Say the word Dakar and you’ll conjure up instant images of rallying greatness in the minds of motorsports fans. It’s so synonymous with tough, capable vehicles that countless Dakar tribute vehicles—both by OEMs themselves and by custom builders—have come into being over time.
In April 2023, after plenty of time spent exploring Morocco and Mauritania, and seeing unbelievable world treasures like the Eye of Africa, Itchy Boots has finally made it to the legendary capital of Senegal. Dakar is a busy city, though—and as you’ll see in this video, there’s a lot of traffic to contend with as she finishes the journey from Saint Louis (also in Senegal, not the one in Missouri) into Dakar.
If you’re used to riding through congested traffic, of course, such a scene may look incredibly familiar to you (and honestly, this is the most personally relatable portion of her journey to me). While other riders are lane filtering between the slow-moving and stopped four- (and more-) wheeled vehicles with aplomb, Alaska (Noraly’s trusty Honda CRF300L Rally) has panniers. So unfortunately, it’s not that easy to squeeze through some of the narrower spaces left in traffic.
Still, after a lengthy, hot, and exhausting journey that she eventually tells us about after she’s found a place to stay for the night, Noraly has finally accomplished everything she wanted to do today. She’s ridden the 200-something kilometers (that’s about 124 miles) to Dakar. She’s purchased insurance that should be good to see her and Alaska all the way through to the Congo. Despite some mishaps in finding a place to stay, she did eventually manage to find quite a cozy room, which is good—because she’s exhausted.
Although today’s journey wasn’t long in kilometers, the heat and stress of traffic (which isn’t normally a thing that she has to contend with on a regular basis) made it a different kind of rough. While there was at least one previous video where she did about 700 kilometers (or nearly 435 mi) in a day, it’s all about what you’re used to—and traffic is a totally different kind of harrowing if you don’t deal with it on a regular basis.
At the end of the video, Noraly explains that she’s going to have a little break on her YouTube channel to get the next leg of her journey in order. Since she’s just one person, and she’s doing her journey on her own, that means she must do everything. That includes arranging visas, legally importing her bike (she has a Carnet de Passage, which helps), changing money, getting necessary parts for her bike and cameras, replacing gear that needs it, and so on.
All that doesn’t even begin to take her long hours editing and uploading these videos into account. So, while she’d previously been uploading around three a week, she says she’s going to take about two weeks off (maybe more) to get the next leg of the journey in order.
There may be additional breaks like this in the future, too—but honestly, why shouldn’t she have them? Doing what she’s doing is a lot of work, even without the cameras. Narrating her experiences along the way is extra work, on top of the rest of what’s involved in posting these videos for the rest of us to travel vicariously with her on her journeys.
While this is the Internet, and comments aren’t always kind, the majority of Noraly’s viewers seem to share the same sentiments. Here’s hoping that her time away is as refreshing and revitalizing as she needs, and we remain grateful that she’s sharing her journeys with the world via YouTube.
