Not long now

Only 2 days left before I set off for Marrakech to join Jamila, 4/5 days before we take the road to Erfoud, the door to the desert, 7 days before we must present ourselves and our vehicule for inspection, and exactly 9 days before the official start of the rally on the 22 March.
To say that Jamila and I are getting nervous is slightly understating it. We are READY to be reunited with our lovely Toyota Land Cruiser HDJ80.
We've been spoiled by friends who have given us free hotel rooms. Ahmed Nait of Travellink got us 2 nights at Hotel Chergui and Faical of the Moroccan Office of Tourism in London got us 1 night at the Xaluca Hotel. They're both 5 star hotels in Erfoud. And of course, in Marrakech, we're staying with my lovely friend Heather of Villa Dinari.

This rally takes itself extremely seriously and is full of regulations, things we can do or not, objects we can take and those we can't have for fear of elimination. We even have to give the organisers a cheque for about €1500 that they will keep if we are found cheating.

Three weeks ago, Jamila and I met in casablanca for the compulsory navigation course :

We were given 1960s black and white maps of the region we will be travelling in and told how to find our course to designated points.

I'm pretty sure the North is over there!

And then you grab your compass and hope you're going in the right direction, following the right course.

To make things simple, as you know, there are 3 Norths:

Grid North: the direction of a grid line which is parallel to the central meridian on the National Grid.

True North: the direction of a meridian of longitude which converges on the North Pole.

Magnetic North: the direction indicated by a magnetic compass. Magnetic North moves slowly with a variable rate and currently is west of Grid North in Great Britain. 

In Morocco, Cm (Cap Magnetique) = Cv ( Cap vrai or true North) + 2.

Right now, I have forgotten what it means, in concrete terms, for us and for finding our way in the desert.
Will ask in Erfoud.

Where do we have to go now?

  DECISION TIME :

The pain in my heels, although less than before thanks to my numerous sessions with Mark at Physio4life is still here however, so Jamila and I have made the decision she will be the navigator most of the time and I will be the driver, simply because it is our understanding that the navigator spends a lot of time walking ahead of the car, finding the way.

We are asked to use bio degradable soap and shampoo. I only found 1 company making them : Faith in Nature which you can buy in Health Stores.

MARRAKECH BIENNALE :

I can't resist the pleasure of putting a picture of myself with Vanessa Branson (sister of Richard and creator of the Marrakech art Festival) and the hero of all reading teenagers, Anthony Horowitz ( creator of the Alex Ryder serie):

I am also wearing the Rallye Aicha des Gazelles T-shirt which does not make me look thin but never mind!

I was interviewed by David evans, rally editor of autosport. The interview will appear this week or next week in autosport.com.

COMMUNICATION :
I will try to update my blog on a daily basis during the rally, except during the marathons because we sleep in the desert, not in a camp.

40 days to the start proper of the rally

After all the excitement of actually driving in the desert (see previous blog), I am back in the park and at the gym training to be fit.
Things are not quite going well on that score as I've been suffering from plantar fasciitis for over 5 weeks now and this has prevented me from walking. Plantar fasciitis is a pain in the heel caused by too much exercize ( or no enough and being overweight) and despite seeing the physio twice a week it's not getting better in a hurry.
However no walking doesn't mean no exercizing :

There's always cycling in Richmond Park.
Yesterday the air was cold and pure, a day before it started snowing again and Charlotte and I went round the park in 56mn ( we lost time walking up one of the hills!).

Jamila's taking a course in sophrology which Wikipedia says is : Sophrology is a personal development method that is designed to reduce stress and promote mental and physical well-being, through easy-to-do mental and physical exercises that can be done any time and anywhere.
Basically it's to remove negative energy and leave only positive ones.

So when we're stuck in the sand, at least one of us will be serene about it!

We are pleased to have new sponsors : Costcutter in particular is helping us.

