General Chat

PMSL - That was such a good day! Jack x

flatulence mats????? i must have missed those ;-))) Day 6 We set of early and its much cooler and easier to walk. As we approach Chgaga we all feel a little apprehensive about climbing it but its so beautiful that you cant help feeling exhilerated. The climb turns out to be not so bad after all and the view from the top makes up for any puffing and panting. We all stand at the top and have our pics taken holding the banner that Diana left for us - we're all really chuffed and it shows. I like quite a few, opted to go down on me bum and its hard work lol. Once at the bottom we have 10 mins to chill and i cant believe it when Cliff announces he wants to go back up and have another go - he's been great the whole trek so far and is game for anything. We set off for the rest of the mornings walk and its starting to get hotter but for some reason i cant seem to drink any water without feeling sick. We reach lunch camp but i really cant be bothered to eat anything but know i should. The afternoon seems very long and tough to me, am i the only one i wonder to myself. Its a great feeling when the camp comes into sight. I flop down in our tent and try to drink as much water as i can because i know i havent had enough today and thats why im probably feeling a bit wobbly. I feel much better after loads of water and a rest and am now ravenous and devour the pasta and sauce as if its the most delicious meal ive had in ages - infact i think it probably was lol. Weve decided to sleep outside tonight and the Berbers have made us a fire which we sit round drinking wine and listening to them sing, we soon join in and everyone is in hysterics laughing. Hokey Cokey Blokey seems a bit drunk and decides that he like the look of my left leg and proceeds to put his hand up my trouser leg (of all the women in the group im the least likely to want a mans hand on my leg lol). He has a grip like iron and im finding it hard to shake him off lol so Paul slaps his hands away and that seems to do the trick. He then decides that Andy looks like a good bet and starts rubbing his shoulders and chest, much to the amusement of the rest of us. By this point Yvette and I are laughing like a pair of drains and cant seem to stop. We decide that we better try and get some sleep as we're up at 5.30 so we settle down and look at the stars for a few minutes before going to sleep. Its been a good day today.

Thursday day 6 We are up really early again this morning; we decide to start our days earlier, hoping not to get caught in the sandstorms that have been happening in the afternoons! Today is the day we walk up the 300 m dune that is called Chgaga. It doesn’t look too far from our camp, and doesn’t look as scary as I thought it would. It was 20 c this morning at 7 am, and I was shivering! It took us a while to get to the base of the dune. My chest was hurting, and my boots were getting filled with sand with every step I walked. We had a few short rests while everyone caught up, and finally we reach the bottom of the dune. We set of in single file and eventually we make it to the top in 40 minutes. The view from the top of the dune is amazing. There is a tourist camp at the base of Chgaga, and this looks tiny when we are looking down at it. We all have our CRUK or Pink Fund T-shirts on and we have our photos taken at the top with the Cancer Research banners. It is so hot and it isn’t even 9 am yet. Now comes the fun part. We have to get to the bottom of the dune now. It is an almost vertical drop and I was a bit wobbly on the top lol. I don’t really like heights. We can either run down or slide down on our bums. I chose the second option. Suzy B decided to roll down it lol.I used my walking pole like a ski to help me down but it washard work, I had sand in my pants and down my boots so I decided to run down the rest of the dune. When we get to the bottom, we have a chance to have a rest while we wait for everyone else to descend. Then Cliff and Lahcen decide to walk up it again!! We checked the temp on Cliffs thermometer and it is 39c at half nine in the morning. Another hot day then! After lunch, we walk amongst small dunes all afternoon till we reach camp for the evening. We saw some motorbikes or quad bikes? today lol. Walking was ok, just very windy and sandy. We are told we have to get up at 5.30 in the morning so we all had good intentions of going to bed nice and early, but we decided that one bottle of red would do us no harm, so we shared the first bottle between 5 of us I think! Well one bottle led to another and another, and my most vivid memory is of Susie babes creeping into Ken and Victoria’s tent to get bottle after bottle of red wine,til in the end she brought the rest of the box out lol, The Berbers lit a fire and were singing to us. We tried to teach them the conga, but we ended up just staggering drunkenly around the camp. A few of us drunken ones decided to sleep outside, so i got all wrapped up in my sleeping bag and next thing i knew, it was morning lol. Anna

