Rally Christmas

Christmas Eve is always a magic time. Children want to stay up late to catch a glimpse of Santa Claus, and they always wake up early with the anticipation of finding their presents.

When Christmas Day marks the start of a voyage to the African desert, even adults succumb to the holiday magic. We were up before the alarm went off this morning to finish loading and set off toward Malaga and the ferry to Morocco, where we’ll be spending the week and celebrating the New Year with friends in the dunes of northern Africa.

This will not be a relaxing holiday though. One of our objectives is to practice for next year’s rally. The Tatra is still in Kopřivnice where the upgrades are being finished, so although we can’t practice driving yet to get used to the new equipment, we’ll be working on navigation for this off road rally practice. One of our friends is bringing some old road books from the region, so we’ll use those for training using the compass and Terratrip rally computer that we installed in our Jeep JK Wrangler last week.

We’re also hoping to catch a glimpse of the Africa Eco Race as it blows past us on the way from Boudenib to Tagounite in the second stage on Sunday.

As the rally season approaches, the end of the year has been busier than usual for us, so the quiet driving time as we head toward Spain gives us the opportunity to wish all our readers a happy holiday. We hope you’ll be able to live your dreams in 2013.