Alla inlägg under januari 2007

Av Vilhelmina - 2 januari 2007 06:12

Today has definitely been one of the better days. Much better than 2nd January ever has been in the UK! I'm in bed in the ambulance listening to the music outside and the other teams chatting and laughing. We're in a rubbish campsite in Taroudannt, close to Agadir on the coast. It's basically a concrete parking with squatting toilets in one corner and a tap of water. There is a hut where the guards hang out and it's supposedly free but we have a sneaky feeling the guards won't let us out tomorrow without a little "gift". They've padlocked the gates... We're just behind a fantastic hotel where some teams stay but to start with we haven't got any money and secondly it takes away the whole idea with the rally keeping the costs down.Tizi-n-test was just awesome. Windy roads with sheer drops of a couple of hundred yards and right at the top you have this amazing view over a vast expanse of openness. Magnificent. Words can't describe it. Wait for the photos when i get back.We were going in convoy with the desert scouts, angel and the fairy, banger boys and team unstable. They're all a really good bunch of people and we had a right laugh messing around with the walkie talkies. At one point when we had stopped and was just about to set off i decided to go for a wee behind a cactus and Ben from team unstable announced on the radio "We have a lady peeing, I repeat, a lady peeing." as all cars were on a row it almost blared out like on a tannoy system... It wasn't very easy after that and i quickly decided not to. That then became a running joke and they kept asking me how my bladder was doing! Charming! :-) We also had "CBoke" as opposed to karaoke and kept singing on the radios. We did "Always look on the bright side of life" and one of the other teams filled in the whistling. Nice team spirit. Time for bed now, sleep tight.(Publicerat av Owe)

Av Vilhelmina - 1 januari 2007 22:10

We spent most of the day in the hotel to my disappointment. To start with the boys wanted a lie in to about 1100 and then we were faffing for a bit and also did some washing of pants, socks and t-shirts. There are more interesting things to do when you're in marrakech than your boyfriends washing. Oh well, it's partly for my benefit as well as they would be a bit wiffy otherwise.We also rang the ambassador to get him on to the hospital for the documents. He didn't pick up as obviously he doesn't work on new years day. We're getting a bit peeved with the hospital really. We've gone to great lengths to sort out this ambulance for them and we asked them for these documents about a month before we set off. They had enough time to sort something but they didn't. Then they went home on saturday when we sat locked up in the compound in customs not caring the slightest. We have been toying with the idea of carrying on with the rest of the group and donate the ambulance to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Gambia instead. I mean, although Gambia is richer than Senegal they're still a poor country compared to Britain. We'll see. I've got loads of fake faxes from dad now that he sorted together with my friend Jenny. I'm so grateful to them for all the work they've put into this. We've got four different documents, two from NHS and two from the hospital in dakar. One says ambulance and one says we're bringing medical equipment but not that we're an ambulance. We're going to cover up the blue lights and all the stickers saying ambulance. Hopefully then we won't have any problems. We'll say it's a camper van and smile! (A bit like in that Swedish film "Repmånad" where they paint helicopter on the side of the truck and pretend it can fly over the broken bridge!)We went into Marrakech in the evening and it was very nice. We walked to the main square where we were last night and had food at the same place, only fish this time. I am utterly fascinated by the poop-bags they have behind their horses. It's quite common with horse and carriage here as a touristy way of getting around, a bit like the rickshaws in London. Behind each horse is a plastic poop-bag to collect waste from the horse, so clever!We didn't buy anything at the market more than food and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. Now, that was by far the best orange juice i've ever tried! The oranges are ripened on the tree and picked not long before they are squeezed. Fantastic. We're leaving at seven tomorrow to go up in the Atlas Mountain so time for bed now i think. (Publicerat av Owe)

Av Vilhelmina - 1 januari 2007 00:39

What would you do for your sunday lunch? Would you go out and slaughter the nearest sheep, pull out planks to the dual carriage way and set fire to them and chuck the sheep on top of it and let it burn to a black, hard sooty mess and then hack away at it with a machete? That's what most moroccans have done today. We're not sure if this is a new years eve thing or if they do this every sunday. We're hoping for the sheeps sake it's a new years eve tradition. Apart from sheep heads being burned we've also seen lots of small roads from rabat to marrakech. It's been a warm and sunny day, perfect weather really. Not too hot, just perfect. We sort of wish we had arrived earlier at the hotel, but at the same time we saw quite a lot of nice things on the way and it was nice cruising along slowly. Marrakech is nice, the little we have seen. I wouldn't want to come back though, i'm quite happy with this "culture light" that we are getting through the car front window. Not sure it can be called that though as we're seeing a lot of things we wouldn't see if we were on a package tour, but as we're in the car most of the time we're not really in touch with it either, we sort of watch it from a distant. Either way, i quite like it that way and don't feel the need for any closer meetings with the locals. We stopped at one point to let the landrover cool down and a bunch of children came up to say hello, talking about meeting the locals. They were quite friendly and we gave them some lollipops. They fetched half the village including granny who tried talking to us in german. I think that may have been because Terri said she spoke some german and they thought she was german then. Not sure, but not too bothered either! They were sweet! We spent the evening at the square eating kebabs and drinking water. It's very difficult to find any alcohol as it's a muslim country. We tried their traditional mint tea with lots of sugar, very nice. It got a bit nippy in the evening, a bit like a british late may evening. We're off to bed now i think as we're all quite tired. Thanks for all texts and messages, they are much appreciated even though i may not reply.Also a big thanks to dad who sends through field reports on the other teams and just generally works as our "back office support". We probably need more fake documents to take us through the rest of the borders as the hospital has not sent through anything. Or maybe they have but the hotel has binned it... Either way, time for bed now. Night night. X(Publicerat av Owe)

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