climb etc,) and also learn a little French at the same time.
Lots of the additional instructions on the roadbook are
in French; D means ‘Right’ hand turn, G means ‘Left’, PP
means ‘Piste Principal’ main track etc).
You can be the fastest rider out there, but if you miss a
turn, go off track or don’t follow the directions accurately
then that can mean valuable time delays and potentially
getting seriously lost! Lots of these rallies lead you into
remote areas, sometimes deserts. You do have a tracking
device on your bike in case of emergencies, and on the
non-competitive rallies some people also carry a backup
GPS unit with them, but otherwise you’re on your own.
You can ride your little heart out, in wild backcountry,
solo, yet safe in the knowledge there is support in the
background. To me, this sounded too good to be true,
and the ultimate adventure.
Not even a couple of kilometres into the first ride on
day one and I was lost. I had teamed up with anoth-
er couple of other misfits; Egle, from Lithuania, and a
German / South African male rider we just called ‘Africa’,
later joined by a Belgian called Leiven. I was leading;
excited, confident, if not slightly cocky, speeding away
out front in full race mode, when the roadbook directed
us into a vast grassy field with very little evidence of any
kind of track.
I took what I believe was the right route, then doubting
myself, stopped. Head scratching, backtracking, waiting
for other riders to come past … perhaps a little cheating
and looking at the GPS for guidance, we were back on
track.
OK Gabriella, CALM DOWN! Focus on not getting lost!
Turns out there’s plenty of landmines, left over from
the war of the 1990’s, still in the ground. It’s highly ad-
vised not to go off piste. Ok! Copy that!
While I was totally anticipating riding solo, I was
happy to have riding buddies. We never planned it that
way, we just fell into a little group. It was reassuring. In
those moments of hesitation when not sure I was on the
right track I was able to look back and have one of them
confirm via a thumbs up that we were still good.
As fun as navigating was, it was nice to let others take
the lead, to be able to just follow and enjoy the riding.
Many riders make light navigation!
Then began four days of epic riding across the incred-
ible country.
We rode anywhere between 200 and 400 kilometres
each day, occasionally opting for the shortcut routes due
to time restrictions, but otherwise tackling all the tough
stuff. It was physically intense. Many sections were very
technical and took lots of mental determination to get
through, especially in the heat, but together we helped
each and the joy of conquering such sections made us
proud and eager for more.
TRAVERSE 13
Pic: Bastian Brusecke
Pic: Bastian Brusecke
Pic: Bastian Brusecke