Tunisian Oasis Race – 2

Excerpt from the book Sports the Olympics Forgot This book describes 40 sports that ought to be played but aren’t, because I made them up.

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Contestants set out at dawn and head northwards from Tatouine towards the Sebkhet el Melah, a large salt sea.where competitors can sometimes use their bikes to ride across the salt-crusted ground. Once the salt sea ends the racers head to the Mediterranean coast and then swim over to the island of Djerba before running to Houmt Souk. On land the route is marked by a red camel on a black background and inflatable red camels ten yards apart mark the safe swimming channel for the athletes in the Mediterranean.

What makes the race so difficult is the fact that the contestants have to run on three separate occasions with both cycling and swimming interspersed with the running. Sometimes, the Sebkhet el Melah can have recently been wet and so the bikes sink into the mud and are almost unrideable as a result.

 

 

Published by Julian Worker

Julian was born in Leicester, attended school in Yorkshire, and university in Liverpool. He has been to 94 countries and territories and intends to make the 100 when travel is easier. He writes travel books, murder / mysteries and absurd fiction. His sense of humour is distilled from The Marx Brothers, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and Midsomer Murders. His latest book is about a Buddhist cat who tries to help his squirrel friend fly further from a children's slide.

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