The Final Chapter

You can sponsor the trekkers here:

www.justgiving.com/Owen-P

www.justgiving.com/Jennifer-Huson

www.justgiving.com/Jacqui-Whitelaw

www.justgiving.com/Charity-Helen

www.justgiving.com/CharityWarnes

www.justgiving.com/helenjdodd

www.justgiving.com/Graham-Carter2

 

 

 

We are now back at our starting point in Marrakesh (a hairy return journey to say the least!), and it's hard to believe that we only left here a few days ago. So much has happened in that time and we have shared so many amazing experiences. We have all enjoyed our first showers in days and can't believe that we haven't blocked the hotel drains with all the sand!

In the last few days there have been some things that have really stood out for all of us:

Funniest moment: this morning when the Berbers were just about to dismantle the toilet tent without realising that Helen was in there mid squat!

Best meal: our last dinner in the desert of chicken and chips - delicious!

Most hated: flies, poisonous spiders and sand

Song of the trek: Snow Patrol's 'Chasing Cars'; great to stargaze to

Best team moment: lying in total darkness watching the African night sky and seeing shooting stars

Trek wedding: marrying our trek escort Vicky off to the 'happy' waiter in Ouarzazate. Sadly we failed to negotiate any camels in return!

Best educational moment: teaching our guide Khalid the word 'loo' as an alternative to 'toilet' (toilets have featured heavily in conversation).

Huge thanks to all those people who have supported us and read our blog; it has meant a lot to know you were following our progress. Thanks also to Emma back at the Isabel Hospice and to Different Travel for the great organisation, and to Gill for running the blog. Big thanks to our Berber team of camel handlers, Said and Yusef, our wonderful cook Oualeid, and top trek guide Khalid for all their hard work. Not forgetting of course our great tour escort, Vicky, who has smiled throughout.

Finally we thought we would each like to share our personal thoughts on the last few days with all of you:

Graham

Starry starry night

Paint the sand yellow or white

Look out on a summer's day

For those swirling clouds of violet haze.

With eyes that watch and can't forget

Starry starry nights here in the Sahara to reflect On what we have; what we have given; and what we have yet to give.

Jacqui

A year ago this was not even a destination on any of my wish lists. I hope Alex would be proud of me doing the challenge although he would have suggested a spa instead.

Owen

A humbling experience on the Project and a fantastic trek in great company. I never want to see another grain of sand - until the next time.

Khalid (our Berber guide)

Such big opportunity to have the chance to be involved in making a difference in one of the best things to do in life,is helping the other to live better.

Thanks to this amazing people whom given all what they got.

Vicky (Different Travel)

You couldn't ask more as a trip escort - a great bunch of people and fantastic on the ground organisation. Everyone got stuck in, worked and walked hard, without a whinge or wimper despite intense heat, sandstorms, spiders, dehydration, illness and injury. Well done everyone! Hope your supporters are very proud of you, they should be. Vx

Charity

This has been the most amazing experience, and life-changing for me; I know Jane would be very proud of what I have achieved. It has made me re-evaluate my life and I realise I would love to do some volunteering overseas in the future.

Julia

Trekking in the Sahara, not one for the fainthearted, an experience not to be missed. Supported by the Berbers and amazing fresh cooking at the end of the day at the campsites. Tough at times but very enjoyable, great time had by all.

Helen - Inspiring group Simon, trekking in my nephew's memory Awake at night Big blisters Ella, trekking in my niece's memory Lots of laughter

Hot sun

Overtaking into oncoming traffic

Sandstorms in the Sahara

Project preparing ground, planting grass seed and installing showers Imodium Chicken, chips and camels Experience not one of us will ever forget

Diana Spiders Almonds Hand sanitiser Adventure Riddles Alex

Camping and compeeds

Hiking and hysterics

Aching

Limbs

Lizards

Eggshells

Nappy sacks

Grime

Exceptional experience

Thank you x

Jennifer

My first thought is let me have a shower and I'll do it all over again!

This experience has not just enabled me to give back to a charity to which I am so grateful for giving me so much at such a difficult time in my life and for their amazing care of my father in whose memory I have completed this challenge. I have also managed to learn my own capabilities.

