By Ben Ade Heading east towards Tata, we decided to take a detour North to 'Ait Herbil'. There are known to many ancient rock carvings in this area worth a look. Etched in stone by artists from a time when the Sahara was still a lush jungle and swamp, with giraffes and rhinos roaming free. After a lot of walking in the mid afternoon sun, we had to give up on this particular search though as the heat was just too exhausting.
The desert dust was worse than usual today, a constant haze all around, although a lot seemed to be rising from the nearby landscape in huge clouds. Various flags were dotted around also, we asked a passer by if there was some event on in that direction. His reply was the first stage of 'The Moroccan Desert Challenge' was running today. Having never heard of this, further exploration was needed so we headed towards the dust clouds! We set up camp a few metres from the finishing point of stage 1, then wandered along the track area to get a better view of the action. The rally raid event seemed to be a big deal. There were stages for full size off road lorries, four wheel drive trucks such as Land Rovers, quads/buggy's and motorbikes. After watching various competitors tearing along the desert we spotted their main camp and service area for that night. Most of the competitors were western in origin so the gate staff didn't bat an eyelid as we headed in towards the site. Quite an amazing set up now lay ahead, service teams with entire articulated lorries as a garage, every kind of support vehicles imaginable including helicopters, whole teams of mechanics and staff for each competitor. There didn't appear to be any other spectators here, it seemed we had an imaginary VIP pass so took the opportunity to photograph these impressive all road vehicles. We were glad to see a good number of rally prepared Land Rover Defenders also. There was even a UK team with a rally prepped Defender and Freelander, they also had an enormous service lorry with no less than 4 Maggiolina roof tents on top, they don't do things by halves! The event is bound to have been televised, there were production cameras around and lots of press, we intend to look it up when a reliable wifi source next appears.
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