YES! It’s the same as the original Budapest-Bamako except there is no racing category and it’s held in March. This second group was created to make sure that everyone can experience the one of a kind energy of the Budapest-Bamako.
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In 2020 when the Budapest-Bamako sold out we started a waiting list. People who couldn’t come to the rally could offer their entries to teams on the waiting list. The concept worked well since there were not too many people on the waiting list. This year however, we reached a point where there were more people on the waiting list than on the actually rally itself. We didn’t want anyone to miss 2022, especially after two crappy years like 2020 and 2021.
The start will be in March instead of late January. Adventure Extra will only have 4×4 Adventure, Touring and Spirit Categories. The March start will give our crew enough time to regroup and take a break after 2.5 weeks in Africa.
In every other way it will be identical to the Budapest-Bamako. It will have the same route, same stages, same start and finish line ceremonies, same great people, same crazy long days, same fun nights in the desert, same sand dunes, same savanna roads, same epic challenges and same breakdowns.
Yes and yes. There will be complete medical service in all the camps and there will be regular morning briefings, just like on all of our events.
It will be 4-7 Celsius warmer on average in March. Nights will no longer be freezing in Morocco, but it will be perfect beach weather in Mauritania and further south. Rain will not be an issue, since the rainy season in this part of West Africa doesn’t really start till May. Expect dry and warmer weather. Sorry, mud fanatics!
Unfortunately, there is a limit on how many teams we can allow on the Budapest-Bamako. It’s not because there isn’t enough room in the Sahara, but because the bandwidth at African border crossings is limited. These borders were made for 5-10 cars crossing a day. Administration is still done by hand in big leather covered books. Most border posts don’t have electricity. Administering 800 people and 250 cars is already too demanding. If we added more people it will be more than likely that some teams will be stuck in one country while everyone else is in a different country. Even though we made maximum preparations in Mauritania in 2020 for border formalities, we had to cancel an entire stage because some teams did not have their paperwork done by 8AM on the following day.
The most important reason is that, winning the Budapest-Bamako championship title comes with a certain level of prestige. It would diminish the accomplishment of the winners greatly if we organized another competition 6 weeks later. To preserve the glory of our Budapest-Bamako competition winners we decided not to hold another competition.
