The Torture of the Dakar

 

 

 

What a race! How would I describe it?  If you asked me that whilst I was riding it or just after I would have said "A torturous, horrendous, petrifying, nightmare".  With hindsight an amazing, but somewhat traumatic, experience.  No matter what, I was getting to the end and no matter what, I did.  Cyril Despres did the specials in 51.10.37 hours, I did them in 109.57.46, minus 11 hrs penalty = 98.57.46.  He could have done the specials  twice and still come in only 4hrs behind me.  60% of motorcycles didn't finish.  Here's my story of how I got through the "toughest motorsport race in the world".

 

When you see the Dakar on the telly and look at the glossy photos it looks amazing, the scenery looks spectacular, the crowds look awesome and the riding fantastic.  They do an amazing marketing job!  The truth of it is, you do see a lot of the country but most of the scenery is the same - barren, dry desert for days and days and days - by the end I was hanging out to see some greenery, the riding is great for the first couple of days but on about day 4 after 8 hours of riding stony desert you feel like you've been hanging onto a pneumatic drill and wish for some sand, yippee they give you a bit of sand, 6 hours later in the sweltering heat you get abit fed up with it and pray for a bit of tarmac but not a 390k section after riding for 14hours already.  That is the torture of the Dakar, it's just an extremely long rally which is designed to wear you down so you no longer want to live and definitely don't want to see a motorbike ever again!

Forget the build up to the race, that's another story , but by the time you get out there you've probably put in a years work, spent all your savings, taken a loan out, nearly split up with your partner and nearly given your parents a heart attack.  Don't get me wrong I feel extremely fortunate to have had to opportunity to take on such a race but it takes so much more that you think to even get to the start line.

Signing on and scruitneering:

About 2 months before the start of the rally the bikes and all your spares are boarded on a large ship sailing from Le Harve to South America.  It's such a relief to finally get rid of the bike after months and months of prep.  All you've got time to do now is worry and get Christmas over with.  During this period of panic attacks you get sent a time to pick up your bike from the docks in BA and be at the signing on venue (in this case La Rural Buenos Aires). 

Our first experience of proper Dakar was walking into the huge signing on hall.  It was very swanky - not like the Welsh enduros where you get sent into the back of a horse trailor.  They give you a card with about 16 spaces for stamps on and send you into a hall with lots of different stands you negotiate yourself around not really knowing what you're meant to be doing, but showing different bits of paperwork, having demonstrations on the irratrack and GPS (somehow I missed that one), having your photo taken and signing lots of bits of paper, after about an hour and a half you get your final stamp and pop out the other side with a bottle of wine - only the French.  Then you have an hour to get your bike to scrutineering, again you negotiate yourself around a number of different stands - signing onto the Elf oil deal, having your numbers put on your bike and jacket.  Your safety equipment and noise level are checked a few people failed that one on their first attempt and then you have your engine marked.  I really enjoyed it, it was our first chance to see the other bikes, cars and trucks and really feel part of it.  You could feel the excitement and anticipation in the air.  After passing all the tests they sent us off to Parc Ferme,  Phew!!!  Round the corner up onto a podium in front of thousands of people - What!! that was abit of a shock, no one told me about that bit, I babbled my way through my first interview dropped the bike off then got mobbed by the crowd.  Everyone wants a photo, something signed, you to hold their babies, doesn't really matter who you are they just love it.  After battling my way out of the frenzied crowds I made it to the Red Bull Competitors tent for some great food, drink, breakdancing and Skateboarding - I could get used to this VIP treatment.

 Day one was crazy, the streets were lined with an estimated 300 thousand people going mental, we rode through the city then had to wait for another podium.  As I sat there waiting I started to panic that I wasn't going to make it up the podium ramp.  During all of the Dakar prep, I'd hardly had time to ride and got it into my head that I'd forgotten how to do it.  It was so hot that whilst we were waiting I took my helmet off and wandered up to the ramp to have a look - Looking back it was a ridiculous fear.  Then I thought I'd lost my helmet and the crowd had stolen it.  My heart stopped as real panic set in.  I had to sit down and take some deep breaths and then remembered where I'd put it.  Of course the podium was no problem, we then had to fight our way out of the city - People were swarming all over the motorways,  for 317 ks the route was lined with the Argentinean crowds.  Id never seen anything like it.  Im really glad the first day was just a liaison as it was very nerve racking and it gave everyone a chance to see how the bikes were running and get used to the navigation and actually just riding again.  We arrived at the bivouac quite early, kinda had time to suss out how it all worked - Its an amazing set up, large food tents, medical tents, technical tents where you can go on the internet, portable showers.  In fact the whole organisation as a whole was excellent and there were so many staff.  Patsy Quick and her team had our tents up for us and our flight box out, which we were to live out of for the next 2 weeks.  Mine was mostly packed with virtually a whole spare Yamaha.  I'd decided to ride a 450 yam instead of a KTM.  Patsy had a lot of KTM spares that the rest of the team could use but no Yam spares so id bought everything which left very little space in the box for anything else. I managed to squeeze a sleeping bag, yoga mat and some clothes etc in and actually quite a lot of food bars as well as a pharmacy and some lucky stones that my sister had sent to me from Australia.

