(24) 30 March. Home and Goodbyes

Without doubt the last few weeks have been a fantastic experience and we have met some wonderful people and made some good friends. We have also taken two-wheel drive cars to places that they should surely never go.

We left Morocco yesterday after a last morning with the other groups – and promises to keep in touch - before we all went our separate ways (although most were on the same flight as us, for the first part at least).  It was a short run to the local airport and the trip to Casablanca and where we had our first twitch as the guys doing passport checks seemed to be confused and suspicious of our in-and-out in a day routine from yesterday. Still, it was resolved and we were allowed to get our bags, move 200 yards through the terminal, and then wait seven hours for the next plane. Of course there was still the question (for Sue at least) of whether the process that acknowledged her having ‘exported’ the Audi actually worked. Happily all went swimmingly and we arrived in Gatwick as planned without further problems.  

Trips like ours are made by the people so we would like to say a big public ‘thank you’ to the other groups we hung out with, helped us on our way and generally made the last two weeks as memorable as they have been. To John and Terry and Mark in the Peugeot who were unquestionably the best organised of us as far as any car emergencies were concerned; they managed to produce something to help all of us out of a crisis at some point when the rest of us had run out of ideas. To Hugo and Tom, the Irish guys in their Mercedes which seemed to stand in as a portable Morrisons; we all loved the moment at the border when the guard asked all the British to come to the front of the queue and you willingly counted yourselves in our number. And to Robin, Ian and Nigel in the other Mercedes (the one with head gasket problem); great ‘doers’ and ‘fixers’ and between them generous to a fault. It has been great trip guys.  Thank you.  

And finally a ‘thank you’ to those of you out there who have been supporting us in raising money for Great Ormond Street and sharing our adventure. We both hope that in some small way this blog has allowed us to share the fun, the frustrations and the thrills of the last two weeks.