"The feeling of relief as we drove down to the Leisure Lodge Golf Club was immense, and we were incredibly tired. This rally was no joke"
- ANTON LEVITAN

No one who rallied in East Africa in the 70’s and 80’s would not have wanted to enter this rally, and Rob and I were no exceptions. After the obvious choice of car for us (a Range Rover - following the success of “Kenya Juu’ in the 1980 Safari) was excluded because 4WD cars were not eligible, we were on the lookout for a suitable alternative, and a Datsun was our preferred option. In April 2002, at one of Rob’s Quattro Charge events, I was talking to Sean Garstin, who had recently joined D.T. Dobie, and he expressed the desire to use the E.A. Safari as a Nissan promotion exercise. I told him that if he wanted a Nissan (Datsun) to win he should approach Rob with a proposal. I am not sure what exactly happened after that, all I know is that a few weeks later Rob informed me that we would be doing the Rally in a Datsun. The search for a suitable car was now seriously on, and, together with the D.T. Dobie involvement, a reasonable budget was available. Rob researched the market pretty thoroughly and concluded that the best source of good Datsuns was Australia. Before long Rob was in Australia and procured our 240Z from Stewart Wilkins who had built four cars which had competed in many of the Classic events. Our car had already done three, most recently the London/Sydney Marathon.

The car arrived in Kenya in September and was stripped for a thorough rebuild. As a shakedown before the big event, a class for classic cars was created in the Kenya round of the FIA Africa Championship (previously the Equator Rally) which was staged in Mombasa in October. We entered and completed the two stages allowed for the classic cars without mishap. The car was fabulous and it gave me feeling of cautious excitement.

As is normal for all Safari Rallies, we ran out of time and the few days before embarking for Mombasa were frenetic. One all-nighter for the crew at the Rob’s Magic workshops saw the car as ready as it would ever be, and on to the transporter she went.

Scrutineering was a peaceful and leisurely affair, and I spent most of the day checking through the notes for missing pages etc. The volume of the notes was surprising at first, but served to bring home the length of the rally. One book per day meant nine books in all – NINE days. That’s when it really hit home to me just how serious this event was going to be.

I was never happy with the servicing rules for the event and had told Mike and Surinder as much. Trying to plan service with only one car, driven by Stewart, (who had built the car), and who did not know his way around East Africa was a challenge. This was necessary as we were only allowed three service crew, and therefore one of the mechanics had also to do the driving. Our other two mechanics, Bonnie and Joel from Rob’s Magic could not drive the Service truck, so Stewart had to do both driving and servicing. We decided that Stewart would have to follow Sean Garstin, (who was providing our food and refreshments), and who was reasonably familiar with the various places which I had chosen for service points. Our main competitors in the event were the Escorts and the Porches, who “stretched” the rules to their advantage by sharing out each entrants service car so that they were able to achieve far more service points than us.

The convoy from Whitesands to the start at the Tusks was uneventful, but gave me time for thought of “what might be”, and some nerves. The start was well attended by the Mombasa residents and the DJ providing the entertainment obliged my request to play “Summer of ‘69” as we left the ramp – a good omen, I thought. The first stage from Mazeras to Mariakani via Kinango was a disaster. Six k’s after Kinango we punctured and stopped to change the tyre. We had stopped with the car too close to the bank and I could not get the wheel spanner onto the nuts, so Rob jumped back in to move the car. Click bloody click went the starter! I tried to push but we were in sand and I couldn’t budge the beast. Shit- now what. After about five minutes a Pajero with some spectators came along and we push started, moved and changed the wheel. We had been stopped for about twelve minutes by the time we got going again and Michelle and Alistair Cavanagh had passed us. Peter Hughes informed me that we were 8 minutes down on the leading car at the end of the stage.

We serviced at Maungu, and lined up behind Michelle and Alistair to start the 2nd stage which took us to Mwatate at the base of the Taita’s. Michelle started six minutes ahead of us and Alistair three. Not long after the start we passed Michelle who had hit a double caution ditch too hard. On the long open straights to Kasigau we could see Alistair’s dust and I timed him to be now only 90 seconds in front. Rob wound it up and we entered the dust only 1½ k’s from the turn right. This was the place to let Alistair know we were there, and as he turned he saw our lights and pulled over immediately. We had now made our place back to 1st on the road and needed to “slot” the navigation through the sisal well to pull back the lost time. I managed some reasonable concentration, but became a bit worried when we left the normal route that I had remembered and did a new loop before rejoining the old route. A classic case of too much knowledge. Any way we were able to post a good time through the stage and took 4 minutes of Alistair.

