I receive almost daily reports from Nathan and Scott on their adventures in Morocco. They got off a 48 hour ferry ride from France to Tangiers Morocco today and have started their 400 mile drive to their race course start. Attached are some selected photos.
Here was an update from yesterday (4/26)
Just heard from Nathan again. Their 10 hour queue turned into 12 hours but the good news is they're all finally on the ferry and starting their crossing of the Mediterranean to Tangiers, Morocco. The bad news is the ferry has one engine down and the 36 hour crossing is expected to be 48 hours. This pushes them back on schedule and as soon as they land at 11pm on Thursday night, they'll have to start a 400 mile journey to get to the race course start on Friday morning. Coincidentally their first task is a 300 mile trek across the desert. woohoo.
There are 14 teams participating and they've been broken up into teams of 2 vehicles for traveling safety. Although they are scored individually, the 2 vehicle teams are responsible for each other and are not allowed to leave each others sight, so there are alwasy 4 guys together if something breaks or they get lost. They were all also given flares and the rule is if anyone gets stuck in the desert they need to stay put and at 5am the next morning they shoot off a flare to let everyone know where they are and then another every 30 minutes from then on until they are found.
Apparently the whole competition is in French. Nathan and Scott were paired up with some cousins who speak french and english so they translate for them. Nicola, who Nathan described as right out of a 3 Musketeers movie, is from Luxembourg, and Sebastian is from Belgium. After sizing up the other teams he thinks they'll come out somewhere in the middle becase there are some very capable trucks. It will ultimately come down to Scott's driving capabilities and Nathan's navigation, so be thinking of them.
Here was an update from yesterday (4/26)
Just heard from Nathan again. Their 10 hour queue turned into 12 hours but the good news is they're all finally on the ferry and starting their crossing of the Mediterranean to Tangiers, Morocco. The bad news is the ferry has one engine down and the 36 hour crossing is expected to be 48 hours. This pushes them back on schedule and as soon as they land at 11pm on Thursday night, they'll have to start a 400 mile journey to get to the race course start on Friday morning. Coincidentally their first task is a 300 mile trek across the desert. woohoo.
There are 14 teams participating and they've been broken up into teams of 2 vehicles for traveling safety. Although they are scored individually, the 2 vehicle teams are responsible for each other and are not allowed to leave each others sight, so there are alwasy 4 guys together if something breaks or they get lost. They were all also given flares and the rule is if anyone gets stuck in the desert they need to stay put and at 5am the next morning they shoot off a flare to let everyone know where they are and then another every 30 minutes from then on until they are found.
Apparently the whole competition is in French. Nathan and Scott were paired up with some cousins who speak french and english so they translate for them. Nicola, who Nathan described as right out of a 3 Musketeers movie, is from Luxembourg, and Sebastian is from Belgium. After sizing up the other teams he thinks they'll come out somewhere in the middle becase there are some very capable trucks. It will ultimately come down to Scott's driving capabilities and Nathan's navigation, so be thinking of them.