whoops - got the same syndrome as Jack now! Suddenly camp was in sight. Showers again! This time I was first in. A short while later as I returned to my tent I passed Tracey who seemed disoriented and was babbling incoherently. She was fine, Tor assured us, it was just the medication. Plenty of wine was drunk this evening, although not by me! Almost falling asleep in my dinner I went to bed early, around 8pm, but the Berbers lit a fire and several of the others sat around it singing and drinking wine. I dozed on and off although sleep was impossible as they were too noisy, but I didn’t mind. Around 11pm about nine of the trekkers came to collect their sleeping bags having decided to sleep outside. By midnight they were all pretty drunk and dopey and went to sleep quite quickly. Daisy

This will save Andy a job but I've asked him to post my other notes as I'm off to New York for a few days! Thursday – Day 6 No need for alarms. Nobody had been able to sleep and we were up at 5.30am muttering vile and unmentionable things about donkeys! Suffice to say that the words “trekking poles”, “shove” and “sun don’t shine” featured largely in this conversation! The little buggers were now just outside our mess tent, grazing quietly and looking as though butter wouldn’t melt! Today was Chgaga day; a day we’d all been dreading. Awaiting us was the 300m climb up a sand dune about an hour’s walk from camp. We strapped on our gaiters and hoped they would keep the sand out of our boots as we progressed through soft, deep dunes. At the base of Chgaga we set off with Ken and Tracey leading the way. This was so that we all climbed at Tracey’s pace and she wouldn’t get despondent at the back. The going was very tough for her as she only had Ken’s footprints to tread in. The rest of us did the same and the footprints became small steps in the sand. We wended our way across the ridge of the dune, zigzagging back and forth, stopping every few steps according to Tracey’s pace. This gave us the opportunity to look back at the view behind us and not just at the task ahead. The view was stunning. We could now see three Bedouin tourist camps and the Chelsea tractors used to ferry the tourists from place to place. We felt very smug that we were doing it “properly” and sorry for them that they weren’t. Within 40 minutes Tracey reached the top and collapsed on the ridge. Just a few minutes later we were all at the summit and sat on the ridge fascinated by the view. It was like the top of the world. To the south were rolling dunes as far as the eye could see and to the north, Hamada and the Jebel Bani. We all sat on the ridge holding the CRUK banner for our team photo. This was a very emotional moment for everyone and we looked at each other, watery eyed, silently saying “We did it.” After several photos, taken by Ken, Lahcen and Tor, we all lined up for the slide down the other side. Expecting to glide effortlessly it was a surprise to find that it required a sort of rowing motion using our trekking poles and the arms and thighs soon started to ache. My left arm was less than happy, following the injury to it over two months ago, so I had to continue using just my right arm which wasn’t terribly effective. About 20 metres from the bottom I stood up and ran the rest of the way, momentum almost toppling me headfirst into the sand dune! I lay there laughing and turned to watch the others coming down. “Take photos”, they yelled, so I took several although it was hard to tell who was who. Everyone started shaking the sand out of their boots, socks, pockets etc except Tor and I who had knee length gaiters and had not so much as a grain of sand in our boots! We set off for the remainder of the morning’s walk and the heat was immense with very little breeze to compensate. We looked behind us for one last view of Chgaga and saw our footprints in the ridges of the dunes. We continued to walk across more dunes and vast expanses of vegetation but it was hard to appreciate as the heat was so extreme. A glance at Cliff’s thermometer proved what we suspected - 43C and rising. The final hour before lunch was interminably long and hot and I started to feel quite miserable and had a slight tummy ache. At one point I was dive bombed by something resembling a very large moth and to my horror I realised it was a locust! Ugh! Thankfully there were no more. Ken realised that everyone was finding this tough and we had a couple of unscheduled breaks for energy bars and water. I could hardly bear to sit down or take off my backpack in case I couldn’t get started again and Tracey was in agony. Finally we rounded a bend and saw the lunch camp just ahead under some trees. Expecting a stop of around 2-3 hours we all dropped and started loosening our boots. Then Ken told us we had under an hour and a half. We thought he was joking but no such luck. After lunch most of us tried to doze but before long the wind started to pick up as usual and Ken told us we had to set off as there was another 4 hours’ walk ahead of us. We were all stunned. Tracey looked strangely calm and then we discovered that Tor had taken the decision out of her hands, given her painkillers akin to morphine and was sending her on to camp in the jeep. We waved her off then wrapped ourselves up and set off across more dunes. The walk was hard but satisfying and the final hour took us across a dried up river bed dotted with acacia trees. Suddenly camp was in sight. Showers again! This time I was first in. A short while later as I returned to my tent I passed Tracey who seemed disoriented and was babbling incoherently. She was fine, Tor assured us, it was just the medication. Plenty of wine was drunk this evening, although not by me! Almost falling asleep in my dinner I went to bed early, around 8pm, but the Berbers lit a fire and several of the others sat around it singing and drinking wine. I dozed on and off although sleep was impossible as they were too noisy, but I didn’t mind. Around 11pm about nine of the trekkers came to collect their sleeping bags having decided to sleep outside. By midnight they were all pretty drunk and dopey and went to sleep quite quickly.

