Cooking

 Cook days

I’m currently in Cook Group 2, self named as (Gordon) Ramsey’s Chefs. Ironically named as none of us consider we can cook. So how does it work? It depends what meals you’re on this week. It’s common to do dinner and the following breakfast, but some are lucky enough to do lunch and dinner (avoiding that extra early wake up).

Each group decides what they will cook, with the only stipulation being there needs to be a vegetarian and meat eaters options, with protein for both. 

During the day your group heads to the local markets and buys the necessary ingredients. That has been supermarkets, but now it’s local markets with whatever is available.

About 30-60mins (or however long you think it’ll take) before the meal your group gets together and assembles the kitchen with the required equipment (burners, pots, pans, tables, plates, knives and forks, etc). Then it’s a simple matter of cooking for 24 or so people!

The scale is not something I’m used to. Just how much water do you need for 4kg of pasta? Even with the good burners, boiling that much water takes forever and moving around these large pots with hot food is a real exercise in safety. 

Eventually, hopefully, you’ve managed to get all parts of the meal heated and hopefully none of them have cooled down in the process. “Grubs up!” and everyone serves themselves.

Everyone is responsible for washing their own dishes, with the cook group responsible for washing and putting away all of the cooking stuff.

The pack down can take almost as long as prep, as each item needs to be washed and dried, then the jigsaw puzzle of putting it all back into the truck is quite the challenge. The smarter groups clean as they go!

Breakfasts can be hard for those who like a sleep in. If we want to get on the road by 7:30am, then it’s 06:30am breakfast, and you need to pack up your tent before breakfast, so if you’ve planned to cook anything special it can be as early as a 5:30am start. Now we are bush camping a lot breakfasts have become a lot simpler. Toast and hot water is typically the hot things.

Things get easier as we get faster at everything and as supplies become even more limited.

Breakfast so far has been cereals, fruits, as well as a main like scrambled eggs, baked beans, or fried eggs on toast.

Heading to Western Sahara

 So I’ve been done with a cold that’s making the rounds, it’s knocked me down, but fortunately we have just had 2 full days rest before heading out tomorrow. We will be going for 6 days of bush camping (no facilities).

Getting WiFi, even at the camp grounds, is very very slow, so I’ve been unable to upload much at all.

I have however managed to upload two early videos of the truck I’m travelling in.

Inside of the truck https://youtu.be/fuXZaRRrfyI

Outside of the truck https://youtu.be/zWg604PPxzw

A combination of being sick and busy on the road otherwise has meant I’ve not been able to produce the videos I’ve wanted to do — but that’s good, better to be busy than bored.

First rest day done

 Thursday

Yesterday was our first rest day, we stayed two nights in Chefchouen, unfortunately it rained almost the entire time. It wasn’t so much that we couldn’t go anywhere — just throw on a jacket and live with it — but more such that nothing really dried.

After breakfast I felt like I should go back to my tent and swap some stuff around, but quickly decided I would instead go back to bed and feel sorry for myself (not really, I just wanted to lie in). 

Around 2pm the rain cleared and I got up the willpower to go have a shower. This campground offered hot showers for 10Dh (about $1), so I decided I could afford to splash out. It was the best money I’ve ever spent. I dragged my  sorry butt down to the office to get the key, with my fresh clothes and wash bag in hand. A short while later I had beautiful amazing hot water falling over my body and I loved every second. I was practically giddy (later on our guide Liz would turn up for dinner and was literally giddy, laughing and smiling from also having a hot shower).

This energised me and I reorganised my bags. My current implementation is three-ish bags:

One in the bottom of my locker that has the stuff I don’t always need, really cold gear, really hot gear, binos, long lens, etc. 

The red duffle storing things like regular clothes, washing, chargers, camera adapters, etc — anything I need overnight. 

Day pack which contains camera, loo bag (more on that in coming weeks), drink bottle, usb batteries, etc).

Tent bag (in the tent locker)

It does mean at night time I’m carrying 3 bags to setup camp (inclusive of the tent bag), but they are a lighter combo. We are also assured that as time goes on we will get our own processes and procedures down pat and have it going smoothly.

Speaking of, because it rained during the night and the ground is muddy I had to pack my tent away muddy again, ugh. We are promised that this is probably the last rain we will see for quite awhile, so all gear will dry out.

Today is a driving day again (most days will be) as we head to Casablanca.

Upcoming posts include; Flappy dishes, poop bag, cook group shopping, seat swap roulette, as well as a proper tour of the bus and the oasis tents.

First road day

 

Today is the first road day, and getting the first impressions for what the vast majority of the next 327 days will be like.

Alive and well

 First couple of days are pretty busy with trying to get into the rhythm, figure I should post something so people don’t think I’ve already been eaten by a lion.

Fes (and Morocco in general) is not actually warm this time of year. It’s down to 8°C tonight, peaked at 16°C today. I’d like to point out that when I left, London was warmer.

Fez

 Welcome to Africa.

I have landed in Africa and am now on my way to my hotel, where I am staying 2 nights before joining the truck.

I’ll be spending the first day repacking, for the final time. (I hope). My years worth of epilepsy medication, combined with a whole bunch of malaria and other meds that I might need, will be transferred from their original boxes into much smaller containers, that (hopefully) fit in my duffle.

I have a tent that gets packed separately, and anything else that doesn’t fit in my duffle by tomorrow night gets left behind(!!).

It’s now 1am local time and I’m almost at my hotel so I shall sign off and get to work in the morning with repacking.

Quick note: There are lots of things that are different in this continent, and the expression is TIA “This Is Africa” comes up a lot. I’m sure you’ll see that on many posts 

Africa Begins

 Here we go!

I’m sitting on the train to Gatwick, having said my fond goodbyes to everyone.

I will miss everyone terribly.

A month ago every week I was panicking I was bringing too much, or I’d forget something. Then I was panicking every day, then every hour, and now every minute I keep thinking the same.

First up is Gatwick airport to Casablanca, then a connection to Fez arriving late at night. Tomorrow is repack my bags for the final time (medication and tent need sorting, but can’t do that before I cross into Morocco.