Day One:  Getting started. Colon Corboda: Liaison 349 km, special 219km, Liaison 84km

 The special was a mix of wide open fire roads and river crossings, we were separated from the cars which was a blessing, it was a short stage and shortened even more by the rain and floods.  I managed to drop the bike right in front of a large crowd and the throttle stuck open so lost a bit of time sorting that out, but I'd got through the first day.  Phew!!

Earlier in the day I'd had to siphon some fuel from Paul Carlisle's bike as I assumed that there would be fuel at the start of the stage - 1^st lesson - never assume anything on the Dakar

 I also got my first penalty for speeding, I thought I was dead on with the road book but the GPS picks up your exact spot and there's a mark on the screen that warns you the speed limit is coming up, I didn't know this so had a time penalty of 2 minutes.

 It was great that a 450 won the day - in fact the Sherco of David Castou.

 

Day Two - Welsh rally Cordoba - La Rioja Liaison 56kms, Special 294 km, Liaison 276kms

 I loved this stage, it was wet sloppy and a chance to overtake some riders for the first time.  It could have been in the Hafren forest.  Again they split the cars and the bikes until the last 20k and me and Andrew Neri were the last riders to get in before the cars caught the bikes.  Duncan Tweedy had a big off and this was the beginning of the end for him.  Again got another penalty for speeding just after the special - Damn caught out again. 

Day Three: The day from Hell!!! La Rioja - Fiambala One of the most traumatic days of my life  Liaison 259 kms Spec 183 kms

 77 competitors went out on this stage.  Our first sand of the rally and they sent us into a deep sandy wadi, people were off all over the place and I really struggled to even get the bike moving.  It rutted out really quicky and was really hard to ride, it must have taken a couple of hours to get out of it, then into some fesh fesh.  The race was warming up and so was the weather.  That was about quarter of the stage out the way, then into the soft soft sandunes, my bike was really struggling to get up the dunes and I thought that I had made a really bad choice with the 450 and it just didn't have the guts.  I was riding with Andrew Neri at the time and told him I was just gonna have to find a route around the big dunes as the bike didn't have enough power, so off we went making out own track, it was all going well until I rode over the top of a small dune into a sand hole with Andrew straight after me, basically we both were stuck and to get each other out we had to get the tow rope out and haul each other out of a 'fine mess id got him into'.  It was blisteringly hot and we'd already drunk all the water from our camelbaks.  Just to get me back Andrew then led the way straight into another sand hole, luckily I didn't go in it but after hauling Andrews bike out we were both pretty knackered.  Andrew then decided that he was going to go back into the big dunes but with my bike losing even more power I decided that I was going to head towards what looked like the edge of the dunes and try to ride it out there.

 My bike seemed to be losing even more power and it must have got stuck another 5 times, these rally bikes are heavy and I was pretty dehydrated, I managed to get onto a bit of solid ground and was heading towards the edge of the dunes when the front wheel dug into some really soft sand.  I was totally knackered, dehydrated and id had enough, we must have been in the dunes for about 4 hours and been stuck for about 2 of them.  I left the bike on the floor, got the siphon pipe out and drank all the emergency water from the bash plate.  There was no shade and I needed to have a rest, I found this spindly little bush, hugged it, put my body armour over my head and fell asleep for what must have been an hour.  I was woken up by the sound of a helicopter landing nearby.  The medical team had spotted me and thought I was in trouble,  they bought some water over and asked if I wanted to stop the race.  My bike was still on the floor, it was struggling to produce any power and I was knackered.  "No, I'll be OK, just help me pick the bike up".  So they did and I sat there for another half an hour thinking about what to do next.  I hadn't seen any riders for the past couple of hours then I saw one heading over.  It was Tina Meier, she'd also had problems with her bike and had ridden a horse back to the bivouac to get her mechanic to come and help her.  We had a chat for abit then she said she had seen some cars on the horizon and she was going to head that way and get out of the dunes, it would mean missing some check points but she wasn't confident that her bike would make it anyway.  At that point I didn't really care about getting penalties so I said id go with her.

 It was a real relief to get out of the dunes and meeting up with the track in the distance we had no idea how many waypoints we missed and whether or not we'd be disqualified - you can only miss 3 waypoints in one day.  The going was flat for a while so my bike ran OK but as soon as we got on any inclines the power died.  We got into a little dunette section and I had problems again, every little dune the power went, in the end I told Tina to go on as it was getting late.  Most of the time if I timed it right I could get most of the way up then jump off and run with it, a few times I got stuck some locals would help me push it to the top.  This continued for what must have been for a couple of hours then it got stuck on quite a steep sandy hill.  I was gutted and knackered, then along came Andrew Neri who had got through the dunes.  He suggested I change the spark plug, I had already changed the filter but it had made no difference, so changed the spark plug - no difference.  It was starting to get dark and I still had about 60 k to go.

