General Chat

nudge for Denise

Elaine, that's spooky lol Jack x

Want to know something strange ? Five mins ago, I was thinking of bringing this thread back for those who missed it, or never finished reading it. I then refresh the page and its here strange....( but also an uplifting feeling ! ) Elaine x

Nudge so I can copy this. I will send it to those that have asked for a copy. Love Jack x

Don't know if you've done the hard copy yet Jack but just wanted to add a couple of things. Thanks Andy for adding my final few days whilst I've been in New York (sorry, couldn't resist!!!!). Sunday evening After hugging Diana, Andy and Rob and then hugging everyone else goodbye Yvette and I were whisked away by Chris and the children where we talked at them all the way home! I think they enjoyed being regaled with Sahara adventures and they seemed to make the right noises in the right places to everything we said. We dropped Yvette at Cambridge station for her journey to Norwich and five minutes later were back home. My ankles, which had been fine all week, were now the size of tennis balls and my toes felt like sausages! I couldn't wait to sit down, have something to eat, a long soak in the bath and bed. Fat chance! Waiting for me at home were my parents, hiding in the dining room where the children had put up a Welcome Home banner and balloons. Chris then opened a Jereboam of Veuve Cliquot which we had been saving for a very special occasion (I should have known then what was coming as even I can't drink that much champagne!). Fifteen minutes later as we sat looking at my photos on the tv screen there was a knock on the door and our best friends arrived with all their children and a fabulous cake in the shape of sand dunes complete with loo tent! Fifteen minutes after that more friends arrived with their children and a party was in full swing and yes guys I finally got drunk! What a wonderful homecoming and I finally managed a soak in the bath around 1am. I shall never, ever forget this Sahara adventure and am so glad I did it. Thanks to everyone who talked me into it and psyched me up for it. And yes, I would do it again without a moment's hesitation! To all my wonderful Sahara friends, thank you for the best time ever and most of all thank you for your friendship which means more than I can ever adequately express. Daisy

Dear Trekkers, I have enjoyed reading your stories, the whole trip sounds amazing and you were all stars. I almost (!!) envied you I am looking forward to reading about the next adventure................... Good luck to you all Marilyn

A little nudge for anyone who would like to add anything before I make a hard copy! Love Jack x

***DAISY'S DIARY*** Sunday – Day 9 We went down to find that nobody had opened up the kitchen or restaurant and the manager swore blind that it was arranged for 4.30am. Ken was not impressed and tried to explain that we had to leave at 4am. The manager constantly interrupted him saying that we didn’t need to leave until 5.30am as the flight wasn’t until 6am. We weren’t sure how often he’d flown but if he thought a 20 minute check in was all that was required, we guessed he wasn’t a frequent flier! We all flounced off to our rooms to finish getting ready and when we cam down again breakfast was served so we forced down a hot drink and some bread before setting off for the airport. The queue for check in was quite long but moved quickly and we were all soon ensconced in the one small café waiting to be called through to the departure gate. Finally we landed in Casablanca and made our way upstairs for the 5 hour wait until our flight home and descended on the only café, securing several tables which we monopolised for the next few hours, taking it in turns to go shopping for last minute presents and mementos. Finally we left the café to the relief of the other passengers waiting to use the tables! We queued up at security only to be told that we couldn’t go through until we had filled out immigration forms! Five hours waiting around, 3 pens between us and then we had to rush to make the gate on time! 3 ½ hours later I spied the south coastline of England and realised that we were flying over the Isle of Wight. I saw the sail sculpture in Portsmouth and then the dip of the South Downs. In no time at all we had landed and were reunited with our baggage and we loaded everything onto the trolleys and lined up to walk through to arrivals en masse. As we turned into the arrivals hall we saw our families and friends lined up waiting for us and suddenly I saw that Ellie had broken through the barrier and was running towards me! I picked her up and hugged her and the tears finally came. We walked the remaining few metres and there were Fran, Tom and Chris waiting for me.

