Team Rabbit Hole Day update - Stage 13

Just a quick update because I'm dog-tired and so's Andy.
We've made it here in Tambacounda okay, but the Hummer took a beating.
I mean 458 kliks of gravel and bruch is nothing to sneeze at.
Andy and James are already at work right now, shoring up the suspension.
As soon as I'm done typing this in, I gotta go help 'em.

So we started out from Kayes bright and early, right behind "Crazy" Ivan Rebroff's enormous Tatra truck.
The comrade looked like he was already drunk. I don't know how he's managed to make it this far in the Dakar.
The first 180kms was mostly asphalt and dirt roads and what's called a "connection". The real racing didn't start until
the 181km mark and went on for a total of 260kms. The terrain for that part was gravel and brush at first, followed by
rutted tracks and heavier brush, then back to gravel. And after that, an 18kms "connection" to the finish line.
Since I had driven most of the last stage, Andy let me drive the first connection, then we switched and he took over
for the "special" as they call it. Then we switched again for the second "connection".
The Hummer doesn't seem to like going over gravel at 80mph, so we had to actually slow down during the "special".
The beast don't mind the sand and mud, but the gravel makes it grouchy. And, we didn't have any punctures this time.
Coincidence? Maybe. Speed is not the way to win the Dakar. It helps, but you need skill, luck, and good support.

We had a little excitement when we nearly hit one of the Volkswagens, coming out of some tiny village called "Kibobo" or
something like that. Turned out it was Mark Miller, a fellow Yankee, who had hit a goat-like thing, except bigger.
He had lost control and buried his sooped-up Touareg in someone's wall, which was made of adobe or something, so it gave
way easily. The V-Dub support chopper roared overhead and I heard Mark's headset crackled. His support truck was 30 minutes
out, so Frank and I decided to help him unwedge the Touareg from the wall. It was actually pretty easy and fast.
Mark's car had some cosmetic front damage, and stunk to high heaven, but seemed okay. Some helpful native hosed down the
V-Dub which helped with the smell, then we all jumped back in our respective vehicles and hit the trail.

One thing that always amazes me is how friendly the natives are. They apparently enjoy watching a bunch of crazed European,
American, Australian, Japanese, Russian, Czech, Hungarian, etc. racers at the controls of everything from offroad bikes
to giant offroad heavy trucks tear-assing through the countryside and trying not to kill themselves in the bargain.
And they help anyway they can. Unwedging stuck cars, giving us food and drinks, even just moral support waving as we go by.
The only guys who don't like us are bandits who stick us up and steal our shit. They usually get caught though.
I mean, we've got a veritable army of helicopters, support trucks and GPS and satellite phones up the wazoo.
And the organizers are connected with the governments of all the countries we cross into. They have to be.
Even with all that, this is still one of the last great adventures left in this modern world.
It's like the Baja 1000 gone Mad Max.
I love it.

The rest of the stage was unusually uneventful. We saw a few cars and bikes getting assistance, but that's it.
Andy checked our standings and says we're hanging on to our 8th overall spot. That's awesome! That's out of 110 cars!!
And we're not even a factory team! We're just a bunch of crazy cowboys with a Hummer and lots of tools!

Tomorrow, it's 576kms stage to Dakar! And after that, The Grande Finale: race from Dakar to Lac Rose then back, 93kms!
I see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it's not an oncoming Tatra, hahaha!
Next time, we talk to you from Dakar!

This is Robby Gordon, Team Rabbit Hole Day, signing off.