What is this all about?

This is a journey that breaks all the moulds. It’s about sweat, grit, adrenaline, and raw, uncut adventure. It takes you to places you have never even heard of, let alone imagined you would one day visit! We will trek across northern Africa, starting in Tunisia and not stopping until we reach Benin, 17 gruelling but unforgettable days later. And here’s the best part – we get involved in local schools and charities along the way, so you can have fun and help some people out at the same time.

What is the concept?

The Trans Sahara Run is a minimal assistance motor rally, a drive-your-own-vehicle adventure tour. Minimal assistance for maximum effect means there won’t be a tour guide holding up a yellow umbrella for you to follow, counting heads every hour to make sure nobody gets left behind. There are no support vans or rescue teams, you entirely depend on your team’s skills, endurance, luck and ingenuity to get you to the finish.

Of course, we scout out the route ahead of time and give you plenty of advice along the way (in the form of a comprehensive Road Book), but in the end, it’s up to you to make it to the finish line. This is a motor rally, and you will need to supply your own vehicle. What you drive is your choice – you can tag along on a moped if you like, as long as you are willing to face the consequences.



The planned route is truly extraordinary and it takes you though remote desert areas with rough roads. In all likelihood, you will have to service your vehicle yourself at somewhere along the way, so at the very least you’ll need to bring a spare tire. Base camps (or when we’re lucky, hotels) will be our final destination each day of the event. The nightly base camp will be more of a gathering point for talking, planning, and partying.

The Sahara has more to offer than you can even imagine. The landscape will take your breath away, the locals will capture your heart, and the sand will get in your underwear. This run will be a long, difficult trek, but it will also be one of the most amazing things you’ll ever do.

When and why?

The first part of the question is easy: it all happens in March 2011. The event will last for 17 days. We will all meet up in Tunis, Tunisia, and take the long way through Algeria and Niger down to our coastal destination of Grand Popo in Benin.

As for the second part of the question – there will be as many answers to this as there will be participants. To see new lands; to escape the daily grind of modern life; to meet new people; to be challenged – the list goes on. But ultimately, the Trans Sahara Run is about discovery. You will discover new places and people, and you will discover new ways of looking at the world. But you will also discover a lot about yourself. Most things that happen to you along the way will be completely new and unexpected. This adventure is guaranteed open your eyes. It will be intense. It will be exhilarating. It will be the ultimate holiday.