Gazelles off piste ( otherwise known as Smily Gazelles): Rallye Aicha des Gazelles 2013

This is the second and final part of my blog about the Rallye Aicha des Gazelles du Maroc 2013. Please read the first part first before the second. Remember we are not allowed GPS, only compass and old black and white maps.

The morning after the marathon, we had to pack our tent again as we were heading South West to M’hamid. The first CP was 14kms away but somehow we started slowly. Jamila told me I was cranky and too nervous, I can’t remember what I thought but obviously we were both very tired. We reached the check point having done 20km which seemed excessive. Our mood however improved and the rest of the day was relatively easy.

Sorting the maps

We helped another Moroccan team which had a puncture. It’s amazing how small a lot of the jacks are for the types of cars that have to be lifted. You see the gazelles struggling to lift their cars in order to change a tyre. Ours is massive and could lift a small truck.

big stones

determining the course

We arrived in M’hamid early around 5pm and the camp wasn’t yet ready. For once the wind was down. Because the camp is so big including the mechanics area, the refueling area, the food tent, the press tent, the medic tent and us, it’s always on a plain which tends to be very windy and dusty. So in M’Hamid, it was lovely coming out of the shower with clean hair and keeping your hair and skin clean for a few hours ( provided of course there was no Gazelles or truck driving by and raising an awful lot of dust).

Benoit, our trainer and Hassan our friend from Hamada du Draa came to say hello at the camp. We were pleased to see them but also very nervous. With the check points still not closed, we were not too sure talking to them was actually allowed ( remember they have phones and GPS).

SECOND MARATHON : ERG CHEGAGA

The first day of the marathon was not actually in the big dunes yet. There was a mixture of terrain including small dunes. We woke up and the wind had picked up during the night. The visibility was appalling. It was going to be a car compass day and Jamila was deeply unhappy with the car compass. I must say it seemed to refuse to show us the East for example. Nevertheless and to our amazement we were first at CP1, having overtaken the Volkswagen Amarok which tended to be first. Jamila was elated. The wind which had abated a bit picked up again. This was turning into a sand storm. It felt lonely out there. We decided that the cars of Naima and Carolyne and us would stick together. We were in sand by then and allowed to follow each other. Somehow we found CP2 without wasting time.

SEARCH FOR CP3

The search for CP3, 30kms from CP2 was going to be tough, There was very little visibility. In beautiful weather you could have found your way by looking at the mountains behind you but they were lost in dust. We decided to follow the sort of tracks in the Oued that may be made by cars but also by the wind and headed West, trying to follow the map. We were also desperately trying to avoid having to cross the “Herbes a chameaux” . I have never been stuck on one of those packs of hard sand and grass but lots of gazelles have and it’s a lot harder to get out than in the dunes.

Eventually we got to a desertic land full of pebbles and out of nowhere, like in the movie ‘lawrence of Arabia”, came 2 bedouins walking alongside their camels. As we were feeling somewhat lost, you can’t imagine how delighted we were to see them. Off went Jamila and Naima to meet up with them. They couldn’t read the map but managed to explain where we were. Great news. We were still about oh maybe 12kms away. Maybe.

It looked like we needed to head further West. At last we hit a beautiful track and according to our calculations, we should have followed it for 4 kms and then turned, left or right, that was a bit of a mystery.

We were joined on the road by another car, a team driving for Total. We were pleased as the Gazelles who drive for brands like Volkswagen or Total tend to have a thorough training and can be reliable. However Celine (the driver) and Sophie ( the navigator) were not having much luck and certainly no fun. They were at loggerheads and the tension between them was palpable. The short of it is that none of us really knew exactly where we were. The wind and the dust had completely disorientated us. We were extremely lucky to arrive at a small camp where a lovely young man who spoke good French was able to explain to us our relative position. Jamila was struggling to believe him as we were somewhat more to the West than we had thought but he lived there so eventually we had to trust him!

We spent a relatively pleasant hour by his lodgings in the shade of a big tree. He needed air in one of his tyre and I was happy to oblige (I’ve got two motors in the car to pump tyres up). He gave us mint tea and told us to cross the dunes behind his home and we’d get on the right track.

We crossed some small dunes and headed towards a red flag. It was not our CP but that didn’t matter. We were able to position ourselves exactly on the map and headed to our own CP without delay. We were at CP3 by 1.30pm, the second car only in our group.

The next CP, CP4X ( no “Y” in Chegaga, only “X “and E for easy) was at the foot of the big dunes of Erg Chegaga. There were intense discussions between all 3 navigators ; Jamila, Carolyne and Sophie. Us the drivers decided to deflate our tyres. There was no more rough terrain, it was all sand from now on. The less air in the tyres, the less risk of getting bogged down. Although there’s a risk of the tyre getting off the rim( “dejanter” in French) altogether.

There were 3 ways to get to CP4X : straight there by going over a few biggish dunes, or go round to the right or to the left of the dunes. As our aim was to be in the top 20 but not top 5, we could afford to take the slightly longer route.

In the event, Jamila decided to go left. Celine then forged ahead at great speed going way beyond where Jamila and Carolyne wanted too. She wouldn’t stop and we were faced with a dilemma : we had agreed the 3 cars would do the dunes together to help each over and to camp together. Shall we dump them or follow them and hope they’d stop soon enough? We decided to follow them and caught up with them. Sophie was so fed up with her driver she asked us to take the lead.

