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Our event constantly presents the crew with a variety of  terrain, from black sand flats to steep rugged climbs. 

We do not have stages in forests but our lava fields can be just as damaging if you come off. 

Pop over to the video menu selection and become hooked.

Our flat sands, whether black or cream are all volcanic material weathered down to a sand type. Sometimes they can be firm and provide some exhilarating drives. Others just sap the power right out of the finely tuned engine.  Getting the rhythm is the key, then stay with it.

Some of the flat sand and gravel tracks, can suffer from wash-boarding, especially those used by tourist traffic. Of course the tourist traffic is closed off whilst we use the tracks. The secret to wash-boarding travel, is to increase speed to the point where you skim the ridges, then stay at that speed. Treat this semi floating experience with care, do nothing sudden and braking can be exciting and turning fun, so go with care and read the road ahead.

In the lava fields where the track is a narrow bulldozed track, be very careful not to catch the sides of the tyres. Lava can be as sharp as a Samurai blade  and even Kevlar can be cut.  It’s all about rhythm and flow.

We have water crossings, we have lots of water.  August is the best month to travel the highlands and if you have a choice travel early morning.  Most of the crossings are under 400mm deep but occasionally they can be deeper for a short distance, enter the crossing slowly move forward with a small bow wave and just keep moving forward. If they appear deep, choose a low torque gear and stay in it. We have some crossings that are very long and shallow. One approach if you have the speed is to aquaplane across the top, thrilling.
To provide variety and to give another challenge award, we have a long hill climb, some 5.5km climbing to 700m. It also happens to be our first main stage of the event and turns into our entire hill rally experience in one stage.  So take it easy and use the experience in the next 2 days.