Paris Dakar Stage 49 to Dakhla

Stage 49 of 60, day 57 of 71: 115.8 km, 207m, 3:29, 41 shifts, ave speed 33.2, max speed 55.2

It seemed as if this was going to be the hardest block of rides on the whole tour: seven consecutive rides averaging 150 km per day, all with bush camps. But here the wind determines everything and we had almost nothing but tailwinds for the entire week, including today. So we did do exactly 1,050.36 km in seven days of riding but it was pretty easy. I averaged over 33 kph for that distance, despite climbing over 3200m.

I couldn’t get to sleep early – probably too much of that amazing fudge for dessert. Anyway, the alarm woke me up at 7 and I used the almost comically dingy WC at the gas station where I had the sulfur shower last night. It was unmanned at this time of day but I still left one dirham, a 100% overpayment.

After breakfast, we took off at 9am, riding relaxed in a large group. Rob and Wytze set the pace and with the slight tailwind it had to be the easiest riding of the whole tour so far. After a while Rob dropped back and I led with Simo. We bumped up the pace and picked up Kris at 50 km then Wytze went ahead. We were getting close to lunch and Wytze decided to play the “Catch Brian” game – he had passed us earlier. The pace bumped again from 38 to 45 and we had a breakaway. Only Wytze, Simo, Kris and I wanted to play this game and it felt great riding fast after relaxing all that time. We did catch Brian, just before lunch at 70 km.

After lunch, we had another rogue plan: Daniel’s friend recommended an amazing sounding restaurant called TalhaMar. We invited Kris and rode 23 more km to the turnoff, but it was unmarked, dirt, and looked questionable. We took the second turn-off which looked the same. We offroaded it to a warehouse, went around it, twisted a few more times and finally found the place. They could use some marketing I think. Hidden away completely, it is an amazing restaurant, right on the edge of Dakhla Bay. We sat down and ordered a giant grilled fish/veggie platter, calamari, some mussels and lobsters. They didn’t have many drinks but we had a round of lemon ginger which turned out to be exactly that, no sugar. But Wytze always has us covered. He pulled a bottle of Spanish Tempranillo out of his bag! He and Daniel had just gone for a swim and Wytze sitting in his wet underwear at the table, opening a bottle of wine, with this giant grin…was great. The waiter supplied the corkscrew. The food was delicious with wine and we ate our fill. It was about $12 per person – great deal.

Then we had 18 km to the hotel where we arrived, last, thus following Rob’s instructions to the letter: take your time, have fun and no racing. Well, we only raced a little. We checked in and had glorious showers. I chatted with Katie. Brian came by with an incredible gift: a giant bottle of cold Orangina – he said he saw it in the store and it had my name on it. THANKS!

Daniel and I both took it really easy in the afternoon, that means some serious napping. At 7 we met Bart and Wytze and went out to see about dinner. The only place with beer and wine was expensive, so we walked around town and eventually settled in at a tiny sidewalk pizza place. We think it was the first pizza of the trip although that sounds impossible. Ype joined us too. We had only six pizzas because three of us were still full from our giant second lunch. Plus fresh fruit juice from next door. We had a long walk around town, including through a large night market. Then we just had to go for a beer, so we went to the Villa Dakhla after all. Many of our riders were just leaving and said the food was good. We had a round of Casablanca beer and called it a night, just after 10pm.