Dakar Rally 2014

In the morning we walked the 3.5 km to the Dakar Village.

There was a photo exhibit at the command center.

We then got in the huge line for entry tickets. The end of the line was about 2 blocks from the monument entry. Orvar had disappeared, but then came back with 4 tickets. He had pulled the “I speak Swedish and where do I get tickets” which got him directed to the front of the line.

We headed for the village. The first person I met was a volunteer Mirella, who is a friend of Alicia Sornosa!

Next we checked out the vehicles of all types.

There were some other distractions for the guys besides the cars and bikes.

Heading out again we stocked up on Dakar goodies and refreshments and staked out a spot on the fence for the parade from the ceremonial start. It started at 3 and ended after we left at 930, just after the motorbike leaders passed and the big trucks had started.

The Quads were the first group out, then bikes, cars, and BIG trucks.

A very few of the riders put on a show for the crowd and a couple worked the fans with autographs.

One of the crowd favourites, who spent a very long time talking to fans, taking photos, and giving autographs was 11 time Dakar competitor Belgian rider Eric Palante, who tragically dies in the race in the 5 th stage.

There were only three female drivers that we could see.

One of the highlights was meeting Anni Seel the Swedish 6 time Dakar rider, who is a copilot this year in a buggy. She saw us waving a Swedish flag and made a beeline for us!Unfortunately they we forced out of the race by a small part on day 6. “This is what stopped us, a chaffed $50 external oil feed line to the oil cooler !!!!

The leaders and Dakar greats came out just before it got dark!

We were up at 330 and on the bikes at 4 am to ride the route. The Dakar course is open. You can chase the leaders like us for 150 km! The throngs of fans all think we are in the race and take pictures of us when we stop. This was absolutely thrilling to race along with the leaders.

Highlights were pulling in to gas up with the leaders, and then running the toll at 80 km per hour in the dark. After the gas stop we hit traffic and the crowd was very hard to navigate.

After the sunrise we saw some of the big trucks and stopped to let the race pass by us for a while.

We saw a big few more big trucks on our way back into town and one was stopped for gas so we pulled in.

We were mobbed with people who wanted our picture. We kept explaining that we were not in the race but just tourists. They still wanted autographs, since we had driven here from Alaska! The funny part is on Facebook I see that Trevor and Nick were given the same star treatment in the same spot. Daniel, Orvar, and Trevor all signed this kids shirt. His mom said she knew we were just tourists, but could we sign it anyway please!