Plymouth - Dakar Challenge

Andalucia.com sponsored a car which travelled with the Plymouth to Dakar challenge in January 2004 from the regrouping point in Sotogrande, Cadiz, Spain to Dakar in Senegal west Africa. Here is an account of the journey which was published in the Reporter magazine in February 2004.

Dakar or Rust

The three inventions that will mark the milenium are the Internet, Mobile Phone and the Global Positioning System (GPS). Together they have changed independent travel beyond recognition enabling us to go where few dared before. Gone are the days of communication via a monthly poste restante pickup.

Last summer I read a small news report in a travel magazine about an off beat alternative to the famous Paris Dakar rally.

The idea was quite simple. The Paris Dakar, now in its 26th Year was the the toughest rally of them all. The organisation and support needed to support 4.000 people (competitors, mechanics, organisers, press) across a 15.000 km route is incredible and extremely costly. Entering a single motorbike had now ascended to 50.000 Euros bare minimum.

There had to be another way and Julian Nowill, 40, a stockbroker decided to mount a low budget version and call it the Plymouth Dakar Challenge. The Western Sahara crossing is now open as the tensions between Morocco and Mauritania have settled somewhat. Thirty old bangers costing 150 € each took part in the first rally in January 2003 and all but a few reached the Gambia three weeks later to be sold for charity.

At the end of December as the Paris Dakar publicity machine was winding up, I remembered the alternative, enough to put two words into Google (Plymouth & Dakar) and find out more. It was on again in Jan 2004, but this time there were 90 vehicles taking part split into three groups, most only fit for the scrap heap in Europe. The likes Fiat Panda, Citroen BX Estate, Renault 19, Lada Niva, Lancia Y10 in teams with amusing names such as "The mystery Guests, Gambian Job, Lada Ladies, Cosmic Cohones, Dakar or Rust

I noticed Alan Routledge from Sotogrande, himself a veteran from the Paris - Dakar and the first Plymouth - Dakar was organising a regrouping of cars in Sotogrande. I emailed Alan as I waned to cover the event for andalucia.com. We met up when the first cars arrived.

"It is not a race", he explained "The test is simply getting through. 5000km is a long way for some of these cars. The toughest is the 500km through the Sahara. That's a lot of driving on sand and dirt tracks. If you cross in groups and are prepared to dig each other out of the soft sand a saloon car can get through in 3 days. We have a spare place in our car. Are you interested?"

We left Sotogrande on the morning of the 2nd January in the relative luxury of a 1989 Mercedes 300 Diesel, Straight 6 cylinder. We were accompanied by Seamus, an Air Conditioning Engineer from Tipperary and Peter who runs an insurance business in Sotogrande. Fully laden but with our additional fuel tanks empty we were a bit low at the back end. The fact that we bottomed out on the speed bumps in Sotogrande was not a good start.

Two days later we were dining in El Fna Square in Marrakech and watching the snake charmers and fortune tellers. All through Morocco it was possible to keep in touch with things back home by sending and receiving text messages. In fact it helped break the monotony of the long drives through miles and miles of nothing except arid desert further south.

We even got the back end of the car raised in a little village in the south of Morocco. Aluminium and rubber spacers were put above and below the springs giving us that vital extra inches of clearance. The best 400 Dirams (35 €) we ever spent.

There was a problem however, we were several days behind Group 2 and we would not be able to catch tem up to travel through the desert together. A lone desert crossing is too dangerous. We needed a team so if the worst comes to the worst the car can be ababdoned and we could hitch a ride with another car in the group. Welcome modern technology! With the aid of text messages back and forth to my wife Michelle back home, who was checking at the challenge website (www.plymouth-dakar.com) featured test messages from the other drivers. We were able to establish their position and realised that, foot down we could just catch them up.

Having negotiated the minefield on the disputed Mauritanian border and whitnessed several abandoned and blown up car skeletons we met group 2 at a camping site in the centre of Nouâdhibou, Mauritania's second city. 500 km from the capital Nouakchott to the south. A road linking the two cities is under construction but with only about 50km completed there is a long way to go. We do take tarmac roads for granted in Europe.

Our Garmin GPS navigator was invaluable this far. It contained the mayor roads in Morocco and help us spot a wrong turning much sooner than would otherwise been the case. Across the desert it would be critical. Having downloaded coordinates for a series of waypoints from Chris Scott's (http://www.sahara-overland.com/routes/atlantic.html) excellent website. How travel has changed!

Its amazing where you can drive a car. The secret is to spot the soft sand and never slow down but to drop into first gear, go for high revs and power through keeping good control of the steering. At the same time praying that there are not rocks hidden in the sand that will damage the sump. Each loud clunk is met with a chorus of "Ohhhhh"

We camped the first night by a large crescent shaped sand dune and the second night entailed a drive along 50km of beach guided only by the full moon and timed precisely after high tide. We arrived in Nouakchott at sunrise, and continued later that day to Senegal staying in Hotel La Poste in St Louis. The hotel was made famous by Jean Mermoz (1901-1936) and other French pioneer aviators forging an air mail route from Paris to Buenas Aires. Incidentally, Malaga airport originates from this same route.

Having sold the car at the border we took a taxi to Dakar which only crashed twice and that night were safely on a 747 to Paris. After experiencing the excess of the Marbella festive season, to see children playing content with only stones, it is a highly recommended reality cheque of the real world and an amazing adventure.

Photo Gallery of the 4500km journey from Sotogrande to Dakar, Senegal, West Africa