I was stuck on yet another sandy hill when a very nice French guy stopped.  "It's water in the fuel, many riders have it and many are stuck in the dunes".  He was surprised that id got so far and suggested I drain the tank and try and get some fuel from someone else.  A quad bike stopped and gave me a couple of litres but none of it seemed to work.  I sat there in the dark desperately disappointed and embarrassed I ever even thought I was capable of finishing this stooped race. I really thought it was over and that I had along wait for the sweeper truck to come and get me.  My last hope was to take the carb off, in the dark, and see if I could clean it, maybe something was in one of the jets.  Id never taken the carb off before just watched other people do it, so I kinda knew what to do there.  I had a little £1.99 torch, got my tools out and set to work.  Very slowly and methodically (which is not like me at all) I took the back end off the bike, loosened the airbox and got the carb off, just as I was undoing the throttle cables I saw some torch light in the distance and heard guys shouting "Allo allo".  Three French guys had walked 2 ks from the next checkpoint to find me to help me 'push' my bike out.  They'd bought food and water and said that I had to put my bike back together and that the rally was over for me.  Now I know that it's not over till it's over and even when the camion catches you up you can sign out of the rally and can still get yourself back to the bivouac in time to start the next day.  I kept trying to tell them that I wanted to clean the carb out not put it back together but in the end I was bullied into putting it back together.  I started it up pushed it to the top of the dune and it was bloody flat - all the way to the checkpoint, so I rode the bike to the checkpoint leaving my 3 French rescuers with along way to walk.  On arrival at the checkpoint I was told "Yes, you have time to carry on".  I just needed to get out of there before the three musketeers turned up, I had hardly any fuel so managed to blag a litre and I was told it was pretty flat now until the end - Yes, I was going to make it, but NO, it wasn't flat at all and 10 minutes later I was stuck up another sandy hill.  Again I sat there for what must have been an hour.  It was now 12.30am and id tried everything I could to sort the problem out, so I waited and waited and eventually I saw some truck lights, the only thing for it was to stop the trucks and ask for help.  The track was pretty narrow so I resorted to getting a truck to stop, help push me up the hill then get going pretty quickly so the next time I got stuck they were still behind me, id then strategically drop the bike so the truck couldn't get past, im quite surprised they didn't just drive over it.  This worked for a while until they got fed up with me and would race past on the flat. 

 Then my guardian angels turned up, I still had 20ks to go and id used my truck trick on 2 trucks already and was stuck yet again on another sandy hill.  The third truck had 2 dutch guys in and after helping me up the hill they stopped and we had a chat. They were one of the last trucks and said they had tried to help many bikes in the dunes.   One was a good mechanic and had a look at the bike to realise I only had a tiny bit of fuel left, they had about a litre left in there generator which they gave to me then one of them said to me 'Don't worry we will help you get to the end'.  They followed me all the way to the end, helping me up all the stoopid hills, on the way they stopped to tow a car which had broken down - What superstars!!   When we got to the finish they said "Tamsin you are very tough, if you get stuck again in the rally, you wait, we will come".  I had my very own support truck!!

 I got back at 2.30am, Zippy and Bernie were waiting for me.  I was told to go straight to see the organisers, they told me I was going to get maximum penalties and that as I was to start the next day at 5.30am I would need to get clearance from the dr that I was fit enough.  After eating and sorting myself out I got 1 hour sleep went to see the dr the next morning who gave me a pass.  Back in the race!!!!!  It turns out the fuel station had given us contaminated fuel and it affected some bikes more than others.  After a day like that nothing could be as bad.

 Day Four - Argentina to Chile  Fiambala - Copiapo   Liaison 394kms Special 203kms Liaison 32kms The day after the night before.

 One hours sleep and I was up and ready to start he next day.  We had a long, cold, liaison going over the Andes. They had told us it was going to be cold and that we were gonna need extra layers.  Unfortunately id lost one of my jacket sleeves during the previous nights adventures so one of my arms was freezing.  The crossing was beautiful though, we were really experiencing some extreme temperature differences.

 This day was full of wide open planes, shailly wadis and massive dunes and beautiful scenery.  This was a great day for me, probably the first day id used my navigation properly.  When you get in the big dunes they are plenty of routes to choose from and they're actually easier than the smaller dunette fields.  Got into the bivouac in the light, Patsy took my bike off me told me to get some food and get to bed.  This I did gladly and caught up with some well needed sleep.

 We also came across Phil Noone stuck in the sand, he'd been there a while so we pulled him out and the Brits rode together.

 Day Five: Copiapo - Antofasagta Liaison 90kms, Special 483kms, Liaison 97kms

 Shake, rattle and roll.

