General Chat

Sorry I haven't been around for the last few days Here's the end of my diary. I hope everyone has enjoyed this thread. Love Jack xx

Day 1 Clare is due to pick me up at 8.30am. Dean and Ellie have to leave at 8.15 in order to collect Sam and Jake at 9am. I give them both a great big hug and force myself not to cry. As Dean drives away I am filled with sadness that I am not going to see either of them for over a week. I also feel a little bit excited as I am going off on an adventure. I have hit the fundraising target and I feel proud. Now I just have to do the trek so I don’t let anybody down. Once Dean’s car is out of sight I rush back in the house, have a quick tidy round, set up Jakes bed, put in a load of washing and leave a note for Dean to get it out of the washing machine! Final check to make sure I have my passport (we pick the tickets up at Heathrow Airport). It’s there so I finally fasten up my bag. I sit and wait for Clare. She’s a bit late and the short wait feels like an eternity. Once she arrives we sling my stuff in her boot and we’re on our way to Rob’s (Rob is going to drive us to Heathrow as he lives quite close, this will save us a fortune on parking). We are both a bit giddy – partly nerves and partly excitement. We can’t believe that after almost a year spent fundraising we are finally on our way to the Desert. The journey is pretty good despite a few go slows due to road works. We arrive at Rob’s a little later than expected and he has a breakfast feast waiting for us. Bacon, egg, sausage, beans, toast – we tuck in without guilt (we’ll be living off Cuppa soups in the Sahara!) and what a satisfying meal it is. After brunch we set off for London Heathrow. The traffic is good to us and it is about a 20 minute journey. Rob leaves us at the door with our bags while he goes off to park the car. Now we are really giddy – like children on Christmas day morning. Rob carries my bag into the terminal and gets a trolley so that he can take both our bags (bless!). Now all we have to do is find some more people who are wearing pink. We decided that we would all travel in our pink fund T-shirts to make life easier. No sign so I ring Diana. Should have guessed – they are in the bar! We have a few drinks and we are all in good spirits. We are read good luck messages from the boards and get to know each other. Time flies and it’s soon time to check in. We say our goodbyes to those who have come to see us off (or rather make sure we get on the plane lol!). We go through passport control, do a bit of duty free shopping and find another bar. Eventually we board the plane and thankfully we are all seated close together. The flight passes by reasonably quickly and it’s good to get to know people better. I’m sat with Susie B and Daisy who think they hear an announcement about switching to emergency engines – thank goodness I didn’t hear that one! We arrive in Casablanca around 8.30 and have to wait for a couple of hours before our flight on to Ouarzazate. There isn’t much open at the airport so we find a café and take over a corner. No one has any Dirhams as we can’t buy them in England but luckily they take sterling. The flight to Ouarzazate is a short one and it’s just before midnight when we land. It’s been a long day! We all collect our bags – thankfully everyone’s arrived in one piece. We leave the airport and there are 2 minibuses waiting to transfer us to the hotel. Half of the bags go on the roof and we pray that nothing falls off. It’s only a short drive to the hotel, around 10 minutes. We collect our bags and make our way into reception. Rooms are allocated (Clare and I are sharing) and we are given a quick rundown of what is going to happen the next day (or rather later on when we wake up!). Then it’s up to our rooms. Clare and I chat for a bit and can’t believe we are here. We are tired but excited. We are in bed around 2. It takes a while to drift off but once I am gone I sleep soundly.

