A paradise for tired businessmen – this time for energy boost – as recommended by Iwona Strzelecka
Do you know what is the national sport discipline of Kenya? Where the largest numbers of supporters can be found, the strongest emotions are to be experienced and, most interestingly, where the unbelievably significant capital is located?
It is rally racing. Yes, I know about it myself and can sincerely say that it is worth seeing and experiencing it!
If you happen to be fans of extreme rally and would like to participate in this one-of-a-kind event – let us know, and the Sonrisa Hotel will gladly organize everything especially for you; even more so, that one of our partners is the well-known Kenyan rally driver Asad Anwar, who will take you for a spin or just a “ride” in his EVOX through the African wilderness at the speed of harshly 200 kilometers per hour.
Do believe me, it is hardly forgettable. Another reason why I would like to tell you about two of the most prestigious events is the fact, that Polish names are very often to occur here – and since many years, too.
Let us start with the Rhino Charge. It is a charity event to collect funds for the protection of Aberderes ecosystem, including the protection of rhinos. On the first year it had gathered an amount of 250 000 shilling for this purpose, and in 2013 – over 90 million! It is worth mentioning that participation fee is not really cheap – it is as high as one million shilling (equal to about 10 000 euro) per vehicle. The rally exists since 1989 and takes place on every last weekend of May on Madaraka Day*. It is a single day off-road rally, over terrains so wild that an amateur may have the impression that vehicles cannot stand a chance against all those rocks, pits and bushes; that the car will fall down, roll over or get stuck, that everything drivers do is against the laws of physics. They, however, do make it! (Although not all of them.)
Pulling a car out of some absurdly inaccessible place is an adventure itself. The top number of rally’s participants is 65 teams, all of which aim to reach 13 control points within an area of around 100 square kilometers within an 10 hour time limit. On the evening before the start date each and every team receives a map with control points marked on it and plans the route. The winning team is the one, that reaches all control points in a shortest route. To make the task more difficult – organizers do not reveal the rally location until the very last moment. Yes – participants and observers have virtually no clue until the last day, where the rally is to take place: it may be in the area of the Lake Magadi, but it may as well be the Lake Turkana.
The Rhino Charge fever begins already in April. Vehicles prepared especially for the occasion wait in garages for a sign to hit the road. Poland is represented annually by the very brave team called “Girls in Pearls”, under the command of Teresa Sapieha and Maria Beckman.
In 2013 I had the pleasure to follow in a service vehicle one of those monster machines (because they are not merely cars!) that participated in the Rally, and it was an absolutely unbelievable, breathtaking experience for me. It is also undoubtedly a social event. Loads of joy, true sport rivalry and most importantly – wonderful nature and amazingly beautiful landscape. You have to see it with your own eyes.
The other significant event, a legend on its own – on which I would also love to invite you, is the East African Safari Classic Rally.
In 2013 Sonrisa was bravely represented by the team: Asad Anwar as the driver and Kashif Shaikh as the pilot, in a Datsun 240Z, the 1972 model with number 49.
It is worth emphasizing, that it is one of the most prestigious and difficult rallies in the world. The few thousand kilometers long route leads through African wild roads, mud and jungle.
It begins in Mombasa and leads through Amboseli, enters Tanzania, reaches the Lake Manyara, Arusha and back to Kenya, to Mombasa right through the Taita Hills.
November – the wet season, African roads become a dangerous combination of clay, mud, pots very often big enough to fit in three cars, but also ruts and dust.
Speed – even up to 200 kilometers per hours, and vehicles that take part are not even 4×4!
To keep the pace, the conditions, the tension – it takes incredibly strong motivation, perfect physical condition, technical supplies and proper preparation, also financial. The participation fee is a few dozen thousand euro.
Classic Rally originates from the East African Safari Rally tradition, which was set up for the first time between 27 May – 1 June 1953 across Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika under the name East African Coronation Safari in celebration of the coronation of the Queen Elisabeth II. Ten years later, in 1963, the Rally was won by a Pole living in Kenya – Zbigniew ‘Nick’ Nowicki in a stock Peugeot 404! He also won in 1968. In years 1970-1973 the Polish participants were Sobiesław Zasada with a pilot Mieczysław Sochocki in Porsche 911; in 1978 with Błażej Krupa in Mercedes 280E – taking the 6th place. It seems, that in 2015, when there will be the seventh edition of the East African Safari Classic Rally between 19-27 November, another Polish team – NAC Rally Team – will take part; a Mercedes will be driven by Paweł Molgo, and his pilot will be Piotr Domownik. We keep our fingers crossed!
And maybe we also will race for a second time? Maybe any of you would like to support us?
Feel invited! Hotel Sonrisa www.hotelsonrisa.pl
*Madaraha Day – 1st of June, the day commemorating Kenya obtaining its internal autonomy in 1963, followed by retaining its full independence from the Great Britain 12 December 1963.