Freetown- Sierra Leone is gearing up to receive the world’s largest amateur rally, the Budapest-Bamako Rally –with a caravan of 227 vehicles and over 700 participants including tourists, philanthropist, bloggers, international journalists, travel writers, tour operators etc, who left the shores of Budapest-Hungary on 31st January and are expected to arrive in Freetown on Sunday 16th February 2020 as the finishing point.
The Budapest-Bamako is a minimal assistance adventure and navigational race from Europe to Africa. The participants are drawn from over 80 countries and have travelled through five European countries and across to the Sahara onto the Guinea/Kambia-Pamalap border where they will be received by the authorities and the traditional rulers in the area.
The team will then proceed to Kambia and Rogbere Junction where they would do brief stop-overs to greet and interact with locals along the route before departing for Masiaka where the Deputy Minister of Tourism and Culture, Mr. William I.K. Robinson and other government officials will receive the fleet. The caravan will spend the night at Masiaka where a vast portion of land has been identified and cleared by the traditional authorities to accommodate the team. They will also do a symbolic planting of 2000 fruit-yielding trees, to demonstrate commitment to responsible eco-tourism and the fight against the global scourge of climate change and its devastating impacts that has been plaguing societies across the world.
The entourage and the fleet will end their marathon at the Siaka Stevens Stadium where senior government officials are expected to welcome the guests on Sunday 16th February, 2020.
The 9000 kilometres marathon from the heart of Europe to the soul of the West African region is not only for fun, leisure or expedition but also garners support and draws the world’s attention to global problems affecting humanity, hence the team’s emphasis on its humanitarian activities every year. The teams from the caravan have helped built and provided clean and portable drinking water for communities in Senegal, Mauritania, Mali and The Gambia. Each year the rally brings 700,000-900,000 Euros worth of aid to West Africa and has significantly helped to support healthcare systems, built schools, donated cars for use as ambulances in the countries through which they traverses.
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Joseph T. Kanu, Sierra Leone is being ranked high in the international global peace and security index, ahead of major leading tourism destinations in the world. As a result, the country has been chosen as the end destination.
“We got the news with so much joy and can’t wait to see the fleet on the soil of Sierra Leone. We believe as a government much has been done to encourage tourists, yet we are now yielding the dividend gradually. This is a historic event and it will certainly put our beloved country on the map,” said the Deputy Minister of Tourism.
It could be recalled that the Budapest Rally which has been organized in Hungary since 2005 and later extended to Africa, is one of the world’s biggest amateur vehicular event which serves as a humanitarian adventure to promote inter-cultural and social linkages across nations. Because it originated from Budapest to Mali as end destination, it was referred to as the Budapest-Bamako Rally.
Credit: N.A. Koroma