Campsite January 16th

Basically we had stopped at the side of a stretch of road - on the south side of a dual carriageway - the north bound lane is about 100 m away. The area was or had been walled off - perhaps to keep animals in? The landscape is ugly desert at this stage with the Red Sea on one side - lights in the distance from a Power Station. We set up our tents against the wall for shelter and go and get some soup. - its really early - about 1.30 and I am starving! I keep eating soup, drinking tea, eating soup etc etc - trying to eat as much as possible and re hydrate as well. We all decide to go for a swim so walk towards the sea - it turned out to be a lot further than we thought - over some oil pipe lines and down to a dirty beach complete with some trash boats! However the water felt really good on my legs - it was quite warm and sunny by now - I just stood in it for quite a while!

back at camp I got my solar panel out - it works really well - am very pleased with it - it charges my Garmin fully and then does my video camera as well - really good!

slowly the other riders keep arriving at camp - but it seems ages till we are all here and ready for our Rider meeting - with instructions/information for the next day! Dinner - once again our plates were piled high but I couldnt eat it all - I am going to ask for a smaller portion tomorrow. Fish stew with rice - really good! Sat with scott and we discussed trying to get some crisps/pringles maybe even noodles to snack on immediately after the ride! Also maybe a snack later at night?

After dinner we head off to our tents to get organised - need to be better prepared tomorrow! we can start when we like tomorrow but the truck with the bags will leave at 7am so need to be ready by then!Think we are aiming to start at about 7.15 As Racers we might as well start together in a group - its a lot easier to get 100k out of theway together - then race if you want to - at least thats what I think - hopefully the others will too! OK - I am off to bed!!