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Practice / UAE Desert Challenge 2001        You go for extremes, you will live extremes ....

 

To be well prepared for a rally, the best is to ride, ...ride ... & again ride .... even better, .. ride in the desert! This is definite, what I have done during the past 4 years. 1000's of practice Km's, have taken me to a level, where I felt myself pretty save and secure. During our long lasting rides, which mostly took more then 6.0 hours riding per session, I never faced a real critical situation before, based on my attitude and reputation, which earned my the strange 'title' of a 'Safety Apostle', within my friends. But, .. if you go for extremes, ..... you might encounter extremes!

 

Desert - Part 1: ..... Water, salts, magnesium & Isostar is Not good enough!

During our training in July 2001, we experienced an adventure of a special kind. Having practiced several times before in temperatures of 45 Grad Celsius and more, we kicked off to practice a stage of the 1999 world cup rallye. In the group, .. Frank Maschong ( Germany ), Joe de Bryn ( South African ), Dick Danielson ( Sweden ) and myself was the Team to had off for this day. As usual, we were perfectly prepared, took plenty of minerals and water with us, safety equipment and had contact to friends via telephone .... the standard preparation. The area chosen is south-east of the Rub Al Khali, one of the biggest remote deserts in the world. Dunes are rising up to 300m's. It was our third trip in this area and our knowledge of the environment adiquate.

Due to the heat, the sand was very soft and full of surprises. We had already driven 9.0 hours besides a small stop in an oasis, where we took fresh & cold water and had some food. Suddenly the sand became even softer then before and we started getting frequently stuck. We digged the bikes out of the sand and carried on ..... again we got stuck .... !! Finally we reached a small Oil field and after a small rest, we were very well recovered. Due to a damage on Dick's bike, Frank decided to take his bike back on the Oil track and Dick, Joe and myself would carry on for the remaining 15 Km's and finish the full stage.

AND, ... again we got stuck, the sand became even worse and we already wished ourselfs back to the Oil field, ...... we should have gone with Frank!!

Fully exhausted the riding became very desperate. As I had helped Frank before with his bike too much, I became very weak now. Dick had to frequently help me with my bike. He proofed, being the fittest out of the group and did a big job, helping me. On the other hand, with my experience in the desert, I could help our self, finding the shortest track to the next road, which should be a close as 2Km's, I guessed. And I ws right, ... we made it!  The release was big and we drove an easy track down to the next village in Liwa. We met Frank there and celebrated our finish with some Coke and some omelets.

 

Without even talking about it, we all knew, that this was very close of getting out of controlled & we should really learn from that! But, ... it wasn't jet the end of the day! Leaving the shop, we still had to drive another 30Km's on tarmarc road, to get back to our trailers. .... suddenly Joe couldn't lift his leg any longer ... no way to get on the bike! He was getting cramps, which became worse every few minutes. We decided, that Frank & me will drive back to the cars, pick up the trailers, so we could load the bikes in front of the shop. Well ,.. we did! When we returned 30 minutes later, Joe and Dick were gone... where to? The shop owner explained, that Joe had become cramps in the arms, the chest, the chicks, ... basically everywhere and they decided to see a doctor in an Oil field camp, close to the shop. We also went there!

Seeing camels ..... you are safe!

The british doctors had placed Joe in a climatized room, to cool down his body temperature first. Then, he was given some stuff to drink and the doctors decided to wait 1/2 hour. In the meanwhile, he took us out of the container and explained the following: 2 hours later and your friend could have died. If the cramps reach the heart (... also a muscle ), he will be dead next moment! Basically, it is stupid to do such a trip in that heat. But if you really have or want to do, you will have to be 'better' prepared. Either you stop once in a while and have an escalope and noodles somewhere OR you will have to take special Minerals & most important ' Electrolyts '!   

20l's of water, all kind of minerals, a sunshade, GPS, Mobile, etc.. is not enough to stay out so long in the desert. If you don't properly control your electrolyte status, 100l 's of water will not help!   For the gents reading this article, have a look to the picture left hand, which is one of the brands sold. Basically, most of the medicine provided for 'diarrhea', should do the job, as they are supposed to recover the mineral level in the body after loosing too much water and dehydration!   Short resume: Joe recovered, still having cramps, even next day and we promised to the doctor, that this will never happen again!

 

Desert - Part 2: ..... Rehidrat can save live, ... but surprises and tragic are still there!

Even having been very close to tragic during our last practice, there were only two choices: Either canceling the rallye and stop the practice during summer OR carry on with the same and don't risk too much. Canceling was never an option and due to that, we had another session 4 weeks later. Frank, who was along 4 weeks ago, Bernd, who is guilty, that I can't stop doing rallies any longer and myself. 

