The lads began to emerge from their tents at around 5:45 am. By now the support team (Sharon & Alessia) had already been up for a half hour getting breakfast ready. It was still dark and the bumps and bruises picked up from the previous days riding were now in full voice.

The morning was basically – eat some breakfast, visit Mother Nature, get your camel back packed and filled, get your riding kit on and go.

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The UAE CC Team joined up at our designated meeting point at 5:30 am and made the 1 hr journey from Dubai down to Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi in convoy. The mood was clearly one of nervous anticipation. The team has trained for almost a year to get to this point. Now we get to see whether our skills and endurance are up to the challenge. This is when the real rally starts.

The official race start begins with each rider making his way up the race Start Ramp to be announced to the spectators. Speaking to the team I know that all of us were feeling the adrenaline rush at this point.

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The first day is known as the Prologue. It is basically a spectator day where competitors race around a ±2km track once with the times determining the starting order for the following day, when the race really starts at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi.

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Today was another busy day!

The morning was taken up with a photo session down on Jumeirah Beach under the watchful eye of the Burj Al Arab. Alessia (one of our support team and our official photographer) was assisted by Sharon (the other member of our support team). 70 photos later and several changes of sponsor provided shirts and caps and the photos session was complete. A selection of photos can be viewed on the website.

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Today was a busy day!

We arrived at Dubai international Marine Club at 08:00 am. The morning was consumed with carrying out all the administrative paperwork at the UAE Desert Challenge headquarters at the Le Meridien Mina Seyahi. It was necessary for the whole team to be present to ensure that all the entry forms were accurate and that the necessary insurance was in place for each rider (including permanent disability and death). It was a case of organized chaos – though credit to the organizers, once we got moving we were out of there pretty quickly.

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Sean Curnow: Welcome to the eighth update for the UAE Charity Challenge Team.

CHARITY

The Dubai Centre for Special Needs reopened its doors in September and the students are back. We have recently approached the DCSN to get a quotation on the Toyota Coaster bus that we are looking to fund as part of our charitable work for this year.

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Sean Curnow: Welcome to the seventh update for the UAE Charity Challenge Team.

CHARITY

With summer holidays almost over the Dubai Centre for Special Needs is due to reopen its doors in September for another year. Judging by the reaction of the students when we last visited – I bet they can’t wait.

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Sean Curnow: Welcome to the sixth update for the UAE Charity Challenge Team.

CHARITY

The Dubai Centre for Special Needs PR Coordinator (Delhna Cama) was a special guest again on the third radio show we recorded with Dubai Eye 103.8 FM Speak Easy. We hope to have this uploaded to the website soon.

We are finally settling on our charitable project in Uganda. The UAE Charity Challenge is looking to supply mosquito nets to the people living on the edge of Lake Albert (Hoima District) in Uganda.

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Sean Curnow: Welcome to the fifth update for the UAE Charity Challenge Team.

CHARITY

The Dubai Centre for Special Needs PR Coordinator (Delhna Cama) was a special guest on the second radio show we recorded with Dubai Eye 103.8 FM Speak Easy. Jeff Price also invited Delhna to appear on the show in the near future to further promote the Dubai Centre for Special needs.

We are still in the process of finalising the charity organisation we plan to support in Uganda. We will be making an announcement in the near future.

TRAINING

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Sean Curnow: Welcome to the fourth update for the UAE Charity Challenge Team.

CHARITY

During the month of April, the UAE CC team received a wonderful email from the Dubai Centre for Special Needs PR Coordinator (Delhna Cama) expressing the centres gratitude to the UAE CC team, our supporters and all our sponsors for all their efforts to date. Matt Wilson received a special mention for the volunteer work he is doing to maintain and constantly improve the website – good job Matt!

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