Below: And that's it! 8 days later, 1500 miles and a few crashes older (that's bike and rider!) on a beach a few kms from the finish hotel in Mojacar in Southern Spain. Brilliant event, well organised and superb trails!

Below: Bike waiting for the cars to finish the final 3 minute DH race stage. I should have been well used to this format but made a right hash of it coming 15th - coulda, woulda, shoulda!

Below: So, that's the track I'm aiming for!

Below: You wouldn't believe how far these little Tuareg kids will walk in the sand! I reckon they are quicker on foot than half of the field are with 45 horsepower!!!! To be honest, even their dads on the step- through auto scooters are better than most of the rally riders in the dunes! Humbling...

Below: I rode with support from David Lambeth overland, there were 8 bikes on the Lambeth truck, the two heaviest are seen here! Rupert Shaw's R100GS from 1992 and my rally bike, both weighing in at over 200kgs, not nice to pick up in the sand!

Below: More dead bikes... The dunes are really hard on the bikes. Quite a few succumbed to the sand!

Below: This is what's called the 'sweeper' truck, it drives through the dunes at the end of the day's stage picking up all the dead bikes! If you've ever seen Ewan and Charley's 'Long Way Round' you'll have seen the old Russian six wheel drive truck on the 'Road of Bones'. This thing is way better off road than that!!! It'll crawl up a 45 degree dune at walking pace!

Below: The Italians, coffee machine and hot pasta even in the desert!

Below: This has been what I've been 'mostly' looking at for the last few days, not comfortable to land on either!

Below: The last dune of day 5. The final checkpoint is at the top of a 200m high summit which you have to get up even if it's on foot!!! I managed to get to the summit on the sixth attempt. The hill was carnage! Dead bikes and knackered bodies everywhere!

Below: Photographic evidence that I got the bike to the top!

Below: Hassan and matey, good to go for today's stage!

Below: Bivouac, salubrious?

Below: Surely this should be next year's Mojo truck shouldn't it?

Below: There's the dunes of Erg Chebbi In the background. Those suckers are over 150m high, I'm gonna be glad of the horsepower tomorrow! Today was one of the hardest and one of the best days riding ever... Brilliant...

Below: The start at Nador in Northern Morocco, an exercise in queueing, hey, the Brits are good at this, the Italians don't understand queues! Hee, hee...

 

Below: I rode a few stages with Dave Owen, honourary Welsh boy with Dorset accent! Mine was more comfy on the road!