It's been a week and the dust is just about settling, quite literally, from an adventure of epic proportions. I was lucky enough to have been selected by Continental Tyres to take part in their Conti4x4Trophy - a week of off-road driving across Morocco, covering the Atlas Mountains and Sahara Desert.
Over 2,000 teams entered the competition, run across Facebook, Twitter, press advertising and in tyre centres nationwide, by either purchasing Continental Tyres or completing online tasks and quizzes to collect 'miles'. From those 2,000, I was selected to spend a day at Land Rover's facility at Gaydon with 28 other couples, from whom 14 couples would go to the final. The Gaydon day was an awesome prize in itself, with ten half-hour challenges covering team-building, communication and off-road driving; plus an interview with Continental's top marketing people. The highlights were some serious off-roading in Defenders around Gaydon's muddy terrain, and some blindfold driving in the latest Range Rover Sports. The activities finished off with a Moroccan banquet and the moment of truth when the final teams were announced.
We were one of the last names read out by Conti's marketing boss, Guy Frobisher, so to find out we were going through to Morocco just as we were giving up hope was very exciting, particularly as some of the friends we'd made on the day had already been named as finalists. Our letter of congratulations also contained a time to meet at Heathrow and a flight number!
We arrived at Heathrow a fair bit earlier than was really necessary, but soon met up with the other teams, most wearing the Trophy branded shirts we'd received in a big package a few days earlier. A few celebratory drinks and we were through departures and on our way to Ouarzazate, our base for the first couple of days.
Arriving at our hotel for the nght, we were greeted by the fleet of 14 Hummer H3s which we'd be using on the Trophy. Say what you will about them, they looked very impressive lined up with their Conti liveries! We were allocated car number 14 - as close as could be hoped to my normal race number 41!
Day one started with breakfast and a briefing from Manu and Phillipe, the team behind the Trophy, and then we were out into the Hummers. The cars were set off at three minute intervals so navigation was by Tripy - a GPS linked road book into which our routes had been pre-programmed. The intervals meant that, for the first sections at least, we were on our own as tarmac turned to rocky paths and those paths, thanks to uncharateristic downfall, turned into muddy tracks.
Our initial concerns that we'd gone somehow wrong were eased when we stopped for lunch in Telouet and found another 13 Hummers, all plastered in Moroccan mud!
After a traditional Moroccan lunch of salad, omlette and tagine-cooked chicken and vegetables, we headed out to complete our initiation loop back to Ouarzazate.
Day two was the start of the bigger loop which would take is across the mountains and out into the Sahara. It began with a run across a rocky plain where we were advised to limit our speed to 80km/h, but the combination of big rocks, unpredicatable bumps and the Hummer's leaf spring suspension, meant we were reluctant to push past 60!
Once past this, our route took us up into the mountains with some impressive climbs up rocky tracks with, at times, worrying drops to the sides. The weather had pickup by now, and we were into the high 30s, with air-con banned to save over-stressing the engines (plus the fact that it didn't work on some of the Hummers). We survived though, and found our way to a new hotel in Zagora - where we all piled straight into the pool.
Another early start for day three saw us heading out towards the desert, temperatures rising, and the terrain becoming increasingly dusty. We were approaching the gateway to the Sahara, but not before a lunch stop at an awesome oasis retreat. The desert heat would be unbearable in the midday sun so we stayed at Chez Le Pacha until 3pm, playing in the pool and enjoying more incredible Moroccan cuisine - chicken skewers and the obligatory tagine rice and veg.
As the afternoon temperature started to drop (to the high 30s) we headed off into the desert, with the scenery becoming over closer to the typical dunes we'd been expecting, the Tripy navigating us effectively through the shifting landscape with only a few minor detours! We did at one point get stuck on top of a dune, but the Conti support crew were quickly on hand, linking us to a following Hummer and freeing us with F1 style efficiency.
After plenty of fun on the dunes, we regouped with the full fleet and drove in covoy to Chegaga, where we found a bedouin-style camp in the desert, our room for the night being mud-walled and canvas roofed, with traditional belly dancers and camels on hand!
It was then a very early start - 5.30am alarm for a run out to the biggest of the dune to watch the sun rise over the Sahara at 6am - a really incredible experience and quite hard to take in the sheer scale of the place as the sun rose over the dunes.
Back in the Hummers early to get back out of the heat as soon as we could, with more dunes and another few hours of driving to a vast dry lake bed where we stopped for a team photo shoot under the baking sun. The flat surface did allow us to get some real speed up and the sight of Hummers speeding off into the heat haze was spactacular. Heading out of the desert, we hit some well worn tracks including some particularly jarring rocky sections which had us praying for tarmac! This route took us back to Ouarzazate for a final night at the Mercure, a final banquet and drinks with great new friends.
The competition literature had billed the Conti4x4Trophy as a trip of a lifetime - it easily lived up the billing and was much more besides, giving us a view of the incredible scenery Morocco has to offer, far from the usual tourist traps.
I can't thank Continental Tyres enough for the opportunity, and the sight of a Hummer convoy, headlights ablaze, in my rear-view mirrors as I travelled across mud, rocks, sand, over mountains and through rivers, is one which will stay with me forever. Truly awesome.
If Continental run the competition again next year, make sure you enter! www.conti4x4trophy.co.uk
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