The Day after The day after I got back was a lazy day. I had contemplated going somewhere or doing something as I was still on a bit of a high but the need for a lie-in became essential, after previous mornings starts of 5.30am, 5.30am, 3.30am, 3am. The day passed by very quickly but went out for a meal with Jon, my brother in the evening to celebrate the achievement. It has felt weird ever since, I don't think a day has gone by where I haven't thought about the trek and the times I had. It really was an amazing experience and anything I write about it doesn't seem to quite sum up how fulfilling and wonderful it was to be part of this. I can't believe it's now virtually a month ago since we went, thinking about it now almost seems like a bit of a dream, did that really happen, lol. Thanks to everyone who has supported me, and to each of you on the trek who shared the adventure. OK, Oscar speech over with. ;o)

Day 9 c'td We touched down at Heathrow around 3.30pm and began the slow process of getting through arrivals and reclaiming our heavy luggage. We loaded up the trolleys and proceeded to meander out into the main waiting area, in order to re-acquaint ourselves with loved ones and the taste of UK life once more. I immediately spotted some familiar faces and Diana and Andy were there to greet us, after the traumatic events of the previous few days. There wasn’t much time at all before we had to say goodbye to some who had to leave already, it was a slightly bewildering experience and tears were shed as this was it, we really had now reached the end of the road, our journey well and truly complete. We were now severely whittled down in numbers and out of our group, all that were left were me, Anna (staying overnight), Julie (staying overnight), Sheila and Cliff with his family. We headed upstairs to the bar with Diana & Andy to finally relax and chat, although time flew by and Sheila and I noticed that we needed to be heading over to Terminal 1 to get our respective evening flights back to the north east. We said farewell, and made the journey over to Terminal 1, which was absolutely heaving with travellers. I wasn’t particularly concerned as I felt we had plenty of time, however then saw the checking in queue for British Midland, which was tailed back for miles. Sheila’s one for British Airways wasn’t much better but we got through it and in the midst of it all, we came across Ken, who I’d last seen at baggage reclaim earlier in the afternoon. He was waiting to get a flight to Manchester. We then proceeded to go forward through security and naturally I set off the alarm for the third time today. The guy operating the scanning machine told me I had a pair of scissors in my day-pack. I looked at him quizzically because as far as I was concerned it was news to me. I then suddenly remembered my unopened first-aid kit that was in there and wondered if that contained a pair of scissors. Sure enough it did and whilst I had the scissors confiscated, I couldn’t believe I had managed to make five flights without anyone even picking this up. With not much time left, there was time enough for a quick coffee with Sheila at her departure gate, before I then said farewell and disappeared off to my departure gate for the flight back to Teesside. The flight came and went, and I met up with my folks once more that Sunday evening. As we headed outside, I soon knew I was home….it was raining! The End.

