What an incredible full day of driving today, from la Paz to Tupiza (15.5 hours). The scenery was spectacular and we were taken on a journey from Mars landscapes to moonscapes to Scottish highlands… Bolivia is just magnificently beautiful. I’m not sure if I mentioned in my last blog, but Bolivia shut down the border post and the main road for our entrance. Leaving was no different. Apart from the odd car or truck, we traveled nearly 800km on road that was reserved for us. Policemen and women or army personnel were stationed along the entire route. It was quite…

Our first proper day of racing took us from Lima through to Pisco. While the bikes will certainly always have the best views from the top of enormous dunes, our views were truly beautiful too. We were spoilt here with a two-day camp, as the riders did a loop from the Bivouac on day two. Riding was tough, particularly on day two, with a couple of our team’s riders running out of fuel due to the terribly soft sand. I’ve taken a walk around the bivouac on both evenings and it’s so hard to believe the scale of this event.…

I have had goosebumps for the last two days. We met the HT Rally Team and were introduced to the setting up of the Bivouac yesterday. I kept looking around at the trucks, cars and overhead helicopters and reminding myself that this was actually happening around us and that we weren’t watching something on the Discovery channel. Today, was the arduous process of scrutineering, where bikes, rider gear and all paperwork is checked. Here, we started to see the magnitude of Dakar behind the scenes - media, medical, technical staff, administrative staff, and and and… It is a production like…

31 December 2017 Ive been travelling for about 30 hours and I have to once again conclude that 6 foot does not travel well in economy. My hotel transfer met me as promised, for which I was terribly grateful. His name was Jose (obviously) and he was lovely. He told me to sit in the back and I knew I was in for a rough ride. I quickly learned that in Lima: Enthusiastic use of hooters is applauded and rewarded with equally enthusiastic use from drivers also cutting across three lanes where not even a seasoned racer would dare. Also…