Because, it is there.

There is history, and there are stories. Which one is this?

In 1977 a man got lost in the desert and almost died. Instead of walking out of the sand and swearing to never return, he decided that this was an experience so powerful, so valuable, that he should make sure more people would get to find themselves at the edge of the endless nothing of the Sahara.

He put together a scant set of directions and put the call out to that most interesting of groups, the adventurers. And for three weeks they threw themselves in their cars and on their motorcycles directly at the inland perimeter of the Sahara.

Some got lost, one guy won. They were men and women, the competition was mostly with themselves, rather than the clock. PreGPS navigation through Algiers, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal was neither easy, nor did the race organizers make much effort to make it so.

Who wants to go be lost for three weeks and spend each night camping in bivouacs each night with the rest of the racers. Who's idea of vacation includes scrounging for food and gasoline from the sparse local population, making mid race repairs with inadequate supplies or spending 3 weeks in a state of anxiety that you or a friend are lost, or dead.

Enough did. And as they were having fun over the years, they talked about the fun. Then some things happened. The rally grew, it got famous. The founder; the desert shaman of motorsport was in a helicopter crash and died during the race. Sponsored cars with top dollar crews came. North African politics destabilized. And yet still. People came to race. To try and find out something about themselves. Screaming at the void.

For more of the story, check out "Dakar - Madness in the Desert" a BBC documentary with some great footage, and good interviews.

You can watch this years coverage on Red Bull TV, Peacock, and Eurosport, as well as on the web at Dakar.com.

cover photo credit to Dakar.com’s twitter account: https://twitter.com/dakar/