Day 15: Rally drivers face frustration
Laurance Yap
Special to the Star
News came late last night from the rally organizers about yesterday's crashes; it sounds like all three injured drivers are going to be okay, although Neil Hopkinson suffered an injury to his back. All three will be flown to Ulaanbaatar.
As of this writing, the medical team still has not re-joined the rally, so today's special stage of 428 km has been cancelled. Instead, we took a moderately-paced, but still challenging, drive through the Gobi desert, stopping a million times along the way to Altai, where I'm writing this.
It's amazing how quickly the landscape changes in Mongolia. This morning, about 220 km away, we were camped out on hard, rocky ground looking at craggy mountains. Less than an hour later, we were cruising across the biggest valley I'd ever seen, with camel grass and sand on either side of the track. An hour after that, we were into rolling hills. The sky, wherever we go, is just unbelievable in its clarity and beauty.
A certain amount of frustration has set in with many of the rally participants. With more than half the stages up to this point having been cancelled, the standings (driver Kees Nierop and I are running twelfth) are based on just three stages - and yesterday's results, where we'd passed four cars, have been thrown out. The long special stages, difficult road conditions, sharp rocks and inadequate medical backup have turned the rally into more of a long road trip.
Which is fine with me - it's still been the experience of a lifetime.