Dubai 2008

Dubai was the Rally that scared me the most before actually riding it.

It was by far the toughest rally I participated in. We literally rode sand and dunes everyday of the rally. And these were gut wrenching monster Dunes.

I faced severe dehydration for the first time; this was an eye opener for me. This was one rally where if you did not carry the required safety equipment and lots of water you would die.

The temperature in the Dune bowls hit near 60 degrees c. All around me people were collapsing from heat exhaustion; I witnessed one rider pull into a check point vomit and collapse and he was immediately airlifted out, the consequences of a mistake in navigation were enormous.

We called my bike the death bike because every rider who had ridden it up to then had experienced an enormous crash; in fact one crash was so enormous that it made the front cover of a British motorcycle magazine.

I was very proud of finishing this event. For me I think it was when I felt I had finally earned the right to call myself a rally competitor.