Country: Chile – Bolivia
Area:
Dakar 2015
The Dakar organizers offer a package through their sports enthusiast arm called A.S.O and V.S.O. They also organize the Tour de France cycling race. It is reported that organizing the Dakar motor race is second only to the Olympics.
The organizers offer four packages which cover the start, two intermediate stages and the end. These packages are for two to three days each. As I did in 2014 I opted to purchase a package for the two intermediate stages. The rationale being that the start is crowded with over four hundred motorcycles, buggies, cars and trucks.
By the time the racers reach the last three or four days, the numbers have dwindled considerably and there is not much excitement left. My bet therefore was the middle section.
In 2014, I only covered the Argentinian side of the race. In 2015 I wanted to experience different countries and decided to follow the race on the Chilean and Bolivian side.
The trip started in Johannesburg to São Paulo, then Santiago and finally we joined the races in Copiapo, Chile. This is a copper mining area in the Atacama Desert and this is where the vehicles arrived after crossing the Andes from Argentina.
The organizers had arranged for the group to be transported in 4 x 4 Double Cab vehicles. The interesting aspect of this was that the vehicles were Europcar rented vehicles from the copper mine and the drivers were army personnel on special leave.
I suppose a bit of pocket money for them.
When you read my story on the 2014 Dakar I mentioned how the mechanics would
sleep in one man tents and take a nap during the day because they had to work on and service vehicles at night. If you are a privateer, it is tough, because you have to do your own maintenance. The photographs below give you a good idea how the mechanics sleep under trucks, on the rear lid of SUV,s , in the shade etc. Remember that this is early January and extremely hot.
There is even entertainment for mechanics during the day. One of the photographs is of a model racing track with miniature electric racing cars.
There was a day off and they let us drive the double cabs on the sand dunes.
I thought that I was doing pretty good and speeding ahead of the others but I made two basic mistakes. I did not deflate the tires which one is supposed to do when driving in sand and secondly I took my foot off the accelerator when I should not have. The result being that the vehicle got stuck in the sand. Well, next time I will know what to do.
If one is interested in motor vehicle technology, there are a number of interesting facts about the works vehicles and those that are specifically built for privateers that have “ hollow pockets”. You will notice in these photographs that some of the vehicles have a contraption that will deflate and inflate the tires when the vehicle hits sand. This is all controlled by the driver in the cab.
Some vehicles have automatic fire extinguishers.
From Iquique in Chile we flew over the Andes and Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia.
The Salar de Uyuni is a salt pan of 10,500 square kilometers.
At the bivouac in Iquique the Chilean and Bolivian immigration departments set up a passport control in a tent which can be seen in the one photograph . This was for the drivers driving over the Andes where there is no border post and also for our group.
For this part of the race from Chile to Bolivia and return none the teams were permitted to have any support and this is called the Marathon stage.
The Dakar motor race was an experience and the organizing and logistics could not be faulted.
