Paul Evans is an Aquapac Beta-Tester who recently undertook an arduous Survival Course in the Moroccan desert.
We'll be publishing excerpts of his adventures on this blog in bitesize chunks.
We waited for the temperature to drop before moving onto the subject of shelter building. A continuing theme out here is that everything comes back to staying with your vehicle - in this case using it as shelter and trying to keep it simple and as minimally physically challenging as possible. As a group we dug a sand grave shelter and then a Berber rock shelter. This was hard work despite the hottest part of the day being gone, sand got EVERYWHERE including into Sam’s camera - which broke. No Aquapac - schoolboy error!
As the sun set the strong and until now consistent convection winds gradually died away. We had chicken and vegetable stew with bread for tea. Even in total darkness the temperatures here must be in the 20’s with a very warm light wind blowing - SO difficult to stay hydrated!
Took the opportunity to have a good look around the night sky using a laser pen and star charts, I’m really starting to see the big picture now rather than individual and unrelated constellations. Later I survived my first serious call of nature without incident