 This special was a nice one, interesting twisty tracks, me and Andrew were riding together again.  The were lots of fesh fesh warnings in the road book which were highlighted with 3 exclamation marks.  Fesh fesh is fine sand that lies in deep ruts and if your not careful will send you over the handlebars or the ruts underneath it will catch you out.  This happened to an Italian rider Francesco.  When we arrived at the accident scene Francesco was lying on the floor and there were about 5 riders stopped just looking at him.  I jumped off to see whether he was OK and the riders took off.  Now the rules of the Dakar are the first person who comes across the injured rider has to stop and take care of them until the helicopter comes.  Bloody bastards, they were just waiting for someone else to deal with him.  I felt so sorry for him, he'd broken his leg, couldn't speak English and was really upset.  Me and Andrew called for the emergency helicopter.  This was really easy to do, just press a button on the GPS and you speak to someone in France who sorts it all out, you also press another button so you can claim the time back - this never really happens unless you bug the organisation.  There are also other emergency procedures if that doesn't work.  40 mins later the helicopter arrived,  it was really foggy so it was flying really close to the ground and quite amazing to see the skill of the pilot.  Off Francesco went and off me and Andrew went to deal with the now innilated track.  As we'd been waiting all the bikes, cars and trucks had been passed and its astounding what they do to the terrain, no wonder the front boys are so fast.  The track that previously had little sections of fesh fesh was now (since the trucks had passed though) all fesh fesh and I realised what torture was - You had a choice ride in the fesh fesh or by the side of the track which was rocky and felt like you were on a pneumatic drill.  I alternated between the two and then realised the rocks were the best choice.  We must have been in the rocks for a couple of hours when my front fairing started to rattle up and down, I tried to ignore it for a while as we were now at the back and wanted to keep moving but eventually the whole thing was about to fall off.  I stopped and realised that two bolts had come out of where the fairing was attached to the head stock, I didn't have any spares so we used a ratchet strap to keep it all on.  The electrics shorted out so I had no navigation equipment and no lights.  Bloody Hell, we kept going and ran out of light about 20ks from the end.  Id ridden with Andrew all day so we rode side by side in the fesh fesh til the end. 

 The liaison back was dark, cold and long as I prayed for the end.  I had no nav gear so no idea how far we had to go, every turning I thought we'd got to the end but it was a long way from the end.  Got back, gave Patsy my battered bike ate and went to bed.  It now wasn't a race for me it was a matter of survival.

 

Day Six: Antofangatas - Iquique Liaison 180kms Special 418 kms  Bad News for Andrew

 We started the day with a long liaison then into a fuel station just before the start.  As normal there was a huge queue and I got out way before Andrew, asked him if he wanted me to wait but he said "no, crack on".  When I got to the start I was 4 mins late so they ushered me through.  This was a real prob in the rally that you were often late for the start due to waiting at the fuel stations.

 The going was pretty open today but lots of hidden drop offs, we had a lot of compass bearings to follow and with the many drops in the course you had to be really careful.  We had some beautiful rolling hills and rocky canyons.

 At the end of the stage was a massive dune section, I kinda got lost and did panic abit as it was getting late, met up with 2 German riders who were also lost aswell.  After about an hour of riding around one of them decided to call and get the code - this code releases the GPS points as normally the GPS does not pick up the waypoints until you are 2k away.  We managed to get out of the section just before dark.  We came down the dune at the end that Jeremy Clarkson did on Top Gear.  It was quite spectacular as you came down the dune on the coast into the biuviac.  Go back and where was Andrew?  Patsy told me he had broken his collarbone and was in hospital - I was gutted for him.  He' put so much effort into getting ready and had wanted to do it for years.  He's helped so many people get to and on the Dakar for years, Patsy Quick, Mick Extance if anyone deserved to finish it was Andrew.  There were many who came back in the dark, including the lady quad rider.  Im so glad I got back in the light - it would have scared the life out of me.

 Day Seven: Iquique - Antogasgta Liaison 37kms Special 600kms Liaison 4kms

The longest stage on this years Dakar !!!!!!!

 Crap, I'd got lost in the dunes the day before and we were straight back into the dunes in the morning, I'd been given a pep talk by Zippy in the morning about how to navigate but to be honest I was petrified.  I decided I was going to take it really slowly and just navigate right but as soon as they started us off everyone behind me seemed to be possessed and went shooting past, I 10 mins I was on the deck and thought I must have been the last bike.  This was horrible, I managed to navigate myself through the first couple of waypoints but then face planted at the bottom of a dune.  I was literally shaking with fear.  There were lots of spectator around so I shouted some over to help pick the bike up - No point in wearing myself out if I didn't have too, I was still petrified about getting through the dunes but as I was picking myself up an Argentinean guy Martin stopped, he must have seen the terror in my eyes and suggested I ride with him and his compardre Sergio who were going to have a real easy day and if needs be they were going to sleep in the desert as tomorrow was the rest day our cut off time was 6pm the following day.  Thank God I had someone to ride with, I could breathe again.  We rode for a bit then Sergio had a problem with his start button and we waited for about an hour for him to sort it out.  Half of me wanted to get going on my own but I didn't want to be stuck out there on my own so I waited.  We wanted to get out of the dunes before the cars caught us up but this wasn't to be as we'd been in the dunes along time whilst Sergio sorted his bike out.

 You know when the cars are coming as the helicopters come first.  I can imagine what a hunted fox feels when they know the hounds are coming.  The cars are superfast and there not stopping for noone so you've gotta get out the way.  The leading cars are the worst.  There is a sentinel system which buzzes when they are near so you get an extra warning. 

