Spent part of today reading and correcting some proofs of book I'm co-authoring, with a chapter on desert landscapes, and was reminded of an episode of QI I caught the other day.It mentioned the Paris-Dakar Rally, an event which ran between the 2 cities for some years, and challenged competitors to race through part of the Sahara desert.
It turns out that the race no longer runs between those two cities, partly as a result of the impact that the race had on fragile environments, and also fears about the safety of competitors as a result of terrorist incidents and other reasons.
The event now takes place in South America, but even here there are some geographical issues connected with the route.
The map opposite shows the proposed route for 2016, and this has had to be changed.
It was supposed to be going through Peru, but there are fears of the impact of El Nino which mean that there may be issues providing the necessary support for the race.
The site has a page on the way that they try to reduce the environmental impact of the race.
Investigate the history of the race, and the link between the environment and the challenge that has been provided by it, and the impact of the race on it.
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