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R
ALLYE
AICHA DES GAZELLES
How many
participants:
77
teams, about 100 competitors
Total distance/time:
About 2,500
kilometres, 8 days
Which nations
participate:
Largely French-based, but
includes teams from many
other countries. This year's
rally included teams from
Morocco, Canada, Monaco,
Belgium, Denmark, Italy,
Nigeria and Angola
How much does it
cost:
About $19,000
if registered before Aug,
31; $21,000 after Sept. 1,
for a team of two women
Proceeds:
Entrance fees go toward
setting up and supporting
schools and medical clinics
in Morocco
What you win:
Everyone gets a
trophy and gift baskets.
There are additional,
corporate-sponsored trophies
for top team, team that uses
the least fuel, etc.
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Les dunes Merzouga
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Rallye Gazelles
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Logo Rallye
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Site Rallye
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For women only
Early mornings, late nights, and the wide expanse of the
Sahara Desert between. It may be gruelling, but these
women want to keep their rally all for themselves
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ESSAOUIRA, MOROCCO–Set in
the Moroccan Sahara, the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles is an
eight-day orienteering competition open to women only.
Armed with just a map, compass and their vehicle –
anything from a motorbike to a 4x4 SUV to a prototype –
competitors must find checkpoints along the marked-out,
2,500-km route in a minimum of kilometres. Sleep time
would definitely have to be rationed.
Each morning at 4 a.m., I
would roll over in my small tent, which I shared with my
navigator and new friend, France Guérer of Quebec. I
would then scramble to find my headlamp to light my way
to the outdoor sink and bathrooms for the final "wake-up,"
a splash of icy cold water. If we were lucky, there
might be enough time, and enough water, to shower. More
often than not, there would be no time for anything
other than tearing down and packing up our tent,
collecting our truck from the mechanical impound and
stealing a bite of breakfast, all in time for the daily
briefing over fried Moroccan doughnuts and coffee
dispensed from ornate urns.
Many journalists were here to
write about the rally: its history, its purpose and its
adventures. I knew in my heart that to truly understand
the Rallye des Gazelles, to truly realize its
life-altering impact and bewitching spell, you'd have to
experience it
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Sand rovers
For the first time Britain
has a teame competing in the
all-female Rallye Aïcha des
Gazelles in Morocco. Franca
Davenport meeets the duo
Women in 4x4s haven't had
great press recently. Known
as "Chelsea tractors", there
is a widespread belief that
the nearest many of these
vehicles get to a green lane
is the next-door neighbour's
flower-bed.
But if females in 4x4s
aren't popular on the
streets of London, they are
in the Sahara desert… The
Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles is
an all-female, off-road
rally held in Morocco at the
end of April. Like the big
daddy of rally raids - the
Dakar - the Gazelle rally
tends to be mainly a French
affair. But this year, for
the first time, there is a
British team mingling among
les mesdames.
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