A personal account by Dick Partridge.

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Firstly I must briefly explain that this was my second attempt at the Paris Dakar Rally. My first attempt was in the 1988 event when my co-driver Chris Louis and I were forced to abandon the rally due to excess lateness at the first competitive stage. Despite this early set back we continued to Dakar, and the experience gained was to assist me greatly in the 1989 attempt.

It is also noteworthy that the Paris Dakar Rally is the toughest motor sport event in the world, with a finish rate of about 25-30%. In other words, one may expect to finish once per 3 or 4 attempts according to this average, which obviously includes all teams, from the lavishly financed factory teams to lowly privateers like ourselves. It is with this fact in mind that 1 look back on both '88 and '89 with some degree of satisfaction. My thanks are due to everyone who helped me to put the show on the road, especially Richard Arbon Engineering, Keith Parker, Goddard & Co. Estate Agents, Phoenix Glass, Healeys Printers, East Anglian Motor Services, Orwell Motorcycles, Sealink Ferries, Universal Tyres, Midland Bank, Shane Goddard & Tony Miles. Also to my navigator Andy Davey, and special thanks to the entire Toleman Motorsport Team for their priceless help during the rally.

To relate the story properly I must start at the time I got back home from Dakar early in 1988. I really did not know what to do with myself for quite a while, but one thing that I did know was that I had not achieved my objective, and that I was not ready to give up! I knew that I was going again, but not much else. All that I had was a battered Isuzu Trooper, a bruised bank balance and a first class co-driver who no longer communicated with me. To expand on the last point this Rally puts immense pressure on personal friendships, and all but destroyed that of Chris and myself. If I have any regret it is that I had to find a navigator for '89,a fact that I did not finally accept until Just before the start.

The vehicle arrived home in late February, and locked in a sorry state. A lot of equipment had been stolen from it and a great deal of work and modification needed to be done. Basically my aim was to improve the power to weight ratio, by a slight increase in power and a drastic reduction in weight. All the glass was removed, except the windscreen, and replaced with aluminium sheet or clear plastic as necessary. The doors were striped of all trim and excess structural material, and many non vital components were discarded. I decided to use the same type of wheels and tyres, as they had performed very well, but a weakness an the rear axle was found, and a new axle case was strengthened accordingly. A new differential was fitted, as were new shock absorbers. The front suspension, which had been very bouncy, was given an extra pair of shock absorbers, and the spring loading reduced. A new fire extinguisher system was fitted, and the fuel system was completely redesigned and replaced, having been the cause of many of our problems in '88.

While all this was being done another task was the quest for sponsorship. I decided to delegate this job, but it was not started soon enough and the end result was disappointing. Whilst I am extremely thankful for the support I did receive it was not what had been hoped for, and the lack of a major sponsor severely limited my scope, especially concerning spares and support. But my commitment to go was made and there was no thought of pulling out at any time.

As the event drew ever closer every waking hour was spent working on the vehicle, many times until 3 or 4 O'clock in the morning. I suppose that this was not the ideal build up in some ways as it led to fatigue even before the start, but thankfully the vehicle was finally completed and road tested a few days before our departure to Paris, and a few days relaxation was possible. We arrived in Paris on December 21st and were able to unwind using the fine facilities of the hotel. It was a pleasure to meet the Rally organiser, Gilbert Sabine, that evening and he seemed to take a genuine interest in our efforts to compete. He told us that the Tunisian stages would be extremely hard on the vehicle, and wished us luck. It was obvious that he was looking forward to the event as much as we were, and he said that the hardest part of his job was done. I knew that for us the opposite was the case, indeed, compared with what was to come the preparation period had been a pic-nic!

Scrutineering was on December 23rd and presented no problems for us. The documentation checks took about one hour, and included a test of navigation skill, which shows the concern for safety from the organisers. The technical inspection bays were well set out and were open to the public, who showed great interest. The smooth and efficient progress through all the inspections and sticker fixing process was again a credit to the organisation. The whole job was made very easy and no-one showed a lack of good humour, even when language made communication difficult.

By the time Christmas eve arrived the whole place was alive with the Paris Dakar Rally. Competitors from all over the world gave the place a unique electric atmosphere, and I felt that everyone could not wait to Set away to Africa and what laid beyond. Some teams were clearly overcoming last minute problems, whilst many others were just making the most of the lull before the inevitable stbrm. There was a certain intensity in the air which is unique to a major event such as this, perhaps a nervous expectation mixed with hopeful anticipation of the forthcoming three weeks hard rallying.

Our only celebration of Christmas was dinner on Christmas Eve. There were about two hundred competitors and organisers at this very pleasant function, and we shared a table with two Portuguese journalists. The meal itself was disappointing, which is unusual in France, but this did not detract from the cheerful spirit of the occasion. The quantity of spirit consumed was very limited by most people, but one or two did fall off their chairs to our amusements expect we felt better than they did the next morning!