Day 1 7am flight from Teesside to Heathrow. Not feeling too bad considering I had to wake up at 3.30am. Checked in at Teesside, said goodbye to my folks, and went through the usual security rigmarole amazingly without setting any alarms off. No problems with the flight and despite warnings from the captain that we'd have some delays in landing at Heathrow, I was pleasantly surprised to see the plane put down at 8.15am, the exact time of arrival. Collected the baggage and headed for arrivals. Decided to hang around as I knew that Julie's flight from Manchester was due in soon after mine. After a bit of loitering, I suddenly spotted a pink t-shirt. 'Andy?', enquired the stranger. 'You must be Julie', I said. After exchanging some general banter about our flights and the trek, we tried to see if we could find somewhere to sit down, relax and have a drink. Eventually after a struggle with the luggage, we headed for the delights of Costa Coffee. Some time later, we headed back down in order to meet Anna's flight. As it turned out her flight had been delayed so we killed time until her flight arrived. After welcoming Anna, the plan was to head for Terminal 2 where we would meet the rest of the trekkers, who would be turning up at different stages. I took charge of the trolley and soon wondered how far it was to Terminal 2, as I shoved it up slope after slope; never mind trekking the Sahara, trekking the airport was beginning to feel like the greater ordeal! If the walk between the terminals had seemed annoying then at least it provided some fresh air, something that was in short supply inside of Terminal 2. We waited for a while then Diana & Andy arrived, followed soon after by someone who looked like Susiebabes, only for Diana to call out, 'Hi Gemma!'. The likeliness seemed uncanny although it turned out it was Susie, all the way from Germany, sporting longer darker locks than the last time I met her. Diana surprised us all by suggesting we head for a bar, well OK I tell a lie it wasn't a surprise ;-). We headed for a Weatherspoons, and slowly but surely the rest of the trekkers arrived, whilst food and drink was consumed. We were also joined by some other GR members (Lunar, Vivienne?) and also by Ken, our tour leader and Victoria, the doctor accompanying us on the trek. We were issued with our tickets for the outward and return flights. Sometime after we began the tedious process of checking in and eventually got rid of our heavy luggage. We had time to kill as the flight wasn't due until 5.10pm. Some headed off to do some shopping whilst the rest of us headed for the bar once more. We later then headed for the departure lounge and then boarded the plane. I was feeling knackered already having been up so early and more or less fell asleep before take-off, prompting Susie to take an unflattering photo of me with my head back, eyes closed and my gob open! Susie, it should be said has energy levels far in excess of anyone else and was still going strong long after we had landed in Morocco, whilst everyone else felt zonked. The initial flight took us to Casablanca and after we arrived we had ages to kill and so headed to a cafe and guzzled on cans of Coke to pass the time before the flight to Ouarzazate. After heading to the departure lounge, we waited for the OK to board the plane, and then waited, then waited some more for what seemed like an eternity. Daisy fell asleep and one could hardly blame her. Finally, hurrah we boarded the plane for the 50min flight to Ouarzazate. Having arrived at Ouarzazate, we groaned at the length of the queue of people, trying to get through Passport Control. This was not helped by the slowness of the security staff checking passports and immigration cards. Finally having got through, we caught a couple of mini-bus style taxis to take us to the hotel. Then we did what we had been doing for the rest of that day - we waited. The drivers seemed to be standing around outside casually talking. We then got going and reached Hotel Le Zat. A list had been drawn up detailing who would be sharing with who, with regards the twin-bedded rooms. I was in with Paul, and went to sleep sometime around 2am, dreading the 6.45am start in a few hours time.

thank you Jack and Andy, looking forward to reading more and seeing some of the trekkers tomorrow :-)) Maz. XX

