The Maltese flag is flying high in the Moroccan desert today, as our men on bikes race their way to Dakar in a motor race from Paris to the capital of Senegal, with no GPS help.
Kevin Camilleri, 40 and his British teammate, Perry Newton, 45, set off on their bikes from near the Eiffel Tower last Thursday, after being inspired by actor Ewan McGregor’s documentary TV series Long Way Down.
So far they have crossed France and Spain and have now reached Morocco, from where they will head to Mauritania and finish at Lac Rose in Dakar.
Every day until October 13, they will be covering about 500 kilometres of treacherous desert terrain: rolling and fast tracks, mountains, oasis, sandy tracks and ocean dunes, all in aid of the Malta Community Chest Fund, Cancer Research UK and Unicef UK.
The pair, both fathers of two, are only armed with their wits and a road book written in French.
Weather conditions were not optimum and on Saturday they encountered “horrendous” flash flooding in southern Spain after rains on Friday.
On Sunday they boarded the ferry from Almeria in Spain to Nador, Morocco. On his blog, Mr Newton said: “We were happy with the result and the day, the bikes performed faultlessly.”
Yesterday they were on their way to Fez, Morocco’s second largest city.
“We had three alarms go off at different times this morning, we have no idea what time it is, they have a weird thing called ‘Rally Time’, which none of us understand,” they wrote on their blog.
British television presenter Anne Davies, a close friend of Mr Camilleri and Mr Newton, is helping with interviews and has offered the services of her cameraman David Hoare, who has joined the team to catalogue their race on film.
They have been training for the Heroes Legend race for the past two years in the UK and Morocco with the Desert Rose Racing team, owned by Patsy Quick, the first British woman to complete the original Dakar Rally in 2006.
Donations can be made by SMS on 5061 6134 (€1.16), 5061 7387 (€2.33), 5061 8064 (€4.66), 5061 8936 (€6.99) or 5061 9231 (€11.64).
Visit www.kevinandperrygodakar.com for more details.