The Desert Diva The Emirates Desert Championship (EDC) has been held monthly throughout the winter, at various locations in the UAE.
After 3 rounds in the Emirate of Dubai it was the turn of Umm Al Quwain to host round 4 and this morning before sunrise around 100 bikes and cars converged on Baja HQ to “do battle” over, or perhaps I should say “do battle with” the dunes.
This time our passage control team was on “Moto D” which was 60% round the bike course and characterised by a short but steep climb followed by a hairpin turn with a steep rise over lumpy and plant covered ground! I feel certain it was hell to navigate and drive through but made for interesting spectating as well as some great photographic moments!
Auto (cars and buggies) were on a 14.5km track which ran inside the Moto (bikes and quads) track of 22kms. Unfortunately in the closing minutes of the baja we were alerted to an accident with a quadbike – the leader #248 had gone over his handlebars on a bump and the quad had ran over him. We made him comfortable until the medic arrived and he was subsequently taken to hospital. Alex – I hope your injuries aren’t too bad and that you makes a speedy recovery in time for the EDC round 5!
One of the bikers deserves a special gallery all of his own. His name is Tom Childs and despite being in his mid-twenties, has been involved with the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge for years. He’s done pretty well competing in the EDC so far and is planning on participating in the ADDC 2015 – here’s a link to his sponsorship page if anyone out there is interested in helping him realise his dream.
Firstly, here’s some pics of him “cruising” through our checkpoint
Secondly – Tom demonstrates how to fall off a motorbike.
That had to hurt – what a star to get up and get going straight away (I bet he never suffers from manflu!).
Finally, on the way out we happened on Eva; her bike had run dry on petrol – it’s always quite hard to gauge how much fuel you will need and today’s course was particularly technical and lumpy/bumpy. She sheltered from the mid-day sun in my car until the sweep team came along and loaded her bike onto the “toast rack” and then we returned her back to the event hq. And so ended an exciting and eventful EDC round 4; EDC round 5 is on 13th February – Don’t miss it!