This really is making me smile - I tried to be discreet and not mention Anna's accident PMSL Jack xx

pmsl at the flatulence mats Susie.lol. Ok I admit to being sat on them on more than one occasion :-)) Anna

I will do day 6 tomorrow!!!!....lol Susie xx

Day 5 The walking was good today Jack, Clare and I were at the front today as had been on most days and thought it was a good walk we always seemed to get a great momentum going and finding our landmarks would march for them full steam ahead!!, only today we were all bursting for the toilet towards the end and just wanted to get there!! Clare started running so I started, Lahcen too, and before I knew it like a right fanny I went head over heels and fell to the ground slightly grazed my hands, it appeared I fell over my nuisance trekking poles! I had hurt my pride more than anything else!! I arrive back at camp and greet all the Berber's which I have become acustom to doing everyday it is a simple thing that brings a smile to their faces and even more so that I know each one by his name that they appear to lap up!!! I go and sit in the mess tent and crash, I am really wanting to just sit and chat as usual so I join Tor(Dr) & Ken(Leader) and talk about home, so far it has been a pleasurable experience for me, I sit and watch Lahcen & a few of the Berber's play football, I contemplate as to whether I will have a bash at kicking the ball around with them and decide too only after I have roped Paul and Andy into it aswell! After a few minutes I drop out as it is to fast a pace for me and their control is much better with the ball in the mild sandstorm that is going on!....... Someone decides that we should not buy from a lady who is sat with her children so we decide to go and chat with her and offer her some small items for her children, which unbeknown to me, is a big deal to the children as they fuss between themselves and their mother asks them to settle down! Sweet!!! All of them seem very grateful, which brings a warm glow to your heart, just like the young boy who on the day of travelling to our start point asked me for my pen and I first refused!! Then realise how meanial it was to me but meant a great deal to him which was obvious from the huge smile that appeared on his face when I threw it out of the window whilst the minibus was driving off....These people are so humble, yet live quite happily and appreciate the smallest things in life which I have started to aswell! Lahcen & Abdul the landrover driver laugh when I approach them and ask if I can take the landrover for a spin!!!...lol. As I had mentioned to Lahcen a couple of days earlier I was missing not being able to drive! Guess what? I get to drive it!! I jump in and find out straight away that it is a bench seat and I was unable to move the seat forward so I had to sit on the edge !! This has already made me a little nervous!! I stall around 4 times as I am finding it hard to get it to pull off as the sand has built up around the front wheels and the pedals are very spongy not what I am used too at all! Lahcen eventually pushing my foot into the pedal to give it more revs, of which I was scared of doing incase I damage the landrover!!!....Abdul is now looking worried as it is his bread and butter and it's a 'woman' driver....pmsl! I pull off and they are threating already I cannot help but to laugh!!, I drive towards the flat ground we had covered to get into camp and then the sand starts making visibility hard so I am asked to go back to camp only a couple of hundred metres away!! I put my foot on the brake by accident.....oops and Lahcen and Abdul nearly bump their heads on the windscreen!!!! Abdul is really stressed now!!!! but I can't help but have a schoolgirl giggle to myself and Lahcen just grins at me!!! I get back to camp pull back up to the toilets and Abdul realises I have slid the watertank back and him and Lahcen need to drag it to the door of the Lanny again!!....Ooops....sorry!! I stroll away as dignified as I can....lol, and then get told by a couple in the tent they saw my emergency stop!!!!! I am still chuft I drove the Lanny though! I go and have a shower and come out feeling all refreshed again, it may be freezing but it is so nice when you are in those conditions!!, I go to the mess tent after getting myself dressed and have some food! It is nice they did their best which I thought was fantastic for the little kitchen they worked from! A little oven that produced fresh bread everyday and cakes every couple of days! A few of us stay up and chat on the flatulance mats!!!! lol (They will know who they are) we have a giggle an try to think of new board names for eachother related to events and stuff from the trek.....one that comes up is P**** Pants Camel A**!!!! I won't divulge sorry!!! For the privacy of that person!! Anna has her accident as afore mentioned and sits about trying to hide her knickers to Lahcens distress!!!...lol She ends up borrowing his sleeping bag to save him any ear bashings......bless them both!! There are lights approaching camp and we start to wonder who it may be, it is a 4X4 towing a car that has broken down and wondered if we could help them!!!

