An Obsession with Sand?

After a few posts you might ask yourself, why this preoccupation with Dakar?

Isn't Dakar, the capital of the African country Senegal on the west coast of the continent?
Yes it is, it also the finish line of the off road race, nicknamed Le Dakar, the starting point used to be Paris, France, more recently Barcelona, Spain, and Lisbon, Portugal.
Just to shake things up, one year, the organizers started in Dakar, and finished in Paris.

My first exposure to The Dakar, I was maybe 12 or 13 years old, Jan De Rooy competed with "De Koffer"(The Trunk). He finished 3rd in the truck category, and after that I was hooked.

I mean, come on, the biggest racing vehicles ever conceived bouncing around in the World's largest sandbox, this is the stuff dreams are made of.

4x4, 6x6 and even the massive 8x8 trucks racing each other in the Sahara Desert.

Baja it isn't, but Baja buggies and trucks are permitted to race the Dakar, but they have to adhere to certain technical specifications.

When I came back to the US, in 1987, I fell out of touch with the whole Dakar history, but since Speed TV used to carry coverage, and now OLN/Versus carrying it, I have gotten back to following the whole circus that is the Last Road Trip, The Legend.
The models, and the variety of news sources have just fueled my passion for this event, all available over the internet.

I invite everyone to experience The Dakar, and as they say Entrez La Légende Enter the Legend........