Due to various problems with the car I arrived at the camp very late yesterday (actually it was today) and did not have the energy to blog something. Most of the racing tasks have been canceled because of the proximity of the Algerian border (the day before some teams were stopped and turned back by the Algerian army), hence we had time do some shopping, have lunch (the first time that we stopped for lunch, camel meath with salad and potatoes).
After lunch I decided to go to a blacksmith again to add one more leaf to the rear springs of Baby Beast. On the way to the camp I filled up and got some poor diesel, which immediately clogged the fuel filter. The decision to push the car to the camp despite the clogged filter was a wrong one. After changing the filter today the engine did not start at all. Several mechanics from other teams tried to help but finally we had to bypass the filter and tow Baby Beast to the next town. I hope the series of breakdowns is finished now.

Today we crossed the border to Mauritania. Despite visible improvements (the computers which were there already two years ago, then still wrapped in plastic, were in use now, the procedure is still extremely inefficient, but the official people are friendlier) it took almost 4 hours to get through. The funny open restroom facing the border control post and the queues got a door in the meantime, but the group of touting mony changers and SIM card sellers is still the same. Craig has changed some money and negotiated an exchange rate of 250 instead of 230. He was very proud of his negotiation skills until he found out that the correct exchange rate is around 390 🙂

From the border we were escorted by the Mauritanian army to the camp.
The camp is in a flat sandy place, there are 4 camp fires in the middle, the cars and the tents are located in a big circle at the perimeter.
For the first time we had time to sit down while we eat and to chat with other teams. Most of the crazy cars are still alive, we met the Trabants, the VW bug, small Renault 5s and Fiat Unos, and a 40 year old fire truck.
It is much warmer today than in the last days and I am thinking about spending the night under the sky.

For the next 3 days the racing and touring routes split. Originally we wanted to do the racing route with both cars, but the organizers are so scared about many cars getting stuck in the dunes close to the Malian border that they don’t allow any touring car to take the racing route. Since we share a lot of equipment between the two cars (sandboards, compressor, towing ropes, tools) we finally decided to do the touring route with both cars.

I can’t say too much about today: I had to do some repairs on the car, hence we split in the morning. By the time I arrived in the camp the others were close to sleeping already.

I spent most of the day in various garages to fix the suspension which we damaged in the Atlas. It took much longer than expected, partly because whatever you touch in a 20 year old car it either breaks or fails or both partly because the garages in smaller towns don’t have suitable equipment or spare parts. Nevertheless finally everything is done, and the costs are reasonable: 50 EUR for around 16 man hours of work.

Because of the repairs we could not finish any geo-challange today. I hope tomorrow we will be able to catch up again. Let me explain a little bit what these geo-challenges are:

In racing category, we have to master 10-20 geo-caching tasks per day. Sheets with the tasks of the day are distributed at the morning briefing (tomorrow e.g. at 5:30am). There are different types of tasks:
– find a letter or a number at the given GPS coordinates (typically painted on a rock or on a tree), or answer a question about an object, e.g. its color.
– Kinder-eggs: there are three tickets inside, you have to be among the first 3 teams finding the egg to receive points for it
– points to be reached by car: while all other geo-caches may be approached on foot (many are not even accessible by car), these have to be reached by car.
– tasks without GPS coordinates: these can be very different. Some examples: in town A find a square with a fountain and count tne number of deers depicted on it. In town B find a person called Shaik and find out the make of his car.

Some tasks are linked to each other, e.g. a number you have to find is part of the coordinates of one of the following tasks.

At all the geo-caches we have to take photos showing the solution and proving that we were really there, i.e. also showing one of us or the car.

Most of the tasks are not hard to accomplish, but there are many of them and finishing all is time consuming. Hardcore racing teams often spend all the night to finish the tasks.
We don’t want to win the race, but of course don’t want to be the last either. We try to finish 30-50% of the tasks each day.

The camp tonight is the first one in the dunes this year, I am blogging sitting in a camping chair and looking at billions of stars. A beautiful sight. It is cold and windy however, I will stop writing and go to bed now. Tomorrow is one of the longest stages of the whole rally, 750km on dirt tracks, about 15 hours to drive.

Today was the first full offroad stage, if we had not skipped the last part of it in lack of time, all the 600 kilometers would have been on dirt tracks. We were late in the morning and visited a Berber village en route and hence had to shortcut the last 200km on a tarmac road.

At today’s camp there are small 6-bed huts and we decided to spend 9 EUR per person to sleep in one of those. I had to do some repairs on Baby Beast’s front suspension (not yet finished, more about that tomorrow) and hence missed the dinner, but I was told that the barbecue and couscous were delicious.