We are up early today. Breakfast is at 6am and we will be leaving camp at 7. It’s the hardest day today as we are going to climb the 300m dune (Chgaga). We all think that is going to be really tough but actually it’s quite steady going. We climb gradually and it’s relatively cool as it is early. We go up in single file with the slowest walkers at the front. Tracey is the leader – bless her, her feet are just covered with blisters. I am full of admiration for her – the way she just plods on without complaining. Clare, Susie and I are the back 3. Because we are going slow it is easy and we laugh and chatter on the way up. Andy is in front of me and I try to stand in his footprints to try and stop my feet from sinking. Not that it matters as I have on long trousers and gaitors. At the top the views are spectacular. The desert may be harsh but it is certainly beautiful at times. We hold up Diana’s banners and pose for photo’s. Then we take a few ourselves and have a few minutes to reflect. I think of Mum and I think of Diana. I am so proud to be here and proud to have raised so much money for such a good cause. I’m also having a really good time! Now it is time to descend. Boy does it look steep from up here. I feel excited. I can feel the adrenalin pumping as I ask Ken how we get down. “However you like” is his reply. Boom, boom, boom –my heart is beating fast. For a moment I wonder how on earth I’m going to get down, then I’m off. I opt for sitting on my bum and sliding down using my trekking poles like ski sticks. IT’S ABSOLUTELY BRILL! Waahooo. Susie B suddenly flies past – she’s rolled down – sand and trekking poles all over – she’s mad!!! Most of the group slide down on their bum’s like me, some walk and a couple run. I stand up and run the last bit – I can’t stop. Yipppeeee! It’s exhilarating – we all feel fantastic. Once we get to the bottom we have 5 minutes to chill. I need a wee as do 3 others. We set off to go around the corner out of sight – bugger – there is no around the corner just a pile of sand. At this stage in the week we just think sod it and we crouch down in a row and pee together then have a communal bonfire for our loo roll. With all our dignity now gone (not that we care!) we get ready to be on our way. We walk through sand for about 3 hours. It’s a lot tougher walking on the sand (especially in 38 degrees!). We stop for another good lunch and a chance to get our boots off and get some air to our hot feet. It’s the best lunch so far. It’s hot veg (cauliflower, green peppers, carrots, potatoes, courgettes) in a spicy sauce. Yummy yummy. A few of us have seconds. Fresh fruit follows then it’s time to fill up our platypus’ and we’re off. The afternoon walking is tough. We walk a long way and through the sand. It’s very hot (40o) and it’s windy again. We are covered in sand from head to toe. We seem to walk for ages before we see camp in the distance. Yeah – what a sight. It gives us the energy burst we need and off we go. We decide that tonight is going to be the night for sleeping under the stars, which are so beautiful here. It seems that there are millions more than what we see from home. We also decide to crack open a ‘few’ bottles of red wine. Dinner is pasta with a vegetable sauce and cheese to top (after the usual soup starter of course!). There is freshly baked bread, still warm – it’s delicious and I want to take the chef home with me! After dinner the crew light a fire where we sit and chat while they entertain us by singing and playing the drums. We (well 7 of us) continue drinking wine and the crew get us playing the drums and dancing and singing along (heya heya heya wa). I notice that the time is flying by and I know I should be having some sleep but we are having such a good time. We teach the crew the conga (well sort of lol) and drink more wine (even though I think the bar of Ken shut a while ago Susie keeps going back for more which we are only too happy to drink). We have a line where we massage each other’s shoulders. We eventually get our sleeping bags around midnight and it doesn’t take us long to drop off (wine or fresh air? Probably the wine lol). One of the Mohammeds (Okey Kokey) is on patrol (after consuming red wine and helping Paul with his Southern Comfort!). He waves to me as I get up to go for a wee. I wave back still half asleep. I fall back to sleep almost the second I get back in my sleeping bag but the morning comes around so quickly. Amazingly I don’t feel hungover (probably due to making sure I drunk a lot of water with the wine). It turns out we had about 2 bottles of wine each – we look forward to the bar bill!