Christmas Day dawned cold and grey, and as our start time was not until ten past nine we were able to enjoy a relaxed breakfast. The first competitors to leave were the lorries, with a 5-30a.m. start, and we were pleased not to be going quite so early. Despite the fact that it was early on Christmas morning, and very cold and damp, there were very many people on the streets to see the rally ldave. The first part of the route to Barcelona took us through the centre of Paris past all the famous landmarks, and it was lined with enthusiastic rally supporters for mile after mile. Then we headed south, to the first of four major provincial towns at which we had to visit passage controls. Like the start itself, these passage controls all had a large ramp to drive up, and every competitor was introduced to the large crowds. The whole route was marked by spectators, with every small village and every road junction bearing groups of waving well-wishers. There were numerous offers of food and drink, but we concentrated on Setting to Barcelona in good time.

If the French had been enthusiastic about the Rally I Just can't find a word to describe the reception from the Spanish people. By the time we arrived in Barcelona it was mid-night, but the streets were absolutely thronged with people cheering and shouting. There was torn up papers used as makeshift confetti lying all over the streets, and several handfuls were thrown into our vehicle. Everyone wanted to shake our hands or Set autographs and souvenirs, and we were offered numerous drinks. It was impossible to move at more than two miles per hc)ur, and even then I was fearful of squashing peoples toes. At one point we could not move at all, and a group of youngsters grabbed the front nudge bar and bounced the car almost as high as I was expecting it to bounce in the desert stages! There were many cries of 'Engleesh!' as we went by, and the people often spoke to us and wished us good luck in our own languages felt that it was a pity that we could not do them the courtesy of speaking to them in their language, but this did not seem to worry then at all!

This fantastic welcome went on for about two hours, and despite the size of the crowd and the obvious excess of Christmas spirit in some of then there was not the slightest hint of any trouble. There were just genuine elated feelings and goodwill, with everyone extremely well behaved, and friendly. All in all it was a very heart warming experience.

We finally arrived at the parc ferme, and having given up hope of finding a taxi we caught the last tube train of the night to our hotel. It was already the small hours of boxing day and the prologue stage was not many hours away, so we tried to get some sleep.

On Boxing day morning we did not need to rush, and having met Ari Vatanen in the lift it was decided to have breakfast together. It was good to compare our situations, with Ari as the number one driver of the most richly financed team in the event, and ourselves as lowly privateers with perhaps one of the tightest budgets. Ari seemed to think that we were nearer to the original pioneering spirit of the Paris Dakar Rally, and we were all genuinely interested in each others endeavours. He clearly understood the extra hardships that we faced as a private entry with no support or mechanics, and I felt that he had a kind of respect for our dogged determination in much the same way as we respected his magnificent track record and reputation. It is rare that I feel privileged to have met a complete stranger but this was truly one such occasion.

The prologue was run over a ten kilometre stage set out on waste ground beside Barcelona docks. The surface was mainly hard packed earth, with a few wet soft patches. It was predominantly level, but very bumpy in places and very winding. The starts were given at thirty second intervals, and we neither caught up anyone nor got caught up by anyone. Our time was 8 minutes 58 seconds which placed us 140th. about two minutes behind the leaders in a field of around 250 cars. I was quite satisfied with this as it displayed a good balance of going for a good time without being so wild as to go off or crash and lose time. The importance of the prologue is that it decides the starting order for the first African special stage, in which extra daylight hours are a positive advantage. It does not count to the overall results of the Rally but is clearly of great importance. Starting order for the subsequent stages is decided by the latest available classification, so a poor time on the prologue can cause escalating problems, and vice versa.

The prologue almost ended in disaster for the Toleman Range Rover. Just before the finish line it rolled and caught fire, but fortunately was soon extinguished. Despite this problem they managed a creditable time of around 14 minutes.

Ari Vatanen also had a slight problem. He rolled his Peugeot, but still managed to finish in eighth positions thought that was quite remarkable. After the prologue there was very little to do except wait to Set an the boat. We passed the time on the dockside chating to other competitors, and enjoying the pleasant sunshine. In the evening we had a good meal with some of the Toleman team members, and eventually got aboard the ferry Just before mid-night. It had been an exciting day, with pleasing results, and after a couple of coffees we retired to our moderately comfortable cabin.

The crossing was really very good, with excellent food and calm seas. In marked contrast to the previous year the boat was very clean and there were no cockroaches crawling about! Towards the end it was becoming rather tedious, but there was no cause for complaint. After 29 hours we docked at. Tunis, with customs formalities already completed during the voyage. It was then that events ceased to go exactly to plan!

