Surreal moments in the desert
Female rallyists find hell's highway

But Morocco gives great rewards, too

NIKA ROLCZEWSKI
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

For the two single mothers from Southwestern Ontario, the AC/DC song blaring on the SUV's finicky CD player hit the spot.

The song was "Highway to Hell," and it had the knack of playing at the most appropriate times as the two struggled through the often unforgiving landscapes of Morocco.

And when it did, Susan Sneekes of Woodstock and Christy Geddes of Fergus could only look at each other and laugh.

The two were competing in the women-only Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles, where the rugged terrain filled with sand dunes, dry lake beds and rocky quarries was their highway.

In April, I wrote that these two members of the Tri-City Jeep Club in Kitchener were setting off on the 1,200-kilometre off-road navigational rally. Sneekes and Geddes have returned home safe and sound to their family and friends after their week-long adventure.

The rally pushed the women both physically and mentally. "Every time you were challenged you were changed — the challenges were of mind and body. So you really had to dig deep and address your own fears and issues," says Sneekes, who served as Geddes' navigator.


Geddes recalls her most frightening moment: "We got lost after a checkpoint and had to make it back to base camp. It was getting dark." They did eventually make it back, but for a short time things looked iffy. Sand dunes are like snowflakes — while each is different, they still look amazingly alike.

Sneekes is first to compliment Geddes on her driving. "She had amazing driving skills — and I wasn't the only person that noticed."

Many noticed the Stage 3 "jump." The women had their four-wheel drive Isuzu D-Max King Cab 1.9 metres in the air — not something the organizers would recommend when going through the larger sand dunes. A mistake there and the SUV could end up rolling end over end.

"The dunes were a bit difficult to get the knack of," Geddes says. "You have to air down the tires down a lot and keep momentum — and let off the gas when you get to the top," she adds with a chuckle. Her kamikaze style driving in this section worked in getting them successfully through a stage where others failed.

Both women were more than pleased with their choice of vehicle. It proved hardy and capable for gruelling rally.

But not everything came up roses. The team lost an entire day due to illness. Although Sneekes was careful to take precautions, she was stricken with an intestinal bug. Geddes turned the SUV back. Luckily, a windstorm that day left others struggling and in the end the setback wasn't as bad as first thought.

It wasn't a rarity to get stuck and need assistance.

"It was a rule for us to stop to help anyone we thought in need. We pushed and pulled out — Christy even drove out a stuck competitor," Sneekes says with pride. "We did get stuck, but just a few times and only once did we need to call for assistance."

In between stages, the accommodation was rather pleasant, apart from the two nights the women slept under the stars in the desert. Breakfast was typically French, with more bread and croissants than the two women were used to. Dinner was more traditionally Moroccan — lamb and couscous. And with a wine company as a sponsor, there was a chance to imbibe moderately in the evening. The women took the opportunity to bring a bottle out to the desert for the nights they didn't spend at the base camp.

Most conversation, when not focused on the rally, was about family. Communicating with those back home was expensive and Internet access was limited.

Language barriers were another difficulty. Arabic is Morocco's official language, with French widely spoken — or in some regions, Spanish and Berber languages. And most of the teams were French.

Geddes laughs about her experience being stuck in a bathroom. "The handle broke and no one knew what I was saying because they all spoke French."

There was no problem understanding the desert.

"It was two-faced," Sneekes says. "It is very beautiful and just as mean. The first night, we had very little time to set up camp as there was a rainstorm coming. Christy slept in the truck and I slept in our two-man tent. She woke up sore and I woke up soaked."

Poverty was the most heart-wrenching aspect of the trip. "Watching the children run after the truck, barefoot — begging for a small token like a pencil. It was hard to deal with," Geddes says.

"I've come back with a new respect for life and everything I have."

As the first Canadian team outside Quebec to compete, finishing all six stages was an accomplishment. They finished a respectable 44th out of the 67 teams in their category. Not bad for two women who a few months earlier had never even heard of this 16-year-old contest.

Sneekes adds simply: "Even when it was bad it was good."

The two not only survived, they both came back smiling. Sometimes, when the SUV's sound system would bellow out a Beach Boys tune from one of the CDs Geddes brought, they experienced "surreal" moments, in which they both could not believe where they were and what they were doing.

Home seemed so far away but they knew they would be returning soon.

For Sneekes, that was bittersweet. She returned to a sand-dune-sized pile of laundry left by her three teenage daughters to deal with. Not something she couldn't handle — not after what she and her teammate accomplished at the 2006 Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles.