Pavey Dakar Diary: day 7

With not one but two Paveys in Dakar this year, as veteran campaigner Simon is joined by son Llewelyn, the pair still has a hard battle ahead of them to complete the arduous 9295km race across South America.

Rain fall in the Bolvian stage of the 2015 Dakar Rally today caused treacherous conditions for many but the Welsh resident Pavey’s had an absolute ball, welcomed the site of green grass for the first time in six days and moved back up the order to 74th and 77th places.

Simon Pavey

• Start position: 74th
• Finish Position: 77th

“Today has been a great Dakar day. I’ve loved every bit of it. Like now (in the army barracks sleeping quarters) there are so many stories from people about what happened it is brilliant, people finding local houses to warm up in is true Dakar spirit, there’s a great atmosphere.”

“The speed limit in Bolivia is 80kmh so it was boring for ages on the road but within minutes of getting off-road I was so excited to be free of the limit I was doing 150kmh, it was crazy the difference in speed.”

“I soon calmed down though and made the decision to wait for Llel, who started behind me today. You could see he was hurting so it was just better to stop and wait.”

“It was tricky in places too, some of the rivers were really fast-flowing and it was a leap of faith riding in at times but I think a bit of experience showed for us. The bikes are quite hard to ride at this altitude as well. You struggle to pull away in first gear at all, literally you have to ride away from a standstill like a race start just to get going.”

“We had a funny moment early on where Llel stopped and I thought “what are you doing”. He’d stopped by a ‘beware of the Llamas’ sign. We had a stack of Llama jokes there for a few minutes so don’t be surprised to see some of that on the TV footage!”

“Every bit of the special was great though, slow but enjoyable to ride. Slow right up until the last 50kms or so when all of a sudden it was like an enduro special, he was unbelievable, like someone had lit a touch paper under his arse!”

Llewelyn Pavey

• Start position: 73rd
• Finish Position: 74th

“We’re in an army barracks tonight and it’s quite cold to be honest but it was really nice to have my first vaguely warm shower since we left Buenos Aires.”

“Today has been absolutely awesome, the riding in places was flowing and beautiful and a real pleasure. Super nice, just like Portugal in places with some big river crossings you’re not sure about and lovely tracks. The last 50kms or so was snaking, wet sandy tracks that were awesome, really good to ride.”

“The last 100kms in fact were a proper adventure – really slippery in places with people crashing all over the place, broken bikes, people washed down the rivers. It was amazing, like half of them had never seen wet mud before.”

“We just kept plugging on and passing people. I was a bit late starting actually because I needed a poo. It was a long way on the road and I needed a poo by the time I got to the special so I was late starting!”

“Our kit has been absolutely amazing today. The Craghoppers clothing, our gillets, fleeces, waterproofs, I’ve had it all on today and I really needed it. They told us it would be cold and once the rain came we were sorted. We had the bar muffs on from Barkbusters too and truly it has made so much difference. No-one else seems to have heated grips and it makes no sense. We were toasty while other people were having to pop into people’s houses to warm up for a bit.”

“My ankle’s been ok. It was painful for a start because there were a lot of bumps jarring it. A couple of times it was really painful – once I just put my foot down in the mud and it was so bad I had to just sit there for a couple of minutes.”

“Truly though it has been a great day and I really enjoyed it, it was like a winter hare and hounds enduro in Britain!”