We were waiting in a car park just beside the docks to make our way to the start venue, and I decided to go to the bank across the road to change some money. I left Andy with the keys and suggested that if the queue moved he could keep our place in it. The queue did move, but unfortunately it moved about 15 kilometres, and when I returned from the bank the car park was almost empty. It was not long to our start time, so I started walking in the general direction. A policeman advised me that it was a long way to the start, and waved down a passing motorist. After explaining my problem to the driver 1 got into his wreck of a Fiat and he drove off in the opposite direction! I hoped that he knew what he was doing, and. eventually we arrived at the city centre. He painted in the direction of the start, I thanked him and briskly walked away. I am sure that there is no driving test or eyesight test for Tunisian drivers! After about half, a mile I got to the start, and competitors were already leaving, I started to run towards where my vehicle was parked still about three kilometres away, but after a short while a young lad on a moped picked me up and took me the rest of the way siting on the mudguard of his machine. Thanks to these kind people I was there with tine to spare, and with some measure of restraint I avoided a sense of humour failure when I was re-united with Andy!

The crowd at the start was almost as big as that in Paris, and again we were made to feel very welcome by our Tunisian hasts. The stage in front of us was a liason, that is to say non competitive, to the night stop at Tozeur 470 kilometers away. We arrived there without rushing and with time to spare, and enjoyed our first Africatours neal.(Africatours take on the task of feeding the rally, and do so from a large canten truck. They do an excellent job under difficult circumstances, and make a great contribution to the running of the event.) It was 2 a.n. by the time we crawled into our sleeping bags, and briefing was at 4-30 a.m. so we did not get much sleep. It is always very noisy in the bivouacs, with generators and power tools in use all night, and it was not easy to sleep.

It was now dawn an December 29th and we had the first African special stage to look forward tc).First there was a short liason to Kebili, then about 450 kilometres of special stage to Lorzot. The day was to finish with another liason of 350 kilometers to Ghadames just inside the Libyan border. I awaited this first special with some trepidation, remembering the problems of the 188 attempt, and hoping that we could go much further this time. The moment of truth was upon us, the preparation finished, even if not completed, and I was feeling very much an edge. I just wanted to Set an with it. The liason passed without any problems, then at last we were called up to the start line for the special. We collected our time card, checked crash helmets and harnesses and were away. One of my first thoughts was that the track seemed to be very firm and quite easy to follow, Just like the first few kilometres last year! I then realised how afraid 1 was of not bettering my first attempt, but thankfully there was now no time to dwell on such thoughts.

As the stage progressed it became very rough and I had to be extremely careful not to shake the vehicle too severely. Throughout the build up to this event I had been telling myself that to preserve the vehicle would be half the battle, and now I had to exercise that self discipline. I did find it hard to restrain myself, especially when more powerful cars drove past us showering us with fog like dust, but discretion prevailed in the main and we had no frightening moments! As if to emphasise how damaging this stage was to all the cars there were quite a few competitors already fallen by the wayside when we passed through. All the motorcycles and 139 cars had started before us, and the cars in particular seemed to be suffering. One that stuck in my mind was a Range Rover that had hit a huge bump and had torn off its front right hand suspension assembly. I felt great sympathy for all the crews that went out so early in the Rally, and eased off a little to improve my chances of not joining them! Although this was one of the shortest stages of the Rally I found it very tiring. It was the first so perhaps it was a matter of Setting used to it, and also it really was rough which made it difficult to keep hold of the wheel for much of the time. Navigation did not present any problems, indeed I thought how well Andy coped on his first competitive stage. We only took one wrong fork in the track, which we very quickly cottoned on to and corrected with minimal lost time. After a little less than five hours we sighted the finish control, and I sensed a great relief at having completed at least the first special. All that we had to do now was an easy liason to the bivouac and a good nights sleep, or so I thought. The early part of the liason was indeed very straight forward,and we made good time on the hard packed wide open tracks. One minor disaster struck at this time, as I was overtaking a press Landrover it threw a large rock from its wheel right into my windscreen. My immediate thought was 'thats O.K. it's a laminated screen!' but I ducked anyway. Andy was not looking at the time so the enormous bang shocked him more than it did me, and the nett result was a badly damaged screen. The rock had almost come through, just above my side windscreen wiper, and the screen was cracked just where I wanted to look through it. It was to prove to be an inconvenience, but could have been worse. The going remained quite easy until after dark, but then it changed quite dramatically. It became very soft and sandy, and quite narrow in places. Many vehicles were becoming stuck, and it was difficult to pick a-way past them sometimes. Again memories of endless digging in last years first stage came flooding back, but fortunately we did not get stuck this time. I think that the reason for this was that the vehicle was so much better this time, indeed if we had been carrying the same weight this year we would not have got through without more trouble. Despite our relatively easy passage of this part our progress was none the less quite slow by now, and I dared not rest for fear of going over the maximum time allowed for the stage. As we got closer to the Libyan border the road looked more and more disused, and the roadbook gave warnings of minefields that we were advised to avaid. This we managed to do, and eventually we arrived at the border control pc)st,comfc)rtably within our time limit.

