Driving to the Limit: Finishing Our Charity Rally in Argentina!

What an incredible year, ending with the experience of a lifetime!

This past April, my friend Louise Marty and I (Caroline Lebourg, 2010 Les Roches alumna) entered the Trophée Roses des Andes rally as Les Roses de Cachi, team number 16. We spent one year raising money and gift donations in order to finance our Argentine rally (a 4×4 orientation race), prepare technically and contribute to three charities: Breast Cancer, let’s talk about it!, AFG Autism and Equinoterapia Del Azul.

At the end of this roller coaster of a year, we finally made it to the starting line in Argentina with 55 other teams for this women-only race.

It’s hard to explain just how amazing this adventure was.

Cine de presentación – Trophée Roses des Andes 2017 from Desertours on Vimeo.

[quote]It involved randomly drawing our car (we got lucky it was the best one of the lot), sleeping in a tent while it was -8°C outside, and not being able to breathe due to the altitude…[/quote] but also the thrill of driving our amazing 4×4 (we named it Poka), trying to take shortcuts to get ahead in the ranking while staying safe, and pushing ourselves and the car to the limit.

This adventure was not only about amazing landscapes that are just impossible to describe due to the diversity, not only about teamwork, but also about humanity and helping each other. This whole year and week of race was about meeting amazing people. People who make you a better person. Including our sponsors (Les Roches, Elan Hospitality and SARL Lebourg to name a few), our amazing friends and families who were supporting us every step of the way, the other teams with whom we prepared the year — helping each other during the rally and teaming up to be even better — but mostly all those people who work for the charities we support and help others without expecting anything in return!