I am only taking back wonderful memories of this challenge; I can truly say there has not been a dull moment, I loved every bit... Memories of great team work at the homeless refuge, amazing sights, meeting interesting and inspiring people who I hope I will call friends in the future, beautiful sunsets and eventful toilet moments! An experience I would recommend.

This is the Isabel Hospice Sahara Trek Team b-logging off for the last time.

Cheers!x

It's Over!

 

It's over! We survived the night without anyone being poisoned by spiders. After breakfast we had camel rides and then trekked back to civilisation and are packing up the minibus ready for the 7+ hour trip to Marrakesh. It is with a mixture of joy and sadness that we leave the Sahara Desert behind us, particularly for Charity who is very tearful at leaving. It has been a real emotional rollercoaster for us all with so many highs and lows, but we wouldn't swap the experience for anything.

We have very little time now and little phone battery but we will send a final blog when we are showered and have a drink in our hands this evening. For now it's goodbye to the wonderful Sahara.

The Spider!

This is a photo of the poisonous spider Helen just found crawling up the side of our tent - as you can tell from the bottle cap, it was huge. Needless to say, we won't be spending our last night in the desert under the stars!

Friday Afternoon Update

 

We've made it to camp and it's a huge relief to be here. After a very tough morning of trekking, the wind picked up this afternoon to the strongest it has been, so we've had to battle through it and we all have gritty, sore eyes. The flies here are awful, but at the moment there's just a sense of relief and knowing that we've almost made it. Just one more night and trekking tomorrow morning, then headed back to civilisation.

Friday - spiders, bread and chilled beer

The last day of trekking

Our final full day of trekking. Last night was amazing; after we'd collected firewood our berbers lit a fire to heat the sand below. They then cleared the embers and buried bread dough in the sand to bake. Once it was done they cleaned off all the ash and sand, and we ate it for our dinner - it tasted wonderful! More star gazing to the sound of Snow Patrol and Mumford and Sons - Graham seems to have a bag like Mary Poppins', and it contains almost every piece of technology you can imagine, including iPod speakers!

Quite a few people had hoped to sleep outside, but the area where we were staying was very remote and one of the berbers had seen a spider which has a poisonous bite, so our guide Khaleed told us we had to sleep in our tents with the doors zipped up, and what Khaleed says is law out here. It was a stiflingly hot night, so many of us didn't sleep well.

Waiting for our bread to come out of the 'oven'

This morning has been incredibly tough, and unfortunately some of the group aren't feeling too great with upset stomachs and nausea, so it's been really difficult. This is the stage where it truly does feels like a massive challenge, and the point at which we feel we are really having to dig deep in return for all that sponsorship that people have so generously given.

We are now resting and rehydrating while we eat and wait for the temperature to drop a bit. We will then head off to our last camp.

Can you guess what our trekkers are saying?

Whilst today is really, really hard, it will be sad to leave all this behind us tomorrow. The desert is an incredibly beautiful place, and the simplicity of life here has a definite appeal. At the same time we are all dreaming of hot showers and a chilled beer of glass or wine!

This is not a doddle - sand, flies, heat and desert toilets!

Our freshly dug camp toilet

We've made it to camp, though the last half hour was much tougher as the wind had picked up and we were walking into sand clouds - we think we now have it in every possible orifice!

We have stopped a bit earlier tonight as we had to collect firewood for this evening. Not that easy in the desert! We've had to climb over sand dunes carrying armfuls of wood with sand blowing into our eyes - in reality probably a lot tougher than it sounds to you reading this at home.

We are now back at camp and sheltering from the wind with scarves wrapped round our heads. There are flies buzzing around, everything is coated in sand and 9 of us have just washed in 2 children's buckets of water - this is not glamorous! Talk this afternoon is of champagne, gin and tonics by the pool, hot showers and chocolate. Fortunately our wonderful berbers have just produced freshly baked orange cake (how do they do that in the desert?) and the inevitable but very welcome mint tea.

In spite of the challenges of today, we are all loving this and are looking forward to our camp fire tonight and learning how to bake local bread. If the wind dies down enough, a few more plan to sleep under the stars tonight.

Desert Trekking & Hot Nights - Thursday continues

Putting the miles behind them!

After our stargazing last night we all went off to our beds (mats and sleeping bags!) at 9.30pm as we were exhausted.