Throughout the build up to the Rally one of our concerns was that we had to cross Libya, and as we approached the border we wandered what sort of reception we and our Union Jacks painted on the sides of the car would receive. It transpired that our fears were groundless. The documentation checks were very thorough, but were done cheerfully and efficiently by the customs officials. We were made to feel very welcome, and were given gifts of cake and a book about Libya.(Sadly we lost the book!) After obtaining some Libyan Dinars we had to queue for petrol for rather a long while, and we would have preferred to be sleeping. Eventually we had purchased the cheapest fuel of the Rally and headed to the bivouac about twenty kilometres away. As Andy pitched the tent 1 checked over the vehicle and was shocked to find that the front of the chassis was cracking quite severely. Also I noticed that there was a massive oil leak from the power steering and the inner front wings were cracking. Despite easing off on the special stage the vehicle had incurred substantial damage and urgent repair was needed, especially to the chassis.

Fortunately for us the Toleman team was willing and able to assist us. They welded the chassis as well as was possible in the conditions, and I cut off the front nudge bar which was mounted in such a way as to agravrate the problen. This meant the loss of the auxilary lights, which was not too much of a problem, but what concerned me more was that we could not repair the power steering. I had visions of coining home with arms like Popeye, but as it turned out the car was still quite easy to drive without the power steering. These problems caused another night with very little sleep, and I felt at the time that our chances were rapidly diminishing. But at least we managed to get plenty of food, and having thanked Tolemans mechanics we finally got into the tent at 'about 3a.m. One other little point to which I did not pay much attention was that there was a slight noise coming from the rear axle.

As the event had been progressing we had become more and more involved with and attached to the Toleman Team. They were helping us in any way they could, and we did what we could for them. Although this event starts off like any rally with everyone concerned mainly for themselves, as the Paris Dakar goes on everyone is reminded of the enormous task that it is, and a special spirit evolves, especially between fellow countrymen. Already we were in a situation where we would do anything possible to help each other, almost as if we were wanting there to be someone out there who owed us a good turn.(I hasten to add at this point that throughout the event the assistance we received from Tolemans far outweighed what we could do for thp-m, and I record my heartfelt gratitude to them all.)The feeling that this spirit gave me was what I imagined to be the feeling in a war effort; the ,enemy' being the Rally course and victory being to finish, with everyone working beyond the call of duty to acheive that victory.

It was now Friday December 30th. and we were up after just two and a half hours sleep for briefing and breakfast.Tc)days Programme was a liason of 110 kilometres to Darj,a special of 469 kilometres to Idri and finally a liason of 237 kilometres Sabha. Although the vehicle was rather the worse for wear I felt far more at ease than the previous day because at least we had got the first stage completed, and the pressure of having to do better than last year was off. The liason Was all good road and presented no problems and we soon found ourselves on the start line again.

The first part of this stage was fairly easy going, but navigation was a little difficult and we took an unintentional detour of about ten kilometres before getting back an track. It was the fastest stage so far and I was a bit frustrated by our lack of horsepower, although there were many vehicles that we were passing. Great care was needed when overtaking or being overtaken because of the thick dust that was being thrown into the air.The problem was worse where we took the wrong turning, because several of us had done the same thing and there was an area of confused two way traffic in the murk. Thanks to everyone using headlights we all avoided each other but it was nerve wracking for a while. Fairly early on in the stage was a straight of about 200 kilometres, all fairly smooth, but with just enough hazards to keep me awake! It would have been better for us if more speed had been possible, and this part of the stage became quite tedious after a while. Then, as predicted in the road book, there was a very sudden change of terrain. We had to negotiate a very steep narrow descent, which was strewn with rocks and boulders, and with many sharp, belnds and big draps. We reduced speed drastically for this part and soon we were in a rocky valley. The going became progressively more difficult, and our problems were heightened by a major inaccuracy in the road book. A landmark described as a wrecked Hercedes did not appear when expected, but we had to press an and keep looking. Ve came to a point where the roadbook directed us 900 right, but the only visible track was 900 left, and it seemed that everyone had gone left,so we followed suit. This led to an extremely difficult patch, and many vehicles were stuck in a sandy river bed.Once again we managed not to get stuck, and picked a path around the rocks and the few trees and bushes that managed to survive in this wilderness. After a few fruitless attempts we found a way out of the river bed onto a track that seemed to be in the right direction, so we took a chance and followed it. After 20 kilometres of uncertainty we were very pleased to see a wrecked Mercedes that we had expected to find way back, and this confirmed our position. This was the first major mistake in the roadbook, and it taught us to take it with a pinch of salt sometimes!

