Jump on 3!

Backblipped 5th March

A fair bit of snoring went on last night however managed a reasonable sleep without having to get up for a wee - result! Really don't like how restricting sleeping bags are but had been quite toasty all night in it (along with my socks, pj's, liner and hat!) though a few of the girls had been really chilly - not sure how cold it did get but it wasn't far off freezing and was still very cold when we got up at 6.30am. However the effort of repacking all our kit - including deflating the fab mattress I'd been lent by Sarah - soon warmed me up!

Breakfast at 7am of porridge with jam followed by bread and cheese triangles - delicious! Still quite cool when we set off at 8am though didn't need my fleece by then.

Initially we were on more hamada, then a bit of dunes followed by a dry river bed with the Jabei Bani mountains a constant to the North.

Stopped at a well where our camels were given an enormous, and well deserved drink - and then a few other camels with eeny weeny babies, one was only about a week old, came along hoping to get given some water too. This was when we discovered our camels were boy camels as they got quite excited at the approach of the lady camels! They made a very strange sound - like "blubbbbbbeeeerrrrr, blubbbbbbeeeerrrrr" and what looked like their tongue comes out of their mouths - though in actual fact is part of the roof of the mouth - most strange!

Lunch stop was lovely - a 2 hour break to avoid the midday heat and more delicousness - including us being introduced to the delights of a Spam type pressed meat with olives in it and plastic cheese!

Another hour or so after lunch and on our approach to camp at Oued L'autruche we saw that a "shower" tent had also been put up! I'm not sure a 30 second hose down with water did a much better job than wet wipes however it was quite refreshing despite being interrupted by one of the guys thinking that it was a good time to see what the shower looked like when I was in there - thankfully I managed to stop his approach before he actually fully unzipped the tent!

Fabulous sand dune near camp for us to sit on watching the sun go down - which was enhanced by a load of camels going by followed by their cameleer ... on a motorbike ... which he then preceded to park right in front of us adding a certain something to everyone's photos!

This evening's briefing had Anna telling us we were a really speedy group and that there really was no need for us all to be huddled up together at the front - we could relax and spread out more, stop to take pictures and really enjoy the experience. Was good to hear as had felt that during the first day and a half I'd hardly take any photos for fear of slowing things down - we were also walking on top of each other and despite the size of the desert were bumping into each other all the time!

Another great dinner was followed by a roaring camp fire and the crew providing the evening's entertainment of drumming, singing and dancing. We then completed the cultural exchange with the hokey cokey, heads, shoulders, knees and toes and if you're happy and you know it - class!

Day Two Stats:
10 miles/7 hours 22 mins
Ascent/descent 149/168 feet
Calories 2165
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