by PATRICK LEJTENYI

There's an odd appeal about bombing around the western Sahara in a four-by-four for eight days. Breaking out of day-to-day drudgery, the thirst for adventure, the physical and mental challenge - it's the kind of thing that insinuates itself into your daydreams when the boss is crotchety and the weather's cold.

So two lively local women, Isabelle Côté, 28, and Geneviève Grandmont, 26, are getting set to hit the Moroccan desert in late April for the Rallye Aïcha des gazelles, an eight-day, 2,500-kilometre, all-women endurance test ("It's like driving from Montreal to Quebec and back each day, but with dunes," says Grandmont). The driving is all off-road.

There is a hitch: contestants - there are over 100 of them, from 12 countries - have to pay a $19,000 registration fee and use their own vehicle, as well as come up with incidentals like travel costs and equipment. Côté and Grandmont are just over halfway to reaching their $43,000 goal, and are still seeking sponsors.

"This has been like a second job," says Grandmont over a beer at Chez Baptiste, a Plateau bar and sponsor. "We put about 20 to 25 hours' worth of work on it a week, in the evenings, during our lunch breaks, on the weekends. But we don't really notice."

Côté says she first got the idea last June, when she heard about the rally on the radio. She immediately and instinctively called her university friend Grandmont. "She's the only person I know who would do this," she says. "Everyone else would say that it's too crazy, too out there, too dangerous."

To prepare for the challenge, the pair took some time off in November to learn off-road driving, navigation and basic mechanics. There will be full-time mechanics in Morocco, but the amount of time they can spend on each vehicle is limited, so the drivers have to identify any problems they might have, from a flat tire to a leaking valve.

"This project is actually helping us relax," says Côté. "But there's also this feeling that, if we can do this, we can do anything." When asked if there's anything she's worried about in particular, she shakes her head, "No, nothing. But I'm sure it'll be different when I get there."

Asked the same question, Grandmont says, "Camels. I was travelling out west last year and had a run-in with an elk, so I get nervous around large animals."

There is a charity element. Much of the money raised by the rally organizers will be used to supply school equipment for the villages the drivers pass through during the rally, and a "medical caravan" of 12 doctors will be travelling behind them to provide health care to the locals. "We're not making any money out of this," Côté says.

The pair will be holding a fundraiser on Saturday, Feb. 7, at Chez Baptiste (1045 Mont-Royal E.), with a DJ, beer and door prizes. Cost is $5. For more info on the rally,

visit their Web site at www.rallyedesgazelles.ca. Potential sponsors can reach Grandmont at 220-7311 or Côté at 972-7397. "We really need a four-by-four," Côté suggests.