Thereafter the going was slow and difficult, but we managed to make reasonable progress, and were not too pressed for time. Towards the end of the stage the Toleman Range Rover passed us, but I was unable to keep up with them without thrashing our vehicle too much. The going became easier again for the last few kilometres and we finished the stage Just after the Tolemans, who had stopped to wait for us at the finish. We stopped there for a while and chatted about the stage before starting the liason section to Sabha.Thc-- liason was again on good road, but we had to watch our speed as the Libyan police were out in force, and had promised to stop anyone who was seen going too fast.

We arrived at Sabha in plenty of time, to the now customary queue for fuel, and I inspected the vehicle for damage. The chassis had cracked again, although not as badly as beforehand no further damage was evident, Tolemans mechanics repaired the chassis again, and we were more or less ready for another days rallying. My confidence in the vehicle was growing again as the chassis did not seem to be getting much worse, and I felt that I could nurse it for a long way yet. In order to get a little more sleep it was decided that just one of us should attend drivers briefing in the morning, and relay any relevant detail to the rest of us over breakfast. We drew the short straw, and the next morning the Toleman crews had a lay-in! It was still extremely cold at night, and Andy was suffering somewhat due to an inadequate sleeping bag. In fact he spent a couple of nights in the car as it was slightly warmer for him there. The bivouac at Sabha was relatively civilised, with a shower block near by and also quite a large town. However, one look at the washing facilities made me feel a lot cleaner than I really was, and I declined the chance to use them.

The programme for New Years Eve was a liason of about 150 kilometres to El-Gleib, followed by a selective stage of 425 kilometres to Tumu, on the border of Libya and Niger. The day started with major problems for Tolemans Metro, which having started up alright first thing in the morning then stopped and refused to run. The rules state that any vehicle more than 30 minutes late after its due start time is excluded,and there were frantic attempts made to get the Metro going. Our departure time approached and we left the bivouac area to cross the start line and collect our time card.1 then parked my vehicle and left Andy to look after it and rushed back to help with the, Netro. We finally managed to get it started, and with seconds to spare it passed the start line without being excluded. I was now a little short of time to complete the liason section without penalty, and left the Toleman team to finish a few little bits and pieces on the Metro. We hoped that they would catch us up during the liason but this did not happen. It was all good road to the special stage start, and we arrived with time to spare.

The special stage followed a trail in the sand dunes for 35 kilometres in an easterly direction, then turned due south across bare desert with nothing to navigate by except compass headings. This was by far the most difficult stage for navigation so far, but it was fairly smooth and I was glad to be able to get along quite quickly without having to worry about the vehicle too much. Again I felt that more power would have been welcome, but I was pleased with our @rogress..

The passage control oh this stage was described as being beside an old fortress about 210 kilometres into the stage. Unfortunately our trip stopped working at around the 180 kilometre mark, and for a while we were uncertain of our precise position. Other Rally vehicles could be seen traveling in the same direction as us both to the left and right of us for as far as the eye could see, and we knew that this was the right heading, so we carried on and kept a sharp lockout for the landmark that we wanted to see. After what seemed like an eternity we spotted an old fort and drove towards it, only to find no passage control. Obviously it was the wrong place, so we had no option but to press on as well as we could with our inaccurate position to work from. I decided to stop looking for the control and accept the 3 hour penalty for missing it, and concentrate on finishing the stage within our time limit, as failure to do this leads to a 10 hour penalty. There were several recent looking tyre tracks in the sand to lead or mislead us, and Andy was exercising inspired guess work to give me directions. I noticed that he was thumbing through the road book and searching the horizon rather more than usual, and he said that he thought that we would still come across the elusive passage control. I suppose that this was the closest we came to actually being lost, and I said nothing rather than pour scorn on his optimism. But then after another 25 or so kilometres he Save me a few franticaly pointed directions and we found ourselves pointing directly at an old fort, this time complete with its passage contral. Suddenly our circumstances had improved tremendously; we now knew our exact position, and the trip was working again. The road book told us that we had another 100 kilometres to drive on compass headings, which would lead to a fast and easily visible track to the end of the stage. There were warnings of fech fech at this point, which is a thick hanging dust reducing visibility to almost zero, but this did not materialise. There were occasional land marks such as old tyres or oil drums, and we completed the stage without further difficulty and in daylight. I was surprised to see that a lot fewer cars had finished before us than had started before us, as 1 did not think that we had passed very many in the stage. The only conclusion I could reach was that some had more severe navigation difficulties than we did.

Having finished the days driving so early we were looking forward to some extra sleep,but this was not to be. We were in a queue of about 60 cars waiting for fuel, with just one pump to fill them all. It was eight hours before we reached the tanker, and I still had to do a few jobs to the vehicle. One compensation was that Africatours had arranged something special to eat for New Years Eve, and we tucked in to duck with orange sauce, preceeded by smoked salmon.Whilst in the queue for fuel we kept looking at cars arriving, hoping that the Xetro would be next, but it did not arrive.It turned out that they got some way into the liason stage, but it then broke down again and they could go no further;We eventually settled down for the night, which despite being a lot further south by now was still very cold, in the knowledge that the next days stage was to be one of the longest of the event.