Just got my final day and Daisy's to add: Day 9 - Sunday I packed up as much as I could yesterday so that I would need the minimum amount of time to get ready in the morning. When the alarm went off at 3am, I surprisingly got up with very little struggle - I must be getting used to these early morning starts. Went to the bathroom for a quick wash and informed Paul that it was waking up time. In no time at all, I was ready to go downstairs for breakfast. To get to the breakfast room, we went outside and passed the swimming pool, only to find that part of the hotel in pitch dark and no sign of anyone moving about. We waited outside in the cold, shivering somewhat and wondering what was going on. Ken turned up and managed to track down the manager, who swore blind that breakfast wouldn’t be available until 4.30am. This was no good as our flight was at 6am and we also needed to get to the airport and checked in. The manager didn’t seem to understand the arrangement we needed and remained unhelpful and defiant in the face of what Ken was telling him. It was getting nearer to 4am, the time we were supposed to be leaving the hotel, so we sighed and went back to our rooms to grab our luggage and to then wait in the foyer for the mini bus to arrive. This was the start of yet another long and tiring day and this was far from the ideal start to the day. As Ken had not been able to get anywhere, he decided to deploy his secret weapon, that being Lahcen who was still with our group, to see if he could broker a deal. Whatever was said clearly worked as the breakfast room was opened and fresh OJ, coffee, croissants and bread were brought to our tables. We then had literally no time at all to hastily gobble it down before we needed to leave. We left the somewhat dubiously awarded 4-Star ‘Hotel Le Zat’ behind as we headed out to the airport in the buses, still feeling somewhat dazed and confused. As we got off the buses, we said our goodbyes to Lahcen, who as a guide had been brilliant and a vital key member of the crew. We blinked as the bright lights of Ouarzazate check-in sent our irises into submission. We joined the queues for checking in and thankfully was able to offload my big rucksack, which I would next be seeing hours later at Heathrow. We mooched up to the café before then getting aboard the short internal flight to Casablanca. Having landed at Casablanca airport, we disembarked and then looked for where to go for our connection, pausing only for a few minutes to admire the large, ornate clock dangling from the ceiling. We started passing the duty free shops until the familiar sight of Café Medas came into view, for this was the café where we had holed up for a few hours on the outward journey. We took over the same spot as we did last time and had about 5 hours to fill. This was not easy, but somehow we managed to make eating and drinking, plus several trips to the duty free, stretch out over the time. Most of us had leftover Dirham to spend, in fact I had been to the cash machine the previous afternoon and had ended up spending none of it. Only problem was all bar one or two airport shops would not accept the national currency and had everything priced in Euros. We knew the conversion rate from Dirham to pounds, as we frantically tried to remember what the conversion rate was from Euros to pounds. Despite the currency issue, I came away with some presents for the folks and something for myself. After the bum-numbing several hour wait, we finally left the café behind and headed off to the departure lounge. We were queuing up to go through the security scanner and one of our group had gone through only to be sent back after the guy checking passports wanted to know why the passport had not been stamped. We hadn’t completed the immigration form for the return journey so we all turned round and headed off to get it filled in, cursing as we did so but to be honest it was not made obvious that this was something we had needed to do. We quickly scribbled in the details and passed them over to be checked so our passports could be stamped. We then queued up again at security but got through this time despite me setting off the security alarm, which I put down to my chunky metal belt buckle. Eventually, we got aboard the plane and I was sat on the same row as Suzy & Susie for the next three and a half hours. Whilst in flight, we consumed Royal Air Maroc’s finest culinary delights and I added to my diary to pass away the time. At one point, Clare tried to grab my attention by pointing out Susie to me, who to our disbelief was fast asleep. This was an opportunity that couldn’t be missed after she had photographed me on the outward flight out for the count, so I passed my camera to Clare and we had a good laugh about it afterwards.

Thank you, all of you for sharing your wonderful adventure with us. You have made us proud! Lindy ;-))))))))))))))

Wow, have just finished reading this thread, thanks to you all for your diary entries, it has reminded me just how wonderful an experience we had, and what a great bunch of people you all are...not that i had forgotten, just that life has been a bit mental since getting back. I am just sorry i didn't get a chance to add to the story, but i doubt i could have told it so well. Jack, you were a huge inspiration to us all as well...as was Clare, and i am sure i am not the only one who feels honoured to have been a part of the trek with you both. I miss each and every one of you. Yvette xx

what a wonderful account of your experiences I have lived it with you and enjoyed every minute (without the pain of actually doing it). well done everyone you did so well. Ann Glos

It's been wonderful reading all this. Well done again to you all. A wonderful achievement and a trip in a lifetime!!! Dianexx

The rest of the week went by in a bit of a daze. I didn’t realize how little sleep we’d had in the desert until it came to catching it up – it took until Thursday to feel almost human again. I missed the rest of the trekkers and really didn’t want to go to work to sit looking at a computer all day. But by Friday it was like I’d never been away. So would I do it all again? Um…………………..er……………………well…………………. YES – of course I would – it was FANTASTIC Thank you so much to Diana, Daisy, Anna, Clare, Sheila, Susie B, Suzy C, Andy, Cliff, Paul, Gemma, Tracey, Yvette and Julie for helping to make this the experience of a lifetime. I will never forget you. Thank you also to Ken, Victoria, Lahcen and the Berber crew that looked after us so well – I don’t think I will forget you lot either! Rob, thanks for taking Clare and I to Heathrow, for carrying our bags and for the wonderful breakfast that gave us the energy to take our first steps. Finally, thanks to my Mum who was my inspiration (I love you) and everyone who has supported me and helped me with my fundraising – I couldn’t have done it without you. Pinksaharajacks

