Souk And Soccer

Sunday 15th/Monday 16th April 2014

It's not quite 9am and I have just woken. I look down at my ankles (or 'cankles' more like) sticking out from the duvet. They are over twice the size that they normally are. Bits of my feet, along with some iodine stains have been left on the bed. My back is sore, but in a strange way, I feel good. This was to be our last full day in Morocco.

Patrick had just woken too and I could hear Ian moving about in the room next door. Patrick was still in a bad state. His feet were far worse than mine. Part of this is down to the fact that the shoes he raced in were the right size for him, rather than a half a size too big, which is what everyone else brought. The extra space allows your foot to expand during the race, which for most people is the case. On top of that, he had brought no shoes for afterwards except some black leather ones he wore on the way out, so I happily lent him my runners.

Food, as it always is with me, was the priority, so after a quick shower the three of us headed for breakfast, joined by the others from Tent140. I was seriously concerned about my ankles but managed to ignore it while I stuffed my face with fresh bread, cheese, cucumber, yoghurt and hot chocolate. Breakfast of champions!

As we were in Morocco, we said we better do something local, just to say we had seen a bit of the place. The recommendation was the souk or market in the town. After haggling a little with the taxi drivers outside the hotel, Patrick, Ian, Rich and I went to the local souk for a stroll around. It had everything you would need for whatever you were doing in Morocco, all with specialist traders - if you wanted a bucket, you went to the bucket man, if you wanted washing detergent, there was a washing detergent man and if you wanted some livestock, well you could get that there too. We even saw a woman buying some vegetables with a live goat around her neck as if it was some kind of scarf.

The Souk

After we had our fill of down-town Ouarzazate, we went to leave and Rich, Patrick and I headed for the exit and a taxi. No sign of Ian. We got a little worried and Rich headed back in to get him and he emerged with some brick-a-brack (sorry Ian!) which he bought at one of the stalls. I honestly thought he'd been kidnapped or something.



Anxiously Waiting For Ian Outside The Souk

Off we went to one of the other MDS hotels to collect our race t-shirt and go to the MDS Boutique. Again we queued and eventually got in to buy whatever MDS mementos you wanted. More queuing at the check out area before we eventually made our way back to the hotel to watch Liverpool play Man City.

It was now early afternoon, so drinking was acceptable and beers were ordered during the game as Patrick and I sat with Alex and Rich. It was a cracker, Liverpool winning it in the last fifteen minutes. Afterward we headed across to the local shops (more like tourist traps - right outside the hotel), where Patrick, on my sound geological and palaeontological advice, purchased some fossil scorpions from the dodgiest dealers in Morocco. I suppose they were safer to bring back than the live ones his kids had wanted.

After a few more beers down by the pool (which we were not allowed to swim in because of infected feet), we got ready for dinner. My ankles were worse than before at this stage, but the beer was having its effect of lessening the amount I cared about them.

Patrick Bauer joined the group for dinner and a few speeches were made. Claire's fantastic performance was recognised by the British group we had travelled with, along with the top British competitors, before we settled down to an evening of craic. Rachel and Linda dropped in too with a bottle of Jameson (Rachel's employers), which we all helped to finish. The girls had booked through the French organisers and so were in a different hotel.

As with the night before, the drop off rate was pretty high and not to be outdone I was off to bed relatively early knowing that we had a flight back to London the following morning.

Niall and I Fully Rehydrated

Breakfast was a brief affair on the Monday, as we were all heading to the airport. We got a few snaps of Tent140 before leaving and as we emerged out of the hotel, we realised we had missed the bus, so Patrick and I had to get a taxi. We got to the airport at the same time as the bius and then had to queue for almost two hours before going through to departures. Ouarzazate Airport is pretty small, so there were only two security checkers on the way through for 300 people.

Saying Our Goodbyes - Tent 140 Phil, Anj, Patrick, Rich, Alex, Sian and Ian

 Our flight was delayed, so both our own and the second flight took off at nearly the same time. We also had an issue with landing gear on the way into Gatwick, which led to fire trucks following us down the runway after we landed.

Daniel And I On The Last Morning

So that was it. After some hugs and goodbyes at the baggage carousel, I headed out of Gatwick leaving behind me a huge group of friends I had made over the week. It was fantastic to see all the families waiting for their loved ones to come through the arrivals hall. I hopped on a train to Clapham, where I was staying overnight. My ankles were now a ridiculous size and wouldn't be for another day that they would begin to look normal again.

Thanks to Johnny and Jer, my friends from college, for entertaining me that night and putting up with my desert stories. It was a good way to finish the adventure of as lifetime.

Patrick and I finally touched down in Cork the following day. It was an epic 10 days.