Thanks to jamila’s amazing navigational skills, we arrived at CP4X by 3.30, the second car only and just behind the buggies, followed by Naima and Celine.

THE END OF THE RACE FOR US

Full of joy, we decided to carry on towards CP5X. There were the tracks left by the buggies and we’d followed them in Merzouga with great success. The buggies tend to go straight to the flag. However the wind was again blowing strongly and those tracks were disappearing fast. No time to lose. This wind blowing from the West also meant that the dunes were turned in such a way as to present walls rather than smooth ways up. Chegaga is different from Erg Chegui (Merzouga) : it has smooth rolling hills and when a wall seemed a little difficult to go over, we could always go round on the curved hills. It was all going smoothly except we were heading full West and by 5 o’clock I had the sun in my eyes.

200m from CP5X, “tragedy’ struck : I went straight into a small very soft dune sideways, sinking the car and leaving it precariously balanced. Jamila and I got out of the car and admitted we had no idea what to do.

A few minutes later, some experienced gazelles arrived and were very sure how to pull the car from its position. I was not keen to go back in the car and Jamila took to the driving wheel. She turned on the engine. Naima pulled with her car and our car turned over on its side. We didn’t kill the engine quicly enough (ignorance of the consequences). All the oil whether from the engine or from the gear change came pouring all over the sand and drowned the engine.

We called the assistance mechanique. It was too late for them to arrive in the evening but they’d be with us in the morning.

We put our tents up but Jamila and I were struggling to be cheerful. I felt awful. 2 seconds of inattention had ruined our score.

I found out the next morning that 2 seconds of inattention had ruined the race for us. The car was not starting again and we would have to be towed out of the dunes and back to camp. We were “Hors classement”, declassified. I felt awful as Jamila had worked so hard to get us in the most amazing position. I had let her down, I’d let my family and friends down. I can’t think of another time when I thought so strongly in those terms. Jamila as ever was magnificent: we were uninjured, we had had a superb week.

GETTING TOWED OUT OF THE DUNES was quite an experience in itself : at first the mechanics were not very enthusiastic; they are all volunteers and most of them come with their own cars. Lionel who has been a mechanic for the last 20 years on the rally brings his Toyota and was a little worried for his car. He was accompanied by another Toyota belonging to a Paris-Dakar Pilot, Jerome, who drove the doctor. We didn’t need a doctor but it’s the way they work.

So both cars towed us with kinetic cords. My job was to try to keep the cord always straight, job particularly difficult going downhill as without the engine running, the brakes were not working well. But it was while being pulled up that the bumper detached itself and I saw it flying off on its own, leaving me behind.

going up

front bumper gone!

My front bumper is attached on the first car's roof

The front car is towing the second car to give it more power which is towing me

The men attached the cord somewhere at the side. 20mn later, that also disintegrated. I was very worried there’d be nothing left to tow the car out. It took us over 2 hours to get out of the dunes. On the other side, the truck was waiting for us but they couldn’t load the car as the terrain was still very tricky so they kept towing us for about 4 hours until we were in the middle of Lake Iriki.

Lake Iriki is a huge expanse of dry land where you can actually drive at high speeds for miles and miles. There’s nothing. The truck was told to stop and await instructions. Jamila and I sat in the shadow of the truck in the company of 2 mesmerizing truckers : Fat Boy and Grunter. After an hour, they were told to drop us there and go back to the dunes to pick up some other gazelles in distress. They gave us 2 bottles of water and disappeared.

Lake Iriki :can't put my own photo as our camera by then was jammed with sand

The feeling of loneliness was immense. After a few minutes, we noticed a car from the organization coming towards us but they then stopped 100 yards from us and seemed undecided. Jamila and I were waving our arms wildly. The car at last came towards us. There were photographers and press people inside. We asked the driver to tow us and he received permission from headquarters. For the next 40 kms, he did and that’s how we arrived back at camp in Foumz Guid.

It was not the joyous moment it should have been. I was in tears. We brought the car to the mechanical park in the hope they might be able to repair it overnight.

Jamila in between being towed had managed to talk to one of the young Moroccans who stand at the red flags and give you a sticker if you’re at the right CP to ask him to call our friend Hassan in M’hamid to come to Foumz Guid as we were going to need help . The message relayed to Hassan had been such that he thought Jamila was in bad shape and he came rushing down the track between M’hamid and Foumz Guid bringing his friend Brahim along. Jamila had also talked to the gendarme at the camp who had organized transport for us to an auberge. We could have camped but we had enough, we were not feeling enough cheerful to be with the other gazelles, we’d see them in Essaouira if we could find a way to get there.

ESSAOUIRA

Going back to the mechanical park the following morning, the news were not good : they had started the engine but it was running on 4 cylinders instead of 6 and there was no way we could drive it to Essaouira, more than 8 hours drive away. Alain was sending a tow away truck from Marrakech and Jamila and I were to find our way to Essaouira. For Hassan, this was high season in his “auberge” and he was reluctant to take us all the way to Essaouira and spend time away from his work. However when he saw how tired and distressed Jamila and I were, he and Brahim agreed to take us there.

Our friends Geraldine and Sophie absolutely wanted us to climb on their pick up and this is how we arrived on the beach of Essaouuira.

The gazelles' arrival on the beach of Essaouira

Our friends Alain, Katy, Heather, Patrick and some of their friends were there to cheer us. It should have been a great moment for us and them but Jamila and I were struggling to keep the tears away.