Egypt - Day 9 in the Desert.

3 desert stages lined up for today so it was another early start from Aie Sokha for a 200km drive to a cafe holding control near the desert section. Here we witnessed a bad accident just 100m from the cafe which involved serious injuries. Fortunately, there were lots of police in attendance. 

The first section was 28km of mixed desert; soft sand, rocky tracks and wadis with dried river beds (which are always extra soft). It was the latter that caused yet another traffic jam of stuck cars. Cars were to leave at 2 min intervals due to dust and we were to catch quite a lot. 

We saw Owen Turner start off in his fwd MG and he struggled to get traction from the outset. We've driven desert stages before some years before on a fwd Peugeot. I could tell he was going to struggle as he moved off the line scrabbling for grip. It was perhaps a mistake to use his gravel tyres. They tend to bite into sand and therefore dig in. Ordinary tyres are more likely to float across the top of the sand if you can gather sufficient momentum and keep it up. 

Navigation was very tricky with tracks in all directions but the satnav helped, giving an arrow to the next point to compare to the roadbook. We arrived in a dry river bed canyon section and we saw the crew of second place Andy in the distance quickly jumping back in their car after sportingly trying to tow Owen out of deep soft sand in which he was firmly stuck. Owen immediately got stuck again and others subsequently were to stack up behind him. We managed to get through and were off after Andy who was slightly off route to our left. Our track didn't quite allow us to head him off and when he rejoined our track, we were in his dust and had to back off. We tried moving off to the right but we couldn't quite match him and get past so followed him into the control. 

The next section was cancelled so we shot off to the third section start where it was clear by the absence of cars as the minutes passed that not many had got through the first section. The 911 had rocketed through though - not surprising from a driver who has done the Paris-Dakar 7 times. 

The next and final competitive section for the day was a 7km loop starting with a long bumpy straight with hidden dips and crests. Our front lower shield took several big impacts in the dips which bent it slightly back into shape after hitting a big rock in Greece. Our time matched Andy's. 

The end result was a change in the leader board with yet another approach to penalties being adopted for failures of those stuck to get to controls. Previously, penalties have been halved from those in the regs when sections have been blocked and time lost. Today, less than half published penalties were applied no doubt to maintain some competitive interest. Most lost 40 mins rather than 2 hours. 

The changes meant we rose one place to 2nd but what happened today could easily happen to us, with more than half of the event still to go. I only hope we will get similar treatment relative to the rules when it happens. 

We now move onto a part of the rally which focuses on road sections through Saudi and Sudan with 500km tomorrow before catching another ferry into Sudan (the best and safest route into Sudan apparently).