Syd Stelvio – Sahara Challenge Day 2 – Tangier to Fes – 346 km

Time to get going properly today, take off the Spanish stabilisers and push on out into the wide blue beyond of Morocco. Day one is done, Europe is behind us, and Africa awaits, this is where the fun begins.

The fun began with an introduction to the early morning traffic of Tangiers, I’d forgotten how much fun it is playing with the traffic over here, although really Tangiers was child’s play with the automotive anarchy we will exhibit later in the trip. It wasn’t all that long before the city was behind us, and we were climbing into the foothills of the mountains.

Two regularities would punctuate the first 100 km of the day, ticking off two thirds of the day’s competitive elements. The first of these was aptly named Corkscrew, and so it was, up and down the contours of the land, with the ascents matched by the descents and setting the pattern for the day ahead. Up above the sky was an ever-evolving spectacle, clouds rolling over the peaks and then being pierced by the sun that was doing its best to burn through the cumulous veil. There wasn’t quite so much drama below, with most crews enjoying a less tumultuous time as they began to experience what Morocco had to offer, which in this instance was fabulous driving roads, albeit on a real mixed bag of surfaces.

The whole day would be like this, with almost all the sections of tarmac being thoroughly enjoyable, even the broken tarmac, which is par for the course over here and just adds to the challenge. Regularity number two was even more twisty than the first, with thrilling ascents and descents through more cork forest, now with the heady scent of Cannabis plants in the air, as the heady herb grows thickly and freely on the slopes in this part of the country.

The aroma was perhaps getting to a few, as a greater number of competitors were losing time on this reg, such as Daniel Sauter and Michael Maye in the Chevrolet Coupe, who actually amassed 42 seconds of early arrival penalties during the section, although at the other end of the spectrum Robert Curry and Bobby Curry in the Porsche 912 left the regularity with a minute and three seconds of late penalties.

The Clerk of the Course was having a rush of blood to the head as well, quite literally, after impaling his sunglasses into his scalp with the help of his Hilux dashboard in a weapons grade display of clumsiness. Thankfully, daughter Claire was on hand to patch Guy up, and comedy plaster placement complete, Guy was back on the road again.

It was lucky that Claire was there to treat Mr Bump as the trips medical team were too busy getting themselves struck off the Marshalling register, with some stopwatch-based negligence that caused the timekeepers a headache when calculating the days results. Mistakes happen though, which is why everything is also written down, allowing for a second opinion to be cast, this time with a correct diagnosis. Perhaps David and Umar ought to stick to medicine.

Umar is of course a top-notch motorsports trauma specialist, who is most often found in a helicopter when working as part of an events medical team. Perhaps this is why, when driving the route today, he attempted to pilot the HiLux ‘as the crow flies’ and opted to drive over a roundabout, rather than round it. I’m sure both of the medics are getting their errors out of the way early…

Traffic wise, the roads had been relatively quiet, although there had been plenty of sheep and livestock being herded in small groups along the roads, as well as heavily loaded Donkeys working the tracks with goodness knows what strapped to their backs. The Baboons were also out on the roads to greet us, with their wonton tomfoolery on display. Occasionally the road was punctuated with settlements, including the town of Beni Ahmed where our visit coincided with market day. The streets were buzzing with people and life, as women in traditional dress purchased goods and went about their business with Donkeys and children in tow. It was an unexpected bit of excitement, for us and the locals.

Back to the competition, and there would be a couple of duplicate navigational errors during the day’s final regularity, that took place in the hills surrounding the Al Wahada Dam, on the Oued Ouragha watercourse. The dam is the largest in Morocco and the second largest in Africa, and so perhaps navigators Patrick Debusseré and Chris Mellor were distracted by the huge body of water glistening in the late afternoon sun. Either way, they both took the same wrong turn, and with reported detours of some 8 km’s, both maxed out a minute of lost time at the next timing point.

At least their respective drivers could console themselves with the great roads they had enjoyed all day long. Post regularity there was still a long run into the evenings halt at Fez, on a road that the roadbook had dubbed ‘the worst road in North Africa’. It was certainly bumpy in places, with broken surfaces and unsealed sections offering a challenge to the drivers, but it was still just as enjoyable as the rest of the days driving had been.

With all the cars safely into Fes and the calculations completed by the timekeepers, it was apparent that the best on the day award was to be shared between Martin and Michelle Andrew in the Volvo PV544 and Morgan Hector and Florence Fontaine in the Chevrolet Camaro, with both dropping just 14 seconds over the day. Elsewhere, first place was now occupied by the Argentine duo of Jorge Perez Companc and Jose Volta, climbing from second in the Chevy Coupe and switching places with Amin Hwaidak and Jack Amies. Third has now been claimed by another Coupe, this one in the hands of Aussies Tony Sutton and Andrew Lawson, who were best of the pre-war machines on the day with only 17 seconds of penalty.

We continue south tomorrow, heading towards Ifrane, on a 338 km day that will see competitors try their hand at a Sporting Time Control section for the first time, as well as contesting a further three regularities. First though, there is the morning traffic in Fes to wrestle with…

Syd