Helen and Charity were the only ones who chose to sleep out under the stars, and Charity woke this morning to the vision of Helen curled up in her sleeping bag with 5 camels sitting behind her! The rest of the team all slept in 2 man tents.

It was a fairly restless night for most of us as it wasn't the most comfortable accommodation, and in fact the nights here are still very hot, contrary to what we expected. Apparently when the weather changes it happens very quickly, so they have to prepare us for that eventuality.

This morning we woke early as the sun rose, to the sound of Jacqui and Diana giggling in their tent. Jennifer won the prize for sleeping in while we dismantled tents around her. We had breakfast of pancakes and bread before setting off on today's trek.

This morning we were walking through desert with big irrigation ditches - in this area they have irrigated 70,000 hectares to water the palm trees as it is one of main products in this area and provides employment for a million people in the Sahara.

We stopped at a small village where we had a rest and cold drinks and met a lovely local boy aged 3 by the name of Ossama, meaning lion, who was thrilled with the pen we gave him. We communicated with him through our guide who found out that he only speaks Arabic at present, but will learn to speak French in 3 years time when he goes to school. Jacqui aptly described the buildings as looking like giant sandcastles.

We have now stopped for lunch and are sitting under a palm tree to escape the heat of the day. We will leave here at about 3.30pm when it cools a bit to continue to tonight's base where we will set up our tents again, and apparently we will be collecting firewood for a big camp fire and they will show us how they make bread.

Everyone is still in good spirits, though Diana and Vicky, who is from the travel company, are both fighting colds, which seems ironic in the desert. Poor Owen is still nursing his blisters from working on the project! Graham is regaling us with stories of his various adventures - he and Jennifer are the talkers of the group with Julia being the quiet one who asks the most pertinent questions.

Hot Stuff!

No doubt we will be tired again tonight after walking in this heat, but it is an amazing experience. We all send love to our families and loved ones who we talk about a lot.

Thursday - the heat is taking it toll

Lunch

Well we made it to our first camp which is just a flat area surrounded by dunes, and we managed to get our tents set up - something of a challenge for most of us! We sat and drank mint tea which is part of our staple diet now but not like mint tea at home as it very sweet. It is now dark and we are all lying chatting in the main tent with just a few candles and we can hear nothing other than other berbers chatting in the tent next door.

This morning we travelled from Ouarzazate through the Lower Atlas Mountains to our start point where we met up with the berbers and camels. Today's walk was therefore a bit of a taster but enough to make us realise that the next couple of days are going to be totally exhausting. I suspect that tomorrow we will be a lot quieter than we are tonight!

As I write this the call to prayer has just started in the distance which is an incredible sound and makes this feel very surreal.

I am sure tonight will be interesting, as most of us are definitely out of our comfort zone with no washing facilities, though we do at least have a toilet tent (a tent covering a hole in the ground)!

I suspect it will be an early start tomorrow so that we can get some miles in before it gets too hot.

Someone has just seen a shooting star so we are moving our cushions outside.

A call to prayer - Wednesday Evening Update

An update from Charity:
Well we made it to our first camp which is just a flat area surrounded by dunes, and we managed to get our tents set up - something of a challenge for most of us! We sat and drank mint tea which is part of our staple diet now but not like mint tea at home as it very sweet. It is now dark and we are all lying chatting in the main tent with just a few candles and we can hear nothing other than other berbers chatting in the tent next door. .

This morning we travelled from Ouarzazate through the Lower Atlas Mountains to our start point where we met up with the berbers and camels. Today's walk was therefore a bit of a taster but enough to make us realise that the next couple of days are going to be totally exhausting. I suspect that tomorrow we will be a lot quieter than we are tonight!

As I write this the call to prayer has just started in the distance which is an incredible sound and makes this feel very surreal.

I am sure tonight will be interesting, as most of us are definitely out of our comfort zone with no washing facilities, though we do at least have a toilet tent (a tent covering a hole in the ground)!
I suspect it will be an early start tomorrow so that we can get some miles in before it gets too hot.
Someone has just seen a shooting star so we are moving our cushions outside.

The Centre of Good Deeds

Charity sent this update on yesterday's work:

"This morning (Tuesday) we went back to the project, the name of which apparently translates as The Centre of Good Deeds.

