Desert, but not deserted: Who let the swarm out

What began as an adventurous desert rally quickly veered into disaster-movie territory. On February 24, near Boujdour in Western Sahara, drivers participating in the Budapest–Bamako Rally found themselves ploughing through enormous swarms of desert locusts, as a now-viral video captured by driver Salah Abdelhadi shows windshields splattered and skies thick with insects.

Swarm at full throttle
The footage captures thousands of locusts colliding with speeding vehicles, briefly clouding visibility as drivers pushed forward through what looked like a moving wall of wings. Within seconds, windshields were plastered over in a relentless, fluttering assault.
“We went through a few intense locust swarms and happened to catch the worst one on my camera,” Abdelhadi said, describing the most chaotic stretch of the drive.
The official Budapest–Bamako Rally Instagram page also acknowledged the surreal moment: “As we crossed the Sahara from Tadachacht to Bojdour, teams encountered massive swarms of locusts along the way. Swarms of this size haven’t appeared in the region for the past 20 years! As the motto of the Budapest Bamako goes, ‘Expect the unexpected.’”

Nature hits the accelerator — and the internet responds
Desert locust swarms are notorious for their sheer density and unpredictability. For rally participants, however, the phenomenon was more of an immediate hazard — a crunchy, winged obstacle course unfolding at highway speed.
On social media, memes likened the drive to a post-apocalyptic road saga. One user quipped about farmers “crying in advance,” while another reminisced about eating locusts like ducks as a child.

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