Moments of fear in Dakar: “We were afraid of being swept away by the river”

Imagine that you are inside a light vehicle, with only one windshield, no side windows, only the eyes are protected, trapped in a strong current, in the middle of a river full of water mixed with sand. WhatWhat to do in that situation? That’s what happened to the Burgos Christina Gutierrez and in Chilean ‘Vest’ Lopezboth trapped in the middle of one of the rivers formed by the enormous downpour that fell all day in the desert of claim. There are moments of real fear.

“From kilometer 150 there are all the lakes and more lakes formed by the rain”, highlighted the T3 driver, Gerard Farrés. And then he saw a river. There were several cars trapped there and he decided to go the other way. He played it, went full throttle and passed. “We were lucky that right where we passed, the river was not that deep,” he said. This is the Dakar, you always need “a dose of luck and we have it”, Gerard taught.

Cristina and López did not have that luck. They both stayed in the middle of the river. Without knowing what to do. They lived in moments of panic.

Cristina Gutiérrez and ‘Chaleco’ López, with their respective Side by Side, are trapped inside a river naturally formed by heavy rains in the middle of the Ha’il desert and go through a complicated situation, full of fear and uncertainty.

“I hope the organization knows what happened and applies the corrections. I have had enough suffering inside the car. We are afraid of being swept away by the river”expressed the woman from Burgos after such a fear, from which she came out thanks to the friendship that exists in Dakar. Ales Loprais, a leader in the trucks, stopped to pull the car out of the water. Only the trucks did not suffer when passing through that river, opening the water with their strength and power and passing that trap without complications. so, Loprais was able to save the Spaniard, who after seeing how water entered the right side of his car and ran inside to exit the left, soaking the entire vehicle, said he suffered “all kinds of electrical failure.”

‘Chaleco’ resisted the force of the standing water

His greatest moment of fear came with his Red Bull factory team partner, ‘Vest’ Lopez. The Chilean decided to get out of his car, with water pouring over him, to try to find a solution. He was then seen struggling to stand, against the force of the river, and avoid being swept away by it as his helmet swung from one side. Fortunately, nothing to regret happened. It was read.

His family saw the videos of that moment on social networks and were very worried. It is like for the time since the mobile of ‘vest’ He gave no signal and they could not talk to him. They did this to a Chilean journalist who was in touch with the team. Can-Am told the reporter that ‘vest’ I’m waiting for someone to pull a car out of the water to go to the goal and get to the camp. He did so some time later, after a long journey soaking wet. These cars are open on the sides, so imagine how cool it is.

“There is a river that has grown very big. Here, when it rains hard, it’s a deluge,” he said, explaining the moment he stayed in the water: “All the water went through the car and the good thing is we didn’t lose it.” He thought the car might be swept away by the current or might suffer serious damage. “We almost lost the car and it was not fixed. We were very cold. It was a very difficult day, but the most important thing is that we have the same enthusiasm as the first day”he added stiffly, wanting to take off his clothes and take a hot bath to forget what happened.

He wasn’t the only one who was cold, because there were motorcycle riders who even though they didn’t go through those rivers suffered because they didn’t wear warm clothes. They had a very difficult day. The organization neutralized the race up to three points in a staggered manner, as things got worse, they neutralized another point so that the pilots no longer faced the water. It was a difficult day, but luckily for everyone, nothing serious happened.