Day 4 - Setbacks

Sand. Sand everywhere. That was probably the first thought on everyone’s mind when they woke up. Last night’s sand storm had definitely left its marks and a few tents from other teams had even collapsed. Luckily, we could secured our tents and there were no lasting issues, so all of us and our things were safe – nevertheless quite sandy. Therefore the first task of the day was to clean the solar cells to optimise our energy input throughout the race day. While we prepared the car and charged the battery with the first rays of sunlight some unexpected spectators came by. A caravan of camels trotted towards the charging solar cars and crossed the street by the start line for today. Seemingly acknowledging the beautiful Covestro Photon glowing in the early sun, they passed by after a while and continued their route through the Sahara desert towards the next oasis.

Leaving the dunes of Merzouga behind, we started our return towards the west coast. The opening hour of the race went by in what felt like mere seconds and without any issues. Then, we stopped at a nice place with some traditional shops on the side of the road to charge the battery to have enough energy to reach the finish line. Some members of the team used this available time to try out some local fashion

Strengthening the Covestro Photon

Just before packing up, one of us noticed that the structure of the rear seemed unusually soft which worried us greatly. After a quick evaluation the decision was made that it was far safer and probably necessary to strengthen the structural components of the rear suspension. This process unfortunately took us some time and we were only able to continue our journey after noon. With the now almost fully charged battery, the Covestro Photon was flying over the road with high speed - passing through small villages and along the mountains.

After the long stop during which we worked on the Photon it was already clear that we would not make it to today’s destination Zagora on time. Following the race rules we had to load the Photon into our trailer and drive the rest of the route this way. In the meantime, one of our media cars had a flat tire and we had to change it in the middle of nowhere. To our delight some local children came to our help with their expertise and cheerfulness. A little while later, the real experts, our Support car, also arrived at the scene and soon after we could all continue our trip towards Zagora.

Now we are finishing the day with a delicious dinner under the starry sky and looking forward to the final race day. Kind regards from the whole team!