Heres my day one,its pretty similar to the ones already posted though! I woke up at about 5.30 on Saturday morning feeling very nervous.I was dressed,washed and packed by 6.30 when we headed off to the airport. I managed to carry my rucksack to check in then went off upstairs for a cup of coffee and stock up on things i had forgotten to buy. My flight was due to depart at 9 oclock so i said a tearful goodbye to my boys and went through to departures to wait for my plane. We were all on board,waiting to take off,then they told us there was a problem so we were delayed for nearly an hour. I finally got to heathrow sometime around 11 o clock and found Julia and Andy waiting for me.We made our way to T2 where we sat around for a while.Diana turned up next,then Susie B,or Gemma as Diana called her.I think we made our way to the bar at this stage. I was very nervous but was soon put at ease.Gradually our table filled up and we were all here.We met our DA leader and he gave us our tickets etc and we went to check in.After this we went through to departures and found another bar,bought duty free stuff,namely cigarettes and alchohol lol :-) We boarded our flight to Casablanca,I was sat inbetween Diana and Andy,who seemed to fall asleep as soon as he got on the plane!Someones got some funny pics of it! We landed at Casablanca and nothing was open apart from a small cafe which we took over for the couple of hours we had to wait between flights.Finally we got to Ouarzazate close to midnight and had to get our passports stamped etc.After we got our luggage,we were loaded onto 2 small minibuses with our rucksacks on the top! WE got to the hotel quite quicky, and were allocated our rooms.I was sharing with Diana, and after a panic while i searched for my lost underwear,we finally made it to bed at around 2 am. I woke up at 7 am to the sound of my phone alarm...

Brief amendment. Went to bed around 2am, not looking forward to the alarm going off at 6.30am. Had a pleasant (!) surprise when Andys alarm went off at... 05.30am. Will try to add a bit more later, sorry busy day here...

Amazing have been eagerly awaiting the diaries, well done all of you, cannot wait to read more tomorrow. xxhugxx

Day 1 Well it was an early start for me but not as early as the likes of Andy who was up at 3am that morning compared to my 5am. I get myself dressed having laid out my clothes for travelling in the previous night!, wake up my little girlies and get some food down there necks as it was going to be a long morning for them! I can't manage anything to eat as I feel like I am having a fourth pregnancy and the morning sickness kicks in from the reality that 'D'Day has arrived....OMG!!! I am finally coming to terms that I am going and I calm down a little until when we are all in the car at 7am and Jamie has already turned out of the street in the opposite direction to what route planner has said but I keep quiet because I feel I would stress myself out more otherwise! We are totally off course to the planned route by hey ho we get there in the end after rushing down the autobahn and getting held up with road works I am threating by now as I feel that I am going to be to late to check in for my flight from Dusseldorf to Heathrow as the lady on the phone said it was a 2 hour prior check in!! Silly bint it turns out she should get her fact straight and I still have an hour spare so brucy bonus I get to chill with my brady bunch!! After a disgusting hot chocolate and begging the girls to hurry their drinks my gate is opened to start boarding in 20 minutes, crunch time I now have to say goodbye to my family!!!! I walk through the initial gate to hear my girls shouting and crying after me and I turn around with tears in my eyes to wave them off, it hard but I have to do it....Jamie gives me a little wink and they are gone! I go through to the departure lounge for 5 minutes then I board the plane! Before I know it we have landed in heathrow at terminal 1, great I think how do I get to termial 2 I am given a few options but choose to walk and it is suprisingly quick really! I am there I spot Diana, Andy B, Andy oop north Anna & Julia, I am addressed as Gemma from Diana(Bless her)...lol, as you may understand I am a little confused but I don't correct her!! I introduce myself as Susie to Anna and we have a giggle about it!! Then guess what? We head up to the bar! How time flies in there when your having a drink or three!!...lol We all turn up and then we have well wishers, we are sat there in slight disbelief that the day was upon us!! After a small photo shoot from our well wishers we have to go through check in and passport control then to a bar for smoe more drinks....lol For the dutch courage to stop us backing out!!! The flight is okay until me and Daisy quickly stare at eachother and compare what we thought we heard!!' We will now be dropping to 30,000ft and switching to the emergency engine now!! No one else heard it!! We get to Casablana and chill for a while until our flight to Ouarzazate(Oo-Ar-Za-Zat) Get there then the passport control must have been having a nap in our line as he was really taking his time!! 15 minutes later we grab our bags, jump into our mini buses with the crazy drivers and stop for a check to see if the med bags are there!! Phew they are so off we can go!! In the foyer of the Hotel Le Zat we get our forms to fill out and get out rooms allocated, poor Gem is paired with me!! We have a chat and it is around 2.30 by the time we stop faffing and settle down to sleep.... What a day, I enjoyed every second of it!! XXXX

