Navigation training before the big day
KASBAH XALUCA, ERFOUD
Summary
14 participants spent the day of Tuesday March 19, 2019 at a comprehensive navigation training course provided by the event organizer Maïenga at Hotel Xaluca, Erfoud..
The Gazelles are keeping busy on this final day before the Prologue. Some Gazelles relax under the Moroccan sun. Others spend the day getting to know each other. And for some, it’s study time in the conference room… Having taken off-road driving training, our 14 Gazelles, including American and Moroccan teams, are now acquiring the skills they will need to plot their route and follow their headings during the competition.
As a reminder, the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc is a navigation rally based on old-school orientation. The 157 teams will have to find their way around the desert without the help of a GPS, using 1:100,000 and 1:250,000 scale maps, a sighting compass, a plotter, a navigation ruler and a “magic” ruler. Today’s training is provided by Louise Bergeron, former Gazelle and winner of the 2002 edition. “To start, I would like to remind you of the goal of this Rallye: you have to plot your points on the map using the geographic coordinates given to you in the road book. Then you need to drive from point A to point B in the shortest possible distance.”
Each leg has an ideal distance. The team with the least penalty points wins the rally, where the points correspond to kilometres. “For example, if the ideal distance for the leg is 135 kilometres and you drive 140, you will have 5 points.” The Gazelles learn about geographic coordinates, distance and heading, crow-flies distance, and familiarize themselves with the road books and the information they contain. All this navigation theory will be put into practice during tomorrow’s Prologue at 2:00 p.m. The Gazelles will need to be organized and remain focused out on the terrain. In a few hours, they will be facing the dunes, oueds, rocks and steep valleys of southern Morocco. It will be up to each team to decide whether they will tackle these obstacles head on or avoid them…
