Day 14 from Bahir Dar to Awasa was long – 750km in all – and harsh from the word go: beginning with 200km of difficult gravel, it started off particularly rough. Early starters drove it in the dark. Daybreak at Mota Road, the first of two World Cup Sections saw battle commence - the Subaru Impreza of Steve Blunt and Bob Duck set the best time, nearly a minute quicker than the Belgian Porsche of Joost Van Cauwenberge and Jaques Castelein.

Several crews finished with broken exhausts but the saddest casualty of the day was the Guliker/Hart BMW535i which hit a large rock that split the sump. It was running 4th, so this created a vacancy at the top, which would be filled by the ex-Dakar winning van Cauwenberge in his 1973 Porsche 911, who finally leapfrogged the girls in the Maestro, who stay fifth. Pim ‘t Hart returned to Bahir Dar where the BMW’s aluminium sump has been welded but will have to wait until tomorrow to return to Mota village where Renger Guliker remains with the car.

Top five in Saturday’s first World Cup Section were Blunt, Impreza 1:36; Cauwenberge, Porsche 2:28; Actman, Hilux 2:37; Tomlin, Defender 2:40; Tromans, 240Z 2:43

Five cars completed the second World Cup Section within the allowed time and without penalty, with Alastair Caldwell next up losing just 3 seconds. Overall, Owen Turner’s MGZR stays third with the Blunt/Duck Impreza second and Actman and Elcomb holding first in their Hilux.
Those watching the Yellowbrick tracking page will notice that Owain Lloyd and Peter Scott are making good progress catching the event after fitting a replacement engine in Gedaref.  At 10pm Saturday they were north of Addis Ababa, about 320km from Awasa. Eric Claeys and Ben Deleye still have some distance to drive before reaching Awasa…they were delayed after filling their Toyota with petrol instead of diesel. They are travelling quite close to the Peugeot 504 of Jean-Pierre and Mireille Demierre.

Unfortunately the parts needed to fix Ben and Mike Dawson's Escort missed the overnight plane from London. They were seemingly left with an almost impossible task to repair their car and catch the rally, though an update by a relative on Facebook suggests they’re underway with some improvised solution while the new stub axle wings its way to Africa.

By contrast, Day 15 was short and easy - for a change – bringing the crews from Awasa to the Kenyan border at Moyale. Rapid formalities completed, they were soon driving what the Chairman of the Kenya Motorsport Federation describes in his letter to us all as "God's own rally country".

‘God’ was a word that came quickly to our lips as we hit the giant ruts that took us up the dirt track to the very basic Al-Yusra hotel... no beer, and for 38 drivers the mattress is on the floor - and these are mattresses we bought this afternoon, cost: 600 dollars.

It was an easy day for all except the two Datsun 240Zs. The Tromans & Russell Datsun has been coping with a broken suspension upright after hitting potholes, while the Thistlethwayte & Hiscox's car is having a troubled time with overheating and currently still in Ethiopia making very slow progress towards the border. The border is now closed until tomorrow morning.

Day 16, Monday, is a short 150 mile trip to the village of Marsabit, but if an evening recce tonight is anything to go by - twice as hard and three times as rough as the route survey last year – the red earth track to Marsabit will be a drive totally alien to most crews. God’s own rally country? More like Mars.

Top five at the end of day 15

1 14 44m 37 1 E Andy Actman GB Andy Elcomb GB 2010 Toyota Hilux 3000
2 23 48m 46 2 E Steve Blunt GB Bob Duck GB 2006 Subaru Impreza 1994
3 33 1h 15m 10 1 B Owen Turner GB Matthew Fowle GB 2002 MG ZR 1589
4 45 1h 42m 39 1 D Joost Van Cauwenberge B Jacques Castelein B 1973 Porsche 911 3000
5 15 1h 47m 26 2 B Jane Edgington GB Gillian Cotton GB 1986 MG Maestro 1598