Well, that was something else!!!
First of all, before I start waffling for an eternity, I just wanted to say thank you so much for your support. I was incredibly chuffed to have several pages of messages from people on here.... some of whom I've never spoken to, supporting me and willing me to finish. I had quite a few tears I can tell you!! Knowing that people genuinely support you and want you to do well really is a massive boost.
This was an experience that I can never repeat... and I won't for various reasons. As you all know, this Mds was slightly different to the usual! And that is one reason I wouldn't return. It was unique. Highly unlikely to be another one like it. I know that people who have done it in the past (and people who have never done it) will probably say 'but you didn't do the full Mds', 'you must feel cheated' etc etc. Well no. I don't. It was the most mind blowing experience I've ever had and was, by no means, easy. Brutal is one one that springs to mind (and one which I heard many times after the long day)....
I am going to write up a full account on my mds blog which I will post the address for when it's complete. But thought I would run you through the build up (which was very long...!!!!).
I stayed at the Gatwick Travelodge on the Wednesday with various other people that I'd met previously (including some of my tent mates)... we had a meal that night and were very excited and nervous about what lay ahead..... little were we to know!
When we arrived at the airport on Thursday morning, it wasn't hard to find where check in was for this flight..... a whole line of people with very similar looking backpacks, many looking like rabbits trapped in headlights (including me probably!!). We were all in very high spirits though and it was good to see a fair few familiar faces.
We flew to Ouarzazate and faced the first of many ridiculously long and painfully slow queues. Passport control. Being the only plane that had landed you would think they would be quick and efficient but no... me and Steph were actually somewhere in the middle of the crowd but due to the guy on our desk sitting back and picking his nails, going for a walk from time to time and generally arsing about, we somehow ended up at the back... I was actually the last person to be checked! Typical! Anyway we were shipped by coach to the Berbere Palace Hotel. More queuing whilst we were allocated rooms. It was about 5.30/6pm by this time. Rooms were very nice and spacious and the hotel generally very good. We went to the bar (obviously) for a few drinks and then went for dinner.... the food was fantastic. Couldn't fault it as there was so much choice. Later that evening, one of the guys we were with said 'It's going to rain tomorrow'.... another guy replied 'yes, but that's here in OZZ, we're driving 6 hours into the desert... it never rains in the desert'. Famous last words.....
Friday morning we got up at 6.15am. We were being collected at 9am. However the phone rang shortly afterwards to say that we were actually being collected at 8am... aahhhh!!! Panicked slightly and then got all our stuff together, had breakfast and waited for the buses.
Once on board, it did actually start to spit with rain. Oh well. We were given lots of paperwork and the famous roadbooks which we started studying frantically.... all looked very daunting but the first day looked relatively easy so all okay with that. Dune day was day 2....
The coaches set off and the heavens opened. The rain was so hard you couldn't actually see very much out of the windows at all..... it was streaming off of the roof of the coach... rivers were running down the roads and parts of the desert were beginning to flood. It was bizarre knowing where we were and what was happening. However, we were all pretty confident it would stop. I mean we were going to the bloody Sahara desert....
Many pee stops later and we arrived. We were told we had to wait for army trucks to transport us off road the rest of the way. Still chucking it down with rain. It was just after 3pm at this point.
We waited on board for about an hour and then the army trucks returned for us (they had to do a few trips)....
Got off the coach into thick mud. Army trucks are incredibly difficult to get into by the way as they are incredibly high up! Passed all the cases up and then given shoves by other people to help us aboard. We were told that when we arrived at the bivouac just to go for any tent (they are usually numbered by nationality - Brits tents were 65-95 or something) but we could have any due to the conditions.
Very bumpy ride (back breaking actually) and after 20 mins we arrived. The bivouac was an absolute quagmire!! Terrible! Huge puddles in the middle of it.... we met up with the lads we were sharing with who were on another truck. They had bagged a reasonable tent. About a quarter of it was water logged so we put our stuff on the dryest parts of the carpets and proceeded to try and make it as waterproof as possible.
Shortly afterwards one of the AOI officials came to say that we could, if we wanted to, transfer our stuff to the white press tents which were dryer.... a couple of my tent mates went to have a look while I stayed with Alan to keep an eye on our stuff.... we had backpacks and our suitcases so dragging them around in the mud wasn't an option!
Soon afterwards another official came to say that the bivouac was going to be evacuated and that we would be taken to a hotel.... we were to get some food and wait for the army trucks to return. I had flip flops on at this time.... so we had to walk across the bivouac to the food and press tents with our cases and backpacks in the thick mud. Every step I took my flip flops stuck. Was quite funny.... it was dark at this point too which made it more interesting as you couldn't actually see where you were treading even with a head torch. Got the cases into a tent and went for food. The food tent was thick mud, but worth the wait because the food was fantastic. You couldn't fault the organisers as they did a brilliant job under the circumstances and made sure we were all okay.
Seemed like a long time before the army trucks came back but eventually we were rescued!!! There were however, we found out later, 7 guys who were left at the bivouac... didn't envy them that at all!! Poor buggers!
We arrived in a place called Erfoud... more queuing but finally were given a hotel room (shared with Gilly and Steph) and we cleaned ourselves up (a bit) and went for a drink.... crazy day all round... we had no idea what would be happening tomorrow....
An announcement would be made tomorrow (Saturday) about what was to happen but Day 1 was likely to be cancelled.... Rob (the rep) would be around tomorrow to let us know...
To be continued.....!!!!!
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