It's raining in the desert

Kobus phoned me (Zoe) on Friday lunchtime - it's pouring down with rain and the sky is black, black, black as far as they can see. They're on their way to the first bivouac camp. No-one can believe it - it's never happened before in 24 years of the MdS. I checked the weather on the internet: yes, it's true, there's a massive band of rain sweeping across the north west corner of the Sahara as we speak, predicted to be heavy rain on Friday and Saturday, light rain on Sunday and Monday, and sunny all the way again from Tuesday! I sent the news to Kobus. All I could hear was manic shocked laughter in the background as he relayed the message.

Later on Friday evening Kobus phoned with the news of the day's events. The French group had gone direct from the airport to the desert (about 6 hours' drive) but couldn't get through due to the rain and had to turn back. When Kobus's group arrived later there were rivers running through the tents. They dug trenches around the tents and tried to waterproof them as much as possible, but were then evacuated to the staff tents. However these were in an even worse state than the ones they had just been working on.

With 800 competitors and the same again in support crew, this was an emergency situation and the Moroccan Army was brought in to the rescue as it was expected that the whole camp would be washed out. The Army shipped the whole lot of them out to the nearest town... Kobus said the organisation of everything was immaculate - by 8pm they were, all 1600 of them, booked in to hotels with bed and food arranged. Wow!

They're expecting they will have to do all the pre-marathon administration (checking documents, medicals, kit etc) in the separate hotels.

All in good spirit, and "excited" at the anticipation of the first stage, where the route takes them through a couple of "dry" river beds... They don't have adequate weather protection for rain, nor the right shoes. However, Kobus was very impressed that all his clothing has stayed bone dry, as it was packed in plastic bags to keep the sand out!

In the meantime I've checked the weather forecast again and the rainstorm seems to be passing quicker than expected:
Weather for Morocco
Current:15°C; Mostly Cloudy; Wind: W at 12 mph; Humidity: 77%
Sat 18°C 7°C Sunny with showers
Sun 15°C 3°C Sunny with showers
Mon 16°C 4°C Sunny
Tue 20°C 4°C Sunny