It came as a bolt from the blue when motorsport newswires carried the story to start 2008 with a big shock: “Dakar Rally cancelled over safety fears in Mauritania”. The world’s most famous tough terrain event cancelled? It seems so. Fears after the deaths of four French tourists and what can be best described as suspected Al-Qaeda involvement all added to the pressure. It’s probably no coincidence that the organisers of the are also French.
The harsh reality of entering such an event invariably means an untimely death for some poor soul, although we guess preventable is the clear distinction from accidental. TFB was out in Dakar last year and saw the grim reality of how cheap life really is in this particular part of Africa. To be honest, we saw numerous road traffic accidents which did result in fatalities (one was perilously close for comfort). Personally speaking, people driving shockingly under maintained vehicles will always be my biggest fear, not the dark forces of Al-Qaeda. Here’s some memories of the 2007 event from the TFB archive.
No comments:
Post a Comment