Marathon Des Sables
A Sandstorm on Arrival
Tom Bell / 10.04.2005
It was only a 10 minute transfer from there to the hotel and the rest of the evening was spent sitting by the pool and chatting with other nervous competitors. The only crisis to speak of was a duff consignment of Greenheat cooking fuel and the fact that the beer at the bar was a little on the warm side. Next day’s transfer was 5 hours with roadside pack lunch.
On arrival it was a mad dash for the best tent and a lazy afternoon until dinner which was great - a full on 3 course dinner!
Next day we spent the morning throwing away food that we had spent so much time getting together in a desperate attempt to get our bags to a manageable level. We ditched mainly food, about 1kg each and a load of REGO sports drink on the basis that it tastes disgusting and we could get some of the protein from more palatable pork scratchings!
The afternoon was then written off by a sandstorm, which even managed to keep the introductory speech by Patrick Bauer to a minimum! In the middle of the sandstorm, while tents were collapsing and hundreds were running for rocks to weigh down the sides of their tent, two trucks cranked up some loud Brazilian music and 50 or so dancers appeared! Very surreal!
We went to bed happy with that 18,000 calories, distress flare and salt tabs were set packed ready for tomorrow.
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