16 January – Still in Nema

WAKEY WAKEY - THE SUN HAS GOT HIS HAT ON

What a nice change, not to be woken by the Hercules at 5.45. Woke at 6 anyway, then rolled over and went back to sleep until 7. Then again till 7.30, at which time I thought a pee and a coffee would be nice.

Dressed, packed everything up and headed off for breakfast.

As seems to be the habit with the regulars from ASO, there had been a party in full swing when I returned from dinner the previous night. They take any opportunity, when they don’t have to get up and move the next morning. This time, I don’t think there were any Evel Kneivel-type mini-moto stunts involving atbles and benches, but who knows? I’d left them to it and crashed out, so they could have been dancing all night on the top of the Hercules, for all I know…

Now, two days later, I am struggling to think what happened in Nema. Not much different from normal, I seem to think…

Day spent following the race, as the competitors completed a (relatively) short stage out from Nema and back. The first bikes were in at about 1pm and so there was more time for programme-making than has been the case for the bulk of the past week.

Chatted to a few riders and got their thoughts on the stage, which is always useful. Most saw it as a little disappointing, especially as the two stages out to Timbuctu and back had been quite long and totally different from the Nema loop in nature.

WAITING TO WASH - AND STUFF

A day to just hold station for the front-runners, then, which always allows someone else a chance to shine. So we had a different winner in the bikes, for a change (although the Ltvian winner of the previous day’s stage was a first-time winner) and in the cars a first-time winner.

With just a short liaison to cover tomorrow, everyone was pretty relaxed, and I think that was somehow reflected in the Hercules. Everything ran pretty smoothly and we were all ready for the transmission, in time and sorted out. Couple of small technical glitches but no major worries.

Not sure whether we’re just getting more into the swing of it all a lot better but I’m not feeling QUITE so much pressure at the moment.

Again, wandered down to the extremely dusty bivouac for dinner, with an English guy called Adrian, who is working as the editor for the US network Versus, who are covering the rally. They are showing my programme every night in the States and there’s a 6-strong crew here shooting extra stuff for 4 documentary programmes that they’ll air later.

They’re really nice guys and great fun to have in our little tent, along with the guys from Micron, who are doing the on-board cameras on Robby Gordon’s Hummer. They have been up-loading films every night to YouTube and have so far managed to rack up something like 15,000 dollars-worth of internet use. Because it’s all done over a satellite connection, it costs a fortune but they still have a week to go, so the bill is going to climb, even if they upload less then they have been…

There’s a really good-natured banter going on all the time, which makes for a good working atmosphere and the guys in the plane are getting more used to having Sebastian and I about now, and are happy to run us through what they’ve got, even when they’re getting really busy – all of which makes out jobs more possible and more relaxed.

Tomorrow we leave, for Ayoun, our last port of call in Mauritania. Turning in early, as usual…

FATHER (65) AND DAUGHTER (19) - BOTH FIRST-TIME BIKERS... FRENCH, OF COURSE!