Sahara Challenge – All the way to Dakar!

HERO/ERA has launched its most ambitious Sahara Challenge yet for September 2027, a 5,250km journey from Lisbon to Dakar, the destination of rally legends from 1978 to today. A variety of terrain, from Europe to Africa will include forests, mountain passes, flowing gravel tracks and then the desert itself, a territory of vast emptiness, and desolation.

Photo Will Broadhead

Designed by African desert expert and multi-Middle East Rally navigator’s Champion John Spiller, it is a super endurance rally truly worthy of the title ‘Challenge.’ Tarifa, Tangiers, Rabat, Fes, Michlefin, Erfoud, Bin El Ouidane, Marrakech, Essaouira, Riff Mountains and the high Atlas are just some of the exotic names of places along the way before the final six-day sting of the Moroccan Sahara that takes competitors to Nouadhibou and into the desert vastness of Mauritania before heading into Senegal. The foreboding shape and consistency of huge sand dunes await competitors as the rally will deviate at times into the emptiness of a vast sea of sand. With no hotel or Oasis in sight, there is a high probability that the rally will take food and shelter in their bivouacs for two nights, to make the ‘Dakar Experience’ complete.

“We were very much relieved to find that the route to Dakar is now passable again after many years of tensions between different nations. So, we are seizing the opportunity to take our competitors on this challenging desert rally,” said Chairman of HERO-ERA, Tomas de Vargas Machuca. “They will not only see great parts of Portugal and Spain and Morocco, but now will experience the Moroccan Sahara, then Mauritania and Senegal, amongst the most iconic countries visited by the Dakar Rally.”