06.12.18 / Santa Claus in the desert / ...tomorrow is race day

Before I start with today's blog, I first have to correct an error from yesterday

Piggedi, the little piglet from the Sandman is actually called "Piggeldi".

Today was / is the first real day of relaxation since we are here in Windhoek.

Unfortunately, it started for my "beloved" Uli at 2:30 a.m., because she apparently didn't tolerate the very good food in the hotel.

I don't want this to sound selfish, but I'm glad that it didn't happen to me in this case. Otherwise, the race would have been over before it even started.

The good news: she's feeling better now, which is also good and important, because 18-24 hours as a support person with the jeep in the prairie and desert is not a piece of cake either.

We have a total of 18 participants (12 solo riders and 3 2-person teams) with 12 support personnel on 6 jeeps, and that's also necessary.

Without good support, the Desert Dash cannot be done.

In our case, everything is top-notch and very professional organized by the "Hubert Schwarz Team".

The support personnel are very experienced and know exactly what they're doing. That's very reassuring for us as riders.

Since we lounged around the hotel and the pool all day today and the main activity was the preparation of the bicycles, there is nothing exciting to report in today's blog about it.

As announced yesterday, here are a few "key facts" about Namibia and the race.

Those of you who looked at the map after reading the blog know where Namibia is located. Namibia, which is about 2.3 times the size of 🇩🇪, is located on the African west coast between Angola and South Africa.

However, only about 2.5 million people live here, and most of them live in the cities.

Namibia itself only seceded from South Africa in the 1990s, so it is still a young country.

However, the Namib Desert, which we will also cross tomorrow, is the oldest desert in the world.

Hence the name "Desert Dash".

So tomorrow at 3:00 pm we will finally start and join more than 1000 participants on the first stage. This one has about 600 meters of altitude difference and about 32 km. Then the teams will split up and we solo riders (>200) will of course continue. It will be dark around 8:00 pm and then there will be a long period in the dark in the middle of nowhere.

But there is a water station every 30 km and also refreshments at the control points.

We will make contact with our support vehicle for the first time after about 180 km, if everything goes smoothly, around 1:00 - 2:00 am. Then we will have almost completed half of the race and look forward to the second half. Keep your fingers crossed that the headwind is not too strong.

At 6:00 am it will be light again and probably also quickly hot.

If Marco and I are still on course by then, we may only have 5 hours and about 100 km left.

That's the theory...

So if our plan works, we will roll into the finish at around 11:00 am and be at 20 hours.

What will remain of this plan and what surprises await us, you will be able to read in about 2 days.

Today is not all days, I'll be back no question...

Good night and see you tomorrow for a short blog before the start.

Tomorrow my bunny will be fit again 😍.

Marcus

P.S: If you find one or more spelling mistakes, you are welcome to keep them. It's not that easy to type on the small display of the mobile phone, and sometimes I also overlook something.