The Dakar Rally Raid 2021

Report by Team RockApe

28 December 2021

So when you are heading to the race track in the UK to take some motorsports photography and spectate at your favourite race series you have to make some decisions. What camera kit will I need? Will I eat at the circuit or take my own food? What’s the weather going to be like? And you will probably check a route planner to see how long it's going to take you to get to your destination.

All standard stuff with very little risk of anything going wrong. However, if your favourite race series has 498 competitors, 351 vehicles and a course over 8000km long, taking in thick sand, stony wadis, mountain ranges and miles of open flat featureless desert, your decision making process will be extremely different.

This is the task that Chris and Dee faced when they decided to follow last year's Dakar Rally. The Dakar, previously known as the Paris-Dakar due to its start and end locations, has been running since 1979 with cars, trucks, motorcycles, buggies and recently utility terrain vehicles (UTV).

Last year the Dakar was being held in Saudi Arabia as it this year, and is recognised as the toughest rally raid in the world. But if just taking part isn't tough enough you can go hard core and enter the Malle Moto. 

Credit A.S.O/F.Le Floc'h/DPPI

The Malle Moto, or as its now called the "Original by Motul" , category is for bikes and quads without any kind of assistance. Let's just think about that, navigating 8000km of desert, servicing and repairing your bike on your own, you can understand why competitors enter this Rally Raid with the intension of just finishing, a lot don’t. 

Credit A.S.O/DPPI/F. Flamand

So that sets the scene, let's hear from Chris and Dee on how they got on following the Raid:

Teamrockape’s Dakar 2021

With a joint love of motorsports the Dakar Rally coming to Saudi Arabia was an opportunity not to be missed for us.  We followed the 2020 Rally as our friend Phil Wilson entered as a privateer rider on KTM.  It was during the opening of this rally where we met a British rider Craig Keyworth, who was also a privateer and looking for a support team. 

Teamrockape, as we have been known since the start of our European 4X4 rally fundraising days, were looking to bring in our Iveco Motorhome to support Craig. However he wasn’t able to participate in 2021, and as the Iveco could not be brought into Saudi for any other purpose, the decision was made to move it on. 

So 2021 was a purely spectator event for us, which as far as the Dakar goes is tricky.  The organizers purposely make it difficult to follow and even though there is an app for the public to download they are vague with the start and finish locations and the competitors are not issued with road books until 20 minutes before the start of each stage. Still there is always a way! 

Knowing there was no big fanfare at the launch we decided not to arrive in Jeddah until the day before the start of the actual Rally, which meant missing the prologue. Following two months of sickness with Covid19 the vehicle prep was a little more rushed than we would have liked. Both suffering from the effects of so called long covid, some days were cut short due to sheer lack of energy. 

Having changed vehicles in October and falling sick later that month it’s surprising that we managed to get shipped, fitted a frontrunner roof-rack and kitted out the vehicle with all the essentials needed for a two week trek into the Arabian desert -  jerry cans, (especially as the G Wagon has a small fuel tank and drinks like Georgie Best) a new larger domestic fridge freezer, sand ladders, shovels and the usual camping equipment, tent, beds, sleeping bags, cooking and washing facilities. 

Despite the rush, we set off from Riyadh for Jeddah on 2nd January, everything in place or so we thought. 

After about 7 hours into our 10 ½ hour journey we discovered our newly fitted solar panel which was going to power the fridge had worked its way free and was flapping about in the wind.

Adjustments were made and about 5k down the road a heavy vehicle came thundering past, and what sounded like a boulder hammered into the windscreen and made a dirty great big chip. Day 1! Mint!

After a long journey into Jeddah we spent the night in a hotel and the following day we knew we would be blind to the start location so headed straight to Bisha, the first destination, in the hope of spotting them on stage along the way.  Once in Bisha, as luck would have it, we ran into a team of journalists in a petrol station.

We got chatting as we both had the same issue,  we could not find any 95 fuel, only 91.  We anticipated some difficulties in finding the fuel we wanted but not this early to be honest. 

So we followed the journalists to the bivouac for our first night in the tent.  Bisha was the furthest south we had travelled and the area certainly felt very different to being in the city.  We settled down, just metres outside the perimeter fence with enough light from the bivouac to see around the tent area. Fire made, dinner on, and it wasn’t long before a car full of teenage locals came down and insisted on joining us.

