40 years of extreme adventure riding
If there’s an historian of cross-country rally riding in Australia, it’s Peter Whitaker. He’s written extensively about desert rally racing in The Land Downunder. This issue he has a look at the evolution of Australia’s newest rally, The Sunraysia Safari.
The original ‘rally raid’ was an adventure like no other before. An eclectic cohort of champagne-fuelled Froggies framped across the Sahara Desert in a race against time to celebrate the new year on the French Riviera. Certainly the motorcyclists taunted the crews in the dilapidated Peugeots who, in turn, scoffed at those in the rudimentary VW-powered buggies. But the real challenge was the terrain, not each other. And by all accounts there was a great sense of camaraderie as the participants overcame the trials they faced.