BUDAPEST - BAMAKO 2009

Robert's reports:

This morning the children of Karadje surprised us with a performance and acknowledgement for all the gifts we brought. This has been a truly wonderful experience and we enjoyed watching the children dance, play and sing. I think we brought a bit of joy into their difficult lives.

The route then led us towards the river of Niger which is about 100 km from Karadje. The route led us through savannah which was full of red dust. We suddenly found ourselves in civilisation again at the coast of the river Niger. And by civilisation I mean lots of people, chaos in the streets and asphalt roads with villages on the both sides of the streets, not to mention huge amounts of rubbish everywhere. The outside temperature was once again 34 degrees and we managed to survive this heat was because we have air conditioning in our car. Otherwise the temperature in the car would be from 55 to 60 degrees!

After 200 km of this stage we reached Bamako which is one of the largest East African capitals. There is a complete chaos in the streets and we miss not having a horn. The last two control points on the hill above the city and at 12.20 am local time, FUNCK - the first Slovenian team, successfully completed Budapest - Bamako rally 2009.

After crossing the finish line, in front of the Saalam hotel in Bamako, the local buyers started buying cars from the teams. Unbeliavable how easy it is to sell a car here, but ours is not for sale. We have to repeat that over and over again to surprised buyers who are paying with Euros for cars. No, our car is not for sale as this is the best car for a rally like this.

Many thanks to our sponsors, friends, collagues and everyone else for your support during this long and tough rally. We made it despite lots of problems (including those we never mentioned).

What to say at the end? Long, hard, unforgettable team work can get you anywhere. You just need to follow your dreams.

As it turned out, the only thing that really matters is persistence. Driving non stop for 27 hours through Italy, France, Spain, cold nights in Morocco, lots of rocks, endless Moroccan sandbanks, heat in savannah in Mali, struggling to get the petrol, eating whilst driving, 12 hours non stop behind the wheel, little or no bathing, dust everywhere, kind people on the way, lots of problems, long stages, too little sleep and no rest: all this was Budapest - Bamako rally 2009. Team FUNCK made 9940 km!

Robert's reports:

Today is a continuance from yesterday and the length of the stage is 420 km. The route leads us through savannah and in the direction of the Banamba town. Despite of a number of control points, huge amount of dust, bushes, rocks and Mali villages we drive non stop while the outside temperature is 36 degrees. After approximately 50 km we overtook a few cars and the navigation was very important as we were not following any of the teams. The advantage of being the first is that there isn't any dust and you can spot the holes in the ground and bushes way ahead. Now I know why the organiser has been warning us that this is the route of the lost rearview mirrors. They simply get knocked off, but we managed to keep ours. At the 245 km of this stage we needed to stop for petrol from the reserve and continue to look for the village by the name of Karadje, in the direction of Banambi. Much to our surprise we reached the finish line at 4 pm as the second team. We stopped at the small local school where the children gazed at us with amazement and we told them that the whole rally is coming to the village and that we brough gifts. Whilst I had to unload the whole equipment and present the school with football shoes and stationery, the children sang some local songs for Tea. This was a wonderful experience and it is quite unbelievable how these children are happy for small gifts (KADU) we brought.

After an hour and a half of hand shaking, taking photos and some sort of conversation, other teams started to arrive. We realized that, with the help of good people from Slovenia, we brought most of the gifts. Today's damage on the car is not so bad: scratched left and right side and broken front headlight. But the car is still in excellent condition and a lot of teams congratulated us for the courage to compete with others and for overtaking them.

Robert's reports:

On the 13th stage from Kiffa to Korera Kore the whole relentnessness of Africa and endurance of teams was obvious. The teams had to drive for more than 450 km over savannah with hillocks, covered with bushes, grass and thin trees which grow on sandy ground. Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution was made for paths like these as it is doing very well despite all problems.

We still do not know how we managed to reach the finish line yesterday as we literally got hung on the half meter big stump. This was 50 km before the finish and at the speed of 40 - 50km/h- At first we did not evend are to have a look under the car as we were sure the whole undercarriage was torn off. When we finally had a look at it, we realized that the impact was eased by the absorber which was completely destroyed, but the rest of the "vital" parts were ok. However, the problems were not over as the whole fron of the car was 20 cm up on the stump and we could not get it down. And in addition to this, the left front tyre ramed into another stump. As the night was approaching we decided to support the car with an airbag and to hammer off the stump and get the car dfown. We got lucky as the team number 11 drove by and helped us with the whole thing. Such help is counted against bonus and we signed the confirmation of their assistance which will bring the team extra points.

We also crossed the border between Mauritania and Mali, but we hardly knew it as there weren't any control points or signs. And then we got stopped in the middle of nowhere by soldiers and after checking our documents they confirmed we were on the right route to Korera Kore. Despite all troubles we managed to get to the finish line as the 8th team with all points and only 3 minutes before the deadline of this 12 hour stage. It was quite unbelievable to see all the teams arriving to the control point throughout the night. And I need to praise Tea who was an excellent navigator on this demanding stage. Now we have only two more stages left and a lot of unexpected can happen, but we are both positive we will make it to Bamako!