New Years Day damned bright and windy, and there was to be no liason section; it was straight into the special from Tumu to Dirkou. We knew it was to be a long day, so we made the most of breakfast before making our way to the start line. The stage started in a southerly'direction, and was quite good going for about 50 kilometres, before turning west along a little used track between the Plateau du Nangueni to the north and the Plateau du Djado to the south. This track followed the path of a river bed, and was extremely rough and progress was now very slow. After a couple of hours on this track we passed a fork in the ro ' ad that we were not expecting to see, and the next 50 kilometres were rather uncertain, because not much in the road book tied up with landmarks. One or two cars we're coming back in the o posite direction, but we decided to stick to.our guns and the track seemed to take us on the correct heading. As we continued more landmarks turned up where expected, but this still could have been coincidental as they were not very specific. They were mostly ditches or trees which could easily have slotted into the picture given by the road book. This uncertainty was compounded by the fact that the trip was playing up again, but we were sure enough of ourselves to press on along the track. By this time the Rally was well spread out, and we did not see any other competitors for considerable lengths of time.

This westerly track seemed to go on forever and the terrain was getting worse. There were huge areas of flat black plain, with volcanic looking boulders scattered everywhere, intersperced with sparce vegitation. It was vital to pick a path through the rocks in such a way as to avoid damage to wheels and tyres, bui at the same time keep a reasonable pace to avoid going over the time limit. We became increasingly confident that we were on the right track and this was finally confirmed when we found the passage control. The marshal told us that the going got better from now on, which we were very pleased to hear, as our average speed to this point was well below that needed to avoid penalties. At last we were heading south, which meant that we had reached the half way point of this stage, and the surface was gradually improving as predicted. The scenery was still truly breathtaking but there was not time to really appreciate it.

As we reached mid afternoon progress was good, and we saw a few other vehicles in the stage. We still had a long way to go and 1 wanted to cover

as much ground as possible before dark, but we were to encounter a couple of delaying problems. The first was when we took a wrong turn that led us into a large valley area, with patches of very soft sand between outcrops of dark rock and firm boulder covered ground. We went some way into this area before realising that it was wrong, and there were two other cars looking for a way out as well. It turned out that the only way was the way we came in and we retraced our tracks accordingly. We got back onto the correct route having lost about 15 minutes, and just as we were getting going again I hit a sharp rock and punctured a tyre. As we changed the wheel the two cars that we left in the valley passed us, and this spurred us on in our endeavour. The damaged tyre and wheel was abandoned where it was thrown from the back axle, and after five minutes we were moving again.

Then as I, drove around the base of a small mountain there was an area of deep sand to negotiate, and for the first time of the event we got stuck.1 did not help the situation by trying to drive out of the sand in reverse, as this Just led to rather more digging than would have been necessary. We took out the shovels and sand ladders and were soon once again on our way, aware that time was not an our side.

After these unwelcome halts the track became good and the last hour before sunset was to be the most enjoyable piece of driving I have ever experienced. The track was firm, with shallow sand on most of its surfaceand it had some tight bends and sweeping curves that seemed to Just flow together perfectly. It was a fast piece of trackand the vehicle felt alive as it danced and slid around at my command. It seemed to be running and handling better now that it was carrying one less spare wheel and the fuel load was reducing, and I was in my element like never before.

As dusk approached the track became more difficult to follow, and this stage became a hard slog to the finish. There was an increasing number of motorbikes beside the stage which seemed to have run out of fuel, and I was becoming concerned about our fuel level. One motorcyclist waved us down to ask for fuel, and said that he had been stranded for six hours. We were unable to give him fuel, but he was glad of a food pack and an aluminium survival blanket, as it was again very cold by now.

The last 200 kilometres of this stage were straight along a sandy river bed from a tiny settlement named Pic Zoumri to Dirkou, and it was a question of following compass headings again, confirmed by the tracks of competitors that had passed before us. We were very tired by now and it seemed to take ages to cover this part of the stage. Fuel was running low by now and I eased off the accelerator a little to conserve this precious commodity. We finally arrived at Dirkou with three or four gallons of fuel remaining and less than an hour to spare on our permitted time.

There was no qeue for the petrol tanker, indeed there was no tanker! We had to purchase fuel in 45 gallon drums and there were about a dozen locals all trying hard to get the business. Unfortunately this competition did not have any effect on the price of the fuel, which was about t280-00 for a drum. We were in no position to argue, so we filled up as quickly as possible and went to find the food truck. We had been driving for over 14 hours non stop and were very hungry. As we reflected on the event so far we were pleased that no time penalties had been incurred, and that so little time in stages had been wasted with punctures and digging. My main concern was still the chassis, although the axle noise was Setting worse, and that night I felt that to finish the Rally was very much on the cards, Tolemans mechanics again repaired the chassis for us that night, and we went to sleep looking forward to the next days stage that was to take us across the Grand Erg de Bilma in the Tenere desert.

