2nd Stage,Midelt - Merzouga,2012.

[Alfred Balban]

 Woke up at 7:00 am,got everyone up and had our breakfast,by 9:00 am we had to be back to the camp and attend the breifing of the days stage and get going,we arrived to find out that the time was set to european and not morocco's so we were one our late,never the less the organistion made our start and we started to hit the road to the liason stage on the tracks always respecting the local speed limits on the roads,the night before we had been discussing of making two groups out of the team as being so many vehicles it was taking us too long to organise and travel on the roads.

When we got to the entry of the tracks i decided not to enter as there were some sand areas that could be difficult for me being only on two wheel drive and that would delay more the team,so the team carried on on the tracks and I went to Erfoud to try and fix my front wheel drive,unfortunately it was not possible and I had to phone a friend mechanic from Zagora,Aziz from Garage Irki who I know since he was a kid,he would drive the nearly 300 kms to assist me with the spares I needed so I made my way from Erfoud by the old tracks and eventually hit the rallies tracks doing some waypoints which took me to the Albergue were the organisation was and the finnish line of the 2nd Stage,345 kms.

N. 144,Edgar and Stephen,Mitshibushi Montero V6,photo courtesey from Maroc Challenge Stage 2.

     

                                                                                          

                           

 

                  141,Louis & Albert,Mitshibushi Montero showing our Gibraltar colours!

 

As I had taken a short cut I was at the finnish line before the team and other participants of the advance stage,the participants of the adventure stage were there already and some were fixing up there vehicles with problems they had on the tracks.I got myself a mint tea from a friend who recongnised me and connected to the internet as we had wifi available,I took a look to the tracking system to find out it was yet not activated,I went to see Rui,one of the organisers and friend and he informed me that there were other teams having the same problem and that it would be sorted out in the day.

Alfred holding the Tracking system that never seemed to get activated.

Night time was getting near and there was no sign of the teams arriving,some that did arrive informed the organisation that there were many vehicles with problems on the track.I decided to go and visit my friend Mobarek from Takojt were we are going to stay at his Albergue,just 3 kms from the organisations camp.I was trying to get to the team by our CB radios with no avail,neither the mobiles were available so I insisted in calling until two hours later they answered and they were with the organisation handing in their GPS to get to the next stage of tomorrow.In this final stage count the team was 6th onwards on the list to the last of our team which was not bad counting we started an hour later.

I got my 4x4 and went to meet the team to guide them to the Takojt Albergue in the night,some vehicles had problems so they would not be able to start at the time on the next stage,we decided that we will get the vehicles done and then start the stage losing some of the way points to reach in time for the solidarity project at the school which will be the finnish line of the 3rd Stage.