 These dunes were massive mountains and I couldn't wait to just get out of them.  Once out the going was pretty tough, fesh fesh rocks again.  We rode together to the first checkpoint where we had a 60k road section then abit of a break.  Sergio had gone the wrong way on the section so me and Martin arrived along time before him.  You are given a certain amount of time to wait then a leaving time.  I decided that id had enough of faffing about so I'd go and Martin would wait and theyd catch me up.  I must have ridden for a couple of hours before they caught me up.  Id been upside down on a particulary bad fesh fesh hill and lost a lot of coolant, then whilst riding I noticed loads of liquid coming out the bottom of the bike, shit shit. Stop.  No ive lost all my coolant.  Actually it wasn't coolant it was fuel, the fuel line had split so I pulled it off and sat with my finger over the end of the pipe.  I could turn the front tank off which I did but we hadn't put a fuel tap on the back tanks so while I tried to save the 10 litres of fuel in my 2 litre camelback, I lost a lot of fuel.  I was still sitting there blocking up the hole when my Argentian back up arrived and helped my sort it out.  They'd wondered where id got to and was glad I was alright.  We still had along way to go and were still talking about spending the night in the desert - There was no way I wanted to do that.

 It wasn't far to the next checkpoint where we fuelled up.  I could only use my front tank which meant I had to stay with the Argentians now just in case I ran out.  We had some good terrain for a couple of hours but just before it went dark we took a wrong turn and must have gone 30ks out of our way.  We kept trying to convince ourselves that it was the right way but the further we went the more wrong it was.  Shit it was dark and we were lost.  We made the decision to turn back and half an hour later we still weren't sure where we were, it was looking more and more likely that we were gonna be sleeping out.  We had stopped and were deciding what the best thing to do was when my GPS started ringing and a voice came out of it.  "Allo, allo you are going the wrong way" came a female voice.  What!!! How does she know that???  " You need to go South 2.2kms then take the track on the left".  How the ……  She was right though, by now it was pitch black and we could'nt see much.  We were off road following a compass bearing in the sand.  Weird, again we got lost but saw some cars which we followed for a bit but the dust was too bad to follow for long.  It was now about 10.30pm but the boys had decided that they wanted to get back so that cheered me up abit, it was getting cold, we kept getting lost and the terrain was horrible, also my road book lights had stopped working so I had no idea how far we had to go.   Every time I thought that we only had about an hour to go, we'd get lost and my estimated time of arrival kept getting later and later. Towards the end there were loads of checkpoints and every time we got to one I kept thinking it was the end - but no we just kept on going. 

 Then we came across one of the Chinese riders, he couldn't speak a word of English but was shining his torch at a dune and making a shape like a triangle and shaking his head, the dune was a sharp left climb and by the irate actions of the Chinese fell looked virtually impossible.  Then Martin said "I'm getting tired maybe we should sleep for abit".  That almost made me cry as I was determined to get back.  I negotiated a deal that I would try the dune to see what it was like and if Ok we would carry on.  There was no way I wasn't getting up it and it wasn't too tricky.  At the top I shouted down to the other it was OK and after a few goes all got to the top - Surely we were near the end now. We were and we had some fast tracks down to the last checkpoint before the finish, I was so relieved when they said its only 3 k.  It was dark, it was midnight and I just wanted to get back.  Then we had a really steep dune, Martin fell off just in front of me so I fell off to avoid hitting him, then it was so steep I couldn't get going again, I kept falling off, the other 2 had got to the bottom and had headed off to the finish, I must have fallen off about 5 times and was just about to cry my eyes out when a load of locals in a 4x4 turned up, they were great, got me going shouted loads of nice things as I struggled my way down the dune.  "Go on superwoman", was my favourite  We'd made it, after a celebratory leap about we made our way back to the bivouac.  I knew that the team were heading off to hotels for the night so I made my weary way back to my lonely tent.  Jonas Streets mechanic had waited up for me as he's a good pal of Patsies and offered me a cold beer - I could've hugged him, then we went off to get some food.  The food tent had closed at 10pm as they were off for the rest day too.  I was starving and managed to wangle a spare lunch pack off one of the staff.  Had a couple of beers with my new best friend and crawled into bed, tired and relieved id made it.

 Woke up in the morning and Jeff had come to get me to take me to the hotel so I could have a bath and wash my disgusting kit and clothes.   Phil Noon had bought an Irish fan club with him - Brian and Barry and they were being driven about by a very nice Kiwi called Jeff who is based in Argentina.  I'd met Jeff before as he works for Globe Trotters.  Not only did he give me a lift he bought me lunch and made sure that the Irish did my washing for me - Poor guys my socks stank!! But wow a bath, wow clean clothes, wow television, wow doing nothing all day apart from sleeping, watching telly, eating amazing steak and drinking loads and loads of water.  It was so good to get away from the crazy Dakar circus.  I could have a proper chat with my boyfriend which I had looked forward to for days.  I tried to sleep but it was very light and broken.

 I really can't emphasize enough how good it was to get away for the day.  I was going to stay the night and get back early the next morning but Patsy really wanted me back so I wasn't in a rush the next day.  I trust Patsy s judgement as without her I wouldn't have got to the start yet alone made it to the end  so I got a taxi back to the bivouac.  Now, when I got in the taxi I though the driver was a very nice old man by the time I got out id decided he was a lunatic - He couldn't drive to save his life and every time we nearly crashed he burst out laughing, about 2 k from the bivouac I'd had enough - I didn't want to go out because of a car crash so I chucked some money at him, got out and walked the rest of the way.  Half way there Zippy rode up on by bike "What yaw doing?  Get on!".  He gave me a lift back and had just been testing the bike after they'd yet again cleaned the carb out.  One of the major problems we were having with the Yam was keeping sand out of the air box.  Before we came away id tested the bike on a dyne to see whether I needed to take the flutes out to make more power but It didn't make a great deal of difference.  In hindsight it was a good job we kept the flutes in because without them it would have been fatal as so much sand would've got it. 

