In Limbo

[posted by Jon] This will probably be our last entry before we start, even though that's not until Sunday morning. Our flight to Ouarzazate (French, so "Waz-az-at") was uneventful, we landed just after 4pm local time. Tonight we're staying in the 5-star Berbere Palace hotel; it's not 5-star by London standards, but it's the best hotel in the town - quiet, comfortable and well decorated (including many props from the local film studios). After a quick trip to the foreign exchange for some dirhams (which has the excellent currency code "MAD") and the supermarket for some bananas, we set about packing. I ditched everything on the "nice-to-have" list (except the iPod), giving me an initial pack weight of 8.6kg, although this will be topped up with a few items we're yet to be given (see below) and 1.5 litres of water. We now face two days of waiting. If someone offered us the chance to start first thing tomorrow we'd bite their hand off (except maybe Chris who is waiting for the weather to heat up at bit). Instead, we have a long coach journey tomorrow morning to the start camp. There's nothing planned for the afternoon, so we'll have plenty of time to test out kit in the race environment and mull over what lies ahead. At least food is provided for us - we've got plenty to spare but we don't have to start on the freeze-dried meals straight away. Saturday is the registration day. Individually this ought be at most a 30 minute process, but since there are about a thousand competitors to register there will be queues and it will probably take most of the day. Registration is pretty simple. We hand in our medical certificates and ECGs, and are given the "road book" (course maps and notes), an emergency flare, salt tablets and our pre-ordered fuel (not allowed on the plane). The organisers will also check our bags for the compulsory items and sufficient food. Again, lots of time to test kit and anticipate the start. The real action finally begins on Sunday morning. We'll be self-sufficient at this point, so breakfast is up to us. We can leave a bag of unwanted kit to be transported back to the hotel, then it's just us and our race packs, jostling for position behind the start line. As for what lies beyond - we'll have to wait and see...