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This is the single-news section of the
marathonrally.com rally-live special of the Rainforest Challenge 2006. To navigate please use the upper or right Navigation Bar.
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Rainforest Challenge: Challenge in Malaysia officially started
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On Friday the Rainforest Challenge 2006 - the world's toughest trophy - has been officially started with a big gala dinner with high officials and politicians present. At 23:00h local time the evening ended with the rally's first briefing for the rally teams, press and organization members. Earlier the day had begun with a 8h bus ride to the north of Malaysia to the town of Alor Setar in the state Kedah in which in the whole trophy will take place. The region is situated directly next to Thailand - in one stage the participants even will be close to the border by only a couple of meters.
In Malaysia the raining season has just begun - this still mostly means best weather and sunshine. However heavy showers in between are guaranteed that are comparable to nothing you might have seen before, especially in Europe. Rain drops in sizes of up to small peanuts will wet everything and instantly flood entire regions within less than a minute. But with average temperatures of 36 degrees (in the shadows) and a humidity of almost 100% the rain is not very disturbing anymore. The sun dries clothing fast again. Regarding the race track the situation is of course different as the difficulty can dramatically increase within minutes.
The Polish competitors Marek Janaszkiewiz, his wife Agnieszka and their service crew are spreading a good mood. All three are for the first time in Malaysia - the the trophy is their very personal challenge. They especially prepared and modified a Land Rover Defender to reach the finish line "no matter how" and to bring it safely back to Poland. On the transfer bus to the north the team driver supplied the neighbouring seating rows with Polish beer and at the evening event he contributed to the international spirit of the event by taking over the microphone for a short folklore presentation.
Quite enthusiastically looking forward to the trophy are the numerous teams from China who brought an entire small staff of journalists, fotographers and tv crews. The entire event has a very family-like atmosphere - a lot of participants already know each other from previous years and are exchanging the best memories and most gruelling stories for the newcomers every evening.
Not a newcomer is the Austrian Markus Osswald who competes on the trophy together with a colleague. "Especially the new stages in the north are fascinating for me" confesses Osswald who is travelling with a Jeep XJ. "In that jungle area there has been no car in the last 35 years, that is something totally new in the history of the Rainforest Challenge and I want to be a part of it". Normally conveying a more businesslike appearance Markus is not afraid of mud and dirt. "To the contrary I hardly have spare clothing with me. What for should I - we are several days in the jungle and permanently dirty, wet and sleeping in camps far away from normal civilization. And if we reach a camp we are close to fall asleep even while still standing" smiles Osswald.
The jungle - mighty, big and scary: The route does not go through inhabited areas or seldomly used tracks - it goes directly through like as in the legendary "Camel Trophy" only several magnitudes dirtier or on old logging trails that have not been used at all during the last years and long been taken back by nature. This might be one of the reasons while during the whole event only about 100 km of special stages are driven. "You will see that even the best on some days from dawn till sunset will only manage to battle 10kms of jungle" so organizer Luis J.A. Wee. The camps are "back to the roots", too. No official catering, showers or big group tents. The spirit of successfully briefly battling the overwhelming forces of nature together is what counts.
And if things get tough? "That has happened before" adds organizer Wee with a knowing smile that seems to be shared among all rally organizers. "Last year a press convoi battled themselfes through the jungle for three days and saved two vehicles which tried to find new routes and got themselfes stuck without hope in the middle of nowhere" says Wee. "At the End of the trophy about 15 cars of the perticipants, press and organization were still stuck in the jungle. We needed two weeks to get them all out. But at the end we always get everything out of the green again - even if it takes some time." For the case of emergencies the trophy is covered by a helicopter with special search and rescue equipment on board.
On Saturday the Rainforest Challenge 2006 starts after a show event with the first part of the prologue that will span two days. Afterwards the rally will head directly to the first jungle camp. And green will stay the dominating color for the entire rest of the event.
"Who drives here is one of the best from his country or the world or wants to prove that he is going to be" describes Navin Surath Marapana, participant from Sri Lanka and trophy expert, the event briefly. "To make it here is just an incredible feeling!"
2006/11/25 | 16:00 CET | Editor: RFC Live-Team/mr
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