Salt & Gold 2009 - An adventure accross the Sahara!

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Ratel

Race Dog
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This is going to be good :thumleft:

https://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=464723

Salt & Gold 2009 - An adventure accross the Sahara!

The story of an Epic adventure across the Sahara.......

So it was Monday 15th September 2008, I got home from work after a particularly demanding day and thought to myself “wow, I’m thirty years old in three months time, what shall I get myself?” Needless to say, in the spur of the moment I posted a thread on ADVRider.com, because lets face it, it was going to be something to do with motorcycles!

Yeah, there were the usual toys discussed, sports cars, superbikes and hookers but it was just the one reply that particularly caught my eye. It was about the early stages of planning for a trip to Africa, not just Africa, but the particularly baron and dangerous area otherwise known as ‘The Empty Quarter’. That moment, right there and then I knew this was it, I was on the case!

Just two weeks later I found myself sat in a public house in Manchester, UK, with the two guys who had thought up this totally crazy idea. Experiences were shared and ideas passed around the table. Beer after beer, the logistics did not get any easier; this was not going to be straight forward. Late into the evening, plans were discussed….and evolved!

In brief, the trip would involve a small band of well travelled adventurers from the UK heading off deep into the Saharan dunes in the heart of Africa. Following ancient camel routes, (but eschewing 4-legged beasts for motorcycles), the ride would head East from Atar in Mauritania, through Chinguetti and Tidjikja. From there an 800km piste would take us to Tichit, Nema and finally through Dogon country where we would cross the river Niger into Timbuktu and this is where the 'real riding’ would begin!

After reaching Timbuktu, the plan was to push north into the unridden ‘Empty Quarter’ of the West Sahara. Following the only remaining ancient camel route still used today ‘Azalai’, we would travel over 1600km of sand dunes through the fearsomely remote and lawless lands of the Touareg.

Our goal.......the fabled salt mines of Taoudenni, a solar-blasted outpost, rarely visited by Westerners (and never by motorcycles from Timbuktu, or at least to the best of my knowledge / research). This place once powered the Trans Saharan salt trade and helped shape the medieval world.

The team had a real challenge on their hands. To succeed, each would have to contend with phenomenal distances over near-impassable terrain as well as searing desert conditions, mechanical problems and scant resources. And as with any good trip the expedition target will see the trip only halfway complete as the return trip to Timbuktu would continue to test both riders and machines.

Each night will be spent under the stars, each day in the saddle. But the difficulties won't end there - corrupt officials, Touareg rebels, bandits and the everyday pressures of an expedition on the edge will always be over the next dune. Salt and Gold 2009 was to be an adventure set in a unreal context of alien landscapes, nomadic tribes and sands soaked in myth and history.

The first section of the route would see us riding some of the harshest Paris to Dakar Rally pistes (the bits where they get rid of everyone) and hopefully making some routes of our own. We reckoned on about 4-5000km of riding without any black top. Our longest piste on the first section would be just over 800km.

But this was only the plan, and what really happened is something that has only really been discussed with close friends and loved ones, or at least until now, because I now bring you Salt & Gold 2009, let the story begin!

Pyndon.
 
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