The nice thing about preparing for the rally is plenty of friends helping in different ways, like Ahmed Nait of Travellink booking us a free room at Hotel Chergui in Erfoud before we start camping, my friend Heather of Villa Dinari accomodating us and keeping our equipment, Charlotte giving me free massages (and a survival blanket), and all those friends who are helping financially.

Downloaded the Rallye's technical specifications which sent me into a frenzy of emails to poor Alain about making sure his car complies to the 20 sheets of exhortations from the organisers. We got an email about being on time for the "flocage des gilets". I had never heard of the word "flocage". The good thing about it is that Helene, our coordinator and great help in Morocco hadn't heard of it either. Anyway it's about putting your sponsors's logos on your vests ( pink this year), in case you were wondering.

Went to the Hajj exhibition at the British Museum. The Hajj is the trip to Mecca that every good Muslim must try to undertake once in his/her life. It attracts 3 million pilgrims every year.
It's a very interesting exhibition which also shows extracts from an IMAX movie called Journey to Mecca, in the steps of Ibn Battuta. Ibn Battuta was a 14th century Moroccan traveller who undertook the Hajj journey 3 times. The IMAX movie shown in an IMAX theatre is astonishing as it transports you to today's Hajj and for a non muslim, this is the closest you'll ever get to feeling what the pilgrims feel and undertake.

At the British Museum it's on a small screen so it's not as impressive but it's still very interesting.

Next week I'll meet Jamila in Casablanca for the compulsory navigation course. I just read on Twitter that the Moroccan American writer ( and friend) Laila Lalami will be in Casablanca at the same time for the "Salon du Livre". Not sure I'll have time to see her but will try.

And then off skiing in Austria with the family.

Beautiful snow today. Will go to the gym

At last we see the Sahara and wow!

Jamila in our Toyota HD80

Jamila and I made it to M'Hamid in the South East of Morocco, in the Sahara. But what a saga to get there and once there, what an experience!
Those pictures I've sent you of 4x4s going up and down frighteningly steep dunes, it could now be us. Those pictures of gazelles pointing their compass in a direction and looking somewhat confused, us again!
We learned to read latitudes and longitudes, to place 29degrees 16 minutes and 366 seconds latitude and 3degrees 39minutes and 120 seconds longitude on a 1/100 000 map ( meaning, you know, 1km=1cm).
We learned to look at distant points on the horizon and make them our "cap". I was utterly useless at that. There'd be Jamila and our fantastic instructor Benoit saying things like : "you see those 2 trees over there, that's where we're heading" and I'd have no idea where those trees were.

trees? what trees?

That's me here going up the dune, following Benoit. I was more daring than Jamila in the dunes : Jamila had a tendency to stop dead at the top :

sorry, Jamila, couldn't resist

However Jamila was an excellent driver in other terrains so we'll share the driving. We'll probably share the navigation as well. I'll just have to buy a pair of binoculars! Both driving and navigating required intense concentration. You really don't want to make a mistake driving in the dunes as it can end up in your car overturning and the navigator must constantly find the way towards our point of destination and this can involve a fair amount of walking.

Slept in the desert, in a bivouac for 1 night. Dunes at sun set and sun rise are unmissable:

Sunset

7am, ready for breakfast

Jamila chatting with a local: what's that chaine of dunes over there?

The bit protecting the fuel tank has detached itself.

time to put air back in the tyres. 

We did or rather since I was the driver I should take responsibility for this, I did manage to get us stuck in sand at 4.30pm on our third day. Not fun, not fun at all. No picture of this because, frankly, we were not in the mood! I will do anything I can ( that is stop pressing on the bloody accelerator when it's pretty obvious we're stuck but not that stuck yet!) to avoid sinking in.

