Navigation training before tackling the desert

On this Tuesday March 20, 2018, at Hotel Xaluca in Erfoud, some Gazelles are relaxing in the sun, while others are getting to know each other. And seven participants are spending the day attending a navigation course provided by Maïenga, organizer of the event.

After some driving draining, it’s time for the Gazelles to hone the skills they will need to find their way during the competition. As a reminder, the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc is a rally based on navigation and orientation. Without GPS, the 165 teams will have to find their way across the desert using 1:100,000 and 1:250,000 scale maps, a sighting compass, a set square, a navigation ruler and a magic ruler. This is old-school navigation all the way.

Louise Bergeron, former Gazelle and winner of the 2002 edition, is giving today’s training course. “I explain what a typical day looks like, how to plot points on the map. I show them road books and the information they provide, geographic coordinates or headings and crow-flies distances. And then we do some exercises. It’s just a refresher course for all these gazelles.”

The Gazelles have already learned all these things in their respective countries, but a little revision never hurts! For Yunzi, the first Chinese gazelle to do the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc, “it’s very interesting, a bit of a challenge and it’s in English! As the navigator, I have a key role.” Yunzi asks Louise to check her exercise, learning some French at the same time! “She’s a good student!” confirms Louise.

American Team 504 is very focused. This is Jasmine’s first training, Kiera’s second: “The hardest thing will be transitioning to the terrain. The map theory must be very different out on the terrain.” The American Gazelles of Team 149 are nervous and excited: “We still have some points to work on. For example, it looks like we can go across this dune but out on the terrain our judgement may be quite different. And we’ll need to be able to identify the different features quickly, we haven’t assimilated them all yet.”

This is not the first training for the Guadeloupians of Team 186 either. At the end of November, they trained with Jeannette James, winner of the 2017 edition in Expert Class, also competing in this new edition. “Today is a refresher course for us, and it’s starting to come back. The hardest thing will be not to forget anything: to always go in the right direction, find north, but it will come. Once we’ve made a mistake we won’t make it again,” declares Maëva, the driver. But she still wants to understand the basics of navigation in order to check the points of her navigator. Laura accepted that role with some reservations: “at first I didn’t like it at all, I hated maps, but I ended up getting into it, and it’s a good feeling every time we find a point. It will be easier when I get used to it, but for example, I keep forgetting the direction of the arrow on the ruler even though it’s marked on it.”

The Gazelles are going to need logic and good communication. In a few hours, they will be confronted with dunes, oueds, rocky plains and steep valleys in their path. Should they tackle them head-on or go around them?