OK, Day one... in brief Got up nice and early... got a busy day ahead of me, have to take the dog the kennels (as Sharon can't get back from work at lunchtime to walk her, this seemed the kindest option), and sort out a few other 'non-trek related' bits, then wasted an hour trying to print some photo's but printer playing up... just trying to fill the time really. All my packing was done (even remembered to get my 'cheeky monkey'), was looking forward to going... I'm not the most patient of people, and I'm strangely calm about the whole thing, no nerves at all, so just wanted to go (much to Sharons disgust !). Taxi arrives around 11:45 to take me to where I'm being picked up by Tracey and Paul. I wave goodbye to a Sharon and I'm off ! Arrive at 'MK Coachways' around 12, Tracey and Paul already there and waiting... minor wobble on the way because I wasn't sure if I had enough cash for the taxi, but I did (phew). Fairly uneventful trip to Heathrow, a bit of traffic on the last 10 miles of the m25, but nothing unexpected, and we arrive around 1.15pm (I think)... no sign of anyone in the departures hall, I'm looking out for pink shirts but there's no sign... Leave Tracey to buy some straps for her bag and wander up and down the hall... no, still no sign. Leave VM for Diana. Call Daisy.. she's just arriving and will be in shortly. I wander upstairs to find a cashpoint and the mobile rings and it's Diana. yes they are here, yes we have the right day... and (as has already been said), they're in the bar. I torn ournd and we wave each other as she's about 50 feet away, and I go and fetch Tracey etc We then have a pleasant hour or so in the bar, I'm introduced to the people I haven't met before, and renew acquiantances with those I've met, and knock back a couple of Guinesses. At the appropriate time we check in and go through to the departure lounge... guess who gets stopped going through the metal detectors and has to remove boots and belt ? Would have to be me, wouldn't it... Spend a short while looking round the shops for an emergency charger for my phone, which I'd forgotten to charge... which ultimately would be a waste of time (but we'll get to that later lol). Again a fairly uneventful flight to Casablanca. I'm sat next to Julie and we chat a little and then we're treated to the delights of a contortionist climbing through a tennis racket on the overhead screens. hmmm Arrive at Casablanca, take over a corner of the cafeteria (which, amusingly to me has the same name as one of my customers at work - so I take a picture of the sign to amuse the troups at work), pop into duty free with Diana... and eventually we board the plane for Ouarzazarte. After a relatively quick flight, and then a relatively slow progression through imigration, we load up onto the two mini-buses and head for the hotel - the 4* (in their opinion!!) Hotel Le Zat. Get paired with Andy... and you've seen the rest. Comfy bed, but was only in it a few hours, so it didn't really matter... again no nerves, straight to sleep... to dream of sand and camels...

