Kayes – Bamako
11th January 2006
Todays stage saw 28 year old Plumb travel close to the wildlife reserve of Badinko and the biosphere reserve of the Baoule Loop. The organisers had set a route that passed close by, but avoided entering, these protected areas.
After a short 50km liaison Plumb entered the 231km special stage, that sent riders and drivers on tracks through beautiful settings of forests and savannas.
“Todays stage was a good one,” commented Plumb “The stages at this point in the rally should be great but we’re all so tired that it’s hard to enjoy them, they are still really hard.”
“Everything was going okay today. When I got to the bivouac last night I had Bernie look into the noises that my bike was making. He changed the chain and sprockets and a few other parts that had worn out on the dunes but the noise was still there which only left one thing it could be, the clutch.”
“The clutch took a real battering on the big dunes on Monday and I shouldn’t have been surprised that it wasn’t in the best of conditions. Luckily before I life Wales I had got a local engineering company (RG Engineering) to make me a new clutch cover, as they had done last year. It made it much easier to change the clutch plates so Bernie was able to do this pretty quickly.
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“I came across a rider who was under his bike,” explained Plumb “It looked like he might have broken his ankle so I stayed with him and called for the air ambulance to arrive. It makes the following day difficult when you stop with people. Dakar rules say that the first person to stop can claim back the time they spend but this isn’t usually done until the end of the rally and it still means that you start further towards the back of the pack on the next day. You then get the cars and trucks catching up with you and are constantly in fear of falling off and being run over by one of them. You just have to do it though, it could be you lying on the floor with a bike on top of you!”
“The air ambulance finally arrived and it was like a scene out of a James Bond movie. They couldn’t land so they hovered over the main track and the medics just jumped out. The helicopter then flew off to find somewhere to land. Simon Pavey had caught up with me by then and he had stopped, for a horrifying moment we thought the chopper was going to land on his bike. These guys are amazing pilots.”
With the drama of the day over Nick and Simon rode the remaining part of the special together and then set off on the 424km liaison to the Bivouac.
“You’d think the liaison was the easiest part,” said Nick “It was so dangerous. Holes and trenches just appeared out of nowhere.
Nick made if back to finish the stage in 94th place which dropped him to 86th place overall. Simon Pavey is currently placed 93rd overall.