Stage 4 - The Infamous Salt Flats - 42.8km.

I`ll keep this short as it`s blowing a gale and I`m being sand blasted in the outdoor cybertent.  I took it very steady today, worried about the salt flats.  The first 9k stage was hard to CP1; big dunes and a lot of climbing before a descent into a lush river valley, where we had to walk along the river.  A few people went in up to their chest stepping in a deeper part of the river.  After Cp1 was a very long and pretty dull 13k accross a sandy plain to CP2.  CP2 to CP3 was the salt flats.  Ican`t describe them but they were pretty miserable.  Some people will be in them 4-5 hours.  It took me 2.5 almost.  There were pretty horrible but I had prepared myself for worse.  After CP3 it was a short stage to camp.  A whole load of people finished within 3-4 minutes of me, so I didn`t bother trying to chase them down, as it`s time rather than place that matters overall.  I finished 34th in about 7hrs 52.  So, now just 75km stand between me and redemption for last year, then the last 10-15km formality on Saturday afternoon.  Tomorrow starts off on salt flats, and the whole stage is tough.  I`m going to be going for anything from 14 hours upwards I imagine.  Thanks for the emails everyone, hope I`ve popped up in some pics or videos on 4deserts site