Still planning to go. No choice, seeing as the bike's in a truck somewhere in Spain, but I would continue anyway as the Rally is only the sideshow to having fun in the sun in Morocco.

More details on my blog: There and Back Again

Tim

__________________
"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

So the Terrorists win again....... I wonder if the organisers of the Dakar will refund Fees to the Competitors?
Or will they use the usual "Terrorism/Acts of god are not Insured for so sorry you lose your Money Line"...........?

Either way, There are a lot of people gonna be SERIOUSLY out of pocket!


Martyn

There are not only professionals and race teams in the Dakar.

There are "Privateers" from many countries, some of who have put their life savings into getting to the Dakar.

To cancel it at such a late stage is a disaster for many people.

There are also many riders who have gone to follow the rally. A lot of them will be in Portugal now.

Why was this decision not made weeks ago?

So the Dakar has gone, live to race another day.
Terrorists don't come onto the battlefield and say I am here come and get me they hide in the shadows.
Slowly,slowly, catchy monkey.

Ian

Killing of 4 French tourists was on or around 28 Dec, Christmas and New Year get in the way of decision making & listening to the advice of the bureaucrats and Sarkocey (spelling?) is relatively new in the job - that list will do for a start.

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Dave

24th December.

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What do terrorists have to gain from cancelling the Dakar anyway - just to make a few peoples lives more miserable?

So terrorists win again -- because we let them. Proposals for ID cards in the UK are another example of terrorism winning (and a cynical gvmt exploiting the situation). My apologies for being political, I know that this is not really the place for this stuff.

I wonder what the 'specific threats' against the rally were, or was it more to do with ASO's insurance company advising that they will pull the plug if they go ahead ... That and the truly awful health and safety culture which is slowly crippling society and individual aspiration.

However, one could say in fairness, the rally route this year did stray towards areas of Mauritania which are less than safe -- but surely this has been the situation on previous years.

We will never see a stable world if every time some mysterious character with an AK47 pops his head up and makes threats, we simply cave in. This is not about having destructive wars on terror, it's about simply getting on with things planned.

The rally should have gone ahead and in the extremely unlikely event that anything had hapenned, the terrorists would probably have been the ones to have trashed their cause in this instance. As it is ASO should be regarded as having egg on their faces and Mauritania cannot now escape being viewed as a dodgy place to go, when in fact it's really not.

Bin Laden (if he is still alive) must be rubbing his hands in glee.

ASO have done the Dakar Rally no favours at all, have badly let down North and West African countries and probably discouraged many potential overlanders from visiting these amazing countries and cultures.

A more proper response would have been to ask the Rally participants themselves to decide if the Dakar was to go ahead or not.

I'm due to ship out there on the 18th with Barbara, riding from Malaga to Bissau, via Mauri, Mali, Senegal and Gambia. We're still planning on going.

Heard from Fil S last night who yesrerday arrived in Bamako on his R1150GS. He tells me that Mauritania is OK. There's masses of extra security on the Road of Hope east of NCT because of the murders and there have been some floods on the road near Ayoun, but he seems to have had a smooth enough trip.

The ironic thing is that the dreadfull murders on Christmas Eve have probably made a visit to Mauritania safer, not more dangerous.

I apologise for being controversial and await the trashing.

Cheers

Craig

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Thanks.

That may have been a freudian 24 + 4 = 28, or maybe I just forgot!!

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Dave

Hello, I noticed in one of the postings that it was stated that,

" However, one could say in fairness, the rally route this year did stray towards areas of Mauritania which are less than safe -- but surely this has been the situation on previous years."

I was just wondering what areas were of concern. I read the advisorys from the Foreign and Common Wealth office and they said the border with Algeria, and the border near Mali or east of the city Nema in Mauritania were the unsafe areas. And that the Area leading through and to the Capital were relatively safe. However, the murders on Xmas Eve took place only 160 miles east of the Capital Nouakchott. So im just wondering, Which is it? What areas in the country are stated as the safer passage through Mauritania from Morrocco to Senegal? And wasnt the Dakar rally supposed to stop in the capital...where it was presumed safer then the easter portion of the country. Any help here would be great, I really dont know what to think about it all. I would like to take a trip, maybe next year. Im expecting things or specific routes to be safer possibly, with added security , but who knows.

Best thing to do in the circumstances and the right attitude Tim.

If you don't mind me saying so, Lisbon-Dakar never sounded right anyway, nothing like the sound of "P-D".

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Dave

Tim, how safe with your knowledge and experiance would travel to Senagal be we are already in Essouria waiting to travel down in time for the cancelled stages any advice would be helpfull but please only realtime or fact based
regards
Steve

The main road from Nouadhibou to Rosso passing by the capital Nouackchott is one of the two main travel arteries in the country, so I would hope the Mauri government could manage to keep it relatively safe. It's also a long way from the areas where the tourists and soldiers were attacked.

I will be looking at various web sites--note the UK government hasn't changed its travel advice other than to note the Dakar cancellation: Travel Advice by Country*Foreign & Commonwealth Office--and checking with other travellers before making the decision whether to transit Mauri.

One option might be to travel 'par convoi' with others. Conversely perhaps it might be better to ride solo 'like the wind'...

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and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

Thanks Tim I have holed up in Agadir awaiting any news from anyone travelling up I will wait to see if any news here until Monday then head for the boarder, any genuine news from any one is allways helpfull all the very best

Steve

It makes me laugh when people of power state 'terrorists will not change the way we live!' what a load of bollocks that is, take a look at London since the bombings, the place has lost its marbles with CCTV and rent-a-cops everywhere.

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