Robert's reports:

"This morning the organiser informed us that they are cancelling Atar - Bour Lanoar stage due to security reasons. So we headed towards south, in the direction of Nouakchott. The route led us through sandbanks and fine sand in the length of more than 450 km. We had to dig out several times. Several teams had troubles with choosing directions and too much sand. On top of everything there was a stong eastern  wind untill 12 o'clock which lifted huge amount of sand and which made visibility worse. The temperature was 27 degrees and the sun is quite strong here. After we stopped for petrol in Nouakcott (capital of Mauritania) we drove to Atar which is 400 km from Nouakcott.  On the last control point, 95 km before reaching Atar we really dig in well. The car sat on its belly and we had to dig it out. We reached Atar at 8 pm after 850 km. And now we understand why the organiser mentioned that this marathon rally  requires 9 to 10.000 km. We made 7.924 km until now. As for petrol: as soon as our tank is half empty we start looking for ESSENCE and we're lucky it's been available so far. We have a strong competition from other cars so it's important we make it to the petrol stations among first..."

Robert's reports:

"Today's stage is 370 km long and it includes crossing the border between Morocco and Mauritania. As this is a complicated procedure we decided to get on the road at 5.15 am. Some people slept only 3 hours, because they got stuck in the mud with their cars and spent several hours trying to get out.  As we drive, there are "Beware of landmines"signs everywhere so we stick to the asphalt roads and drive fast to reach the border as soon as possible. There are 4 border control points on the Moroccan side which we need to pass to be able to cross the border and then go through the same thing in Mauritania again. It was a nightmare that took us 7 hours.  Just imagine how many kilometres we could have made during that time!
Perhaps just a few interesting info: we made 6600 km so far, we start looking for petrol after 300 km and there were several occassions when we found the petrrol station which just a few drops of petrol left in the tank. As these stages are really tough and long we only get some rest when we stop for petrol, we eat whilst driving, we don't get enough sleep and there's no water."

Robert's reports:

"Today we decided to change our tactics (taking into account yesterday's events). Now we will aim to drive through all stages in the time frame that the organiser set and we will leave out the tough geo challenges. Our aim, however, remains to make it to Bamako. When we spoke to other teams this morning we realized that 10 cars have completely destroyed shock absorbers, others have completely worn out joints....
I think this stage will be the toughest one. We had to drive for 450 km to reach Assa and we managed to reach it in time, but we had to overcome several stone tracks, sands, but at least tha navigation was simple compared to other stages. The last hour of the drive was the toughest one as we had to drive on the dig up track, facing sunset. Due to the sunset light we could not drive faster than 40 km per hour. It was also the first time we placed the tent and ate before dark. As we ate our dinner some teams were only starting to arrive.

Today's damage on the car is a broken windscreen which was caused by a flying pebble from underneath car number 13.

And one interesting thing: we ran into two Slovenes at the only petrol station in Assa! You can run into Slovenes anywhere. "

As an administrator I would like to comment that the rest the team had in Assa was very important, because the next stage will lead them through mine fields in the Western Sahara and they will need to be completely focused.  Since they reached Sahara, the routes they are following are the stages of the Dakar in previous years which of course means that the strain for the teams and vehicles is extreme. The only thing we can say is that we are keeping our fingers crossed for them and wish them luck.

Robert's reports:

This morning, at 6.30 am, we started driving towards the end of a 3 day marathon after only 5 hours of sleep. The route led us through rough roads of Morocco towards the southeast.  The landscape, paths and people are wonderful in these mountains. I cannot believe the amount of snow in the mountains and lovely people who smile and wave at us. It is truly beautiful here. But, we had to continue with our race and after 600 km we almost reached the final point of this stage. It started raining when we reached Merzuga which was fantastic. Who wouldn't want to drive in the dark across wet sandbanks in the direction of the unknown GPS point. It only makes the whole thing more interesting. We were surprised to learn we were the sixth team to arrive. Given that 90% of teams are still on the way, the results will probably be known in a day or two.

This reporting is, due to technical problems, slightly delayed, but everyone who is interested will still read them, no matter when they are published. Have a look at the photos they took so far.

The team also reported on their first breakdown, when they had to replace the shock absorbers. That, however, did not affect their ranging too much.

Robert's reports:

"We started our first rally stage at 10 am by driving over the start line. Co-ordinate spots led us towards the military testing ground by the eastern part of the Balaton lake, where we had to look for 13 control spots. We then drove on the local roads over the hills to the »green” border with Slovenia. Approximately 4 km from Hodoš we crossed over to the domestic territory. We were surprised to learn that the organiser has positioned 2 control spots in our hometown, Vrhnika. We drove 870 km on the first day, all the way to the Italian town of Brescia. We made it to the finish of the first day’s stage at 22.15 and found out that only 7 cars were in front of us."

One of the teams withdrew from the rally (team number 56), because the driver broke his leg when walking on the icy terrain. Only few teams managed to do all the tasks in Hungary and Slovenia on the first day. The strain will only get worse in the forthcoming days as they are ahead of the long drive of the »Supermarathon stage« , as the organiser calls it. They will have 3 days to drive 2400 km. The first day is the drive from Italy to France, across mountains passes and not on the motorways, where they will need to face several challenges, climbing and looking for »geo spots«, amongst others.