The last stage of the day had been cancelled and so we only had one competitive section of 27 k’s from Chelembwa up the Taita’s to Wundanyi left. The first 10 kilometres was on a new road, and this gave us our first fright. Probably due to the roadworks in the area, a “medium left over brow” was not on the notes. We slid wide on the new surface which was like marbles, but got round. The rest of the stage up the escarpment was just as I remembered it 20 odd years ago!

The night stop at Taita Hills Lodge went according to plan. We finished service by dusk and were taken by minibus down to Salt Lick were our rooms were.

Day two began with the previous day’s last stage in reverse - down the rocks and finishing with the slippery new road. We had more than made up our time loss on the first day and had started first as we were leading on points. We had decided to slow a little and conserve the car at this early stage.

Up the tarmac from Voi to Makindu (itself quite hairy) for the next stage. We left Makindu on a fast sandy road for the 76 km. stage to Nzaui. 20 k’s in we hit rut and broke the compression bar for the front right strut. We continued cautiously to the end of the stage, and then another 40 k’s of road section down to Emali to meet our service where we changed the bar. From the time it took before the next car passed us in service, we deduced that we had not lost much, if anything, to the next car.

The last competitive stage of Day 2 was the well-known section from Emali to Kajiado, a fast open sweeping section with many cows, goats and game. The presence of the Ol Turesh pipeline has increased the population along the road greatly, and the number of animals made the run quite “hairy”. The end of the section turned into a nightmare for us. 20 k’s from the end the car started to miss from fuel starvation. At first we thought we were running out of fuel (the only fuel gauge was a sight gauge onto the bag tank itself). The car eventually died and we were now among the spectators who had driven into the section from Kajiado. We asked for anyone who had spare fuel, but without luck. Eventually we found a spectator who was willing to give us some fuel in a coke bottle filled from the fuel pipe to his carburetor. We put three bottles into the tank and tried again. No luck. By now Ian Duncan, Saleem Haji, John and Steve Rose had arrived. A major conference ensued and we deduced that the problem was vaporization in the fuel pumps. Once the pumps had cooled down the car started and we were able to continue to the Control, but the car was still missing badly. Once out on the tarmac the situation improved and we drove to our service in Nairobi. On the way in Rob deduced that the reason the pumps were overheating was threefold. Proximity to the suspension gas canister, the recycling of fuel from the carbs back into the tank (thus preheating the fuel itself) and the lack of ventilation in the boot where the pumps were located, were all factors causing the vaporization. This was remedied in Nairobi and we never suffered the problem again. However, it had cost us 22 minutes in the stage and dropped us to second place on points. After service we had to drive on the main road up to Nanyuki. The road section from Kajiado to Nanyuki had an allowed time of 5 hours. The distance was 289 kms, and therefore an average speed of 60 kph was all that was required. That was without service. By the time we had finished messing around with air pipes into the boot and moving the mounting points of the suspension gas canisters, we had 90 minutes to get from Nairobi to Mt. Kenya Safari Club, including filling with fuel from a service station in Nanyuki to be ready for the next day. The traffic leaving Nairobi at 4:30pm was bad, and we had 70 minutes to get from Ruiru to Nanyuki – an average of 155 kph! We made it with 3 minutes to spare, and that included fuelling at the Caltex in Nanyuki and driving slowly through the sanctuary into MKSC.

Having lost the lead on points, we were now not first on the road leaving Nanyuki on Day 3. The start had been moved from the Club to the barrier on the Rumuruti road about 8 kilometres from the Club. As we bounced gently over the broken tarmac approaching the barrier, the oil light flashed on. In our haste the previous day no one had checked the engine oil in Nairobi, and the drive to Nanyuki at top revs had chewed oil. We turned around and raced back to the Mobil in Nanyuki, threw 2 litres of oil into the engine, and flew back to the Control. Gerard Marcy who was now leading the event had already left, so we were on our minute – just. The next section was now also not competitive, being originally part of the road section to Mutura which was the start of the 176 kilometre stage to Loruk on Lake Baringo.

We watched as Marcy was counted down and flagged off at the start of the stage, and then lined up to be flagged off 2 minutes behind him. After 20 kms of fast (140 kph.) open driving, the road climbs over a rocky hill. I timed Marcy over the brow. As we went over the same point I split the stopwatch. We were 65 seconds behind, and had therefore taken nearly a minute off him. I relayed this to Rob who commented that we were not taking any chances and the car felt good, so we would continue at the same pace. Into Rumuruti and through to town, we could now see his dust still in the air. As we approached slow left just after the town we saw skid marks of a car which had gone straight on and over the culvert. As there was no car there now we assumed that maybe one of the route openers had overshot the corner. Not so, for one km. later we saw Marcy off the road with both crew just getting out of the car. We were later to learn that their “off” had badly damaged the radiator and when we saw them they had been driving towards a media helicopter for help, and had become stuck in the swampy ground.
We were now back to first on the road, and therefore I needed to concentrate fully on the notes and less on the opposition. The stage was the longest in the event, and had greatly varying road surfaces, but we went well, and the fast sweeping bends between Tangulbei and Loruk were exhilarating. Our time to Loruk was good and by the time we had left our 30 minute service at Marigat, no other cars had been through. We felt that we would not take the next stage through the Kerio too fast, and conserve the car.