Nudging for latecomers like me. Deanna X

Day one – Saturday 11th March 2006. It’s 7.15am and I’m up, didn’t sleep very well last night I had allsorts of things going through my mind, mainly the fact I’m not going to see my family for over a week and how hard that’s going to be. Well the day of the trek as finally arrived and I can hardly believe it, where as the last year gone? I get myself sorted just the usual stuff, dressed, washed, breakfast (not that I ate much) then start making sure I have got everything, unpack my bag’s for the millionth time, just to make sure then put it all back in again. It’s now 8.20am and I just can’t bring myself to say goodbye, I’m supposed to be at Jack’s in 1o minutes, so I make myself do it, I tell myself it’s only just over a week, but the fact I’m not going to speak to them, (don’t think my phone will work in the middle of the desert somehow) let alone see them makes it harder. Well better go jack will be wondering where I am. Pick Jack up at 8.45am from her house to start the journey to Rob’s, he is going to take us to Heathrow as he lives pretty close, the journey down isn’t too good we hit quite a few road works on the way. When we finally arrive about 11.45am, Rob as our last English meal ready for us, bacon, sausage, egg, beans, tomato and toast, it tasted great. Well we are very excited as well as very nervous as it approaches time for us to leave for the airport. It takes us about 20 minutes to get to the airport, and Rob drops us outside the doors while he goes to park the car, the excitement is really starting to kick in now, feel like a kid in a sweet shop. Here comes Rob and we head inside to find the others, after about 10 minutes of walking up and down looking for all the others in Pink t-shirts, Jack rings Diana to see where they all are, and yes they are all in the bar. I finally get to meet everyone who is going on this adventure with me, it’s like been back at school trying to remember who everyone is. I know Diana, Daisy, Andy, Yvette, Cliff and of course Jack, but struggle with the other’s, Paul, Tracey, Anna, Julie, Susie, Suzy and Shelia. We all have a few drink’s together, me on my usual coke, and it’s time to say goodbye to our well wishers, after a few photos we head off to check in. After some time spent in the departure lounge it’s time to board our flight to Casablanca, after just over 3 hours we arrive, and then we have to wait around in Casablanca airport for about 3 hours for our connecting flight to Ouarzazte, which is about 50 minutes long. We finally arrive but there are long queue’s at passport control that don’t seem to be going down, when we get nearer the front I realise the reason it’s taking so long, not only are the staff really slow but half the people in front of us haven’t filled in their immigration forms properly, feel like screaming at them, but they probably wouldn’t understand me because they are nearly all foreign. Finally we all get through, we pick up our bags and head out to find our transport to the hotel. It take’s us about 10 minutes to get there, then more forms to fill in, we then get allocated our rooms, I’m with Jack in room 201, so we head off to bed, we chat for a while and finally settle down to sleep, think I finally dropped off about 2.30am, so day one as been a very long day.

Clare, would this be a good time to apologise for not introducing myself at the airport ? lol That said you should have worked out which one I was by a process of elimination, since you already knew Cliff and Andy... I don't look like a Tracey or a Sheila do I ? :o)

Clare, omg, yeah I remember now there was a burly-ish jolly hockey-sticks sounding English guy queueing ahead of us at Ouarzazate passport control. He didn't seem to have a clue what he was doing whilst those of us behind him (e.g. you and me) grew more tired and impatient.

Paul, if I remember rightly you did, it's just me that's not very good with names, out of all the rest yours was the one easiest to remember though. On the last night I remember calling Yvette 'Yvonne' don't know where that came from, I don't even know anyone called Yvonne and you'd think after spending a week with her I'd of got her name right. lol Clare xx

Andy, all I can say is, it's a good job my trekking poles were in my kit bag and not my hand, cos if they had of been in my hand I would of probably hit him with them. lol

Cant wait for the next instalment.. It all sounds so exciting.. Sue x

Well you've all got the gist of Day 1 by now so I'll keep mine brief. After a nice lie in (apologies to those on obscenely early flights into Heathrow) Chris, Ellie and I set off for Cambridge rail station to pick up Yvette, Mal and Adam at 11am. The journey to Heathrow could have taken anything from 2-5 hours depending on traffic but we were lucky and sailed through much to Yvette's and my panic as we were secretly hoping to miss the plane! Surprise, surprise we found everyone in the bar and introduced ourselves. Like Clare, I stuck to the soft drinks not wanting to be either drunk or dehydrated before we'd even started. Met the rep and the doctor both of whom looked extremely startled by our pink appearance not to mention our apparent lack of fitness! Diana kindly introduced me to them as the girly of the group, a reputation I had to endeavour to lose asap. After a very teary goodbye to Chris and Ellie and a promise to Mal to look after Yvette, we made our way to check in where Yvette and I tried desperately to slope off for a flight to Malaga or anywhere else really! No such luck - we were rubmled! Found myself sitting next to Susiebabes on the flight to Casablanca, by which time we'd already affectionately nicknamed her 'Duracel Bunny' because of her energy levels. Well you know the rest of the flight and arrival details and I was very relieved to flop into bed at 2am ready for an early start. But would sleep come? Would it heck! The first of many sleepless nights which is why I can barely coordinate thought or movement now! Daisy