Credit DPPI/E.Vargiolu

We happily shared our dinner as we were just sitting down to eat (chicken and rice made with local spices). The boys tucked in and soon had their phones out and unbeknown to us they were live snapchatting to the world! (Snapchat is huge in Saudi Arabia, to such a degree they drive while live streaming, and have a ridiculous challenge to be as dangerous as they can while live streaming). We conversed the best we could, with very little Arabic from our side and very little English from their side.  Eventually they left but there was soon another group arriving, evidently they had  seen it on snapchat. 



An hour or so passed and we were soon ready for bed. It had been a long dusty drive and we decided to start prepping for some sleep.  Not long after that decision, the first group of locals returned with food and drinks to return our kindness. Bless them, they wanted to sit around our fire the whole evening and chat but sadly we had to tell them Ma salama (goodbye in Arabic).  We settled down for the night,  once again, amazed at the kindness of the locals, affirming our reason why we love to travel. For us it’s about the people.

The bivouac is noisy.  All night mechanics were fixing engines, repairing bits of bodywork, tuning, testing, changing tyres, it was relentless. The noise went on until around 2-3am most nights, and then the first riders are up and out as early as 4.30 am.  Sleep is not a guaranteed thing on the Dakar! Also, with no entry to the bivouac, neither are toilets! So ablutions are carried out from a jerry can, toilet business taken care of in a bin bag. Finding somewhere to get rid of said bag becomes a part of the early morning routine.   



After our first night in Bisha, I wandered casually into the bivouac area with a black sack of “rubbish” and fortunately came back with a phone number of someone on the main logistics team.  I was very lucky that the person I spoke to was helpful.    We had struck gold! From then on our contact sent coordinates for the start and finish points each day along with the bivouac locations. 

Bisha to Wadi Ad-Dawasir . I headed back to the car where Chris was almost finished securing the tent and we set off following the coordinates we had been given.  A day in the dunes!

First proper day for us to view some rallying and we were excited, both of us knackered as we didn’t get much sleep thanks to the hive of activity in the bivouac, but like two kids at Christmas, we were buzzing so it didn’t matter how tired we were. 

It was also early days for the participants so we witnessed a few challenged drivers, particularly the trucks. Very few drivers have access to big dunes so don’t get the practice in, and they need a day or two to find their feet.   

The previous day had been very stony, so a total change for them.  It is interesting to see which routes the different vehicles take and how they approach the dunes.  As we had to pass through a busy town to get back to the campsite we decided to take the easy option and buy food out and the first thing we came across was a McDonalds (the only time we eat the stuff is when we are overseas and can't find anything we trust)! 

Credit A.S.O./F.Gooden/DPPI

While in there we got chatting to one of the teams,  Martin from Buggyra Racing had  two trucks and two buggies racing and had his teenage daughters with him, the Dakar Sistaz! The girls will be competing themselves in the future, and will be the youngest competitors. 

Credit DPPI/F.Gooden

Martin was telling us how he had used a new set of CV joints on the buggies every day! Very challenging conditions for the vehicles. Before too long we were tucking into our fries in the possession of two Buggyra T-shirts!

A.S.O./A.Vincent/DPPI

One thing we have learnt about the bivouac is they are often situated very close to airfields, and this one was no exception.  We had noise from the aircraft coming in and taking off as well as the usual night time maintenance. As you can expect, the terrain was flat and wide open and boy it was windy! And what comes with the wind in Saudi Arabia, sand, in everything.  We received our coordinates and headed out, but not before some essential admin of the camping area. 



After an hour or so driving we began to see rally vehicles passing from the other direction so we knew we were headed the right way.  Some of the early finishers headed back to the bivouac. Once we could see the finish point in the distance we left the road and headed towards the spectacular mountains in the hope of spotting some vehicles out on stage, and we were not disappointed.

Credit DPPI/A.Vincent

We parked up and found a great spot where we would wait for the vehicles to come thundering past.  It was 30 degrees, such a beautiful day for early January, and essential to keep hydrated.  This of course presents an issue, chugging lots of water means you need to use the bathroom, and as a woman in the middle of the desert, it can be tricky. 



There are either huge open plains of sand or rocks and dunes, there could be no-one around or small groups of people, mainly men.  In Saudi Arabia you have to go far out in the dunes to never see another vehicle, rally or no rally. The Saudis love the dunes and when it seems there is no-one around, suddenly a pick up will appear. Occasionally I had to make a decision, drink water and take my chances or push on without it, which I seem to be able to do, even though I know it is detrimental to the health.

Most fuel stations, by the way, have a Mosque attached to them and all mosques have toilets and washing facilities (although some only had them for men), so when we did find a fuel station we had a routine -  fill up (this is something that is done for you over here) use the washrooms and grab coffee and supplies.   I will say one thing about ladies toilets over here,  I am glad I do squats in the gym because to find a sit on loo is a rare thing!

