MdS - A cold desert morning (7 April)

Awoke to be greeted by a cold desert morning but a glorious sunrise over a sea of black tents.

Our somewhat glamorous mid-night tent addition was awake doing her make-up and brushing her hair before disappearing, never to be seen again! Come on men, snap out of it!

Mad panic ensues to get our kit organised for the compulsory checks this morning. All hands on deck. Still no sign of Chris!  I will be going signal 'grey', if not 'dark', over the next seven days in the desert.  I'll check in when and where I can.  You actually get fined if you're caught on your mobile talking in the camp and are expected to walk away from the camp if you have any mobile conversations - but realistically we are expected not to do any of that nonsense, many people came here to escape the real world.  I'm not sure who enforces the fine anyway.

I finally found Chris in Tent 116.  He's shoe-horned into one of eight places there.  Each black bivouac tent is supposed to sleep eight, but we have only five in our tent so it's positively palatial, give or take a rock or two under the mat, and the nighttime draft, and the snoring. And don't forget the farting, boy we had some rippers last night, I'm surprised the tent is still standing!  

It's like the inter-school sports day has arrived and we're waiting nervously in the various queues eyeing up the competition before our races. The star athletes from the rival school float by as if on air and suddenly your expectations are dashed. Us mere mortals will be glad to finish, while the elites battle over the honours for the top 50 places. 

Kit checked, essentials issued (including Spot GPS trackers, empowered by my friends from GPS 2SOPS and Globalstar), bags weighed and we're ready to roll! We have our official photo taken by the organisers, this is the "before" picture, probably also useful for the Moroccan equivalent to Crimewatch - have you seen these men wandering the desert?  Also, I'm not sure it's a good omen that my solar charger has melted in the sun, I kid you not ...  Gulp.

Chris is runner #671 and I'm #461.  Track us via the MdS website here. 

Intrepid or decrepit adventurers? 

This is the last day of food provided by the organisers and we enjoy an evening feast and load up with protein and carbs from the food tent and sit outside (warm, but getting cooler) partly illuminated by our head torches and the camp floodlights.  There's a real atmosphere and everyone is excited if not a little anxious.

Early to bed, for tomorrow, it starts.....