We got a little more sleep that night, and had more time to spare on the morning of January 2nd.,as there was no liason section and with a diminishing field the organisers were giving later start times. It was getting on for 11 o'clock when we started the 580 kilometre stage, and the sun was a lot stronger now that we were just 19 degrees north of the equator.

The first few kilometres of the stage were not too bad, but at 30 kilometres the road book warned of Zassec which is a very soft dry zone. The lorries had to take a different route at this point as this soft ground was impossible for them to cross, and there were a lot of vehicles in difficulties through this area. Palm groves and ancient ruins made good landmarks here and we passed through a little village called Bilma, where the locals were out in force to watch the Rally pass. After this village we were into open desert and there were numerous warnings in the road book of steep drops off dunes, and soft ground. We were following compass headings again, winding our way through little valleys formed between impassable dunes, and the ground was very soft. The vehicle was struggling to get through it at times, and we saw a lot of people digging themselves out of the sand. The passage control was near a settlement named Zoo Baba, and was situated on a very soft muddy piece of ground Just outside this village. To avoid getting stuck here everyone had to keep moving; to stop would have meant problems for sure. At every passage control it is necessary to get a rubber stamp on the back of your time card, and because no one could stop the poor marshal was running about in all directions trying to stamp time cards that were being held out of the windows of moving vehicles. I did not envy him his job, indeed it looked difficult enough to just stand up on the sticky surface here, let alone spend all day chasing rally cars!

After this point the ground soon dried out again and the sand became ever softer. The dunes were larger tooi and extreme caution was required when crossing them. The slope up a dune would be relatively shallow, but the other side was very often almost a sheer drop. lt was impossible to see how bad the other side was until the top of the dune was reached, but if you drove too slowly up it you would get stuck before the top. The art was to roar up the dune and then brake fairly hard Just before the top so that you were almost at a standstill at the peak. If the drop was not too steep it was then alright to accelerate down the other side, but if it was almost sheer you could gently slither down to the bottom. There were places where several vehicles were stuck on the way up the larger dunes and we tried to drive around them without losing our momentum. Sometimes it was beneficial to drive at an angle to the face of the dune to reduce the effective gradient, and other times we would find an alternative route around them. The stage was going very well for us so far, but then we did Set stuck, and had to start digging. It was quite easy to get moving again if I resisted the temptation of trying to drive on when we were stuck, but if I didn't resort to the shovels soon enough the car would dig itself in up to both axles very quickly, and the process of getting un-stuck was much longer. Sometimp-s it was possible to anticipate that we were about to get stuck, and by stopping gently it was possible to then reverse back and take another run at it without getting stuck. We saw one vehicle stuck right at the top of a dune, with the front wheels one side and the back wheels the other. The driver had tried to press on instead of digging and as ai result none of the wheels were touching the ground! We wondered how long he would be there, and cautioned ourselves to learn from his mistake.

The track was marked for much of the way by long wooden stakes and, I was unable to avoid hitting one of these because of two vehicles stuck in the way and the need for us to drop off a dune whilst at 90 degrees to the top of it. Andy thought that I had hit it deliberately, but this was not so. It was very demanding driving on this surface, extreme concentration was needed, and I was finding it extremely hard work. But it was much harder for the motorcyclists, and we were catching up many of then by now. They were getting stuck as well, and some of them looked absolutely exhausted as they tried to lift up their machines or push them out of the sand. At one point I stopped to wait for Andy who was picking up our sand ladders after we had been stuck, and 3 motorcyclists were glad to be offered some water as they paused beside their bikes for a brief rest.

A little later in the stage we saw a Mitsubishi Pajero broke ' n down on the track, and we were sorry to see that it was Andy Cowan. Ye stopped to see if we could help him at all, but we could'nbt, and after briefly wishing each other well we drove on. Within 500 meters of seeing Andy out of the Rally we very nearly went out ourselves. I misjudged a smallish dune and went too quickly over the top. The vehicle then dropped quite heavily onto its nose, and for a second it felt as if it was going to go end over end. Luckily it ran out of momentum just before the point of no return, and fell back onto its wheels. The front was well and truly embeded into the sand, and it took us ten minutes to dig it free. The front was a bit pushed in, and the fans were touching the radiator, requiring immediate attention. It was nearly half an hour before we got going again, and at the time 1 was cursing our luck, but with hindsight I suppose we were lucky not to have broken the radiator or put the vehicle on its roof! The going was still quite difficult, with compass headings to gui - de us, and a warning in the road book that no measure of danger was indicated by the few signposts. 'Faire Tres Attention!' it said omenously.

