General Chat

OOh Jack, what happened, did you get writers cramp?? Eagerly awaiting further instalments!! M

Here's my day 2 - better get typing the rest up! Day 2 The alarm clock goes off at 6.30 – it’s far too early. I feel like I haven’t been asleep for very long at all. Well actually I haven’t, probably got about 4 hours and now OMG it’s time to get up and go. The view from the hotel window is stunning – I can’t believe we will be trekking through the desert in a few hours time. I take a photo and decide to get what I think will be my last shower for over a week. We have a breakfast of orange juice, croissants, fresh bread with Jam and coffee or tea. There are also Pain au chocolat but it’s too early for chocolate. After breakfast we get our kit bags on to the mini buses and off we go! We travel for a good few hours and admire the scenery. I can’t believe how much greenery we see. We stop a couple of times to stretch our legs and because someone is feeling sick. Susie nips over the road and a little by poses for a picture with her and all he asks for is a pen. Bless him. I can’t imagine life without a pen in every drawer! We stop in Zagora briefly to use the loo and to buy a shash (native headscarf). We each pay 150 Dirhams (that’s about a tenner) and feel that we have been robbed. Back on the bus and Susie and Andy take loads of photo’s. Andy can’t quite manage to get one of a donkey! We head further and further into the desert and off the main road stopping under the shade of a big tree. There is a big tent set up where the cooks have been busy preparing our lunch. There is a mat on the floor for us to sit on and a little way away is the toilet tent. The ‘toilet’ is simply a freshly dug hole in the ground. With a mound of earth ‘to flush’ and a roll of toilet roll and a bin. I head off for my first go. I am not used to squatting and I can certainly feel it in my legs! I now wish that I was a man!! We eat salad, bread, cheese and fish (tinned sardines) and drink coffee or mint tea. We top up our water bottles or platypus’s and then several of us have another trip to the tent in the hope that we avoid getting caught short whilst walking through the desert. When everyone has put on there rucksacks (which feel rather heavy now that our water supplies have been topped up) we are ready to go. It’s time to make our first steps across the Sahara Desert – 100 Kilometers to go! My first thought is ‘boy is it hot’. We’d had windows open on the buses and a lovely breeze, now the breeze had gone and there was only the heat. We only had to walk for 3 hours but after so little sleep and in the heat of the day it seemed like such hard work. We finally see camp in the distance – what a sight. I don’t know if I was happier seeing the camp because the day’s walking was almost over or if I was just relieved that we didn’t have to put up our own tents. With camp in sight the walking seems that bit easier. We arrive in what seems like no time at all. There are 2 tents for sleeping in one is larger than the other so we decide that the smokers should go in the smaller tent so the non-smokers don’t have to smell us. So that’s me, Clare, Diana, Susie C, Anna and Shiela. Everyone else (Paul, Andy, Tracey, Gemma, Susie B, Cliff, Daisy & Yvette) goes into the larger tent. Our kit bags were waiting for us at camp so we drag them over to our tents and dig out our mattresses and sleeping bags. All my stuff is brand new and has never been out of it’s packaging so I keep my fingers crossed that everything is ok. Once the tent looks lived in we head outside for the first of many sociable cigs. We sit about chatting while our dinner is prepared. I have already decided that I like everybody and feel happy to be in a group of such lovely people. We eat at about 7pm. There is plenty of food and oh does it taste good. We have soup and bread to begin with, followed by beef, potatoes and carrots. No complaints at all. All fed and watered people soon start to get tired. It’s been a long day and we decide to hit the sack around 9pm. It takes me ages to get to sleep. I’m far from my own bed and after paying out so much money for a sleeping bag that would keep me warm in the North Pole (I was told that the desert would get very cold at night) I am disappointed to find myself roasting! A little nervous about unzipping my sleeping bag (what could crawl in with me?) I finally kick off my liner and am so exhausted I finally doze off. I wake up about midnight. Oh no I need a wee. I try to ignore it and go back to sleep but I can’t – I’m bursting. I start to put on my shoes (after shaking them out just in case) and Shiela wakes up too so we go together. I am so pleased as I was really rather nervous about going on my own. It is pretty light as the moon is almost full. I also have my head torch – can’t imagine how daft I look. Everything is so quiet and still. There are 2 toilet tents at camp so we do our wees (already I am wondering how many wee’s my thighs can stand) and head back to our tent. I feel cooler now so hope I will be able to drop off again pretty quickly. I can’t have been gone long when I wake in a panic to Shiela’s voice shouting ‘Diana’. Sheila had seen a hand come in the tent and try to grab her bag. It’s about 2am and everyone is awake now. Two of the bags have been taken from the tent next door, Paul and Yvette’s. I feel so bad for them as so much has been taken and I can’t imagine how they must be feeling. Ken is up and involved. There is nothing we can do at this moment. It’s the middle of the night so after a group fag we get settled back in our tents. I make sure my rings are still there (I put then on top of my kit bag) and am so pleased that they are. They belonged to my Mum and My Grandma and are irreplaceable. I so hope Paul and Yvette had nothing like that in their bags. It takes me a while as I am a little on edge now but I do manage to fall back to sleep. Jack xx

