Sunday, April 13, 2005
The team said goodbye to their friends and families today as they left Britain and flew out to Johannesburg in South Africa. It's an 11 hour flight from London to Johannesburg so let's hope they showed a couple of good in-flight movies!

The next leg of the trip is to fly to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, where they take a coach out into the wilderness.

Read the team's diaries over the next three weeks to find out what life in the desert is really like.

Monday, April 14, 2005
Ellie: All we've done yesterday and today is travel and I'm already exhausted! The first half of the plane journey was great! We had our own TV and headset and the array of games, movies and music was huge! However getting ourselves to sleep proved uncomfortable and unsuccessful and we only managed to get a couple of hours sleep. I found the most comfortable way to sleep was on the floor underneath my seat. We had a few setbacks as our flight was delayed, Holly was sick, Chris had a nosebleed and we found out that ten of our bags had gone missing in Johannesburg. But all in all the beginning to our great adventure was fun with trolley wars and water fights along the way!

Tuesday April 15, 2005
Chris: We had a long coach journey but there was loads to see. It's just such a different landscape to what I was expecting and to what I see at home. I had nothing to base my expectations on, it was all blank and what I saw was absolutely amazing - we saw a few springbok and a giraffe on the way to our camp. Our camp is just like a real African village, and that's what I wanted. Our huts are made of cow dung and we've got up our mozzie nets and our roll mats and it's actually really cool. It's really cosy.

Wednesday, April 16, 2005
Holly: I'm really knackered again. It was sunny yesterday but now it's non stop rain and it’s still raining. I swear we are going to have a flood. It's worse now than what England can be. Our hut is the only one that is dry and doesn't leak...well touch wood it doesn't! It's called the desert here 'cos it gets less than 25mm of rain a year - we've had about 25mm per hour! Hope it gets sunny tomorrow.

Thursday, April 17, 2005
David: Today's been quite exciting, we got to ride the camels which was cool and we packed up in preparation for our big desert trek. That's going to be really hard as today we walked from base camp to this dune camp. It's only one and a half kilometres but that took us 45 minutes so can't imagine walking 50 kilometres! Tonight we are sleeping under a poncho thing in our sleeping bags with a roll mat and of course a mosquito net.

Friday, April 18, 2005
Martin: We had a survival class today - tried lots of unusual foods and we ate a dried up worm! I thought I should eat it even though I am a veggie. It's a once in a lifetime chance. I puked it straight back up so I guess I'm still actually a vegetarian.

Saturday, April 19, 2005
Promise: We woke up and moved camp today. This camp is really beautiful the best so far - seems like a five star hotel compared to the last place. Actually we have to make do with whatever we get now ‘cos we're actually really lucky to have water to get a shower. At the end of the day it makes me think I can put up with anything. I haven't seen a mirror for a week now, haven't seen anything at all! Don’t know how I look, I must look a disgrace.

Sunday, April 20, 2005
Aimee: Midday today - the best feeling ever - had a shower! It's just a rusty barrel with a tap at the top but the word luxury springs to mind. I went in with my wash bag, which I have barely touched since I got here! Even though it's just shampoo and soap it felt like total luxury, felt like I was spending too much time pampering myself! Out here is so different because you are continually dirty and continually sweaty - so gross and horrible that a shower is just a luxury, just something else!

Monday, April 21, 2005
Chris: Today's been fun. It was our second day building the camel enclosure. We haven't got an awful lot done, we got 2 poles up today and 3 layers of bricks but tomorrow's our last day and I think we will have to work all day and through the night to get it ready for Wednesday for the opening ceremony.

Tuesday, April 22, 2005
Ellie: We have 12 hours to finish the camel enclosure and it's nowhere near finished. I have plastered bricks up to my eyeballs. I've done at least 70 today and my hands, they look like elephant skin and my fingers have cuts all along them. It feels like we're getting nowhere. They'll lead in the camels tomorrow and they'll probably break the walls down straight away. I'd probably cry...or laugh...I don't know...

Wednesday, April 23, 2005
David: Feeling pretty tired ‘cos last night we were building the camel enclosure and we didn't go to bed at all! I wasn't up for it at the time but we stayed up and did it. We've come to a game reserve now. Even though we're in tents its luxury compared to the tents we were in.

Thursday, April 24, 2005
Ellie: Today's been an incredible day! I got to go up in the helicopter while they were darting. It was so cool - it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I will never get to do something like that again. I was completely speechless when I got back on the ground.

Friday, April 25, 2005
Martin: Today we had a relaxing day. In the morning we packed all the food for the trek and our bags. In the afternoon we got in the pool - it was so nice we're so used to getting up at 5am and getting straight to work or whatever - it was quite a relief. We need to get up at 4am tomorrow, then we travel for the whole day in the van. Then when we get to the trek we're walking in the heat all day - not looking forward to that just 'cos it's going to be so hard. I'm looking forward to sleeping out and doing the whole survival thing, but think it's going to be really tough. If I just keep really focussed it will be fine.

Sunday, April 27, 2005
Promise: We started our first day of trekking today and I think we've done quite well 'cos we've completed a long distance. We're just setting up camp now. We made rice and lentils for dinner which I cooked. It tastes nice, well I think it tastes nice 'cos I cooked it, but I don't know about everybody else. In a funny way although we haven't slept in a normal bed for ages I sort of enjoy it! Right now behind me I can hear a jackal! It's nice looking at them from in a car but when you're out here you don't know where they could be, and they could be right next to you!

Monday, April 28, 2005
Ellie: Today we trekked a lot which was quite tiring and my knees are killing me so badly and it's only the second day of trekking! The camels have been crazy today, like psychopathic! They kicked Aimee, kicked David, tried to kill me and Perry and destroyed a water bottle! Mind you I wouldn't like to carry all the stuff they are carrying so we should be grateful to them!

Tuesday, April 29, 2005
Martin: At lunch time the rhino trackers said they'd found some rhino footprints. It was absolutely amazing. The rhino was huge, massive. You know we've gone through all this pain, we've done all the desert training and camping out and hard trekking for the last few days and for those 20 minutes when I saw the rhino it made it all feel worthwhile, 'cos we came here to see the black rhino and I've seen it!

Wednesday, April 30, 2005
Ellie: Today was wicked, probably the best day I've had here! It's so beautiful here you can't believe it - it's just astounding beauty. We just had the best time jumping off the sand dunes, and swimming off the sand dunes, and everybody was just getting on so well. There was like a real community feeling, like we're all in this together and we've all got to cross the sand dunes by Friday night and we kind of couldn't wait - it was an exciting feeling!

Friday, May 2, 2005
The team carried on to complete the very last leg of their 60 mile trek across the desert. And after trekking across endless sand-dunes they finally arrived at the Atlantic Ocean coast where everyone raced into the ocean for a freezing dip. An exciting end to an exciting trek!