SteveD
Grey Hound
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2011
- Messages
- 5,780
- Reaction score
- 3
- Location
- It's complicated....
- Bike
- BMW G650 X-challenge
So our two friends of Amageza fame are currently up in north Africa playing in the sandpit. Gerry has some cool Facebook posts:
Merzouga Rally update.
Flew from Knysna to Johannesburg to Dubai, small layover, then flew to Casablanca, with a long layover, then flew to Errachidia. Arrived at around 23h30 last night and had to find a taxi to drive me to Erfoud, about an hour away from the airport.
My taxi guy was fantastic, showed me around, told me a lot about the locals, and I had to take a picture with him and his mate. I arrive at my team at 00h30 and the crew is sitting at the truck. I meet them, have a quick drink and then eventually get to bed at 02h00. We're meeting for breakfast at 07h00, and then a dune training ride.
I get a total of about 4 hours sleep in almost 2 days, and I'm exhausted. But off we go for a training ride. We get to the dunes, and I just struggle. I feel out of my depth, and I crash and get stuck over and over again. Luckily my team is awesome, and two of my crew guys start giving me pointers on how to ride the dunes. It gets a bit better, but I'm quite stressed after the ride.
We get back to the hotel, have lunch and I decide to go for a nap. I sleep for about 2 hours, and when I wake up I'm not feeling very good, so I phone Gina. She gives me a massive pep talk - Thank you so much Pop, without that call my day would have been very very bleak!
The team meets at 17h00 for an early dinner, and then at 18h00 we go for another dune training ride. This one is much much better, I'm much more in control. We're doing another training day in the dunes tomorrow, so I'm hoping it keeps getting better...
One day at a time.
Merzouga Rally update.
Flew from Knysna to Johannesburg to Dubai, small layover, then flew to Casablanca, with a long layover, then flew to Errachidia. Arrived at around 23h30 last night and had to find a taxi to drive me to Erfoud, about an hour away from the airport.
My taxi guy was fantastic, showed me around, told me a lot about the locals, and I had to take a picture with him and his mate. I arrive at my team at 00h30 and the crew is sitting at the truck. I meet them, have a quick drink and then eventually get to bed at 02h00. We're meeting for breakfast at 07h00, and then a dune training ride.
I get a total of about 4 hours sleep in almost 2 days, and I'm exhausted. But off we go for a training ride. We get to the dunes, and I just struggle. I feel out of my depth, and I crash and get stuck over and over again. Luckily my team is awesome, and two of my crew guys start giving me pointers on how to ride the dunes. It gets a bit better, but I'm quite stressed after the ride.
We get back to the hotel, have lunch and I decide to go for a nap. I sleep for about 2 hours, and when I wake up I'm not feeling very good, so I phone Gina. She gives me a massive pep talk - Thank you so much Pop, without that call my day would have been very very bleak!
The team meets at 17h00 for an early dinner, and then at 18h00 we go for another dune training ride. This one is much much better, I'm much more in control. We're doing another training day in the dunes tomorrow, so I'm hoping it keeps getting better...
One day at a time.