It all started well : we arrived in Marrakech and went to see our possible car, Alain's car :

in front of Costcutter Marrakech, one of our sponsors 

Then things went wrong : the driving instructor I had booked for 3 days cancelled Wednesday night at 9pm for a start the following day. There we were in Marrakech and no driving instructor to teach us to drive a 4x4 in dunes.
This is where the "telephone arabe" got into full action; by 11pm we had a possible instructor called Benoit. Benoit was extremely busy preparing a rally called the M'Hamid Express and not overly enthusiastic about taking 2 ( not 3) days out of his schedule. However he took pity on us and agreed.

Jamila and I set off from Marrakech for what was to be a 10 hour journey, including a pit stop for a delicious tagine near Teghdouine and another one for tea and chips in Zagora.
We were met at 11pm by Hassan who was just sitting down for dinner with a few friends.

so we joined in and from then on we simply had a fantastic if sometimes scary time.

Thank you Ali, Moaz and Alain in Marrakech, Hassan and Benoit in M'Hamid, the 5 men thanks to whom we women shall hopefully have a great rally.
And a big thank you to a sixth man, my husband Ian for his moral and financial support.
Thanks Heather for welcoming back 2 exhilarated but quite dusty gazelles.

Preparation for the Rallye Aicha des Gazelles 17-31 March 2012. Three months and 2 weeks to go.
9 day car rally +- 4 day drive Casablanca/Essaouira.
Goal: Endurance, stamina, strength
To include core, injury preventing workout and stretches
Aerobic fitness: hillwalking, cycling, rowing, tennis, swimming, skipping
Core session to include: bridge, planks, dead bug, alternate arm and leg raises, superwoman. Hold for as long as you can. Remember good breathing technique


2nd session with Charlotte Rehn in Richmond Park yesterday.
Charlotte, my trainer, has got a plan; It includes 3 sessions at the gym as well. It demands commitment on my part.
Charlotte trained a friend Jan Meek to go to the North Pole pulling a sledge. Jan was 61 when she did it.
She trained me to climb to the top ok Kilimanjaro. She's also a lovely woman. You want someone to train you, go to www.gonordic.co.uk . She's your woman!
By the way, my backpack weighs 7 kgs altogether:

sponsorship : we have our first 2 sponsors, both American : "Givezooks"(www.givezooks.com), started by 2 friends Joe Fazio and Carol Schrader, and Alex Gambal (www.alexgambal.com ), a wonderful wine maker in Burgundy. The thing with Americans is that despite everything, they still have their pioneer spirit, their sense of adventure. They're ready to support 2 women rallying in the Moroccan desert.
And we have a partnership with a magazine called North South (www.northsouthmag.com) which is going on line and global in January. You will be able to follow us in the sport section and in the life style section.

Tuesday there was a great party at Momo's to say good bye to Ali Kasmi, the director of the Moroccan Office of Tourism for the UK and Ireland for 15 years. I got somewhat drunk and that was the evening before my 2nd session with Charlotte. I swear, I am not drinking again the night before my training with Charlotte. She had no pity.

Time for a cup of tea. Cheers

a month later

We're booked or at least pre inscribed in Morocco for the Rallye Aicha des Gazelles, I've booked the 3 day driving course in Zagora in January for Jamila and me so technically it's all going well.

We're looking at training programs. My friend Charlotte, a personal trainer and Nordic walking instructor has appointed herself my guru, which is wonderful. I must be strong, both physically and mentally.
This is her last email :

The race is 17^th of March which gives you  just under  4 months to train and get you fit for this event.

10 days driving and walking/running up and down in the sand dunes means you need to get aerobically fit.

Also some resistance training is needed. Especially, core and back training.

I understand you are already playing tennis, which is good as part of your aerobic training.

What else are you doing at the moment? Are you going to the gym?

How much time have you committed to your training and what kind of training do you enjoy?

Hill walking and cycling at Richmond park would be great.

And she hasn't mentioned nutrition yet!

