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.