The Kerio was rougher than ever, and the Fluorspar escarpment has completely degenerated. There was no point caning the car up it, so we drove one of the slowest ascents I have ever made in rally conditions. The final stage of the day into Eldoret was the fast twisty section from Kamwasor to Plateau. The danger here was traffic and we were to meet two tractors with trailers on a long fast left which caused a slight constriction of the orifice.

By the end of Day 3 we had a lead of 24 minutes over Freddie Dor, but he had taken time off us up Fluorspar. Our “chuck wagon” was checked by the officials to see if it was carrying any spares at Du Toit’s as it had been seen waiting along the route between Nairobi and Nanyuki the day before. I felt the Officials action a bit rich with both the Escorts and Porches sharing service, which meant that they had effectively five service cars each!

The tented camp at Du Toit’s farm was a novelty, and I heard one of the British drivers describing the scene to his wife back in UK on his mobile as “we’re sitting in a tent in the middle of nowhere, I’ve never seen anything like this before.” It was bloody cold and we didn’t sleep well. At 5 am I awoke to hear rally car engines start and I thought we had overslept. I raced out to the parc ferme only to find that the Escort mechanics had started the cars to warm them up before they had to leave for their service points. That gave me a fright and got the adrenaline going.

We left in the dark at 6:00 am to make our way to Cheptongei, the start of the stage through the Cherengani Hills. I had not been there for 20 years, and wondered how things had changed. Our concern on this, the only competitive stage of the day, was traffic. As it turned out we were lucky with the few vehicles that we did meet insomuch as we met them where we could see them.

The 410 km. road stage into Iganga in Uganda, which included the first boarder crossing, was uneventful, except that I had to try and give Rob some idea of our progress regarding time. I allowed 30 minutes for the boarder crossing, and calculated our required average accordingly. As it turned out we were only 10 minutes at the boarder. We met our service crew just inside Uganda and so stopped with them to fuel up before checking in at Iganga.

The competitive stages in Uganda had to all be cancelled except one, which was being run on private land. We still had to drive through the section, but at a “safe” pace, as Surinder put it. When we arrived at Kamuli, approximately 15 minutes early, a young man approached me and let rip at us for driving too fast, threatening that we were about to be arrested by the police and have our car impounded. He did the same to Freddie Dor who arrived a few minutes later. This guy was no official of the rally and I told him that if he had any reasonable complaint to make it through the rally officials. I calculated that we had averaged less than 100 kph, and had not broken any laws. Indeed, the spectators on the side of the road had shown their disgust at the slow pace we were achieving. Ugandans are fanatic rally fans, and they could not understand why we were driving so slowly.

We spoke to a senior police officer at the next control about the incident and he assured us that we should take no notice of such arrogant behavior. He suggested that the approach had been made because we were ahead of the Ugandan entry, and told us to drive “as if you are in a rally”. We did, however, comply with Surinder’s request that we drive safely through the sections into Kampala.

I was suffering from a cold and “skived” off from the Kenya Airways reception. Our lead in Kampala was now 25 minutes as we had taken a minute off Freddie in the Cherengani’s.

Day 6 saw the only competitive stage in Uganda through the Lugazi sugar estates. It was a narrow and in places rough section, but only 33 kms. Long. We got through OK, navigation was tight, but the notes worked well and I was never in doubt.

388 kms. of road sections now took us back into Kenya, through Kisumu, where we met our service crew, and on to Changoi, the start of the competitive stage just outside Kericho. The stage started fast through the tea estates, but the road deteriorated into a diabolical “rough house” as it descended through the Keroka Pass to the main road at Ndaraweta, just north of the Mara. A 165 km road section finished the day. An average speed of only 75 kph was set for this section, but a substantial detour at the start of the road section meant that if you didn’t keep going at a reasonable pace, the last 30 kms. into the Sekenani gate, which is quite rough, would have to be tackled at more than 90 kph.

The “rest” day in the Mara never really materialized. We spent the whole day working on the car, and only just made the 17:00 hrs deadline for stopping work on the car. We noticed that many competitors, including 4 of the higher placed Escorts were working until well after the cut off time.

Day 7 included two competitive stages as well as the worst main roads Kenya has to offer. From Sekenani a road 100 km road section to Seyabei settled us into the routine again. At Seyabei we had yet another “Pace Note Check”, the fourth since the start. I suppose if you are leading an event, this is the sort of thing that happens, but there were a few times when my patience wore a bit thin.