So, it's all Anna's fault lol

I was chatting to the donkeys Sheila lol Anna :-)

no it wasnt Anna - i forgot to mention your attempts at opera singing while you were asleep :-)

Day 5 Wednesday We woke up early again. Had breakfast, and filled our water bottles etc and we were off. Today we were walking across Stony Flat ground, it was quite hilly and I decide to walk near the back with Suzy C as my feet are killing and she has a huge blister on the side of her foot, so has to walk in her trainers. We seem to walk for ages until lunch time, It said we were stopping under the only tree for miles, so every time we saw I tree, I was hoping it was lunch time lol. We finally get to the lunch tent about 15 minutes after everyone else, and first thing I did was take my boots off. As we are eating, the wind is picking up again, but we manage to complete today’s walk as it is along flat, but stony ground, hardly any sand. After lunch, my feet feel much better, so we were walking right at the front of the group. It seemed like we were walking along the side of a motorway, the amount of traffic that passed us was unbelievable. I almost got knocked over by a Jeep, which was a bit odd, I couldn’t hear it as I had my headscarf wrapped round my face and ears and the wind was making a noise, and you don’t really expect to encounter much traffic in the middle of the desert do you? We saw a white spot in the distance and assumed this was our camp for the evening, this made us walk faster, but it took forever to reach the tents. We have showers again tonight. I had washed my hair with no rinse shampoo, but I couldn’t drag the comb through it, so I rinsed this out under the shower and stuck intensive conditioner on. I felt better for all of 5 minutes, cos the wind got it all tangled again. Tonight we are camping at the foot of Chgaga, which we are climbing tomorrow. Outside our tents are a group of children, I don’t know if they were trying to sell things, but some of our group went over and gave them some hair slides and pens etc. After dinner I sat outside on a couple of mattresses tonight with the other night owls. All was going well until I went to the toilet. The zip was broke so Sheila was standing guard (I was scared of the dark really so had to take her to the loo with me lol). I was showing Shelia how I could pee like a man, when suddenly we saw these head lights coming towards us. I tried to hurry up had an accident. Luckily I was wearing a long t-shirt so I hobbled back to the mats and wrapped Sheila’s coat around me like a skirt.(Sorry Sheila pmsl) We finally decided to head off to bed, after we received a stern look from the doctor. I think our giggling was keeping her awake. It was only 9pm though! We were surrounded by a load of Donkeys and as soon as we got to bed they started Braying and kept us all awake most of the night! It wasn’t the only thing making a noise in the night I am told.:-)

Day 5 Up early this morning as we want to set off sooner to try and avoid the afternoon wind if we can. The walking today is quite easy as its pretty flat and firm most of the way and i chat to Andy and Daisy as we walk and get to know each other a little better. I start feeling very homesick today and quite a few times have to stop myself crying (dont want the others to think im a big baby lol). After lunch the wind predictably gets up and this doesnt help my general mood very much and i spend quite a bit of the afternoon walking by myself so as not to inflict my miserableness on the others. Later on im joined by Yvette and we chat and she helps me feel a bit better. We're both finding this afternoon a bit hard going with the sand blowing in our faces constantly and are so relieved when the camp comes into view. There's lots of green stuff growing where we are camped and there are loads of tiny green caterpillars in it and im informed that they sting you - luckily i didnt get to find out. Im not hungry tonight (very unusual for me) and only have soup for dinner. Later on a few of us sit outside chatting and Anna decided to show me something (she can tell you cos im not risking a slap lol). This causes general hysteria amongst those of us still up and on that note we decide its time to head to bed - not that anyone got much sleep that night with the donkey chorus.

