First odyssey after reaching Dakar

The trip started badly. To get to Barcelona airport to go to Yanbu (Saudi Arabia), I realized that one of the two wheels of my suitcase was about to break. I don’t think it will handle morning walks from bivouac to bivouac in sand and dirt and the time will come to push 22 kg without wheels. It will come. Before, you had to focus on the present, the journey towards first camp of Dakar. There are cases worse than mine. journalists from Madrid they had to do a 4-hour layover in Frankfurt and another stop of 1h in Munich including travel to Yanbu.

Argentine companions have 13 hours to go to Frankfurt, 12 hours layover and 5 more hours travel to Yanbu. In our case, the flight is direct Barcelona-Yanbu. I left at 11:30 pm We have to go to sleep because we will arrive in the morning and the previous administrative mess will begin. The plane was small, cramped, and the sleep was uncomfortable. Zero rest.

Once in Yanbu, we head to the big news, the ‘Sea Camp’, The sea ​​camp. We will be there in the days before the race and in the first two days (prologue and stage 1), so that the whole Dakar caravan is together and under control. They promised “another bivouac”, with a soccer field and other amenities. Promise Upon arrival, dragging the suitcase 200 meters through the sand warned us that the day was going to be complicated. The first thing is to get one. SIM card to have mobile data this fortnight, something fundamental to our work as journalists. Yes, there is a soccer field, even a volleyball field, the views are amazing, including red sea next door, and there is also a laundry stall, a barbershop (about 15 euros for a haircut and 10 for a beard), a mini supermarket in case we left something behind.

And next to it, the telephone station. A small stall. Our alarms went off: the 3,000 people forming the bivouac were going to buy their SIM cards. To top it off, it opened at 12.00. Why not earlier? No one knows. At 10 in the morning there were already 40 people in line. No one came until 12:50. 50 minutes later. 3 hours a day, including pilots. Carlos Sainz hallucinating Laia Sanz he snorted when he saw the tail. No one gave credit.

“Hi. I’m the leader of this position,” introduced the phone clerk. And the show began. They gave out numbers. We had number 29. The first one came in after 10 minutes and it took him a quarter of an hour before he came out with his SIM. 15 minutes for 29… the wait can be endless under the sun and heat is unbearable. Just think: on a beach, waiting 3 hours in the sun knowing you have 4 hours left to watch.

The organization, not satisfied with the telephony, provided a bus for the press to go to the city for a card. One hour there and one hour back plus the wait at the establishment. We hesitated, but 16 of us decided to accept. After the trip, we got up to get off the bus. It’s like it’s there, but it’s not. The bus took a detour to take two people to the airport. There is another 20 minutes to the highway. Finally we arrived yanbu. They stopped us in front of the phone. “We’ve done it,” we thought. But we soon realized that we were wrong. There is a whole team ahead of us with the same purpose as the SIM card. About 50 people ahead. It is worth noting that in a shop with 9 counters, only two are operational. We understand the reason then. We decided to go for a coffee but everything was closed. ” It’s prayer time. Here they call for prayer and people come. They wait for about 10 minutes, they start praying in the mosque, and then they come back.” That’s why only two people serve in the store.

Then reinforcements would come, we thought. Only two people came. One of the people was the boss and he limited himself to taking pictures, to remember the day his shop was filled with 60 people. And the other one went on the chopping block. 2 hours after our arrival on the phone, they started serving our group. They do it with such great calm, an island rhythm that you just can’t help but join in with. Calm and smiling.

For a card we have to show a passport, a visa and put our fingerprint on a document that no one knows what it says. Maximum confidence. No other. But in placing the print, there was a problem. Mine has not been activated from my passport control. We tried it 3 times. Instead of worrying, the clerk started asking me if I was a fan of any Italian team while another employee gave me an Arabic coffee. “Of Juve“, I answered. His demeanor changed. “I’m a milanista”. “I liked the Milan from 2003.” We started reciting the lineup of the two of them. .”Dida“, He said. “cafe“, I.”Nesta“. “Maldini“.”pearl“… He smiled. He had to sweet-talk me somehow and it seemed to work. Then he called another clerk. He thought it would help with my fingerprint problem, because I couldn’t buy a card. It wasn’t . No worries. “Juventino”, I told him. He put his hands on his head as he cried. “I’m a Romanist”. I told him that at the same time I’m from Barça. He liked it. more, but he answered that the Rome Barça will lose to european league. “We have Dybala already pellegrini“, he exclaimed. I was worried about the card but I played. After that, they changed my clerk and I realized that I was just wasting time. There was no way. It didn’t work. The situation became even more surreal.

In front of me they started rolling out carpets. The other employees started praying without caring that we were there. Finally, they agreed that another journalist would buy the card for me and put his fingerprint on it. 3 hours later (8 since we went to the bivouac for the card), we made it.

Next goal, get access to satellite internet

We reached the first goal, not without suffering. There was another hour left back at the bivouac. We came back with a missing day, still need to test the internet on the computer. The next goal was to get access to the race internet satellite to write with a laptop from the other bivouacs. It was another tough match. The days before, until you get everything under control, are tiring, like a Dakar before the real Dakar. After that, there will be 14 days of racing including the prologue, with many trips from bivouac to bivouac and several hours of sleep in delicate conditions.

“What am I doing here? I’m not coming back next year”, we repeated many times on our first day of adventure, remembering that every year we said the same thing and then the Dakar always knocks on your door

“C’est le Dakar” (This is Dakar)They all say every year. An adventure for everyone.