• We had chosen an easier track, which I had driven a year before with my car

• We selected a shorter track ( .. half the length of the real rally stage )

• We topped our safety equipment with Rehidrat

• and we left very early to finish before lunch time and wouldn't be exposed to the big heat.

Temperature still could reach 47 Grade Celsius at lunchtime and therefore we headed off at 7:00 A.M. in the morning. It was a terrific ride, .. beautiful tracks, amazing scenery and due to that, we stopped several times, just to enjoy the same! We were only left with 20Km's to ride and would have reached the highway, as suddenly wind came up, sand flying through the air and we couldn't see the area around us any longer. No problem so far, as I had the rally stage from 1999 in track format on my GPS ..... this means, we only had to follow the tracking-line from the GPS and would reach the road shortly!

What became our problem? The dunes in the desert are moving, depending on the wind strength, direction, etc.... the track from 1999 was covered with dunes by now and as we couldn't see our surrounding, to select a better track, we had to follow the GPS route. One got stuck, ... then the other got stuck and after clearing the bikes several times, we got so exhausted, that we had to stop the bikes. Once the outside temperature is higher then the blood temperature, there is not recovery any longer .... the body just get's weaker and weaker, as you only depend on your physical reserves. Slowly we discovered, that this again could become critical and we decided to to install our aluminum blankets over the bikes and get some shadow and rest underneath. Waiting for some time, till temperature will fall, should help to recover and later on finish the trip. Wrong we were, but didn't really have a choice! Still under the shade, the sweat in our boots started burning our skin. Same applied to our knee protectors and we started suffering more and more! If I would read this, I would believe that, but if you want a proof, send a mail to Frank, probably he had taken pictures from his blisters!

I had to admit, that my physical resources were used up and 'shame' or 'hero' attitude would be the wrong behavior. After a short discussion with my buddies, we agreed to get some help from outside, except Bernd, who kept saying: "Cold water would be good enough for me" !!Even worse should come. Whomever we called for help, we got replies, .... but from Australia, Sweden, Paris, etc..... it was vacation time and all our friends were out of the country ... except us!! Finally a good reply. The organization team of the UAE Desert Challenge was in the desert, to test one of the stages for the 2001 rallye. the problem, .. it would take them minimum 4.0 hours, to reach our position. I didn't want to take that risk and decided to call my friend Lothar Frank of the German embassy in Abu Dhabi.Lothar called the Abu Dhabi police and they sent a helicopter off for help! I thought, I would not survive the time, till the chopper arrived! When they came, they had to assist us to get into the heli ... I couldn't have walked on my own! Only Bernd again, after having some cold drinks, he decided to wait for the cars arriving from the UAE Rally organizers! I think, a wrong decision, as they were moving around in the desert, due to other reasons ( petrol, car problems, etc...) for several hours and only reached the road at midnight ( 9.0 hours after )!!

Our link to live!! ... Lothar  from the German embassy!

Two days after, we went back to the area were we stranded, to recover our bikes! I selected another friend of mine, to recover the bikes. If somebody can find water in the desert, he is definite privileged to find our bikes.  Burkhart, who's job is finding water in the desert, helped with his team, to find the bikes. As we knew the coordinates and there was beautiful weather, we had no problem driving there, but almost collapsed, when we found the bikes. It was depressing! 

Due to the nature, that there was so bad sight during our practice, we didn't  realize, just being  50m's from a wide open area ( Soubka ), where riding wouldn't have been a problem for my wife! This is Live, ... if you don't hang around in front of the television and suffocate of a Chip's package!   

Burkhart in his element .... here we go down!

The usual ... I'm stuck & Burkhart pulls me out!

 

I know, .. ALL of the above sounds pretty 'weird' and 'mad' ! You are right ... it is!

I also do not want to make it look different! BUT, ... who and what isn't weird today??

• 35 Grade in shadow, 6-8 hours parked on the highway and all just to call a small piece on the beach his paradise, for a 2 week vacation period?

• Stopping to really live for two years, just to call bricks, electricians and carpenters the best friends, so the own house can be finished? Then paying back the mortgage for 20 years and later the kids will sell all off and spend the money on holidays or other luxuries ??

• Sitting in front of stamps, night over night! Whistling with 'Hansi' the 'canary-bird' or  talking to the rabbits in the hutch??

Honest: Aren't we all a little bit 'weird' !!??

 

Madness? ... 'Close to Heaven'?

NO! ...... a message to Desert Newcomers!!!

 

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