DAY 2 continued... OK, the day had gone as described by Sheila above. We all went to bed reasonably early.. 9pm ish for our first proper night in the desert. I'd not found it easy getting to sleep and had tossed and turned for a while... after what seemed like wuite a short sleep, I woke to sounds of a commotion outside. I head Diana and Sheila talking, I'm sure I heard Diana say 'oh no'... then I saw three people walk past the tent. Can't all be off to the loo together, I thought. Then they went back... somethings amiss. I was straining to hear what was being said outside and then Diana asked if anyone was awake.. someone had tried to get in their tent but been disturbed by Sheila... could we check whether anything was missing. Well, as soon as she said that, it dawned on me that my bag was on top of the pile of bags that we'd piled up just inside the tent entrance (not the cleverest move in retrospect). Sure enough, it was gone. Yvette came and looked, and sure enough hers was gone too. Andy's 'big bag' was outside, they (?) hadn't taken anything though, just looked through the smaller pockets. Traceys 'big bag' was outside too, but they would have needed a camel to take it away, it was THAT heavy... Anyway... it quickly dawned on us that this could be quite serious when we started thinking what was in the bags... wallets (cash and credit cards) Passports return tickets phones camera's ipod water carriers (platypus etc) plus other misellaneous bits Strangely we also found that a pair of Daisy's tousers had also disappeared. The berbers and Ken (I think) went off to see if they could see anyone/anything while we got more and more annoyed/upset. Yvette was upset, I was just angry, and already realising that we'd end up spending a couple of days arranging new passports etc. Went back to bed after half an hour or so... lay there making a mental list of what was in the bag - suddenly dawned on me that there was one thing in/on mine that was irreplaceable - the 'cheeky monkey' that Gaynor had given me. That annoyed me even more. Was exchausted, so eventually dropped off to sleep. DAY THREE Woke up with everyone else, wandered outside and... what a relief ! some of the berbers had found our bags in the dunes. We went through the contents and all that was missing was the cash from both (I reckon about £200 between us) and my phone. Huge relief. Even though the loss of the money wasn't good, it could have been much worse. Had breakfast (yucky gloopy watery porridge) and then set off for our mornings walk, floowing Mohammed with the camels rather than Ken and Lahcen, as they'd gone off to the nearest town to report the theft. Fairly uneventful mornings walking... to be honest I can't remember that morning that well, but I think it was fairly flat and stoney rather than sandy. Mid morning we were stopped by a well (yes, a well) when Ken and Lahcen turned up in the landrover. They hadn't had much success with the local authorities. Basically they threatened to lock up Lahcen for 3 months for not doing his job (which is odd, as he was a guide, not a security guard), and really didn't seem to want to help. However, if we wanted to take it further, Yvette and I would have had to go back with them to the town and spend the rest of the day filling in forms and giving statements, with very little possibility of it helping. So we decided against it. We set off to walk, and Ken and Lahcen went off to tell them we weren't going to take it further. They joined us later, around lunchtime I think, and Ken said the police seemed to understand the word 'b*stards' when he left... I'll let someone else finish the rest of the day.

come on hurry up more more more please xxhugxx

Come on guys, we are still waiting!! M

Great reading, Ooerr!, now wondering who that arm belonged to! :))

Come on Paul and Yvette, where are you??? I hate cliff hangers :-( Karen x

Day 1 my day 1 went much the same as everyone elses, travelling etc. When we finally arrived at Hotel Le Zat i shared a room with Daisy and after a bit of faffing we settled down to sleep. Next thing i knew Daisy was telling me it was time to get up - surely id only been asleep for half an hour!! Day 2 We stumbled down for breakfast of coffee and croissants and then back up to our rooms to sort out bags etc and then met Ken and our trek guide Lahcen (who was very cute btw). After being briefed on details about our first day into the desert we boarded 2 mini buses for quite a hairaising journey through the mountains much of which i spent with my eyes shut making strange little noises to the amusement of Paul who was sat next to me. We arrived at a small town called Zagora which was the last stop before the desert where traditional headscarves where bought - i missed out on getting one because i spent so much time trying to find somewhere to get a drink (non alcoholic) and later regretted this very much! Finally we were in the desert - hadnt Diana said it wouldnt be that hot at this time of the year? It was scorching and somewhat of a shock after leaving cold, snowy Newcastle the day before. No rest for the wicked, Ken had us trekking through some sand and dunes before we finally arrived at our camp for the first time. There were 2 large tents for us to sleep in, a large mess tent to eat and chill out, 2 small tents with holes dug inside them (our toilets) and a cook tent which we were to be amazed at the marvels that managed to be produced out of. It got dark quite early and we settled into our tents for the night. I was sharing with Diana, Jack, Clare, Suzy Silhouette and Anna and after chatting for a while we all went to sleep. After a little while Anna and I decided to make one of what would be many nocturnal toilet visits (side effect of all the water you take in through the day) and as i was dropping off i thought i saw the shadow of an arm snaking into the tent next to my head. I told Anna and assumed i was dreaming and drifted off only to wake suddenly a short while later to see a real arm reaching for my back pack. I sat up and looked straight into a mans face and shrieked like a banshee, scaring him off. After waking Diana we crept outside but couldnt see anyone but noticed one of the big bags outside the other tent - i was sure it hadnt been there when i went to the toilet earlier. We decided we had better wake them up to check if anything was missing and now i will leave it to Paul and Yvette to tell the rest of the tale.

Well done you guys and gals! Thanks for sharing! Lindy ;-)))

Why are they blaming me for taking them to the BAR? Like i held a shotgun to their heads!! LOL!! xx

Thanks Penny :-) Karen

nudge for Karen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.