After 300 kilometres the terrain changed gradually, with more grass appearing and it got rather more bumpy. We were able to make better progress in the late afternoon, as we crossed a massive flat plain, but soon after it got dark the track became very rough and our speed was again very much reduced. In order to preserve the transmission I was using two wheel drive wherever possible, and this was working very well until very suddenly an area of soft sand covered the track. We got badly stuck here and another vehicle was just leaving the area having been dug out. We cleared the sand from the wheels and I drove off, but as soon as I got off the sand ladders the car got stuck again. This reminded me of the time in last years Rally when we were finally rescued from our predicament by Tolemans larry, and it took about six attempts to get clear of this unexpected obstacle. Once I got moving I did not want to stop before reaching firm ground, so Andy had a long walk to the vehicle, carrying sand ladders and shovels.

Because of the problems we had encountered we were now behind schedule, and it looked as if we might get a time penalty. The back axle was getting very noisey and again I was trying to go as fast as possible without wrecking the vehicle (any more).We managed to keep a fair pace and we were hopeful of avoiding a penalty almost to the end. But the stage was just a little longer than expected, and we did finally go over time limit by about 12 minutes, and therefore incured a ten hour penalty.

We arrived at the bivouac, found the Tolemans Range Rover and set camp there. There were not many competitors there, and the Africatours truck had not managed to Set there either, so there was no food! An enterprising local had slaughtered a goat and was roasting it over an open fire, but the head and guts laying beside this crude barbecue put us off the meat, even if they were testimony to its freshness! The next job was to re-fuel, and this must have been the most expensive fuel on earth. Again it was only available in drums, and we nearly ended up with diesel fuel instead of petrol. The price was f320-00 per drum, which works out to about Z7-20 per gallon, and then they wanted a tip! This was the most remote part of the route so I hoped that this price was a one off.

After an inspection of the vehicle and a couple of packets of peanuts we were glad to crawl into the tent. WP- were as tired as we had ever been by now, and were looking forward to arriving at Agadez the next day (vehicle permiting) where a days rest was scheduled.

We got up on January 3rd. to find that the Africatours truck had still not arrived, which meant no breakfast or caffee. It is easy to see why it didn't arrive if you look at the map, and whilst we - were not very happy about it we did understand their problem. Todays stage was scheduled to be 535 kilometres, with the first 350 kilometres across the Grand Erg Tenere, and the rest on a rough track heading west into Agadez. We started at about 10~30 a.m. and the track was narrow and rough. We were heading north west beside the Nassif de Termit, and after about 50 kilometres we left the track to cross open desert again. The surface was now savanah like, with enough grass to make it appear quite green, and we were able to go fairly quickly. The rear axle was making a dreadful noise now and I was trying to coax the car to Agadez where we would have time to investigate the problem. There were a few trees around us now and we were following the course of a dried up river bed for a little way. We then exited the river bed, and found ourselves in a very sandy part of the erg. The road book told us to head in a north westerly direction and pick a route around the dunes that appeared impassable.

Disaster struck at 3~30 p.m. while I was trying to cross a particlarly soft patch of sand. I had no option but to use full power across this patch, and the rear differential finally broke.1 was not all ' that surprised because the noise from it was Setting really bad and I knew that failure of this key component was imminent. "Thats your lot" I said to Andy, knowing that we would be going no further. We did try to keep going using just the front axle, but without a limited slip differential one wheel would spin and dig in as soon as I tried to move, and it was obvious that our Rally had ended. We were just 150 kilometres from a much easier track, but it might as well have been a million miles away for what use it was to us now. Very little was said for a while, and we set about pitching the tent and having a little food. Several vehicles were passing us, in both directions, and we care to the conclusion that we were slightly off track. Some of then were a bit confused as they passed us numerous times before finding their way beyond this insurmountable mass of sand. We put a flashing warning light in line with the tent and as soon as it got dark we went to sleep.

Now that I had time on my hands I reflected on the state of the vehicle. The windscreen was broken, the power steering was not working, the chassis was broken at the front and starting to crack at the rear, an engine mounting was broken, as was a gearbox mounting, the front wings were cracking as a result of thr front chassis being braken, and of course the rear differential was broken. All that remained to do was to sit tight and hope that we would not be stuck for too long.

The first job in the morning was to set up a ground to air signal to let search aircraft know that we were alright but unable to continue, and to help them locate us we switched on the electronic locator beacon. About 4 hours after the beacon was switched on a light aircraft came overhead and indicated that he had seen us, and we switched off the beacon, thinking that a helicopter would soon arrive. Evening fell and nothing had happened, so we got ready for another night in the desert. The following day we waited in hope again, but because there was a sandstorm blowing we decided not to use the beacon as our situation was not particularly desperate. We still had a little water and food, and we knew that the organisers were aware of our approximate position.