Finally an easy stage of only 500km length, we hoped to finish within the time limit of 11 hours today (There are extra points if you finish within the time limit, usually between 12 and 15 hours. If you finish before the start of the next stage, usually 24 hours later, you lose the extra points. The whole day is lost if you don’t show up in time for the next stage).

To make sure our dream of a few hours of sleep would come true, we skipped the first challenges which were in a swampy area, which swallowed some motorcycles the night before.

However, Murphy’s law came true again: around 10 in the morning, climbing out of a deep riverbed, the soil under the rear right wheel of the car became loose and we broke into a 1.5m deep ditch which had been washed out by the rain. With one wheel in the ditch, the rear axle and the chassis sitting on the ground, and the front right wheel about to break in too, it was a delicate situation. With the help of two other teams (22 and 23, thank you very much for the help again) it took 2 hours to rescue the car. We had to fill the whole ditch with stones and then lift the car slowly to fill the space below the wheel too. 10 people were working hard, it was a great example of good teamwork.
Our dream of finishing on time gone though. Finally we arrived at the camp around 10pm.
The camp tonight is at the outskirts of Boujdour very close to the beach, I can hear the waves murmur. It is now much warmer than at the beginning, currently 15°C, but the wind is strong.