We have just boarded the ferry at Sete in the South of France, and believe me it is nice to be laying on a mattress typing this! I keep telling myself not to get used to it however as after this long ferry crossing its back to the airbeds, although it should be quite a bit warmer!
So, Its now 12.35 our time, we are 1 hour ahead of England currently, the ferry leaves here at 2pm and is a 36hour crossing on which we can sleep, eat and wash ready for the real adventure to begin. When we dock we travel from Nador to Bouarfa (Morocco) which is a 481km trek mainly offroad and we are warned that it is likely we may get lost!… this is the hardcore edition after all!
To rewind a little, we left Watton, Norfolk at 2am Thursday 29th and were able to catch the earlier ferry at 6am (instead of 8am) which was a great start to the trip. We docked at Dunkirk at 9am (our time) and arrived at the Africa Museum at 2pm on the 30th after a rest we went into the centre of Tervuren on the hunt for some ‘Escargos’ (snails to you and I!) but were very disappointed that everywhere had sold out … I bet they were really nice! We also had a browse around a supermarket and then had something to eat.
After a night sleep in the green area near the Africa museum we joined the rest of the participants at the Museum, each team had to go and give a little introductory speech, I was very nervous but, hey, its done now and I think it went ok!
All of the cars left together at 1pm with all the random, crazy horns blowing and everyone waving us off. It was a superb atmosphere and a great feeling to finally be setting off after at least a years preparing! I believe the introductions and the send off of the cars has been aired on Belgium TV? you may be able to view this on you tube? If we are on there can someone post a comment to let us know?!
The drive from Tervuren to Sete was a long one (1050km) arriving at 2am we stuck with the ‘green frog’ (Edwin and Frederick in the Mehari) all went well on the way and we were amongst the first cars to arrive at the Port of Sete which was really good going.

Car update: The car is running well and seems to settling in and improving with every mile she runs.
Mileage Update: 961 miles from Norfolk to Sete