Location

N 31 12.559 W 004 01.411
Spent the night here and woke to the sunrising over the dunes. Amazing!
Now off to dune bash!

view

Paris-dakar

Today we took the cars on a 6-mile "race" on a part of the paris-dakar route. I can confirm it is possible to get a fully loaded 90 airborne at 70mph if you hit the right combination of dips and crests... We can also get more stuff in now as it's all compacted itself!

Good job the garage is tomorrow.

Auberge Oasis Mharech

N 30.45.587, W 004.33.807

We just spent a very pleasant evening here, under palm trees (which are a lot more spiky than they look, like needles) by a river bed. The river is currently dry but last week the whole area was under 4 feet of water, you can clearly see where it scoured down to bedrock. Also, quicksand is interesting...

Off to Zagora now for 2 days in a hotel (yay!) and to get thee car into the garage for a once-over. I have to say it's done brilliantly well so far.

K

Sent from my Windows Mobile® phone.

Erg chebbi

Just got signal for first time in 3 days. ?ave been camping in the desert at Erg Chebbi, utterly beautiful, waking up to sunrise over the dunes. Now off to an oasis camp for another couple of days, and we'll get the car checked over too.

Current location (fuel stop) n 31.17.302, w 004. 17.456.

K.

A night in teneghir

Spent at N 31.30.871, W 005.32.285

Mostly, we will be tooting our horns from 0215 to 0315 at which point the dogs will take over for their morning chorus. Then the call to prayer at 0445. Birds start at 0530 accompanied by the dogs again as backing "singers".

Not the most restful night, but today we head off to the Erg Chebbi for 2 days offroad in the desert. Weather currently good, all well.

Location update

So stopped for lunch at N31 29.251 W004 12.837 and found some wifi!!
We are heading off to the Erg Chebbi this afternoon for the next few days. Sights we have seen are amazing and Kate has already filled one 2GB memory card on her camera.
There are more updates stuck in my Q as data coverage non-exsistant in most areas, GSM coverage very good everywhere though.

Just lowered the tyre pressures for the dune bashing in a few minutes time and am looking forward to getting my first sight of the Erg Chebbi, most of the dessert so far ahs been hard black rock, so some soft sand will make a change.

More updates when we can connect.

Location

So heading towards the Anti Atlas mountains. Stunning landscapes and amazing examples of appualling local driving!
Location N 32 11.231 W 004 22.000

Halfway to tinerhir

Still crossing the mountains, there are little dwellings dotted around in the middle of nowhere; small families with a few cows and donkeys and chickens but very few obvious means of survival. I guess the men are loggers, who drive these tracks all day with a full load. We're out of the woods now and it's a bare landcape, no trees, just a few small huts.

Network coverage still patchy :-)

K.

Another day!

Arrived at the wilderness camp at about 3.00 yesterday, after a 2hr offroad drive across the plains.

It gets dark very quickly, and by the time we'd set up and cooked, it was pitch black. Fortunately, being in cedar woods, there was plenty of firewood and our campfires were ablaze. We all thought it was much later than it was, and i think all were in ved by 9.00!

Bloody cold in the night but today dawns clear and beautiful. Off to Tinhir today, Sahara tomorrow!

N. 33.08.057
W 005.15.195

Sent from my Windows Mobile® phone.

Location.

N33 26.484 W005 13.552
Stopped to get insurance and change some money. Got food for lunch and supper as we are now heading upto 7500 feet in the Atlas mountains for camping. Weather about 22 degrees so nice and comfortabe but am sure Federico would be wearing a scarf!

Morning!

Well after pitching in a thunderstorm last night, it stopped raining soon after so we could eat and go to bed in the relative dry...

Woken at 0215 and 0415 by the cockerel, 0445 by the call to prayer, but a good night's sleep.

Off to Azrou for suipplies now, then up to the cedar forest for wilderness camp tonight.

N 34.00.895
W 005.33.724

Sent from my Windows Mobile® phone.

We made it!

Finally in moroccom after some interesting formalities at the border. Thank god we're in a group, i wouldn't want to face that alone...!

Only one cat tried to hitch a ride while we were waiting to go through.

Immediately feels, looks and smells arabic, we thought there may be some french or spanish influence, but none to be seen.

Weather warm but very cloudy, not sure if it'll rain though.

Off to raid cash machines, diesel pumps and then lunch! We're 1hr BEHIND the UK now.

K.

Ferry to ceuta

On the ferry to ceuta, glad to leave the roads in Spain, they're not good!

Location N 36.07.806 W 005.26.259

The landscape is amazing. Every last inch of aailable land is given over to olive groves. It beats me how they harvest some of these, as they are on precipitous slopes on rocky outcrops. It'd be fascinating to watch. As far as you can see, it's all dotted with olive trees, giving an odd texture to the hills.

Final leg to the coast today, where we meet up with the rest of the group before travelling to Ceuta tomorrow!

K.

location

N 37.23.732
W 003.34.361

Tj cleans the windscreen of the 10,000,000 bugs we collected yesterday.

location

N 39 52.152'
W 003 28.666'

Pausing after 350 miles to cool down!