AUSTRALIAN SAFARI COURSE SURVEY

4x4magazine | 01/03/2012 | 0 Comments

The 2012 Australasian Safari is quickly gaining speed, with planning for this year’s event already firmly underway. Road crews have already locked down the first few legs of the race, with the course set to take a different direction to previous years.

Discussions are being held in a number of Western Australian towns to find new locations for 2012. The course aims to stay in the mid west coast area, covering the Murchison and Gascoyne regions. There are some stunning stages planned that will showcase Western Australia’s diverse terrain, and provide a great challenge for competitors.
The course survey crew have just come back from ten days on the road. They have already route charted Leg 0, 1 & 7 and have drafted Leg 5. Want to know what to expect? Beach, creek beds, sandy and then rocky, with a possibility of cliffs.
“There are so many possibilities that the challenge is to narrow it down and to make a course that has variety” says Adrian Stafford. “Every where we go, we talk to the locals and we hear stories about tracks that have been covered over because of floods, but if you know where to look they are still there; and stories about the epic journeys that people did across country in the old days, across some really rugged terrain. We’ll go back out in April to look at what we expect to be some pretty special areas a bit further out”. The work will continue through until May, and will be concluded by the independent course and road book check later in the year. Work continues on the route, with the main activity at the moment being seeking approval from the various authorities to use the tracks that we think will work”.
A new addition to the 2012 event is the Safari Challenge, a great way to experience the thrill of the race first hand. It will allow road-registered 4WD’s to enter the competition elements of the Safari without the need for a competition vehicle. Test yourself by riding more than 3,000km on the same tracks as the Australasian Safari. On this grueling nine day challenge, Adventure Tour participants will ride some of the same Stages as the Safari competitors, and stay each night at the bivouac. Also new for 2012 will be the inclusion of UTV’s and Side by Sides. More details can be found in the Pre Event Guide, available to download online from http://www.australiansafari.com.au.