Will the rain arrive? Thrills guaranteed at Safari Rally Kenya

Watching the towering anvil-shaped clouds building, the sharp gusts of wind come first, dragging the ambient temperature a degree or two lower. Then the smell. And the rain. Will it happen in and around Naivasha this week? Who knows. If it does, it’ll deliver one thing: excitement.

There’s always a fizz of electricity which fires around the service park when rain's on the way. We saw it last time out in Sardinia and that sense is intensified in Kenya. If you thought it could rain on the Italian island, that’s nothing compared with what Africa can deliver.

And the excitement’s not contained among the teams either, anybody who’s been on the other sort of safari in changing conditions might have been fortunate enough to see wildebeest snorting their appreciation of the onset of precipitation.

This is what the WRC does best, it takes the cars and the crews to the people, the places and the African plains. If you’re there, it’s one of those pinch-yourself weeks in the sport as you stand alongside the beautiful Maasai people and watch cutting-edge motorsport technology pass through one of the world’s most arduous landscapes.

Safari Rally Kenya is one of 13 chapters in this year’s WRC, but it forever provides the most storied and colourful pages. Expect nothing different this week. Especially if it rains.