 

Moving on, at the end of another cracking day of rally watching again we decided we would pick up some food on the way back to the bivouac and this time we stopped off at a Dominos pizza.  We umm’ed and ah’d shall we eat here or drive back and eat as it was a fair drive, but neither of us enjoy cold pizza. However, the decision was not entirely ours to be made when we came out of the store. 

 Credit DPPI/F.Gooden

As we got into our car two locals came out of their shop which was a juice/ice cream parlour. They asked us for photos with them and of the car. Now, we could start to explain that we were not on the Dakar, simply following, but we have tried this and it usually gets lost in translation. Before too long out came one of the shop assistants with two smoothies, two ice creams and two (delicious) chocolate coated strawberries, for no reason except they wanted to be welcoming to westerners. 



Of course they wanted pics of us taking a bite of the strawberries and holding up the drinks! Clever marketing for them as no doubt they would have been straight on social media prompting a flock of locals wanting to catch “Dakar” guys.  Nonetheless, once again, we were blown away by the kindness of strangers.

Wadi Ad Dawasir – Riyadh

This was a long transit stage for the rallyers and we headed straight up to Riyadh without watching the start or any stages off road.  We live in Riyadh and decided to head home offload some of our kit, do some washing and enjoy a shower!

We had our suspicions that the bivouac would be on our side of the city but couldn’t believe our eyes when we arrived on Thumama Road, pulled into our local service station and it was full of rally wagons.  Sure enough the bivouac was opposite our compound! 

Credit A.S.O./F.Gooden/DPPI

Riyadh – Al Qaisumah 

Back out on the road bright and early and this stretch was another long one. We were texted the coordinates for the start and made our way there.  The route was along a straight road and the start point wasn’t far off the roadside. In fact you could see it from the road.  The trucks were lined up as we arrived, and in order to get a good viewpoint, we smashed straight up a dune without deflating the tyres – we knew what would come. 

We got some great shots and then made our way back to the car. It had to be dug and winched out, which wasn’t an issue as we were very well prepared, but also there were plenty of willing Saudi locals ready to lend a hand.  Again, such generous people.  The destination was a good five to six hours drive and we had booked into a hotel in an area called Hafr Al Baten. 

This was an area with not many western tourists as far as we could tell.  The way we usually know this is how people react to you. They either stare straight at you in disbelief or they make a massive fuss, welcome to Saudi Arabia, where are you from etc etc. Anyway, once we checked into our hotel we took a stroll to TGI Friday’s and sat down to chat about some of the awesome sights we have seen since the start of the Rally. 

Walking back to our hotel we saw a commotion out in the street. Riyadh football team Al Halal, (Asia Cup Champions) were in the area and staying in a hotel close by. The streets were full of fans, clapping and cheering, pipping their horns. It was amazing to see everyone out in support of their heroes. 

Credit A.S.O/C.Lopez

We were looking forward to a good night's sleep and made our way back to the hotel. Little did we know that there was a wedding party in the hotel that night and the music sounded as if it was in the next room.  We asked the management if we could be moved. All of the rooms were taken by guests, but they had a room in the old part of the hotel which after inspection we said it would be okay. 



It took them a while to prepare the room, fresh bedding and towels etc. It was actually a suite, although very old and tired, but we thought it would do us for one night. We couldn’t really hear the wedding party and anyway it was already 10.45pm. 

Not long after we were eventually given the room key and went straight to bed, the noise started - the clean up operation. We complained to the manager on reception and he wasn’t allowed to go and tell the cleaners to be quiet because they were uncovered. 



So I got dressed and marched up to the floor they were on and asked them to turn the thumping music that they were listening to (louder than the wedding)!  Of course this fell on deaf ears, eventually we managed to drift off to sleep until about 2.00 am when I was woken by the sound of Chris yelling at someone to get out of our bedroom!!! It seems some poor housekeeper of the hotel used the room we had been given and no-one had bothered to tell him we were in there. 

Credit A.S.O/C.Lopez

Chris said the fear in that poor man's eyes was so great he had never seen anything like it!  What a charade it turned out to be!  We were up and dressed more times in the night it was comical. Next morning even though we had paid for breakfast there was none on offer, which was just as well because we demanded a refund! Well you can’t win them all as they say! Next stop the rest day at Hail.

Look out for part two of this report as we follow Chris and Dee on the next six stages, the final part of the 2021 Dakar Rally Raid.

The next Dakar will start on the 1 January 2022 you can follow the Dakar from the links

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