Day 9 It doesn’t take long to fall asleep and the alarm is bleeping at us in no time. Clare and I got everything ready the day before so we sleepily put on our clothes and head down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. A few of the others are waiting outside in the cold and the restaurant appears to be closed. After a bit of hassle (and a rather stressed Ken) we finally get our breakfast around 4am. We are only sorry that we missed out on an hour’s much needed sleep. We are on the buses and on our way to the airport before 4.30. The 10-minute journey to the airport is a fairly quiet one – after so little sleep we haven’t got much energy! At Ouarzazate airport it’s time to say goodbye to Lahcen. He hugs us all one by one before we head into the airport to check in. After a bit of sitting around we board the plane. Around 40 minutes and not so much as a drink later we arrive in Casablanca. The airport terminal is going to be our home for the next five and a half hours. We take over a café and buy drinks and then shop until we have spent all our dirhams. To my dismay I discover that the duty free shops only take sterling, euros or cards. This means I have to buy extra souvenirs and another round of drinks as there is no point changing the dirhams back as the rate is so poor and we can’t bring them home. Everything is cheap so spending the dirhams takes some doing. How I regret changing £40. The hours pass by so slowly, probably because we are all very tired. After what seems like an eternity (and a few jokes about Tom Hanks in the film the terminal) we finally get called to gate. We are sent away to fill in a form and have our passports stamped then back to the gate. The wait is relatively short. Once on the plane it doesn’t take me long to nod off but I keep waking either because my neck aches or because of the noise. I’m awake when they start bringing round food and suddenly I feel really hungry. I eat and then doze a bit. We are approaching Heathrow and Clare and I are getting giddy. Not long now before we get to see our loved ones. We all decide to collect our bags and then walk into arrivals together. While we wait for our bags I can hear people talking about us and what a fantastic thing we have done and I wish I had my pink fund t-shirt on. When all bags are collected and the gang is all-together we head off around the corner. I see Dean and my heart skips a beat. I see Diana and Andy so the first thing I do is give Diana a big hug before running to Dean. It’s so good to see him. He looks and smells great. I hug everyone in the group goodbye (or at least I think I did – sorry if I missed anyone out. I give Rob a hug and we head home. Part of me would have loved to have stayed a bit longer with everyone at the airport but I really wanted to get back home in time to see Ellie. I ring her once we are out of the airport and I feel excited about seeing her. I talk at Dean on the way home and tell him everything about the Pink Sahara trek. I feel on such a high. The exhaustion I felt on the plane seems to have passed. It looks like we are going to be home in time for Ellie to come home so I ring her and ask her if her Dad can drop her off at 8.30. That leaves us just enough time to ring the Indian take away and order some tea to collect as we pass. We get in and sit down with our food and Ellie comes home 5 minutes later. She gives me the biggest hug ever. I am so happy. I am very proud of what I have done and so pleased to be back with my family. I have presents for everyone courtesy of the airport at Casablanca. Ellie opens hers while I finish my chicken madras. I really look forward to seeing Sam and Jake at the weekend so I can give them their presents. I feel that they are part of my family too and I haven’t seen them for over 2 weeks. I put Ellie to bed and she says that she is so happy to be in her own home, in her own bed, with her own mummy. Bless. It’s not long before tiredness catches up with me again so off we go to bed. My bed feels like the comfiest place in the world and I have got Dean to snuggle up with. I feel like the luckiest person in the world. Day 10 Down to earth with a bang! I have taken today off work and once I have unpacked my bags I have mountains of washing. I take Ellie to school and am asked to talk to the class about my experience at 3pm that afternoon. I go home and do more washing and sort out my photo’s to show Ellie’s class. More washing and more washing then it’s time to head to Ellie’s school. The talk goes well. All of the class seem interested and ask questions. I run over time by a couple of minutes (oops – thought they finished at 3.20 but it’s 3.15, shows how often I pick Ellie up from School). The rest of the week went by in a bit of a daze. I didn’t realize how little sleep we’d had in the desert until it came to catching it up – it took until Thursday to feel almost human again. I missed the rest of the trekkers and really didn’t want to go to work to sit looking at a computer all day. But by Friday it was like I’d never been away. So would I do it all again? Um…………………..er……………………well…………………. YES – of course I would – it was FANTASTIC Thank you so much to Diana, Daisy, Anna, Clare, Sheila, Susie B, Suzy C, Andy, Cliff, Paul, Gemma, Tracey, Yvette and Julie for helping to make this the experience of a lifetime. I will never forget you. Thank you also to Ken, Victoria, Lahcen and the Berber crew that looked after us so well – I don’t think I will forget you lot either! Rob, thanks for taking Clare and I to Heathrow, for carrying our bags and for the wonderful breakfast that gave us the energy to take our first steps. Finally, thanks to my Mum who was my inspiration (I love you) and everyone who has supported me and helped me with my fundraising – I couldn’t have done it without you. Pinksaharajacks

