Hello All
Firstly let me apoligise for the lack of blog updates, however I see others have kept you all posted a little... Big Thanks to you!
It seems my internet stick has not worked since we touched African soil! I will keep trying, This evening we have been able to "borrow" someones!

All is going really well and its too amazing here to describe! I am currently sitting in a beautiful hotel, outside (and warm!) The hotel is called Asaa and is in Zagora, Morocco. Sounds like a holiday! Its not all been relaxing though, we have had some tough days, tough on ourselves and the car, for us, getting used to the tripmaster, gps and terrain! We have encountered lots of rocky and sandy tracks and this has lead us to discover that Laura is too heavy and therefore too low! So this evening we have been quite ruthless and stripped alot of un-necessary weight from the car, including some of our clothes! (we didn't have many in the first place!) We have not thrown this stuff away, we have used some to bargin with the local Morrocans to work on the car, we will also give things away to people as we travel.
Because Laura is too low as she is heavy and this has lead to damage to the underside of the car, good job we have put very robust fuel tank and engine guards on, none the less the damage underneath is not a real concern, other repairs have included 1 flat tyre (easily repaired as we run on inner tubes) and a bent rear arm, this happened after we drove up a big, rocky mountain, and of course back down! When we reached camp that night Frank the mechanic simply bent the arm back in place by bolting a pole to the hub and attaching a ratchet from the pole to the front wheel! Clever hey?! unfortunatly this has bent again today because the terrain is so rough, this is the hardcore edition after all! So we will see how this goes and may either bend it again or fit a new arm. Overall not too many problems so far (touching wood!)
Yesterday was a short day so we took our time over Lunch, (The Italian team in the Pentax car made a wonderful pasta lunch for us)After lunch we began to hit sand, real soft and lots of it! and became all the cars stuck too many times to remember! because this stop starting delayed our travelling so much we could not reach the camp, so stayed at the Berban village, We arrived at about midnight, 10 cars stayed here and 10 made it to camp, upon arrival we ate (which took the locals almost 2 hours to prepair - nothing is urgent in Africa!) we got 4 1/2 hours sleep and then set off again. This was only last night so I am looking forward to the comfy hotel bed tonight. I will try and keep you posted as much as I can and make better daily notes!