text and photos by Brian Lucas
(lucas@travel-library.com)
A team crosses an almost-dry riverbed
Rally headquarters
Taking the direct route: straight up, with the aid of a winch
Results are posted throughout the day: which teams have made it to which checkpoints, and which teams have dropped out
Team 5 contemplates the drop
An easy run along level ground is a welcome relief
Navigator and driver confer with rally organizers at a checkpoint
The real world crosses paths with the Rhino Charge
The Rhino Charge is an off-road car rally held every year in Kenya, in which teams of drivers, navigators, scouts, and tire-changers compete on a vehicle-punishing course across the dry African back-country. This year, fifty-one teams took the challenge; only eleven finished. The event raises money towards building a fence around Kenya's Aberdares National Park and establishing a sanctuary for the endangered black rhinos.
The location of the rally is a closely-protected secret until the last possible moment. Even up to the day before the event, only the general district is known outside the inner circle of organizers. Rally drivers and spectators go to a rendezvous point on the day before the event -- this year, a hotel in the town of Nanyuki -- to pick up instructions for getting to the actual site of the rally.
When we arrived at the site, feeling like rally drivers ourselves for simply having found our way across the rough back roads of rural Kenya, we found hundreds of people already in the camping area. The teams entering the race were making last-minute adjustments to their vehicles, checking their equipment, and having specially-calibrated odometers attached to their wheels by rally organizers. It was already getting dark, so we quickly made camp and turned in for the night.
The night before the event begins, teams are given maps of the area and co-ordinates of twelve checkpoints they must visit. They are not allowed to scout the terrain in advance. In the morning, they are escorted to their starting points and given the signal. Their goal is to visit all twelve checkpoints and return to rally headquarters before the end of the day, in the shortest distance possible. Time is not a factor in determining who wins, except that all teams must be out of the bush before dark. Distance, not time, is what makes a winner in the Rhino Charge.
The shortest possible route connecting all of the checkpoints, composed of entirely straight lines, was 45 kilometers. But driving a straight line in the African bush is impossible. The checkpoints are chosen so as to force teams to make difficult choices. Go through the ravine, or around it? Take the longer, easier trail, or cut straight across that boulder field? The most direct route is also probably the slowest and the hardest on the vehicle. Successful teams balance distance, speed, and difficulty to enable their vehicles to survive the course, and to complete the route before nightfall.
The British Army team won the admiration of the crowd by winching their vehicle straight down a cliff instead of going around the obstacle. However, after this impressive maneuver, they got two flat tires, used both of their spares, and then got a third flat which forced them out of the race. Next year, they may fill their tires with solid foam. This gives a rough ride and destroys the tires, but makes them immune to punctures.
Life at a checkpoint is quintessentially African. For long periods, nothing much happens. The sun beats down on the rocks, the supporters of each team sit quietly in the shade, fanning themselves, or perhaps playing cards. The organizer's radio squawks out the odometer readings of teams as they pass other checkpoints.
Then a team approaches. Scouts dash through the bush ahead of the vehicle, looking for the shortest and safest path. Others hang from the back of the bouncing rally car as the driver twists and turns the wheel. People are running everywhere, shouting, waving. The team's supporters crowd the vehicle, slapping their friends on the back and encouraging them. The driver chats with the checkpoint organizers, a teammate grabs some drinks. They swap crew positions, check their GPS readouts, and gun the engine as they head off for the next checkpoint in a swirl of dry red dust. When the dust settles, all is quiet again, save for the slapping of cards as the spectators return to their poker game.
The course is punishing for the vehicles, and mechanical failure is the main reason for teams not finishing. One by one, announcements came over the organizers' radios. One team "retired on one-wheel drive." Another car was abandoned in the bush, hung up on a rock.
It can be punishing for the people, too. It's not only tiring to spend the day dashing through the bush under the hot African sun, it can also be dangerous. I heard the story of one unfortunate fellow who was riding on the back of one vehicle and was unprepared for a particularly large bump. He doesn't remember falling off, but he lost most of his teeth when he smashed his face on the roll bar.
It's not just the team with the toughest car that will win the rally, although that helps. Teams use all sorts of techniques to gain an advantage. Global Positioning System equipment is essential for keeping track of one's location, and computers make short work of the task of plotting the shortest route. But local knowledge is also indispensable. Rob, the driver for one team, said that being able to recognize species of trees from a distance is a help when planning a route because the trees tell you the soil conditions. Some kinds of trees grow in sandy soil that might trap the vehicle, while others grow in firm or rocky soil that allows swift progress.
For the most part, the Rhino Charge is far removed from the everyday life of the local people. It's very much an event put on by and for expatriates and wealthy white Kenyans, the so-called "Kenyan cowboys." One can only wonder what went through the minds of the local cattle herders who peered down at the goings-on at the checkpoint sponsored by the mobile telephone company, and moved their animals along the dry riverbed past Checkpoint Coca-Cola.
This year's Rhino Charge raised 16.8 million Kenyan shillings (US$216,000) towards the construction of the fence around the wildlife sanctuary. It's ironic that one of the biggest environmental conservation fundraisers in Kenya consists of people racing through the bush in four-wheel-drive vehicles and tearing up the landscape.
At the end of it all, the cowboys retire to the beer tent erected behind headquarters to swap stories, drink Tusker beer, and dance. The winning team managed the 45 km course in an actual travelled distance of 51 km -- straight as a rhino's charge.
For more information about the Rhino Charge, please visit the Rhino Ark web site.