Fesh fesh! World’s toughest rally only got tougher

There are four rallies renowned for their uniqueness in the World Rally Championship.

The first is Finland, where speeding cars are often airborne. The reason you see those those massive rear spoilers on the rally cars.

The second is Sweden for ice banks. Here cars can scoop 90 kg of ice inside uncovered body parts, consequently reducing performance to dismal level.

Third is Monte Carlo where winding, dangerous mountain roads are the order of the day.

And fourth the Safari Rally Kenya, the toughest and greatest of them all I think.

For five decades the Safari was the quintessential of rallying. A victory was equated to three WRC wins wrapped in one.

The Safari had rocky, muddy, dusty roads, from sea level to the Cherangani Hills nestled at an altitude of over 3,000 metres.

Add the Kerio Valley and Taita Hills plus Mount Kenya, and the Safari was the perfect al- round WRC rally minus ice and snow.

The Safari has added a new dimension, more savage than the above ingredients missing in the last eight editions -- 1996 to 2002 and 2021), fesh fesh.

Fesh Fesh effect had a far reaching ramification in this year’s WRC Safari Rally and may define next year's edition, and the future.

Fesh fresh is a natural phenomenon which has started a conversation within rallying circles worldwide.

Top drivers and teams remark of their not too pleasant experience in Kenya, some suggesting that fesh fesh could be detrimental to the Safari's future in the World Rally Championship.

But what is this fesh fesh thing? This is simply the baby fine power soil on the floor of the Rift Valley.

It can building up to two feet on soft surface. A car can gets bogged, or the engine expire if the fesh fesh clogs the radiator and suffocates the air cleaner.

Volcanic ashes

Fesh fesh, is fine volcanic ashes from seismic eruptions from extinct volcano mount Longonot eons ago.

At it worst, it causes a storm of dust in a whirlwind situation, soaring up to 100 metres, moving in a certain direction for several minutes, before similar patterns are replicated in the next direction of the wind, the dust thus settling in various surfaces.

M-Sport Ford, one of the casualties of fesh fesh in Kedong has asked WRC Safari organisers to think of a lasting solution on the fine dust or it will jeopardise the future of the Safari in the WRC.

Ford and Hyundai had a bad outing, either bogged down by fesh fesh or rocky sections which tore body panels like they were paper.

They may have gotten something wrong, and Toyota everything right.

Route designers say fesh fesh was only prevalent on a 1.2km section at Kedong, the smoothest of all other stages in the Safari where high traction R1 cars ploughed through with abandon during the morning pass.

The tyres loosened the surface, digging deeper on firm grounds. Fesh fesh thus had built into two feet high.

Beneath the surface were hidden rocks in the afternoon second pass.

Locals with less powerful machines skimmed through easily, and as one said, you don't attack fesh fesh full blast.

And typical of Kenyans on Twitter (KOT), they are not planning for an onslaught.

They are simply bragging that fesh fesh has put Safari on the world map, like Finland with jumps, Sweden and snow, and Monte' with famous mountain passes.

The Kenya Safari Rally can only get tougher.

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