Day 8 SATURDAY We are up at 3.30 am ready for breakfast at 4ish!I cant face eating this early so i take a couple of cheese triangles to eat later. We are walking for 2 or 3 hours this morning, to see our last sunrise in the desert. It’s really cold and stupid me has packed all of my fleeces away, so im walking in a T-shirt. It is really dark, but I don’t have my torch so i just follow everyone. We walked for a while and then we stopped to watch the sun come up. It was an amazing sight. After taking loads of photos, Ken asks us if we want to wait here for the truck, or start walking. We decide to walk, but no sooner have we got up to go, the truck and jeep appear .Some of us climb on the back of the big truck and the others opt to go in the Jeep, Its very dirty, dusty and smelly in the truck and i started to feel sick so i tried sitting down, it was really uncomfortable, like being on a white knuckle ride at the fairground lol. I decided to stand up to see where we were going, but i was too small to see over the edge of the truck, so i stood on Sheila’s bag. We have a couple of stops for the toilet,and at last we can see a small town up ahead. The drivers drop us off and we say our goodbyes to Mohammed and Abdul (i think)I quickly called home because it was Jacobs 9th birthday today, I didn’t realise it was so early. The mini buses arrive almost immediately and we clamber onboard. Lahcen gives us our packed lunch which consisted of bread, a tomato, an orange, some cheese and ham and a hard boiled egg. I manages to eat my egg with no problems,but it was hard eating tomatos and oranges on a bumpy bus so most of the juice from these ended up all down Pauls top (sorry Paul lol) Before we knew it, we were driving through Quarzazate and are back to the hotel. Im sharing with Sheila this time, as i didn’t want to sleep in a room by myself. We pick up our rucksacks and carry them to our room. I need the loo so I lock my self in. When i try to get out, im stuck lol .I shouted to Sheila and Suzy to help me, then i started to panic. They call for Lahcen who then goes and gets the maid who lets me out. I decided to have a shower with the door open as i don’t fancy getting stuck in there again. It felt so nice to wash my hair and shave my legs. We decide to catch a bit of sun this afternoon, so we put on our cosies and head down to the pool area with Suzy C and Susiebabes. Tracey and Julia are all ready there. We called the waiter over and ordered a beer each, then another and another… Susiebabes dived into the pool, which was absolutely freezing. I climbed in very slowly to get used to the water but then Susie soaked us lol. We decided to just sunbathe after that! At 5ish, half drunk we go back to our rooms to get dressed for the evening meal. I have another shower and put my jeans on. They seem a bit looser than they did last week so i am well happy! We get in the minibuses and are driven for about 5 minutes to our restaurant. It has opened especially for us tonight. We arranged the tables in a big long line so we could all talk to each other, then the food arrived. It was a buffet. There was Moroccan soup to start, then veggies and chicken and beef tangine. It is ok, but as someone else said, not a patch on what we ate in the desert! There are also these little samosa things with rice in them,I took a handful, they were absolutely delicious. There is beer and wine to drink. We chose a bottle of white wine, which looked suspiciously like a urine sample lol. Jack held the glass up against her white top and the wine was bright yellow. We head back to the hotel early as everyone is really tired and we have to get up nice and early again .A few of us go to the bar for one last drink then we head of to bed for a few hours sleep. All to soon, my alarm went off at 3am ,and its time to get up for the long trip home! Anna :-)

