Libya, here we come!

27th February and the game is starting. At this moment 5 LDC-trucks full of quads, motorbikes, cars and buggies are crossing the Mediterranean Sea. In the meantime participants who are driving themselves to the south of Libya, are packing their bags, ready to leave tonight. Racers from Lithuania and Romania are already on the road, driving 1700 km to join us on Saturday night in the port of Genova, Italy, from where we will head for the African continent as well. On the 2nd and the 3rd, 150 participants and journalists, an organising team of nearly 100 people and 75 policemen (total = 325!) will be gathered in Sebha, the starting place of the Libya Desert Challenge 2009. If you couldn’t be part of it this year, follow us for daily updates on this website.

Singer, DJ and model Zohra races in LDC2009

Belgian celebrity diva Zohra has confirmed her participation in the LDC 2009. Zohra has gained her passion for rally sport and desert driving during her 2005 participation in "Aicha des Gazelles”, a desert rally for women only, held in Morocco every year. In the LDC, together with her co-pilot Belinda, she will race a modified Rhino buggy. This side by SSV (side-by-side vehicle), originally build by Yamaha came initially with 50 to 55 HP standard. Zohra’s machine however, is tuned with an impressive 130 HP engine. In a few days she will leave for the Moroccan Sahara for an intense training course to improve her chances in March. Both competitive women will drive for charity. Part of the sponsoring money they raise will be donated to “a Heart for Limburg”, a Belgian organisation supporting disadvantaged children. www.zohra.be

LDC 2009 charters Airbus in cooperation with Afriqiyah Airlines

Due to the high number of participants, press, VIP’s and staff that will be joining the Libya Desert Challenge in March, the rally organisation & its Libyan partner Fessano Tours, have negotiated a deal with the Libyan airline company Afriqiyah Airways to charter their own plane. The majority of clients will arrive from destinations all over Europe, approximately at the same time, on 2nd March.
With the provision of this chartered service participants will literally get off one aircraft and onto another for the one hour flight south to Sebha where the rally will kick off. To make this even easier for participants we have agreed with Sebha airport and the Libyan authorities to host our first bivouac in the airport grounds, minimising travel time and hassle for everyone.
For the return journey on the 11th March, our private plane will bring everybody together from Sebha to Tripoli, 2 hours before the connection flights to Europe. The rally ends on the 10th, and on the 11th at noon, everybody’s back home. http://www.afriqiyah99.eu/