Finding sponsorship is quite a task. Most people agree that €25,000 ( cost of the rally for a team) for an automobile sport is not a huge amount so really, we find 2 big sponsors and we should be fine.
I have rewritten my presentation so many times, adapting it each time to a potential sponsor that I have to be careful to choose the right one for the right sponsor.
There's the presentation for the sponsors who are associated with alcohol (in which I show that Celliers de Meknes is sponsoring the whole event and so we should be able to have alcohol sponsorship in a muslim country). .

Then there's the document to sponsors who could lend us a car. I remove the mention of alcohol and talk mostly about TV coverage.

The 3rd one is to look for media partners. We don't talk about alcohol, nor cars nor costs. Only us, the team and the rally.

Also depending on the nationality of the potential sponsor, I describe our team alternatively as Anglo-Franco-Moroccan or Franco-Anglo-Moroccan.

And then I repeat the whole thing in French.

But we are getting somewhere. Us women are fashionable with big and not so big brands. Early stages but I should have some names in my next blog.
Anyway, this is the map of the 2011 edition :

This represents about £1500 miles and 8 days in the desert, waking up at 4am. One of the item we must have ( apart from a shovel) is a head lamp! you know, to calculate our trajectory while having breakfast at 4.30am.

Jamila's off to Alger today for a food fair. 

some info about the rallye

RALLYE AICHA des GAZELLES

MARCH 2012

This is the first female rally in the world, created over 20 years ago. It lasts 10 days, 8 of which in the Moroccan desert. It’s not a question of going fast but of taking the shortest way possible, without GPS, the old fashioned way with a compass and a map. When our 4x4 will get stuck in the sand, we’ll get the shovel out and helped by other “Gazelles”, we’ll dig ourselves out.

Because the main values of the rally are commitment, audacity, determination, courage , generosity and solidarity.

We like that, Jamila and I. We are not professional rally drivers, we are normal women . We just want to challenge ourselves and at the same time bring humanitarian aid to the villages the rallye drives past. We have been successful at challenges in the past : I climbed to the top of Kilimanjaro which at nearly 5900m is the highest mountain in Africa. Both Jamila and I have put together a team of all ages (the oldest member was 75) to go to the top of Toubkal, the highest mountain in North Africa (4100m), to help raise money for the British Moroccan Society.


Also this is a responsible rallye : it won the ISO 14001 certification because carbon dioxide emissions are kept to a minimum ( again, speed doesn’t matter, to win the teams must drive the shortest distance).  Also part of the profits are redistributed through a charitable foundation called “heart of Gazelles”. It’s an event that respects the local population and the local environment.


But before we set off anywhere, we must find sponsorship. That's part of the challenge and the fun. Today I spoke to Alex Gambal, an incredible winemaker in Burgundy.
I don't know if he'll sponsor us, that was my first "sales pitch". It certainly helped me to focus on what we want to achieve.


Went to the gym this morning. Lasted 30mn. Must do better!

2 weeks ago Jamila and I made the decision to enter the Rallye Aicha des Gazelles in the Moroccan desert in March 2012. The excitement! This is the biggest women only rallye in the world. It's not about going fast but about driving the least amount of km. It's about endurance, solidarity, effort and achievement. No GPS, no mobile phones. We sign an agreement swearing we won't cheat. We'll use a compass and a 1/100000 map( whatever that means!)

All we need now is to find sponsors! 3 months to do that. Jamila likes working under pressure, I'm not so keen but hey, I'll try anything once. So we have a list of major potential sponsors and a list of minor sponsors. I'm so optimistic that I worry that everyone will want to sponsor us and we won't have enough space on the car for their logos. My husband Ian says we'll cross that path when it happens.

I've talked to 3 companies renting 4x4 for the event. I've talked to them about learning to drive a 4x4 in the desert and Jamila and I are booked for a driving stage in January. 3 days South of Zagora.

We'll learn to use a shovel to dig ourselves out of the sand!
And I found the picture next in the Gazelles album. Just looking at it I go pale.

Off to the gym, we need to be fit.