8 January - Bonjour and Salaam, Morocco

Pre-dawn starts are probably going to be the form for the rest of the event, so why not get up at 4.30 to leave Portugal?

Any number of reasons, really but as I needed to make the coach, leaving for the airport at 5.15, I had no option but to answer the call of the alarm and jump in my last hot shower for 2 weeks...

Making sure I enjoyed it as much as you can in the middle of the night, I packed up and we grabbed a quick coffee before heading to the airport.

Our flight was on some twin-engined turbo-prop, which I think we'll be on every day until Dakar. Very small, very cramped but not a bad flight at all... Lots of clouyd over Spain and the Med, cleared as we crossed over into Morocco, which was instantly recognisable, because everything was the same shade of brown! Hills, valleys, fields, houses, everything... Very different from Europe.

We landed outside a small town called Er Rachidia. The airport here was built by a rich arab who likes to go hunting nearby. Thing is, he always travels in 2 Jumbo jets (as you do!) and so it's a huge long runway, with a big parking apron... Airport facilities extend to a two-storey control tower - almost literally one-up, one-down - and an arrivals / departures building which has two rooms roughly the size of a small house and an office and desk for the customs official. If he turns up.

7 or 8 planes were already here, with the digital editing stations set up inside a Hercules and various other Soviet planes transporting food, catering equipment, all the computer network stuff, broadcasting gear, including huge satellite uplink dishes, generators to power it all and everyone's bags tents sleeping bags etc.

First job was to set up the tent, then get breakfast.

Spent my day running about trying to figure everything out. Like, where I could find somewhere to work. Who I could collar to get my computer logged onto the wireless network, so I have internet access. who is editing various parts of the programmes. What's going to be in the show. Where there is a toilet (the airport "terminal" in fact. Last day with flushing toilets (that had seats!) and loo-paper. Holes in ground will have to sufice from now on... All sorts of things that no-one thinks to tell me because they're so used to Toby (who did this for 5 years) and the fact that he knew what was what...

After being freezing at 9am when we arrived, by noon it was well up in the 70s, with very bright sunlight. We're quite high above sea-level here, surrounded by mountains (snow-capped, much to the vertans' surprise) but it was still shirt-sleeve weather. By about 4, the fleeces were backon and by 6, it was coats and (if I hadn't been typing) gloves weather. It was -12degC overnight here last year apparently and they reckon it'll be colder again... Like going skiing and then sleeping outdoors!! Nice. Having not even opened my sleeping bag, I hope it's warm! I shall be sleeping in all my clothes, just taking my boots off, I reckon...

So, anyway, after a huge panic to get everything in at least some sort of order by 6.15 (my deadline for the transmission) I went to the tent where I sit at a trestle table and voice the programme, to find that there was an audience of some 20-25 people watching the pictures. I haven't had that many people in the back of the booth before but - despite the crowd and some interesting moments when foreign interviews and unexpected pictures appeared with no warning - I busked through it. Anyone who speaks French will know I was just making it up for one long interview...

I was approached in the press tent this afternoon by a chap in round shades and a bandana. I thought he might have wanted to know where there was a rave but no, he was from the BBC and wanted information on where and when tomorrow's stage was. Not knowing where TODAY's stage was, never mind tomorrow's, I pointed him in the direction of media rep "Caro" and she produced a book with times and maps.

He'd said that they were here for 2 days to do some filming, so I thought they might be doing something on the rally, on location and covering it from home.

Imagine my surprise, the, when I saw him 20 minutes later with an equally laid-back cameraman doing his best whooshy MTV-type shots, panning round the planes and assorted chaos of the bivouac, with a sound man in tow... and two large blokes in biker jackets. I recognised them immediately - the Two Hairy Bikers! They're the Geordie and the toher one, who go round the world finding wierd and wonderful locations to cook local food their own way. Thai temples, Vietnamese villages, that sort of thing.

Looks like they'll be rustling up some couscous tomorrow as cars, bikes and trucks flash by. Hope they like the taste of dust!! And the cold... tomorrow's stage is WAY up in the Atlas Mountiains, with all the snow...

Right. It's already 8.30. I need to eat and the food is over in the main bivouac, where all the competitors and the huge number of mechanics all eat. So I need to get over there and scoff, before huddling and shivering until first light (or earlier) when we will, no doubt, be very relieved to pack up our posessions and get on the plane again to move on.

More tomorrow then...

Just a quick update, as I'm sure many of you didn't sleep well last night not knowing... Georges Marques and his fabulous 2CV are still in the rally! 172 on yesterday's stage (out of 173 - they weren't last and came in an hour before the last finisher) they lie 165th overall, out of 173 still running. Bravo!

The 4th stage, 450kms of rough, rocks tracks and the first small dunes, precedes a 178km drive to service, food and sleep. It's going to be a tough one but fingers crossed for the maddest car in the event...