 Day 8: Antofagasta - Copiapo 96kms Special 472kms  

 We thought things we gonna get easier.  Miles of wide open hills.  There were just a few dunes today, we did come across Phil Noone stuck in some of them I rode with Paul Carlisle for a bit, it was nice to ride with people now and again.  Dust was a real problem again.  There were some technical rocky hills where the 450 came into its own and I really enjoyed it - lots of people struggled on these and the 450 just kept going.  There we some great tricky rocky downhills - You get so bored hours and hours of the same terrain so some technical riding was really enjoyable.  This was one of the most spectacular days for scenery, huge landscapes with different colour mountains. Annie Seel, who is the fastest woman Dakar rider managed to crash her bike down a 20ft well, being abit of a legend and a friend of the organiser they sent a helicopter to hoist it out, remarkable she was uninjured and able to carry on.

 Day 9: Copiapo - La Serena  Special 338kms, Liaison 209kms

 Late start due to fog so we started at 11am, we had a mass start today top riders 10 at a time and then 20 at a time I was on the last row with Noony and Carslile and had quite a good start.  Paul had abit of what he calls a nightmare - bikes stalled - Is that all??  He should try being me for a day.  Walking disaster!!!  Got up the first dune then fell off - our little Chinese friend had buried his back wheel on top of the second dune - it was gonna be another long day for him.  The dunes were nasty little buggers lumpy bumpy softy camel grass. Poo!!!!  I had a few offs and got buried a couple of times and thought I was way behind everyone else but kept catching them up.  Everyone seemed to be getting lost, I had got to grips with the navigation at last.  At one point there were a load of riders struggling to get up this sandy rocky climb and I watched them for a while and realised they were going the wrong way.  Sometimes it's worth just stopping for a bit and either working a different route out or having a proper look at the road book - I learnt to keep my head in the Turaeg rally riding with Liz Millet, she is a UK rider and very good at rallies, navigating and keeping her head.  I waited for abit and then saw a car heading in the opposite direction - its far more likely that the car is going the right way as they have a navigator in the passenger seat - Yes, I was right.  Some others were definitely wrong.  Phil Noone went 17k the wrong way in the big dunes, he said he was riding the biggest dunes hed ever ridden when the GPS rang him up and told him if he kept going he would find himself back at the start - Poor thing!!!  I also bumped into the French Rugby player who had been lost for an hour.  Next thing I bumped into Phil Carlisle who was also having a bad navigation day.  Cool, I wasn't last but then the biggest dune ive ever tried to get up, no matter how hard I hit it I was metres from the top. I had my little 450 flat out in every gear I could try to get it up the top, there were another two riders with me would couldn't get up there either.  It was so frustrating, we tried loads of different routes but kept getting stuck - the waypoint was at the top.  Jesus Christ we must have been there an hour, finally we found a route over and I was so excited to have got to the top I dropped my bike and snapped the brake lever.  Bloody hell, at least I had another one.  The dunes were small and tricky with rocks in, sometimes a rocky climb into a sand dune.  I was about 20k from the end when I ran out of fuel - Bloody hell - you've got to be kidding, I managed to tip the bike over and drain all the fuel in the bottom of the tanks into the front one but really didn't think Id make it to the end, 10k from the end a really tricky rocky climb, the first couple of times I fell off then thought if I don't make it this time im definitely gonna run out so went for it flat out one of the cars came up by the side of me just as my front wheel came up as the bike was just about to flip - No way im getting up there, I must have wheeled most of the way up the hill determined to make it, at the top the car stopped as it must have looked well impressive, still I didn't think I was gonna make but hey my luck had started to change and just as I got over the finish line I ran out.  Crikey that was mental!!!   

 

Day 10: La Serena - Santiago: Liaison 112kms Special 238kms Liaison 236kms

Cactus fields

Corners - a lot of rally riders don't really like corners but my little enduro bike loved it and I managed to over take aload of riders in the morning.  Phil Carlisle had stopped by the side of the track and I though yes he's had a problem and is now going to have a real adventure but no he was just too hot and wanted to take off a few layers. The Bigger bikes are much harder to turn and in the run up to the Dakar I spent a lot of time trying to make my bike feel light and easy to ride, It wasn't fast on majority of the Dakar but easy to ride and light to pick up.   Dust was really bad today on the narrow tracks so it was difficult to overtake, especially when you get behind a quad.  I spent about an hour trying to overtake a little girl quad rider - battled to get past her then fell off - fucks sake!!! 

Day 11: Santiago - San Juan  Liaison 211kms, Special 220kms, Liaison 3kms

 Early start over the Andes  3,500 metres, snow topped mountains- there were loads of road works which all the rally riders ignored until the  police blocked the roads which made us all late for the start of the special. 

