believer. Work your nuts off, do no evil, respect thy neighbour,  and success has no choice but to follow.



Settling in for the 8 hour flight to Doha (cheapest flight) I discovered onboard wifi and $5 later was working on the 2015 Amageza Entry form. With cars joining us for 2015, there was quite some work to be done before entries could open. During the past week I had several calls from guys in Europe wanting to come down for the 2015 Amageza.



Surrounded by crying kids, sweaty feet and chicken or beef, we got to Doha. Already a bit miff from the flight I was faced with a 9 hour wait till the flight to Sao Paulo. At R2500 I was not going be staying in the transit hotel, and wandered around for the first two hours in a terminal bigger than Canal Walk shopping center. With 24 hour duty-free shops and a food court the size of a rugby field, it was quite a mission to wade my way through 10 000 passengers speaking every language on planet earth. Eventually I found a seat less hard than the chrome steel chairs and munched on some pringles which cost me more than a bottle of wine at home. Noticing a black face in a security uniform, I stretched out my hand in the way known to only men from the dark continent and in a flash me and the guard from Kenya was chatting a storm. Around 02:00 their time, I went looking for the so-called ‘quiet rooms’, just to find them packed like a mini-bus taxi from Khayelitsha on a public holiday.



Being awake for 16 hours at Doha airport. Zombi face

So I sat myself down on the steel chairs, hooked my head behind the rest and had a nap for hour. At 03:30 the 2000 transit people increased to at least 10 000 again, but I was already in zombi mode. Felt like I was back on the Amageza trying to sort the damn timing! So would begin day 2 of my Dakar Mission...