Ever Wonder What It's Like To Tackle The Kalahari Rally As A Newbie?

Sun, sand, and spills.

27:42

Janaki Jitchotvisut

By: Janaki Jitchotvisut

Oct 20, 2021 at 5:30pm ET

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Watching professionally assembled rally raid videos is one thing, but have you ever wondered what it’s like to tackle an event like that for the first time? If so, you should probably check out the latest series from YouTube motovlogger Itchy Boots. In it, she’s tackling her first-ever Kalahari Rally on a 2013 Honda CRF250L.

Now, one of the greatest things about riding can be the other riders you meet, especially if they’re into the same kind of riding (and bikes) you are. Motorcycling is a wide and varied world, so naturally there’s plenty of room for different passions.

As with anything, though, when you meet people you just vibe with, it can be nothing short of amazing. That’s exactly how Noraly (the rider behind the Itchy Boots YouTube channel) found herself wanting to do the Kalahari Rally in the first place. She said that she’d considered getting into a rally before, but making some new riding buddies really gave her that extra push she needed to do the thing.

The Kalahari Rally is considered a “road to Dakar” event, which means it’s pretty serious business for many participants. However, there are multiple levels of competition available, because event organizers also want to encourage new participants to join in the fun. After all, you can’t grow a sport if you don’t welcome new players, right?

Thus, the Itchy Boots CRF250L registered in the Adventure category, which means it’s not timed, and also you can use a GPS to navigate instead of a roll book and navigation tower setup. Noraly felt more comfortable with that, since she’s well used to navigating via GPS through her world travels so far.

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You can follow along with her 2021 Kalahari Rally series on her YouTube channel, which as of October 20 is still a story that’s unfolding. So far, she’s covered a handful of stages, and we viewers are in the cockpit with narration for all of them. At first, she said that she started out just wanting to test her limits and learn new things, but not really intending to be competitive. However, she soon found her inner competitive streak and began pushing herself even harder, going faster on sand than she’d previously thought she could.

Of course she fell, but everybody falls during events like this. The important thing is that she got back up and kept going. You don’t get better at anything by not pushing yourself. Watching her go on this journey is both fascinating and inspiring, and it’s definitely worth your time.

Source: Itchy Boots