Marie-Claude Baehler – First Female to Finish First

Dongola to Al Qolid Bahri. Most of today is unpaved roads through the desert, with many long detours looking for the least sandy tracks, and lots of walking for those who make the wrong choices. The average distance covered was 80km or so and the winners were two new faces to the TDA diary: Jonathan Davies, 31, of Great Britain, and Marie-Claude Baehler, 26, of Switzerland. Both finished in 3hrs 30mins.

“The secret was confidence in navigation, sticking to the good road rather than cutting across to find the bad,” said Jonathan. Jonathan was seriously ill the first five days out of Cairo and unable to ride but has bounced back, in his words, “like a jack-in-the-box.”