Keir is doing well, in 112th place (out of 127 left in the race), and there are a LOT of people who have dropped out.

112th out of 127 left in the race

The site says he has raced for just shy of 40 hours. We are tracking him every hour with a GPS Insight TT-1900.

I ran a track like this:

GPS Track of Keir across a Chilean desert

And see where he’s gone (roughly — we update once an hour):

GPS Track of Keir across a Chilean desert

This shows 94.2 miles, but it’s been more than that, since he’s not racing in a straight line.

Good luck Keir!  He’s got 1 more 25 mile day, then a 50 some mile day tomorrow to complete this race, his second Racing the Planet race.

Rob.

My Brother in Law Keir Oxley is half-way through the 162 mile long Sahara Race.

He’s in 70th place (they started with 125 and are down to 96 at this point).

Here is a shot of their route so far & all of the base camps they’ve had:

GPS Tracking in the Sahara Desert

I think our Driver Efficiency Report would have something to say about their route of choice…

Here is a screenshot of Egypt & the tiny area they’re in, which is a 75 mile trek covering 30 actual miles so far:

Tiny area of Egypt the race takes place in

And here are the rankings — Go Keir!

Racing the Planet Sahara Race standings for stage 3

Rob

My brother in law Keir Oxley starts a 162 mile race across the Sahara tomorrow. (This is the same brother in law who almost got me killed scaling the wrong part of Camelback Mountain 15 years ago…)

Here are 2 pics from the last race:

Egypt Race tracked by GPS Insight

Egypt Race tracked by GPS Insight

He wanted to be able to “show” the family and friends his progress and asked for a tracking device. We have a perfect one for that, the TT-1900 (we don’t really advertise it much — it’s a tiny version of the TT-2000/2100).

He needed it light, battery operated, and satellite capable.

We programmed one up for 1 hour updates, and sent it to him.

I gave them a login & password, but didn’t want everyone in the world using it, so I also created (using “customer sites“) the following link: http://www.gpsinsight.com/egypt — it took 1 minute.

For iPhone & Google Mobile Map users, they can “search” and see Keir’s location by entering/refreshing http://gps-i.com/k/oxley/1778.kml

Anyway, this is a pretty interesting new use for GPS Insight devices. The TT-1900 is intended for container tracking and is waterproof, heat-proof (well, we’ll see how it works in the Sahara Desert…), and works on satellite networks across the world.

It only weighs 5.9 ounces so it won’t be difficult to lug 162 miles across the desert over 7 days. It’s rated to 212 degrees F & Keir said it was 122 today — 90 F to spare.

GPS Insight Satellite Tracking unit TT-1900

I’m guessing they’re hiking to the Nile river — it’s exactly 162 miles from where they are right now, & they start soon.

Hiking across half of Egypt being GPS tracked by GPS Insight

Keir is doing this A) to prove he can do it and B) to raise money for poor African schools — if you are interested in saving schools from being destroyed by elephants by helping to purchase a fence for them, feel free do so in Keir’s name here: http://www.asanteafrica.org/donate.html#online

If you feel compelled to buy GPS Tracking devices for your company based on your love for Keir & his cause, we’ll donate 10% to Asante Africa.

Have fun & be safe Keir!

Here is a link to Keir’s online blog from the race — they have an opportunity to use satellite internet to update this once a day.

Rob.