Dakar 2014. Wrong Turn

Sergei Dolya writes: “From San Rafael to San Juan, the Dakar navigator offered a straight line like an arrow without settlements. At our own peril and risk, we abandoned Tripi and made an alternative route through the mountains. Along the way, we met guys from the "parallel Dakar" - tourist athletes who follow the liaison with official cars of the rally (the press, organizers, sponsors, etc.). If you think about it, it is very convenient: there are a lot of policemen and volunteers on the route, the route itself is designed for the most comfortable movement and, in the end, this is a great opportunity to see and travel around the whole country ... "

(Total 31 photos)

Source: Journal / sergeydolya

1.

2. Political agitation

3. Dangerous sections on the road are marked with white stones

4. Top of the road creative: worker dummy that shows the direction of the detour

5. Our route passed near the finish line of the race track. We decided to stop and wait for my friend Roman Briskindov

6. Surprisingly, he appeared exactly at the moment when we approached the finish line

7.

8. - Brateevo, five hundred, shall we go?

Will you show me the way?

9. This time "Lucky Cat" came one of the first!

10.

11. Half an hour later we drove into the first town through which the liaison passed between two sections of the special highway

12. Vineyard workers

13. We went to have a bite to eat at a local cafe

14. Outside the city, the road began to climb into the mountains.

15. Motorcyclists from a parallel Dakar. The guys were from Cape Town, they came to Dakar to ride, see Argentina, Bolivia and Chile

16.

17. Every kilometer on the road there are monuments to those who died in accidents.

18. It can be seen that the monuments are looked after. Some had cactus columns planted and pebble names laid out.

19. We stopped in a valley of cacti, the size of trees. I saw such big ones only in the Galapagos Islands.

20.

21. For all 300 kilometers the roads were good

22. Although at times the asphalt disappeared

23.

24. A bit of backstage work of our cameraman Alexey. All the way it is in two modes: intensive work ...

25. ...and short sleep

26. There is a third mode - concentrated editing. It happens, as a rule, at night, when the rest of the expedition members are cut off in impotence (an open refrigerator is used instead of an air conditioner):

27. Having safely reached San Juan (and having avoided lyuli for violating the regulations), we went to our camp. Sergey Savenko is located next door with his GAZ

28.

29. Roman this time lingered longer than usual

30. We already knew that before the finish of the special stage, the crew had a serious accident, due to which the “Lucky Cat” lost an hour and a half and dropped several positions in the ranking. Roma told about this in detail on the video

31. The next day we again went our own way and climbed three kilometers into the mountains. Photos of the trip in the next post!