As always things never go as planned at Dakar. After a hectic morning chasing Pewano for our bags, packing and riding to the warehouse (without a street number on a 20 km long road) we spent six hours waiting in a warehouse for a non-existent container. Waiver tried to blame the agents until confronted with the emails from Durban which clearly proved their fault in the matter. At this point they agreed to provide safe storage for our bikes and kit and promised to provide a team to assist the Maine’s with the packing of all the bikes on the 24th. Hopefully this will all go to plan. Unfortunately this does mean the Maine’s will give the rest of us a hard time for years to come.
Terri and Glen left Iquique in Lizzi, had the most beautiful scenic trip with sea on one side and huge dunes on the other. Stopped off at lots of places to eat and drink the local food. Got to Arica, found the guys a hotel, found the bus station, dropped Lizzi off at Hertz and got the taxi across the border….6 people in the car with no shocks, no aircon and a bad road in the desert…! Caught a bus from Tacna with chickens apples and a whole lot more to Arequipa. Arrived at the bus terminal miles away from anywhere at 2.00am in the morning with no booked accommodation…what a silly thing to have done. Found a taxi and asked him to take us to a hotel, any hotel. Well we are still alive to tell the story although for a while we thought we would not ever see another person again. Arequipa is one of the most beautiful places we have been to. Misty, the one volcano is,really spectacular. Picking up our new car, still to be named, just now and heading for Nasca.
What a night for the supporters tour! After a relatively painless border crossing and a few hours of sublime riding the KTM”s started breaking down (Tim’s Tiger seems to be the bike for Dakar). First Mike’s 690 developed its usual electrical problem and a 45 minute repair was required. We then climbed a huge pass and at the top Doug’s clutch had packed in. The only option was to ride without a clutch for 100 km. This meant keeping the bike going in huge traffic down mountain passes and needless to say Doug is a lot older today then he was yesterday. Malcolm and Doug managed to get to the Bivovac and with Jurgen’s help found the KTM mechanic Stephan who repaired the master cylinder seals. This was a two and a half hour job and involved some canabalising of parts from the race bikes. During this time we received a message from Mike saying that Pat’s bike had a fuel blockage and he was stuck in the desert. Mike had to leave Pat without comms (thanks MTN) and after taking the wrong turn and developing further bike travels he reached the Bivovac to try and arrange a rescue. By this time the Maines had reached Pat and they stripped the fuel tanks and pump off the bike in order to clean the fuel filter. Many hours later they all reached the hotel. Malcolm’s bike is also having problems (possibly overheating or fuel blockage) and this meant pushing the bike the last few 100m to the hotel in peak hour traffic. Just another day at Dakar.
After the extreme weather over the San Francisco pass the tour assembled in the coast village of Bahia Englesa 70km outside of Copiaco. The group has been joined by Doug Ross who rumor has it, is still adjusting to the size of a single shot of rum. The opportunity to spend a few nights in the same location and not chase the rally like madmen is a very welcome break. Yesterday the tour headed for Antofagasta, and today the rally ends with the most spectacular descent down a massive dune into the bivouac in Iquique. Bad news, is that Neil is out of the rally after missing some way points. Even worse news, after joining the bike tour Neil took a tumble while on a t-shirt ride and has hurt his hands badly enough to fly back to SA in a lot of pain. The whereabouts of the official Dakar blog media correspondent is still unclear and it is suspected that he is unable to leave his beloved 690 long enough to post any stories.
The dune finish in Iquique
Day 6
Just found WIFI so thought we would catch up. We are in an awesome coastal town called Bahia Englesa 70km outside of Copiaco. Camping as apposed to a hotel. Terri and Glen arrived early yesterday and set up camp. Malcolm, Patrick and John had a very interesting ride across San Francisco Pass….hail, sleet, snow, thunder, lightening and a lot of sludge. Not sure how they made it but they did. They joined the campsite at about midnight extremely cold, tired and hungry. Iain’s bike burnt out and unfortunately he is out of the race. The Maine’s and Mike A, after big mechanical issues, is also reportedly making his way to the camp site (our very own bivouac) bound to arrive shortly. After diagnosing a kid next door to us in the camp with tourette syndrome John has now settled down and is quietly drinking away. Terri and Glen have now managed to arrange a car all the way through to Arica so stress is off.
Due to the bad weather continuing over the Andes Mountain Range (rain and snow), the Chilean authorities were forced to close, for the night, the border at the Paso de San Francisco pass, situated at 4700 m.
For the 7th time, the Dakar is about to cross over the Andes, and because of very unfavourable conditions, added to the fact that the course has been hit by rain and snow, in order to guarantee the security of the competitors and those following the rally, the organisers have decided to organise a convoy for all vehicles tomorrow. The itinerary has been changed after the border (follow the main road on the right which goes to Diego de Almagro).