Seyabei to Tipis, a competitive of 71 kms, was extremely rough, and we took no chances. We were in a commanding position with a 25 minute lead and were able to back off if we wanted to. Brunch at Lord and Lady D’s was a very civilized affair, and did not do much for the concentration needed for the stage through their farm which followed. Navigating with Tulips where there are roads to follow is relatively straightforward, but when no roads exist a large helping of imagination was required in interpreting some of the diagrams in this stage. We got through with nothing worse that three “overshoots”, but it was by far the most demanding navigation of the whole event.

The road from Mbaruk to Nairobi was a bore, but had to be done, and we booked into Safari Park with a 35 minute lead.

Three days to go and the end was beginning to come into sight. The first two of the three stages of Day 8 were straightforward. I knew all the roads in these two stages and we came through them well. The end section of the second stage into Kajiado was the same section of road on which we had our fuel problems on Day 2, and it was a good feeling to cover the same piece of road at speed to lay the ghost which had dogged us the first time through.

A good road section into Tanzania was next and included the boarder crossing at Namanga. We were again swept through the border by the rally officials with the utmost ease. They had prepared this aspect very well and it went smoothly. The final stage of the day was entirely new to me and Fred Gallagher cautioned me to take care not to lose the track. It was tricky navigation through narrow bush tracks with many junctions at the start of the stage, but the track eventually emerged onto a proper road for the last 15 kms. to Jeshini.

Day 9 promised to be the best of the event, with three stages including the Usambara Mountains. We now had a 43 minute lead, and I felt confident that barring an accident or a major mechanical problem, we could win the event. A constant worry, however, was traffic, and having been first on the road for all but 60 kms of the event, we were always conscious of meeting an oncoming vehicle at the wrong place. I had not been into these sections since 1975, and could remember little of the roads and none of the hazards. The 76 stage behind the North Pare mountains, from Kifaru to Nakiete was straightforward. The route on this day was a series of loops off of the main road and we were therefore able to meet our service crew at the end of every stage. As a result we were also able to carry minimum fuel and keep the car light. Rob commented that this improved the handling noticeably.

The second stage from Same to Mkomazi behind the South Pare Mountain range was 100 kms. and had much more variation, with some treacherous hidden ditches, the worst of which claimed at least two rally cars and a service car going in to rescue.

The last stage of the day, a 76 km. stage through the Usambara Mountains was a superb driver’s section. The roads had recently been resurfaced and there was no traffic. As we descended to the Korogwe Control our gearbox jammed in 2nd. This was not too bad while we were still on the twisty descent, but the last 13 Kms. a fast straight road into the Control lost us considerable time. We were not able to free the box at service so we drove the 100 kms from Korogwe to Tanga in 2nd gear. The section seemed endless, but with a required average of only 54 Kph, we were able to get to Tanga without incurring road penalties.

We stripped the box in service to find that 3rd gear had seized onto the shaft, and we had no option but to fit our spare gearbox. This box had not been tested and had come with the car, so we did not know if it was OK. Anyway we fitted it, filled it with oil and drove the car out to test. It seemed fine, so we would keep our fingers crossed that it would see is through the last three sections.

The small hotel in Tanga was one of the best we had stayed at and the supper at the Yacht Club was superb.

We left Tanga on the final day with a 45 minute lead, and only needed to cruise the last three stages. But this is always the most anxious part for any rally leader, and somehow we were more serious during these three stages than any before. The first two stages around Tanga were short and straightforward. The border crossing was even quicker than before and we were now waiting with the six leading cars under the trees at Msambweni for our check-in times before tackling the final stage. We had done this stage in the warm-up event and I was therefore aware of the four dangerous obstacles in the stage, had identified them in the notes and marked them appropriately. Again we were concerned about traffic and had seriously considered waiting after the start of the stage to let Freddie Dor pass and follow him to the finish, but he was now 5 minutes behind us on the road and to have sat for 5 minutes on the side of the road seemed absurd. So we drove as normal through the stage and our fears of traffic were unfounded as we saw no moving vehicle in the stage at all.

The feeling of relief as we drove down to the Leisure Lodge Golf Club was immense, and we were incredibly tired. This rally was no joke; Mike and Surinder had definitely captured the endurance spirit of the old Safaris.

The euphoria of the finishing ceremony was soon doused by the annoyance of having to strip the engine, but I suppose it was best to silence those doubters once and for all.

Another great success of this event was the standard of the Control Officers. It was definitely due to the decision of the organizers to keep a few good Controllers on the move to run a Control every day, rather than to recruit large numbers of Control Officers locally in the areas of the Controls themselves.

My congratulations go out to Mike and his team for a great event, but I do believe that the East African Safari should now become a fond memory.


ANTON LEVITAN -CAR NO. 1