 It was mostly in a rocky river bed today - loads of spectators.  The tracks got really narrow at some points, this is not good when you are at the back of the bikes and cars and trucks are on you, in fact it is bloody frightening and you've got about 10 seconds to get out of the way. I fell off twice in front of hundreds of people - they loved it.  Some of the cars came past side ways and its unbelievable the speeds they go  I had dinner in the evening with the helicopter guys who said they d come and find me with the cameras they have some awesome stories, sounds as though they live on the edge.  Quite a few got lost today due to changes to the road book, I decided to look for the crowds when I was unsure or the BBQ smoke.- changes to road book. We rode through some beautiful canyons. I rode with Phil Noone through some of them the like a bat out of hell Paul Carlisle flew past us only to have a big crash - Golden rule of the Dakar - Don't ride in People's dust - Particia Watson Miller told me this years ago at the Welsh - she has finished the Dakar many times.  Other useful advice I had was don't follow anyone else, Look where the cars and the crowds are.  The riders who got lost didn't see the hundred of people on the ridge ahead. 

Day 12: San Juan - San Rafael - The longest and most horrible day. Horrible! hated it!!!!

Liaison 23kms, Special 476kms, Liaison 297Kms

 Deep gravel in morning, again fell off in front of crowds.  I can't remember much about the first part of the day but we had a long tarmac session in the middle of the day  I pulled of the road to have a pee.  It was the only time I went over the handlebars as the front wheel dug into some fesh fesh, luckily a friendly policeman stopped and pulled me out.  

 This afternoon was the worst of the whole Dakar for me, it was horrible at some points I just wanted to ride into a tree and end it all.  By this stage id had enough of the heat, had enough of dust, sand, rocky terrain,  had enough of no sleep, had enough of eating pasta for breakfast, wearing dirty kit, no proper showers, horrible portaloos.  I just wanted to be in bed watching rubbish telly!

 It was the hottest it had been yet and as we headed into the rutty, woopy, narrow sandy tracks I thought, this cant go on for long, it's horrible!  Surely they wouldn't do this to us.  Yes, they would and yes, they did for 180ks.  It was so hot that every now and again I had to stop and ask the crowds for some water, the great thing was that at the top of nearly every steep sandy ascent there was a local holding a bottle of water out.  If you were lucky they had some ice cold fanta.  There were bikes littered everywhere - later on I found out that lots had problems with the fuel getting too hot.  Half way I came across Sergio who id ridden with the day before the rest day,  he was having problems starting his bike and as he didn't have a kick start he needed a jump start so I stopped for a bit and got him going which was a relief as I was hating the terrain.  Cars were flying past but the track was so narrow and sandy that it was difficult to get out of the way without hitting a tree at the side of the track.  At the end of the special was a motorcross track and a chance to do abit of showboating, I didn't care if I looked an idiot I just wanted to stop.  Finished, got to re-fuelling and had a long long long rest.

 Eurosport interviewed Patsy today and she hit the nail on the head when she said that she leant the hard way and given me all the information she could - without her knowledge I don't know whether I would have made it.

 Day 13: San Rafael - Santa Rosa  Liaison 76kms, Special 368Kms, Liaison 281Kms  - grey dunes Boundsy out:  Bad start, Great middle, Bad finish.

 Eww, this was another day when it could so easily have been all over.  We stared the day with rutty, narrow, deep sand and within 10 minutes I had fuel pissing out of my carb, I tried to sort it out by kicking it but no joy, then a guy from the US turned up and tapped it which made it slightly better.  We had some steep sandy hills again and my bike started to play up, then into some grey sandy dunes and the bike was struggling again.  God please no, then some tricky navigation though camel grass, didn't really have a clue whether I was going the right way but luckily I was, then into some massive grey dunes, these looked awesome and so steep.  There were quite a lot of bikes around and crowds standing on the tops of the dunes so it made navigating them abit easier, some I got stuck on the top and the crowds would help pull the bike up. I rode with Phil Noone for a bit, he got stuck on one dune and had a crowd helping him, I got stuck on the same dune and heard 'Chica chica".  Phils helpers dropped him on the floor and to save a damsel in distress.  Soz Phil.

 

I had a near death experience when  I came off over the top of a broken dune, the crowds gasped and shouted "car,car" I had no idea which way to run, then one of the crowd ran to the top of the dune near where I was and was waving his hands to stop the car, then suddenly he darted out of the way.  For a few seconds the crowd was dead quiet as the waited for the car to land on top of me, again I had no idea where to go so I froze, it must have missed me by inches.  My guardian Angel was looking after me again.  Just as I got out of the dunes my GPS switched off, luckily it wasn't in the dunes as I would have missed loads of waypoints. 

 The rest of the stage was open , great interesting views it started to get greener and I started to realise how much I really did like grass. The end of the special was really fast however 5^th gear no power.

