The night was not very restful, with the comings and goings of the sleeping area, sleep was still hard to find last night, and during the night the wind picked up.

But once again, Vero is ready before Dominique wakes up and I'm preparing for my turn, the rhythm is set. As usual, I go under the restaurant tent while Vero places our vehicle on the starting line: today will be 4A, in the front row.

On this stage, we will have to cover 60 km of sand to cover for 6 beacons. 3 courses are available to us: the X, the most committed, which will lead us to the west face of Merzouga, where the dunes are the highest, the steepest slopes; the Y, the intermediate, which takes us to the heart of the big dunes but where the obstacles are a little more accessible (a priori...) and the Z, the less committed in low-lying areas.

Until then, Vero had no doubts, we will go to X, but this morning's briefing will make us doubt.

The wind has blown and the direction of the dunes has changed, making course X even more involved... Vero hesitates, she is afraid of scaring me. As for me, despite obvious apprehension, I don't want to give up, but I doubt my ability to guide her through this vastness of sand. Our lack of training together and in condition is felt at this time.

So, unable to decide, we choose to take an intermediate CAP between the 1X and the 1Y and we will see, we will choose the course closest to which we will arrive...In'challah!

So, in your opinion, what course will we reach?...

I give it to you in the mile...the X!!! the desert has decided so!

It's time to deflate the wheels before hitting the sand. We do this before validating the 1X tag, because despite everything a doubt remains and once validated, there is no way to go back...

Deflating, we hesitate, discuss, evaluate the possibilities, and finally decide to leave on the 1Y, a few kilometers away.

What we don't know then (it was well written on the roadmap, but I somehow missed this point) is that only course X makes it possible to reach all the points (provided validate all the beacons of the course of course).

So we validate the 1Y and start the big dunes...finally, after waiting our turn...

It's crazy how many people there are here!!! Crews are tanning, others, like us, are waiting for the simplest passages to be freed, others are trying more difficult accesses. We will land in our turn, just before the top of a dune, but will get out quickly, and without effort... And in the middle of all this, locals are coming and going, as if nothing were so experienced surfers... They must have a good laugh....

We are moving slowly, navigation is not the difficulty today, I quickly take solid bearings in the large dunes, but you have to look for access, get out of the vehicle, climb the highest dune to read the landscape and identify the better passages, then get back in the vehicle, guide Vero then start again a few dunes further on.

I'm sure, the CP 2Y is 200m away, I should see it but nothing...I decide to gain height. At the top of a huge dune, the highest around... indeed, the CP is right there, behind the dune and with a huge boulevard to get there... It's validated, next one!

CP3 will not be easier. I know for a fact where it is, just at the foot of this other huge dune, in the heart of Merzouga, but it will take us more than 3 hours to reach it.

We will get there, already tired and I will discover here the meaning of the word disorientation!

Geographically, I still know where we are, and where the next beacon is; at the foot of another large dune 4km away; but inside it's very different, I experience a great moment of solitude. From where we are, whatever our decision, advance or give up, we will have to face the sand for hours, as far as the eye can see, the fear of tanking and getting stuck. A huge feeling of emptiness came over me.

The rest of the day will take place in the same way, physically and psychologically exhausting, but again today we will reach all the beacons.

After a quick calculation, I even realize that we have only done about twenty kilometers more than the ideal route. It's pretty good and we will try to keep the CAP, but I know that a track returns to the CAP at the bivouac, it should be simple. Unfortunately, fatigue won't help and we'll take the wrong track which will cause us to deviate several kilometres.

Still today, this seems to me to be my biggest navigation error.

We will reach the Bivouac at a correct time, and I will only learn then, during the validation of the stage, that we will have an additional 100 penalty points for not having chosen route X.

Despite the disappointment, we put it into perspective, we had a great stage! Tomorrow will be another day, but tonight the organization has prepared a special welcome for us: champagne!

Stage classification: 34th, 126.91 km of Penalties

General classification: 28th, 180.23 km of penaltiesNew Paragraph