I've been on the look out for good Dakar pics, but they have been surprisingly hard to find. As you would imagine, Mitsubishi and VW have images on their press sites (which I will show on Part 2), but thats about it....

...Until I discovered 'The Big Picture' section of Boston.com earlier today. I haven't come across this site before, but its a general News site in Photographs. The Images for Dakar are stunning. I picked out a few , but there are another 25! images to view. You will be impressed.

The first image, above shows Leonid Novitskiy and Oleg Tyupenkin in their BMW X3, taken by Enrique Marcarian. Pretty impressive, eh?

Here is current leader, Carlos Sainz in action in his VW Touareg2, taken by Gabriel Bouys.

Doesn't really look much like a Touareg, other than it has four wheels and a windshield....

Robbie Gordon having fun, flying over the Dunes in his Monster Hummer.

I know Speedhunters is a car site, but these are the real heroes in my book. They take amazing risks.

I'd recommend you watch the Charley Boorman  TV/DVD series 'Race to Dakar' for an insight on just how tough this rally is on a bike.

How's this for a cockpit? This is the Mitsubishi Lancer Dakar. - Lancer, only in name!

You can see more Stunning Photography in 'The Big Picture' section of Boston.com  I'm saving that site in my bookmarks!

Have a look at some of their other Photo posts. A good snap shot of 2008

-Andy Blackmore

Boston.com coverage of Dakar

Race to Dakar