 I managed to finish the special OK.  We had a 120 k off road liason with a time limit of.6 hrs to get back.  First bit was nasty nasty fesh fesh I managed to get out of it but then my bike ran really really badly, couldn't get it off tick over, for miles and miles I prob didn't go over 10 miles an hour, it got hotter and hotter and my heart sank more and more I was just waiting for the engine to blow up, then it just stopped no power at all.  I waited for abit and started it again, it would go a couple of hundred metres then stop again.  I'd been going for 3 hours and hardly got anywhere, loads of cars had passed and the trucks were passing too.  I hadn't seen a bike for ages.  Needed a pee so left the bike for abit then heard a bike so quicky tried to get up and flag it down, only just managed to get my trousers back up, the guy must have seen me having a pee - how embarrassing.  He stopped and told me he'd had the same problem yesterday, the fuel was just too hot.  He'd pulled over had a sleep for a couple of hours to wait til it had got abit cooler.  I only had 3 hours til the cut off so that wasn't an option.  He suggested I just keep stopping, so I carried on at 10 miles an hour stopping every 100 metres or so, then another rider stopped and suggested I change the spark plug, so I tried that, no joy he rode with me for abit but then had to go so he didn't miss his cut off time.  The only thing I could do was just pray it didn't blow up and carry on doing what I was doing.  The hours ticked by and id prob done 20 ks then as if by magic it started to get a little bit better and if I nursed the throttle carefully I could get abit of power, so very slowly I made my way to the tarmac section - 80 ks to go in an hour and a half.  The speed I was going maybe I could make it and it got better once id got onto tarmac - Yippee!!!!  But with 60ks to go I ran out of fuel.  I sat there again with a real sinking feeling - so near and yet so far!!  I hadn't seen any vehicles for the past hour and was starting to loose faith when a pick up appeared in the distance, like a glimmer of hope.  I waved it over and as luck would have it there was a quad on the back, it's clutch had gone and the guy was taking it to near the finish where somehow theyd push it over the line.  You aren't allowed outside help on the liaisons from anyone but other competitors but it's the kinda race that in the end you do what it takes to get to the end.  So, really the quad on the back of the pick up was a competitor so I wasn't cheating when he gave me 5 litres of fuel. 

 I wasn't even sure id make it back on the 5 litres of fuel hed given me as it just seemed to be evaporating in fear as soon as it saw my bike.  However I did make it back with 10 minutes to spare before the cut off time. 

 Andrew Neri was waiting for me at the finish.  "I've been waiting hours Tams, what happened".  It was great seeing Andrew at the end of the day - im really glad he stayed with the rally.  As my GPS had switched itself off again I had a do da with the officals and got sent to the technical tent - I was knackered and the last thing I wanted to do it explain to a tech head what had happened.  Top Brit though!!!!  Only due to the extremely bad luck of Craig Bounds whose engine had blown up and became another Dakar victim - This race it a crazy mix of so many different things.

 Had a long chat with Patsy about the bike and had a good think about whether to change the engine or not.  In the end decided not to. 

 Day 14: Santa Rosa de la pampa - Buenos Aires

Liaison 166 kms, Special 206Kms, Liaison 335kms

Farm tracks and crazy crowds

Hotel, hotel, hotel!!!!  As we packed our kit boxes and emptied our tents for the last time in the rally all I could think about was a nice bath and hotel and whether it had been the right decision not to change the engine.  It would be a long push if it was. 

The special was quite easy and fun, fast farm tracks but again really dusty and difficult to overtake anyone but it really didn't matter, Id had such a big time penalty on day 3 I was lucky not to be last overall.  The crowds were great and on every corner and some riders were just crusing and lapping it up, I just wanted to get to the finish as quick as I could.  The finish was weird, I didn't quite know when it finished, we finished the special then had a short road ride round a lake where our teams were waiting to congratulate us but we still had a 335kms liaison and if we didn't get back to parc ferme we would be out.  The crowds were crackers and if you stopped you got mobbed.  Patsy had told us to wait in the next fuel station  but It swarming with spectators, I was so exhausted I just had to get out of there, I wanted to phone my boyfriend Chris and it took ages to find somewhere to stop where there were no spectators.   

 The ride back was great, the crowds again were swarming the route and became more frenzied the nearer we got to Buenos Aires where we put our bikes at Parc Ferme.  I cant put into words how happy I was to get in a taxi back to the hotel - If anyone was to ask me what was the best bit - that was it - the taxi out of there!

Ended up at the Red Bull Party but it still wasn't finished until we got up the next day and got our medals on the podium.

 Podium and a complete strop!!!!

 My boyfriend reckons Im a moody cow when im tired and I beg to differ.  No bad moods at all all the way through the Dakar until the podium day when I did have a total strop and It was totally uncalled for.  Clean kit on riding though the crowds was great then up on the podium to collect my little bronze medal - great, little bit of free hospitality then tiredness hit me like a steam roller - I just had to get back to the hotel.  Tried to get my bike out of parc ferme but all the roads were blocked with crowd control barriers and every time I stopped I got mobbed by the crowd then had to kick start the bike - Ahh get me out of here.  Managed to get back to Parc Ferme dumped bike then went to get a taxi.  Carlisle asked me to wait for him but while he did something,  No way Im out of here! 

 Even though I had so many problems I loved them all, it's all part of the game!!  Would I do it again - No way!!!  Give me a Welsh enduro anyday.  Do I feel a sense of achievement - the weird thing is I don't I just feel really relieved it's all over.  It's bought my family together, my mum and dad have learnt to text.  If you are thinking about doing the Dakar DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE the strain it puts on everyone and everything around you and it takes such a long time to recover and yes it does mess with your head!