Day 3 led us south from Missour down to the sand dunes in Merzouger through the Ziz gorge which is amazing. We'll be down here for three days and then back the way we came.

After a fairly relaxed start to the day we headed off to meet everyone at the first check point, a few herds of goats and a bunch of camels were part of the scenery of this crazy country on the way. First through was Stan the man just behind the Tom Cat (leading car), next up were the scotts Stuart and Gordon but they had some bad news, Simon had dropped into a wash out at speed and was in a bad way, they had stayed with him until Liz and Gordon stopped to help. The Rally Raid car of Paul Round had caught the edge of the same wash out and was still there to help as well. Simons been flown to Spain now and has been looked after well.

Jeff (hard as nails) Webster also threw himself to the ground after clipping a rock and broke his collar bone. A 60km river bed ride full of boulders later, Jeff and Anthony made it to the Brown Service area. After a bit of gentle persuasion we loaded Jeffs bike in the trailer and he is now part of the service crew. Reuban also came through with a bent back end a scuffed helmet after cart wheeling his bike, not too much damage done though.

Phil managed to give himself sun stroke but should make a full recovery very soon. So all in all a bit too much excitement for one day. We ended up getting a bit lost finding the hotel and got in amongst it with the locals to get directions which ended up with us giving a ride to a random guy on the side board of the truck with the phrase "it's ok this is Africa". We arrived a the start of a sand storm which made sorting the bikes out fun but boy it's amazing to be in the middle of a mini desert with a small oasis of calm at it's center.

So a big thanks to Stuart, Gordon, Liz, (other) Gordon and the Rally Raid car of Paul Round for helping Simon out and the prompt response of the organization in getting him to a specialist facility.


Get well soon Simon were all thinking of you.

Day 2 our first in Morocco, and it feels like weve been away for a month already. The ferry trip was packed but uneventful, the morning brought a 

Nador gave us our first impressions of Morocco, infact at our very first turn a nice police man had to point us in the right direction. I thought Spain 
was unfinished, Morocco just seems to have been abandoned. The streets are filled with rubbish and the buildings range from ramshackle to palatial in no 
particular order. A few goats scattered about the place lent an air of authenticity. Very different from Europe immediately.

The Brown Service Team had agreed to rendezvous with Neil, Dave and Miles who are Servicing Dereck Edmonsnon in the Rally Raid bowler type thingy. We 
turned up first broke out the kettle and were happily sorting out the trailer when they turned up in the middle of no where. A bunch of locals also 
turned up to see what was going on which seems traditional in these parts.

Stan the man and Derek were first through, Stans an Irish guy on a Honda we are also servicing and infact first man in today. So a good show from our lot all in all. Highlights were Geoff loosing his boots and having to ride in my clown boots, Antony throwing himself roughly to the ground in a dry river bed, cracking his helmet and busting up the bespoke road book bracket. We found Tamsin unable to start her bike and after failing to fix it gave her a lift back. Apparently some guy managed to break a collar bone and most people seemed to be fixing something or other this evening.

So a great second day all round, i'm told we get to some sand tomorrow afternoon so that should be interesting. I'll try and get a good donkey picture too