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(Above) Roll charts, compasses, global positioning systems and other navigational aids
were needed to compete in the rally. This particular setup was middle-of-the-road - some
riders had more and some had less (frightening).
could hone their navigation skills without the handicap of racing at high
speeds.
The second day, and first special test,
was to be the first real racing opportunity, and it was all the contestants had
signed up for. Although the entire day's
riding was generally in a southern direction, there were ample opportunities to
get lost or bogged down in the endless
miles of skyscraper-sized sand dunes,
rock gardens and open desert tracks.
The special test ended at Dumm ElDabaid, an ancient Roman fort, deep
within the most desolate desert I have
ever seen. There was not a stick of grass
or sagebrush, not an obvious drop of
water, nor anything else that would
have sustained life in any form.
Although I am somewhat informed
of the methods with which desert life
takes advantage of every survival
opportunity, there was nothing in or
around t,hese ruins which would have
encouraged anyone to stay far" long. It
was a complete city, lost in the endless
desert, deserted for 2,000 years.
Spaniard Jordi Arcarons (KTM), winner of the recent Paris-ta-Beijing Rally,
was first overall and first bike, with Italian Fabrizio Meoni (KTM) hot on his
. tail. Guido aletti, also from Italy and
riding a big, green Kawasaki, followed
Meoni by a half hour.
The bivouac areas were reminders of
boyhood dreams of Arabian nights. The
main tent was red cloth with bold Islamic designs. Inside was a catered dinner
of Egyptian sausages, chicken, lamb,
pasta, fruits and my favorite dessert,
baklava. The camaraderie and bench
racing was punctuated by the sound of
repaired vehicles racing their engines
and the chant of Muslim prayers. Racers, support personnel, the medical
team, caterers, mechanics, the press,
Arabs, Egyptians, Israelis, Europeans,
myself (the lone American) - all together
in the desert night.
Day three was a 390-mile run to Abu
Simbel on Lake Nasser in southern
Egypt, almost on the border with Sudan.
Abu Simbel is famous as the site where
the United Nations, in 1956, helped the
Egyptian government to keep the
ancient temple of Ramses II from being
inundated by the water rising behind
the Aswan High Dam. Through a concerted international effort, the entire
temple was raised over 200 feet from its
original location.
The riding was easy, if not long, with
(Above) Promoter Fenouil (second from
left) shares a moment with Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarek (far right), who
came out from Aswan to dine and visit
with the participants.
(Right) Mobile fuel stops provided rest
breaks, good company and a trUly needed
commodity in the expansive desert - gas.
high speeds across the endless waste. At
one point, the desert was so flat I felt as
though r could see the curvature of the
earth. An endless plain of featureless
sand melding with the horizon of blue
in every direction.
The key to this special test was navigation. Although it was easy to follow
the tracks of the faster riders, often their
fire marks would pass through hard
pack or windblown sand, which would
obscure the trail. The nice part was there
were no other tracks than our own. It
was almost like being the first skier on
new-fallen snow.
Ten miles from the first gas stop, I
came across Arcarons' KTM parked in
the endless desert. I learned only later
that the engine had expired. With
Arcarons out of the race, the lead was
deeded to the indefatigable Meoni, with
Haletti less than a half-hour back and
Jutta Kleinschmidt piloting her BMW to
third.
The next day was a rest and recuperation day, and an opportunity to visit
the temple of Ramses II. It was absolutely incredible to realize that this temple
was over 3,000 years old, and the colors
on the inside walls are still vibrant.
The riders and pilots also had an
opportunity to meet Hosni Mubarek,
the president of Egypt, as he made a
special trip from Aswan to meet with
the participants of the rally. That
evening, we celebrated our passing over
the desert with a candlelight dinner in
front of Ramses' shrine. I had to pinch
myself to realize where I was, what I
was doing and who I was with.
The following day started what
Fenouil called the "crazy Cannonball."
This portion of the rally was a 790-mile
trek across open desert, back to Cairo.
The first leg led us back to El Kharga
over much of the course of day three.
At El Kharga, all racers were
required to rest and recoup for two
hours. They could then start again and
ride until sundown. At sundown, the
racers were required to stop and
remain in place until sunrise the following morning. The idea was to give
all riders and pilots the opportunity to
spend the night in the desert, and many
did.
Unfortunately, a strong headwind
and soft sand caused me to run out of
gas 18 miles short of resupply. After sitting in the desert for three hours before
finally getting some gas, it took all my
riding skills to get into Kharga before
sundown.
At sunrise the next morning, Girard
Tillette and I set out to complete the
"Crazy Cannonball" and return to
Cairo. The day consisted of endless sand
dunes punctuated with rock fields. Sand
dune riding is not exactly my forte, and
my antics gave my new friend Tillette
much humor. At one point, I decided
that I wasn't going to get stuck at the
crest anymore by slowing down, so I
would gas it all the way to the top.
Of course, this was the dune that had
an invisible steep drop off just over the
top, which I only discovered when I
launched myself off the edge. Unfortunately, a pair of firefighters from Lyon,
France, driving a Range Rover, tried to
follow my tracks and ended up destroying their car and had to be airlifted to
the hospital in Cairo.
At 3 o'clock that afternoon, Tillette
and I completed the Desert Cannonball
on a hillside a short distance from the
first night's bivouac at Bahariya. In a
way, the climax was an anticlimax.
Fenouil gave me a hug and shook my
hand, but the real Cannonball was back
in the endless waste of Egyptian desert.
Meoni won the "Crazy Cannonball"
section by 41 minutes over fellow Italian
Guido Maletti, with Honda-mounted
Karim EI Maadi of Egypt bringing honors to the hometown fans in Cairo.
Meoni ended up taking the overall rally
win, with Maletti in second almost two
hours back on elapsed time. Raz Hamen
from Israel came in third, just over five
hours behind the leader.
As I packed my bike the next day, I
recounted the real soul of the rally - the
days packed with riding, excitement,
navigatioI\ exercises, new friends, new
sights and a new appreciation of the
birthplace of civilization. Rallies are
hard work and the real value of them,
for the also-ran like myself, is in the
memories, and often those memories
take some time to congeal. Even today,
only a short time after my experiences in
Egypt, I still can't believe it was me in
the desert.
I didn't bring home any prize money
or trophies, but I did bring home an
appreciation of the differences between
myself and people from other lands, and
also the similarities. It seems to me that
motorcycle riders, especially dirt bike
racers, are pretty much the same everyfN
where.
1996 Desert Cannonball Rally
Cairo, Egypt
Results: October 12-17, 1996
O/A: 1. Fabrizio Meoni (KTM, Italy) 52:50; 2. Guido
Maletti (J(aw, Italy) 1050; 3. Raz Haimen O