***DAISY'S DIARY*** c'td Back at the hotel we joined the others round the pool for a drink and then Yvette and I returned to our room for a quiet time before dinner. At 7pm we went down to the bar and then on to the restaurant for the gala dinner. The dinner was in a lovely restaurant in the centre of Ouarzazate. A fabulous buffet was laid out for us and although we enjoyed it, we were all tired and soon ran out of steam so, just a couple of hours later we made our way back to the hotel and fell into bed only to wake at 3am for breakfast.

im a bit slow lol,heres my day 7 Friday day 7 Up nice and early today which is surprising since we didn’t get to bed till well after midnight on Thurs. I feel fine, not at all hung over. I decided to walk at the front today, to prove a point really to Ken, that we could get tipsy and be silly the night before and still manage to walk fine today. There is no shade at all today; we are walking our final few kms over the salt pan, which is totally flat. If we needed to go to the loo, we had to wait for the camels to pass us and just go where we stood lol, no bushes for us to hide behind today!! We can see the lunch tent set up in the distance, but it takes ages to reach it. We also saw a mirage today. It looked amazing. It was like we were walking towards the sea in the middle of the desert! We arrived at the lunch tent at a ridiculously early hour( just after 10 am I think)The Berbers are preparing our lunch so we all take time to relax, and I decided to try and top up my suntan! We ate our final lunch and relaxed some more before the last walk of the trek. In the afternoon, I felt quite sad as i knew my time out here was coming to an end, so i hung around at the back of the group. We pretty much walked all the way without stopping as there was no escape from the sun, so we just pressed on to get to our final camp. We spotted a pile of rocks in the distance, and Ken said this is just before the 100km mark, so we all held hands and walked the last short bit together. It was very emotional. We rounded a corner and there were all the Berbers waiting for us. They were so sweet. They had wrote FINISH on the ground with stones and made a finishing line thing with the CRUK banners, they were all gathered around by the finish, playing their drums and singing for us. I shed a tear or 2 at this point, and I think most of the others did too. I couldn’t believe this was it. All the months that I had spent worrying whether or not i had done enough training WE DID IT!! It was on the whole much easier and more enjoyable than I had ever expected it to be. I was sad though, that I would soon have to say goodbye to all the others, most of whom I had only just met. After we had our photos taken, we went to relax in our tents. We have to get up at 3am in the morning lmao. We hear laughing from the other tent and wonder what it is, we don’t have long to wait to find out. Susiebabes decided to do a bit of pole dancing on the central tent pole. OMG i don’t know where she got her energy from. I take a nice photo of her with her bum in the air lol. After a short while, its time for food, we all go and sit expectantly in the mess tent and wait. We were expecting some sort of veggie stew again tonight, but its not, its chicken and chips, with soup to start with again, and nice warm fresh bread. I was just tucking into my soup when a fly dropped into it lol. I helped myself to a huge pile of chips,2 bits of bread and made myself a chip buttie. The only thing missing was vinegar. It was Tracey’s birthday today, so again the Berbers presented her with a “cake” and sang Happy Birthday. We decided to have an early night, so after dinner, we gathered up all of our unwanted kit, and left over energy bars and sun cream etc and gave them to the Berbers. They did such a fantastic job, making us feel welcome, cooking for us, laughing with us (or maybe at us lol) I went back to my tent and sorted out my gear for tomorrow and i crawl into bed exhausted!! Anna