My day started really early – I got up at 5a.m. as I couldn’t sleep because of the anxiety and excitement. I had booked a ridiculously early flight from Manchester to Heathrow as I knew that once I was awake I couldn’t settle at home, so thought I might as well get down to Heathrow and wait for the others!!! Typically, I was stopped and searched at Manchester, they must have thought I looked guilty, but in fact I was apprehensive with a silly grin on my face. They don’t have a sense of humour do they!! The flight was only an hour and as Andy has said, we met, had a coffee and then went to meet Anna off her flight. I had looked on the GC photos page so I could recognise him and any of the others. I had only met one other person beforehand. After we had met Anna, we then went to Terminal 2 – lol poor Andy was struggling with the trolley with three big bags on it and it seemed uphill all the way. A true gentleman is Andy!! We did indeed meet up with everyone else in the Bar and it was wonderful to see everyone wearing Pink t-shirts. We also met Ken, the Discovery Adventure leader and Dr Victoria. Ken gave us our tickets and then we went to check in. We boarded an Air Maroc aircraft and I sat next to Paul for the three hour flight to Casablanca. I had the meat meal, which I thought was good. On arriving at Casablanca we took over a corner of the café to await our flight to Ouarzazate. Finally we arrive at Hotel Le Zat and I shared a room with Tracey. After a very long day with three flights I had a quick shower and finally fell asleep in a comfy bed………..end of day 1. Jxx

Day One...from me After hardly any sleep.......not sure if it was nerves, excitement or the thought of leaving my family......i was up packed and ready to leave by 9am. As i left my son David gave me a huge hug and told me that when i found the going tough i was to imagine he was behind me telling me to keep going and that i should remember that as long i put one foot in front of the other i would do the trek ok. After a short trip in a taxi Mal, Adam and i boarded the train for Cambridge where Daisy, Chris and Ellie were due to collect us. Whilst on the train Mal and Adam wrote me a message in the front of my note book, something that was to bring me great comfort as the week wore on. We met up with Daisy and Chris and us girls managed to talk almost all the way to the airport much to the delight of our husbands, lol Adam was sick when we were parked up in the airport, he doesn't normally get travel sick, but Mal says he was very clingy over the weekend so it may well have been nerves or distress on his part. We managed to use every loo we went past in the airport....after all a girl has to make the most of her chances when faced with a week of a hole in the ground. Then we headed for the bar where rumour had it a group of pink t-shirts had been spotted. Sure enough there they all were, it was lovely to say hello to old friends and to meet some new ones. But it was really hard to say goodbye to Mal and Adam, and then Chris asked me to look out for Daisy, now there was a challenge ;-)....as it turned out i think Daisy was the one looking after me!! After a while we were able to check our bags in...quite a relief as they were heavy!! and then it was time to wander round the duty free...Daisy and i were far more interested in the flights to Malaga for some reason...!! Then it was time to board the plane and it was suddenly real. The flight wasn't too bad, shame the same couldn't be said for the inflight meal...or the tv show! Then it was a wait in Casablanca before the last flight to our destination. Immigration was unbelievably slow, not helped by people in the front not knowing where they were staying!! But how pleased we all were when we finally got through and loaded our bags onto the mini buses to the hotel. We managed to stay awake long enough to find out who we were sharing with, i was in with Suzy, and then it was time to stumble up to bed and sort out our bags ready for the mornings adventure before collapsing into bed for a few hours much needed sleep. Yvette

Looking forward to Day 2 - Well done all of you Norah