Badawi Trail to the Last Oasis 2026, Syd Stelvio Day 3 – Taif to Madinah – 631km
Today may only have been the third day of the rally, but it already felt like we had been on the road for weeks. Perhaps it was the unique nature of the build-up to this event, or the hanging around in Jeddah waiting for the start. Most likely it had more to do with the vast distances covered over the first two days, and the result of today’s endeavour would be similar, with another 631km added to the trip before the day was through – more for anyone who got lost.
The makeshift paddock in the car park of the hotel was the usual hubbub of last-minute checks before the day began, a day that dawned earlier for the trio in car 1, who after another late arrival the previous evening had elected to roll the giant Itala out onto the road an hour before everyone else this morning. The walking wounded from day two were heading out into the fray, with the Volvo 1800E remaining oil tight overnight and the acrobatic Toyota Landcruiser of Alonso an Alfonso de Orelans-Borbon straightened out and sporting a repaired gearbox.
The roads today would deliver us into some of the most remote areas we have been in yet, and whilst they weren’t on a par with the link sections of the previous day, they were certainly functional, transporting the rally along at a good pace all day, ensuring early arrivals to all the competitive sections. The first of these was a time control section in the desert scrub just off the highway. The competitors navigate these sections via waypoints, the route between these points is largely up to them, though there is often a reasonably obvious track. This is the desert though and shifting sands result in shifting lines, and the routes cars took to the first control seemed to be about as predictable as picking the winning lottery numbers. Even with the marshal post easily visible, the cars approached from all angles of the compass, and some even managed to miss the bright, white marshals’ vehicle completely, despite driving within feet of it, as though it were protected by some sort of cloaking device.
The routes away from the control were pretty varied as well, but those that took the most direct route travelled straight across a wadi, where the sight of waiting photographers seemed to cause the drivers to enter into a jumping contest, to see who could get their wheels highest off the ground. There was some spectacular airtime, but if there was a winner it was probably Yang Zhan and Jason Zhe Ren in the Toyota Land Cruiser, who clearly hadn’t heeded the lesson of their sister car from the previous day, though their flight was at least in a straight line!
Safely out of the desert, the highway continued, with a bit of a detour to visit the Al Wahbah Crater, a hole in the ground two kilometres wide and 500 metres deep, that is the result of a subterranean steam explosion. Thankfully the hot water urn burbling away in the back of the marshals HiLux at the ‘Sue’s Café’ passage control suffered no such calamity, and with everyone fuelled with the finest instant coffee known to man it was back on the road to another desert-based time control section, on the bed of an old Salt Lake.
This section was fast, with the baked crust crumbling nicely under the wheel tracks of the rally cars, as they pushed on leaving great rooster tails of dust in the air, and with a bit of a squint the scene from a distance was more reminiscent of land speed trials than a rally. The track around the section was pretty well defined, but despite this plenty of machines still went off piste, preferring to carve their own line through the spiky vegetation of the scrubland. Bavarian Porsche crew Arthur Monschein and Kai Wunderlich carved some of the most creative tracks through the sand, not exactly taking the direct route, but throwing plenty of shapes in the white 911 T. However erratic the tracks were, they still found all the controls and picked up no penalty on any of the STC’s during the day.
More highway followed, as the afternoon wore on, but there was a brief respite with a good length of offroad link, that was a rollercoaster run of gravel tracks of a decent grade that could be carved along at speed. There was no fear of taking a wrong turn, as there was a friendly policeman stationed on each direction change, waving us all onto the right track with a smile. Dixon of Arabia indeed. Before long the days final bit of competition was upon us, an offroad regularity in the volcanic fields in the shadow of the Hejaz Mountain Range. It had been named ‘Wigglywadi’ and was exactly as described and would have made a great stage rally.
As it was the cars were going at reg speed, and with plenty of opportunities to get lost that was probably just as well, and there were plenty of wrong slots. Car 27 was certainly one of the victims of a navigational error, as the father and son crew of Michael and Jakob Haentjes went left instead of right early on the reg, after initially getting the slot correct. The Peugeot 504 disappeared into the distance, but they must have found their way back to the track as they still made the controls. The best performers on the reg were the de Orleans-Borbon’s, no doubt doing barrel rolls at posting 3 seconds at one timing point and then cleaning the next. They’ll be turning somersaults at the news that they were equal best on the day as well, a super performance considering how day two panned out for them.
Equalling them and maintaining their lead at the top of the charts were Richard Clark and Jonathan Round, who hit a two and a one on the reg and are looking very much like the crew to beat as the rally heads into day 4. The imposing Ford V8 has been extremely impressive so far and is indeed somewhat menacing when it’s on full song through the desert.
Tomorrow is a shorter day, indeed sub 400km, but with two regularities and another time control section there is no let-up in the competitive miles. The day will take us west, across the mountains and back down to the shores of the Red Sea, on what will surely be another thrilling day on the road.
Syd.