Three-time Dakar champion and international motorsport celebrity Frenchman Cyril Despres is in Perth experiencing WA’s extraordinary coastal wonders before taking on the gruelling eight-day, 4000 kilometre outback motorsport challenge, the Australasian Safari.

Despres said that in his ten years of touring, during which he had visited thirty to forty countries, his visit to Rottnest Island was one of his top three experiences – besides racing.

“Snorkelling Rottnest’s bays and seeing sea lions was a real highlight – I couldn’t believe the experience and an island like this could exist,” Despres said.

“Cycling is part of my training for competition, so I felt a real connection here since bicycle is the main mode of transport around the island.”

Despres takes to the Australian Outback from Thursday, 22 September, to compete in the toughest endurance motorsport event in the Asia Pacific Region, the Australasian Safari.

The 2011 Australasian Safari will be the Dakar Champion’s first Australian event, as he takes on some of the world’s harshest desert landscapes in the West Australian Outback.