(13) 20 March. The First Day

As I reflect on our first day off road I am sitting in the middle of nowhere on a rock in a dry wadi watching the sun set behind mountains in front of me as the stars are coming out in a clear and darkening sky above. It is idyllic.

So how went the day? We had decided that our plan would be to stay in the town until 11am by which time the team with the head gasket problem would know where they stood and we could then make a group plan accordingly. So the morning for most was taken with exploring Midelt. It's a small town in the middle of nowhere; standing on the higher ground near the hotel and looking across the roof tops brought home that isolation with the edge of the town being clearly visible and nothing beyond save the brown, flat plain and mountains on the horizon in the far distance.

We met as planned and found out from the Mercedes team that their problem was not terminal and could be sorted (in a fashion) by lunchtime. It was decided that one of the cars would stay behind and travel with them later in the day while the others (including another group that had joined us that morning after catching a different ferry to the rest of us) would head straight off on the route into the mountains and to the south. We chose a rendezvous for us all to meet at later and headed off.

The first part of the trip was uphill, into the mountains and along tarmac roads but in very isolated valleys. Before long though we headed off down a single track road and were in the Morocco of mud buildings, small holdings and working donkeys. A short drive and then we turned off onto a stony track that headed into the jaws of a small but wide valley. This was not actually one of the suggested routes but we thought we would give it a try as it paralleled the tarmac track in the next valley that took us to our destination and we felt confident. It soon became clear however why there were GPS coordinates on the suggested routes; when on a track it is hard to tell which one to take should you reach a junction as they are not signed and there is not really such a thing as a 'major' or 'minor' track. But we knew from our map that our destination required us to reach the head of this valley, the edges of which were obvious to either side, so we had a good - but not perfect - indication of where to head when required. We were also aided by one of the groups who had a trial's bike on the back of their car and went off ahead to route find if needed. We progressed in this way for a while, off road and crawling along, avoiding the ruts and occasionally scraping our undersides. With care though it was within the capability of our cars. Slowly we headed up the valley under a clear blue sky, crossed a dried riverbed, passed locals on donkeys and working the fields and generally felt that now we were truly off the beaten track. And then we came undone.

Our downfall was another crossing of a dry river bed although in this one a very narrow strip of water, about an inch or two deep, ran along one edge. Along the track and down into the river bed went the first car, over the water, onto the dried bed and up the other side. Safely across. Then the second car, down the track to the river bed and...stop. Right in the water. The more they tried to get out the more the wheels span and dug the front of the car deeper into the wet gravel until they were well and truly grounded. There then followed an hour and a half of digging, towing forwards (using the car that had successfully crossed), towing backwards (using our car still waiting to cross), pushing, laying of planks under tyres and generally anything else we could think of to try and move the car but all to no avail. The Peugeot team in our number turned out to be the saviour, producing an 'air jack' that when placed under the car and linked to the exhaust inflated and raised the car enough to get planks under the front tyres allowing them to drive forward to solid ground. But having got the second car across we got a report from the bike rider that the route further up looked impassable for two wheel drive cars and so decided that the most sensible option would be to head back and onto the 'correct' route.

So we retraced our route and headed off on the better track down the next valley along - wide, flat and reddy brown with formations similar to those you might see in Arizona. We met up with the other two cars 20 miles further on. They had found the 'wild camp' site in the wadi where we are all now parked up. Tomorrow we head off east - off road again - but for tonight it is dinner under the stars and more time getting to know our fellow travellers.