Rally Aicha des Gazelles: Day Two

By Helene Clemenson

Morocco World News

Neijakh, Morocco, March 24, 2012

The weather was bad for this technical challenging leg of the Rally: a trail of 175km on a very flat landscape which gave the Gazelles very little chance to properly navigate.

Visibility was very difficult due to light rain and slight sustained mist over the entire day.

Conditions have put to the test the capacity of the different teams to navigate.

A few segments were more challenging than others: especially those dotted with strange plants in the shape of football that made some parts of the trails look like mine fields.

Forced to navigate solely with their compass, team 166 managed to make it to the first 3 checkpoint without big difficulty. The 4th one was more of a challenge.

They cruised around it for almost 3h before losing their patience and deciding to go back to base camp before dawn.

The Moroccan team 218 managed to make it to the first checkpoint with no big difficulty, but was quickly confronted to the reality of vast flat terrains.

Their rivals, teams 193 had to cope with a flat tire. They made it back to base camp at 21: 45, completely exhausted.

The French actor, Bruno Solo, arrived at the Bivouac early in the evening to bring his support to the Gazelles. Given their standing ovation at his speech, they clearly needed a boost in motivation.