Day 5 We get up quite early today. We want to set off walking earlier and try to miss the heat of the day (not that it actually gets cool at any point!) and hopefully miss the wind if it picks up in the afternoon. After more bread and jam and a nice strong cup of coffee we are off. The morning walk is great. Over flatish stoney ground with the odd sand dune here and there. We walk at a decent pace and I feel fantastic. Clare and I are at the front, we have seen the lunch tent in the distance and we can’t wait to get there and get our walking boots off. We can’t believe we are at the front so decide to walk even faster so we can get to camp and turn round to take a photo of the rest of the group in the distance as no one at home will believe us. We have a fab lunch and then get going early because of the wind. It is pretty hard going as the sand hurts as it hits but we keep up a good pace and get back to camp early. We are filthy – absolutely covered in sand. It gets everywhere – up your nose, in your ears. We are hot, sweaty and tired but so pleased to have got through the day happily. I have really enjoyed it today. I feel invigorated. I even manage to stretch out my muscles (someone else’s suggestion – I would never have thought to do it myself!). The showers are here again – yeah! I can get clean yippee. I only wish I could wash my hair as it feels disgusting. I only have to scratch my head and my nails are full of sand and it’s a nightmare trying to get a brush through it. Showering with the wind still blowing is a rather chilly experience and I pray that the tent does not blow away while I am stood there in my birthday suit. It feels great to be clean but the stubble growing under my arms is really irritating me. Clare has a razor and tells me to dry shave, I figure that even if I cut myself it can’t be any worse than the irritation and I go for it tentatively. Now I feel like a real happy bunny! We have time to sit and chill before dinner and then have another marvelous feast. We have freshly baked bread that is still warm. It’s amazing what can be done in the middle of the desert - I mean I can’t even bake bread in a fully equipped kitchen! We also have freshly baked cakes some days when we get back from our walk. Who can resist warm cake – certainly not me. I thought I would be living off cuppa soups and fruisli bars and go home half a stone lighter, at this rate I will be lucky if I’m not half a stone heavier. After dinner we have our now usual evening of chatter before a reasonably early night. I try having 2 wee’s again – one before brushing my teeth and one after. It kind of works as I only wake up once in the night. I really do feel great.

Day 5 - Wednesday I don't seem to have as much in the way of notes for Wednesday as I do for other days, but Wednesday turned out to be one of my favourite day's walking. Ken had told us that today would be mostly flat and easy for walking. Breakfast was the usual assortment of porridge, bread, cheese spread, tea/coffee/hot chocolate. We set off around the usual time of 8am and walked across the desert floor, known as Hamada for its flat, stony nature. Normally, I tend to walk up front but today for a change decided to drop back a bit off the pace and chatted with Daisy, Sheila & Jack at different points. Having walked across this massive expansive area, we climbed out of there and stopped for a break as we watched the camels & Berbers catch us up. More of the Berbers had joined us as the walk today was such that the Land Rover wouldn't be able get through to where we would be having lunch so the camels were carrying all the stuff needed for lunchtime that would normally go in the Land Rover. Having left the desert floor, our terrain now consisted of sand and tiny dunes but again proving that terrain in the desert can sometimes never remain the same for too long, the sand gave way to stonier ground with rolling contours on either side. The area in question felt not a million miles from certain parts of the North York Moors, not far from where I live. We eventually reached a point where the stony-sided slopes gave way to a wide expanse of open sandy desert. It was just around the corner that we would see the only tree for miles. This would be where we would stop for lunch. I walked into lunch with Daisy and as we got nearer to camp, it became clear that there were technically three trees, not one although we camped under the largest one of the three. After lunch, as if bang on cue, the wind picked up and started to blow the sand. Whilst the swirling sand wasn't welcome, it was not like the day before. It was hard work though during the afternoon and I walked the long final stretch with Cliff and both of us felt like we had legs of lead towards the end. As we got nearer towards evening camp, the massive range of dunes that are Chgaga came into view and we got a good idea as to what would be facing us tomorrow. There was quite a lot of green vegetation around where we were camped tonight, and we also had the benefit of the shower facilities this evening to clean off the sand we had collected. As usual, I appeared to have collected more than everyone else in terms of sand so was only too glad to get rid of it. I still haven't completely mastered the art of trying to get my boxers on in a small cubicle sized tent on a wet floor without looking like some kind of contortionist! It was still blowing a gale outside but some of the Berbers were relaxing by having a kick-about with the football, I momentarily joined in before realising that I might end up with a sand-blown face again, undoing the whole reason for having a shower so I headed for the mess tent and dinner. After dinner, most of our tent decided to have an early night. Due to the problems with the sand in the afternoons, we all agreed to leave camp an hour earlier the following morning in order to get more walking done in the morning and have a somewhat shorter lunch-break. Some of the girls in the next door tent decided to stay up and have a bit of a giggle. I think this was the night where Anna tried to show Sheila something but she can tell that story lol. We went to sleep but it turned out to be a disruptive nights sleep with local donkeys deciding to keep us awake!

