The Dakar ... there is nothing like it !

We are back from Argentina, where we watched Dakar Rally Stages live and up close. Some of the time, on the connecting routes between stages, our rental car was surrounded by competitor’s bikes, cars, trucks & quads. It was on one of these connections near Mendoza that our rental car was bumped by a quad, no damage (at least nothing the rental company could find) but the impression that will stick with me, for the rest of my life, is the incredible excitement of the Argentine people who turned out by the tens of thousands to picnic and catch a glimpse of the dream. Over fifty thousand people with their campfires, lined the road from Mendoza in the dark, it was all very surreal.

Back from Argentina

We arrived home yesterday, after following the Dakar through Argentina. It is an amazing country, where Steak, Wine and Beer are all about 1/3 of the price in Canada. Hotels are cheap also, but Gas prices are about the same as here. An amazing place for an inexpensive holiday.
We received our passes from the ASO, ( Dakar organizers ) once again this year, and were granted access to the vehicle scrutineering area, and behind the scenes preparations, where I met up with the winners of the Truck division last year ( Man on a Mission Team ) from Belgium & Holland ( they have been giving us advice through the forum ). Glenna also met Luc Alphond, Stephan Peterhansel and Robbie Gordon ( who we had met last year also ). We ran into Etienne Lavigne the director of the Dakar, ( he remembered us from our meeting in Mexico 2 years ago ) and wished us luck in our entry next year.
One of our main goals for this trip was to meet with "Rally Raid" and decide if we would use their services."Rally Raid" is an English company, which provides services to Dakar competitors, anything from building you a vehicle, to renting one for you, or just "in race" mechanical support. I wanted very much to meet with them, to see if I got a level of comfort, from a face to face and discuss having them providing mechanical & transportation services for our team mechanic next year, luckily we were able to meet up with Paul Round and the whole "Rally Raid" team in the Red Bull Lounge ( 3 days prior to the start ) and talked for several hours. Unfortunately on Day 1 of the race, one of the "Rally Raid" vehicles had an nasty accident, our thoughts & best wishes for a speedy recovery go out to them both.
We have some new photos on the website and new ones will be going up every few days over the comming weeks !