Last night was freezing, even more so sleeping in a tent, which meant that, despite getting up early, we climbed into the truck eager to escape the cold.
After 177 km of liaison, including a full refueling stop, we started the stage on sandy ground but fast, traveling for quite a while at the truck speed limit of 140 km/h. Since the SSVs, small buggies, are limited to 130 km/h, we overtook a few before entering the dunes. Today, we traveled the entire stage on sand, long plains and valleys of sand, interspersed with rows of dunes. We crossed a row of dunes a few kilometers long and joined fast sand tracks along the plain, which is always flat because it is full of undulations and dips, as well as tracks used by the local population. Albert crossed the dunes with ease and skill, at a good pace, without ever getting stuck, and always looking for the easiest and fastest place to avoid risks.
Around the 200-km mark of the selective section, we got a flat tire in the right rear tire, which took us no more than 12 minutes. We continued to improve our technique and gain in skill. The rest of the stage passed without further incidents, on fast tracks at 140 km/h and crossing dunes until we reached the finish line. It was a long stage, 478 km, difficult but also fast and quite fun, with lots of course navigation in the dunes. Today's dunes, compared to yesterday's sand, were, in the words of a great Dakar sage and friend, much more erotic than the previous day's. We'll have to explore this topic of dune eroticism further. At the end, we had another 180 km of liaison to the country's capital. The anecdote of the day was that, barely 200 meters from the gas station, our Iveco stopped due to lack of fuel.
He consumed 800 liters of diesel to cover 477 kilometers of timed section, 100% sand, and 70 km of road. The narrator walked to the gas station, bought two 20-liter water jugs, emptied them, and filled them with diesel. Luckily, some fellow countrymen showed up for the rest stage and accompanied me back to the truck. By the time I arrived, Marc had already started the Iveco because a Dutch competitor, De Groot, lent us a 20-liter can of diesel. Without further ado, we entered the bivouac. Tomorrow is a well-deserved rest stage.
