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Mike Reynolds
It's been billed as the world's toughest expedition race. And with good reason as 55 teams from 27 countries engaged in such disciplines as camel riding, coasteering, ocean kayaking, hiking, canyoneering, rappelling, horseback riding and mountain biking.
The competition: the fourth annual Discovery Channel Eco-Challenge. The place: Morocco. The winners: For the first time, an American squad, and all of the teams that survived this 315-mile journey that began on camelback, wound its way through various other types of terrain and finished in the city of Marrakech.
Armed with only a compass, a map and their willpower, competitors had to battle exhaustion, hypothermia, dehydration, gastroenteritis and altitude sickness in traversing the North African soil during the race that took place over 11 days last October.
Highlights of the race, featuring a number of teams with sibling and married couples competing together, as well as a 65-year-old guitar maker from Venezuela and a 20-year-old from Germany, have been captured in a pair of two-hour segments that premiere on April 11 and 12 from 9-11 p.m. ET . They repeat from 12-2 a.m. each night. The mini-series, narrated by actor Liam Neeson, will repeat in its entirety on April 18 and 24 from 12-4 p.m.
Among the course disciplines, competitors had to survive 8.7 miles of camel riding, 3.1 miles of coasteering, 49.3 miles of kayaking, 105.8 miles of hiking/canyoneering/rappelling, 29.5 miles of horseback riding and 118.4 miles of mountain biking.
Discovery Channel Eco-Challenge is sponsored in part by Isuzu, MasterCard, Iridium and Kinko's. Previous races have been held in Utah and New England, British Columbia, Canada and Australia. This year's race will take place in Patagonia, Argentina.
ALSO: VH1's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Class of '99 show was watched by 8.5 million viewers, the most ever for the network's coverage of the ceremonies, and a 52% gain over the 1998 telecast...USA Networks has reached an agreement with Buena Vista Television on a network broadcast window deal for She's All That. The film, which has earned more than $60 million at the box office to date and stars Freddie Prinze Jr., will be available to the network in 2001.
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