RUST magazine: RUST #45

DAKAR | CRAIG KEYWORTH
the days detracting from it, suggesting
‘it wasn’t all that’, but that mostly was
as they didn’t enjoy that particular
day. Tough luck I say – everyone rode
the same route (some got quite lost
obviously) and you’ve to suck it up.
It was cold though. Seriously cold in
the mornings and early evenings. It
made for hard work with keeping your
temperature correct. It wasn’t overly hot
during the day, maybe low 30’s max,
and it was a very dry heat, but you had
to factor in the minus temperatures
at the start of the day which meant
carrying lots of layers and maintaining
accordingly. I’m going to suggest this is
a more difficult scenario than the more
constant, admittedly higher, African
temperatures. Not so bad if you’ve a
decent sized team and have a (quickish
and mostly additional to the one at the
bivouac) service vehicle that can get
out to the service points and the starts,
as you can offload and have help to
get dressed etc (not easy on its own
this – try getting a rally jacket over a
drinks pack and a neck brace solo, then
imagine doing it by week two when
at least one hand or limb isn’t quite as
keen as it was at the start, and with zips
filled with sand and energy gels).
WHAT WENT RIGHT
Well I finished, and with my bike and
body in one piece, albeit both with
some scrapes, rubs and bruises, so
there’s a great start. Post analysis is
always easier when things have gone
wrong. You can hunt down the source
of a problem and assign blame duly,
but we were reasonably slick. We didn’t
have any issues with a lack of spares,
or tools – only borrowing a chain tool
for endless links from another team
when we changed the chain mid week,
which was only really a precaution. The
bike held up marvelously, although I’ll
take some of the credit here, as bikes
don’t tend to kill or harm themselves
on purpose. Del looked after the bike
with very little drama, and not too many
complaints, our pre event efforts and
learning about the bike coming into its
own.
w
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