Day 7 The Long Way Home

Today we packed up everything after our stay on the Tuareg Hotel, no sign of a BMW anywhere. What a great place to be based, right on the edge of the dunes and really great locals who were super friendly. Phil and I were whisked off to one of the guys family co-operative for a class in nice guy rug salesmanship. We had the full hit of music, tea, rug tutorial and general chatter. I walked out with a rug and a couple of turbans but try as he might the host could only get Phil to leave with a turban.

We also rigged Geoff up with a bit of helmet cam action, more on that later with any luck. Today was a long ride back to Missour, full of rocky roads and deep washouts, the service truck had an easy day trundling straight back to the hotel, but as soon as we got there Stan the man turned up being first to finish. So much for a quiet afternoon.

Doug has run out of stuff to say so I am going to have a go (anthony)

From a riders perspective the days are getting harder now and fatigue is starting to set in. I was very pleased to see the end of the special today! Geoff (or Gay off) as the Germans call him had a couple of moments today riding a bit quicker than he should. The days have been very different, the last two days in the sand have been very hard and pysical, but today has been more about relentless rocky roads and a long timed special test.
Today we are back to more navigation on the road and moving away from using the GPS which is good for the guys who have been having GPS problems, but bad for those who have broken their roadbook holders.


The last two days promise to be hard as ever. Tomorrow the roadbook looks to be quite technical and there are some rivers and small trails thrown in.  All is going well in the service team no one has fallen out yet and Doug and Phil seem to be bonding ready for the journey home.

Dave and Neil have been having a great time in the landrover supporting the Car of Derek and alan. Today they swapped co-drivers and Neil (who has been on the spanners) took a ride in the passangers seat. I dont know wether Alan got much of a rest as the service crew job for the cars looks pretty full on to me! Any way all the british cars are still running although it seems to me they have to spend a long time fettling them.

I spent most of the time today riding with Mr Webster who is recovering quickly from his broken collarbone and by the end of the day seemed to be back to his pace from a few days ago!

Off back to Nador tomorrow and an evening on the ferry, seems like a while ago since we were on it.