Needing to kill one more day, we headed out of El Salvador,
past the Bivouac being constructed for the Dakar and down to a camping spot for
the night. Dilapidated houses were built
along a salty stream and provided a hidden campsite for the night.
The next day we were bubbling with excitement to watch the
much anticipated Dakar Rally. After
hearing and seeing loads of backup vehicles heading towards the Bivouac, we
stopped in at Diego de Almargo and asked where would be the best place to view
the contestants for the day. Only 8km
out of town the route passed over the main road and as we headed out we spotted
trails of dust coming over the dunes, a helicopter overhead and loads of
spectators off road…it hit us… it was real… we are in South America, Chile and
the Dakar is here!! A dream come true.
We must have spent about 5 hours watching bikes (moto’s),
cars (auto’s) and trucks (caminos) pass the number 3 check point of the route
on stage 11. We couldn’t have had a
better spot, they trailed along a mountain top in the distance, down a dune
towards check point 3 where they accelerated quickly around a bend and over a
jump only to accelerate again and disappear into the distance leaving a trail
of dust. Awesome!!
The next view spot we got to see a real Dakar picture moment
where the dust cloud looked like it would engulf the cars/trucks as they battled through thick fine sand. The trucks were the most entertaining to
watch as they didn’t seem to use their brakes much and in some cases got some
serious air-time which got the crowds going!
That night we met some local avid motorbike riders and
spectators outside the bivouac and camped near them chatting about the ins and
outs of the Dakar rally. We hadn’t realised how tough the event had been
through 45 degree temperatures in Argentina, and how nearly 50% of the
contestants had already dropped out. We
fell asleep that night to the rumble of the generators and noise of the
engineers fixing bikes, cars and trucks in preparation for the next gruelling day.
Around 7am the contestants started to leave the
bivouac. Nick was standing right by the
entrance and got to see Mark Coma (the 4 times winner of Dakar Rally) leave for
his day, as well as seeing some contestants arriving back after having spent a
night in the desert!! Intrigued we stood
for a few hours watching them leave seeing burnt out cars and other vehicles
that have been eliminated from the race being towed from one bivouac to the
next!
Dakar Rally exceeded our expectations and we enjoyed every
minute of it.
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