The first women-only Rebelle Rally is heading into the home stretch out in California. After a long week of powering over more than 1,000 miles of mountains, rocky trails and unpredictable sand dunes, 36 teams are competing to be among the top finishers in this inaugural race.
The Rally is unique in that it uses only navigation, not speed, to cross more than 1,000 miles of unknown terrain..
We’ve been closely following one of the teams since they headed out on October 15th, Team #129, the stock 2016 Ram Rebel team of Nena Barlow and Kande Jacobsen. Barlow owns and operates Barlow Adventures, a Jeep rental and 4-wheel-drive training company, while Jacobsen owns and operates Adventure Driven, an overlanding and outdoor lifestyle company.
Both of these hardcore adventurers love nothing more than challenging themselves and their machines to new adventures. The Rebelle Rally offered them that chance by requiring they rely solely on the most basic of technology to complete the rally – a map and a compass.
Between them, Barlow and Jacobsen have decades of off-roading competition experience. Will that be enough to best the competition?
For some answers, we caught up with Nena Barlow on Skype following their fifth day of competition. At that point, the team was tied for third place, despite an unexpected mishap along the way.
UPDATE:
Since our interview, just 30 points separate the top five competitors, which means the winner won’t be known until the teams roll into basecamp tonight.
