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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 03 December 2007 |
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As already announced the first part of the Rainforest Challenge 2007 had to be modified. About 100km were driven on normal streets after the prologue. The reason for that are the severe rainfalls in the region of Terengganu in the recent days.
However, the organizer Luis J.A. Wee was fulfilling the stories told about him again by making also this modified transport stage an extraordinary one. After driving on normal streets the last 12 kilometers went directly over seldom used jungle paths.
Six months of vegetation growth in the jungle are comparable with two years in a normal European environment. So the track was quite overgrown, small bridges were washed away on the left and right by the rainfalls. As a result the organization and press had to use tree parts and other means to extend the remaining bridge fragments to suite the vehicle widths. That of course in total darkness as the night starts early here at about 7h in the evening. A first real small adventure for everyone involved in the RFC.
On Monday morning the first special stage of the RFC will start. After that things will get tight for the participants. There will be no escape route to the left or right of the track. A route of 10 kilometers in the jungle can mean anything between 4 hours and 4 days.
After the start into the long jungle passages the teams will have to rely on themselves. Only the specially experienced so called "X-Men" organization members will be joining the participants.
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Written by Administrator
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Sunday, 02 December 2007 |
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Benzi-Team Pictures taken on the 1st of December courtesy of MarathonRally.com 1st December
Opening Ceremony at Jertih town in the morning followed by Prologue Special Stages at Star Hill Kg Bukit Bintang. RISE OF THE MACHINES I Check out the video from the 1st day
 Soly Khattar with the RFC organizers
Khattar/Abboud car 102. Prepared Toyota HJ
 Philippe Abboud preparing the winch Read the whole article for more pictures
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 02 December 2007 )
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Written by Administrator
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Sunday, 02 December 2007 |
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On the first of December 2007 the 10. edition of the Rainforest Challenge (RFC) - "the mother of all trophys" - will start in Malaysia. For this special edition the message will be "back to the root". The adjectives that the organizer Luis J.A. Wee has in mins for that are tougher, harder and more wet. Originally grown to live as a successor of the legendary Camel Trophy over the years the RFC became less extreme and today is a mixture of "manageable weekend trophy" and "extremely tough Camel Trophy". This year that special flavor is attracting more participants and nations that ever before.
The event traditionally starts with a prologue that is near to a well urbanized area and built to give a first impression to the participants what will be waiting for them during the next days. No jungle yet but stages constructed for spectacular press, city official and spectator action. Due to the high number of participants it can be assumed that the "filtering barrier" will be set on the prologue. A tough prologue normally means that only the most suitable cars and best drivers will make it into the jungle where the real challenge lies - also for the rally officials who try to reduce the risk of having badly prepared vehicles stuck deep in the jungle waiting to be rescued.
Not only the special stages in the jungle present a considerable challenge to the participants also the so called transport stages between the sections or not the weak ones. The transport stages will be not driven on time because the danger would be too high. Arriving at the next stage is the goal to be reached. From the outside you can only assume the dangers by accounting that this year at one point the participants will be given 3 days of time to pass just 15 km to the next stage.
Last year marathonrally.com reporters joined some of these stages. The only thing that can be taken for granted is that the next obstacle will always be somehow totally different from the last one most likely even more tough and dangerous. Steep hills on the left and deep descents on the right where 10 meters next to the muddy angled track you already have the treetops of 20m high trees on the same level as you are among the normal things. Suddenly appearing guts across the route often under present themselves as 50 cm wide and 2m deep rain washouts that have to be passed. The rivers that need to be crossed are fully untamed and often have water flows that alternate their level by more than a meter in a couple of hours depending upon the rainfall in some other part of the country.
Taking all this into account it can be understood that a big part of the rainforest means adjusting everything to the conditions of nature - the weather, rain and unforeseen events such as landslides or bridges that have been washed away just days or hours ago on tracks that have not been used for years. Adjusting everything in this case means a rally convoy with about 120 cars, camps, food, water and the event infrastructure and safety of several hundred people. So sometimes the official schedule is only a preliminary one which is a constraints understood and often even more anticipated by the participants in this event.
The determining factor for everything is the rain. Last year the RFC was held in the state of Kedah in the North West of Malaysia. In that year the rainfall had been modest to low, the rivers were shallow and the muddy areas were well defined. This year the situation looks different. The state of Terengganu is located in the middle of the zone where the North East monsoon hits the Malaysian mainland after charging itself up with tons of water over the sea. Several weeks of rain have flooded some parts of the state as we could already witness ourselves on the travel to the prologue camp. Some rivers on the track still have water levels of more that 1,5m on the track locations. Two years ago several teams and press cars vanished completely for three days after having tried to find workarounds on their own.
Lebanese flag seen here on Team 1's car: Soly Khattar/Philippe Abboud
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 02 December 2007 )
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