The 43rd edition of the Dakar Rally is underway in Saudi Arabia. We’ll be sharing daily updates from our friends at WESTx1000. Stay tuned. 
Begin Press Release: 

SS4: In It for the Long Haul
The Dakar?s Lengthiest Stage Is Arguably an Initial Test of Endurance Before the Marathon Stage

?The gladdest moment in human life?is a departure into unknown lands.? ? Sir Richard Francis Burton

As stages tick away, Saudi Arabia gives participants a tour of the universe. So far, they?ve ventured to Mars and Moab, the Moon and, today, racers drew lines into a silty California wash, then weaved through acacias in the Serengeti ? or at least that?s what it felt like for a while. Understandably, people tend to liken the unknown to pieces of the known, so it makes sense to them. So, they don?t feel such a disconnect, and what?s foreign becomes familiar. But to experience a place like the Arabian Peninsula, a massive region hosting ancient cultures which have been largely closed off to the rest of the world since before British explorer, Sir Richard Francis Burton, disguised as a wandering Dervish, set out for Mecca in 1853 through a land only ?open to the adventurous traveler.? The trip involved crossing the famed ?Empty Quarter? (familiar") ? the world?s largest contiguous desert and at the time still a blank white space on the map. The journey was dangerous, to put it lightly, with the risk of certain death if he, a westerner, was discovered.
Now, 168 years later, the Da...