Organizers have unveiled the route and details of next year's Dakar Rally. The ceremony took place in Paris, with the biggest announcement being that Paraguay will become the 29th different country to host a section of the event.

The 16-day race starts on January 5th, and will consist of 15 stages, covering a distance of 85-hundred kilometres.

The rally will start with a preliminary leg in Paraguay's capital, Asuncion on January 2nd. Drivers will then cross into northern Argentina on the same day.

In addition to the usual hardships of rough terrain and extreme South American summer temperatures, a new stretch will send racers across the dunes of the Bolivian highlands for the first time, at an altitude of 35-hundred meters above sea level.

The route then takes the drivers back into Argentina, where the rally will finish in that nation's capital, Buenos Aires.