Daisy ou just reminded me of the time we had to wait to cross the 'road' because of the trucks!! :O) Who would've thought it!! :O)

Well Diana knows how much we all feel for her and at her request here's Wednesday's report. Day 5 - Wednesday Up at 6.30am again and set off at 8am. Decided to give my legs some sun this morning so zipped off the lower half of my trousers. We walked around 4 hours through amazing terrain. Long expanses of softish sand and then low dunes with lots of shrubs. We passed a nomad and his herd of camels who just walked through us as if they owned the place! Oh yes they do don't they? lol. Terrain became stony and inclined slightly until we reached a vantage point and could see the tree and tent where we would stop for lunch. Not much shade here but a beautiful setting in amongst more dunes. Cauliflower, potatoes, carrots in a spicy hot sauce. Oranges and cinnamon. Lahcen returned from the airport with a note from Diana, the CRUK banner and some of the group's belongings which she had been looking after during yesterday's sandstorm. He told us he stayed with Diana until she went through the departure gate at Ouarzazate. I thanked him and he said, “you are all our family now so we help you”. That afternoon’s walk was quicker but through a would be sandstorm again. I found it very hard on my toe joints because of the stony terrain and also because I've broken my toes several times over the years! Some of the ground was so parched that treading on it make a crackling noise like dry leaves in autumn. Other areas were like hardened cow pats, crunchy on the outside but soft in the middle. We could see camp an hour away through a carpet of green tiny shoots, growing against all odds through the parched and cracked ground. As we walked over them they released a lovely smell but we couldn’t help feeling guilty at crushing these little plants which had worked so hard to grow! There were more showers but I didn’t bother today as the sand was whipping around too much and I was far more interested in the lovely warm, freshly made Madeira type cake the Berbers had waiting for us. Lovely with a glass of hot chocolate. Outside the sand swirled in the wind and a local woman and her 3 children appeared and sat outside with jewellery for sale. We decided not to buy anything but some of us took over some of the gifts we had bought and I introduced everyone and spoke to the family in French. The woman's name was Leyla and her children were called Fatima, Mohammed and Shika. The children loved the pencils, notebooks and hairbands we gave them. They stayed there for quite a while and were then joined by another woman and her children. This woman was quite persistant and kept calling us over but we ignored her. Besides, it was too blustery to be outside the tent. We kept a close watch on our bags and tied up the tents just in case. After dinner most of us went to bed early again but barely slept as we were kept awake by braying all night. When I got up to go to the loo the tent was surrounded by 10 donkeys braying to each other and being answered by camels. It was relentless and continued until we got up at 5.30am muttering vile things about donkeys! Daisy

Deanna - It was worse than that babe especially as a couple of guys tried to cheer me up and having to utter the words 'My Daddy has died' for the first time!! But I don't wanna ruin this thread so lets move ona day and get the rest of the goss - especially as I wasn't there to see it first hand!! xx