Firstly we finished seeding the ground that we prepared yesterday in the refuge for the homeless where news of our work seemed to have got around, as we had a bit of an audience for a while. The residents seemed pleased to have us there and were friendly and welcoming. Fortunately the heaviest work was all done yesterday as some of us had bad blisters, so were still suffering a bit today.

We then had a tour of the other part of the centre, which is where they train 15-18 year olds from very poor homes in a trade such as hairdressing, carpentry or woodwork. Today they were interviewing for the next intake as they are always over subscribed.

After that we set to work helping to put in the 4 showers that they had bought with the money donated from our trek costs. They then fitted a calor gas water heater (to the outside of the wall believe it or not!) which was also paid for by us, so they now have 4 more showers for the youngsters to use, which is wonderful. The Director of the centre couldn't stress enough the fact that this was Isabel Hospice's legacy to the centre.

After lunch which was lots of lovely fresh vegetables, lamb and fruit prepared at the centre, we departed by minibus to Ouarzazarte which is where we are now.

We are spending the night in a basic but wonderfully authentic hotel* before travelling for a further 3 hours in the morning to the start point of our trek. Whilst it is undoubtedly going to be challenging, particularly given how very hot it is, everyone seems to be excited at the prospect of it now, and the apprehension seems to have diminished. That is probably because we have bonded as a team whilst working on the project.

Everyone is in good spirits x

*

Just an interesting bit of info. I mentioned that we were staying in a very basic but authentic hotel. It is in fact an old kasbah. Essentially it's a square building with 4 turrets which were used as lookout posts back in the days when the tribes used to fight, and they would also have livestock living in here with them. Sadly we weren't rocking it last night as we were shattered and went to bed at 9.30!

Tuesday 9th October - trimming & seed sowing

The team worked hard yesterday and today, preparing the ground for sowing the grass seed, and general gardening duties in hot temperatures! You can see some of the tools the team have donated and are working with.

It was an earlier start than planned for one team member (naming no names) who seemed to get the time difference wrong and arrived for breakfast at 05:20! Bet it was nice and cool though.

Lunch was a feast  and when the second course arrived unexpectedly, the team were delighed if not surprised and full. They ate the first as if it was the only course. They are feeding them well.

Graham explained about Monday's work "Charity has made good use of her blister plasters as we got to work using the new tools to landscape the gardens.

The sun burned fiercely today, and will soar to 37 tomorrow and we are not in the desert yet. Many red faces and necks being nursed back at the hotel.

We all cooled off in the pool before dinner last night and a it was a welcome bed for sore bodies."

Monday 8th October - Mint tea and grass seed

Here we are having a quick breather and a pot of mint tea!

We're staying in a hotel in Marrakesh at present and have just got back from the first day on our project which is a refuge for the homeless.

As part of our project we have provided them with some money which has been used to buy garden equipment and seed. We've been working in the gardens preparing areas to be grassed over which sounds easy but was really tough as the ground was baked hard, so we had to break it up with picks then level it out. We have all come back with blisters but feeling like we've made a difference, as it has the potential to be a beautiful outdoor space for the residents.

The project itself was incredibly humbling, as it houses about 700 people at a time, in total between 2000 and 3000 a year, but they only receive 1% of their funding from the government.

They sleep in big dormitories with beds crammed in, but they were immaculately clean and tidy. The whole ethos there is very similar to the ethos at Isabel Hospice in that it is all about quality of life. There are volunteers who help to provide care, but the residents help each other out, and those who are able to work are employed by the charity to try to get them back out into the community.

The people we worked with were lovely. When we first arrived they stood and watched us, but once they saw that we were prepared to graft, they started to work alongside us. Whilst we couldn't really communicate, it very much felt like a team effort.

Tomorrow we go back to sow some grass seed and then work on a children's project next door before setting off for the first part of our journey into the desert.

Everyone is in good spirits and we are looking forward to the challenge ahead.
 

Friday 5th October
Excitement in the office as the team set up the Sahara Trek blog thanks to Graham our BlogMaster! Depending on the signal available, we will be updating this blog when we get tales of their adventures in the Sahara.

Enormous thanks to all our trekkers taking part:

Helen Dodd, Charity Warnes, Graham Carter, Owen Pannett, Jennifer Huson, Julia Rochford, Jacqui Whitelaw and Diana Wissenbach.

Watch this space!