Well it has been a relatively quiet week this week. The days have all just blended one into another. There have been a couple of incidents, but that is news of a very different type. As such, I have no place or right to comment on these.

The dusty conditions have now, finally, been replaced with a much more incapacitating weather condition, rain. And lots of it! Estimates say we have had in excess of four inches over the past thirty-six hours.

We initially had thunder and lightning with a splattering of rain in the early part of the week. Three days of sun returned to dry out the oversized gravel car park, just outside our accommodation, before the heavens truly opened. Friday into Saturday saw some quite spectacular lightening and the rains fell. The car park soon looked more like an Olympic sized water park, just a fair bit muddier in colour. Now, the standing water may not be too bad, except most of us have desert boots. Great in the warm weather, just rather porous to say the least in the wetter conditions. These conditions did however, not manage to deter the madder ones amongst us, heading into the gym. With spare trainers in hand, (trying to keep mud out of the machines) I made the river crossing. It would appear that out here they also get rain indoors. Not directly you understand, just some of it under the framework of the Marque. When I say 'some', I mean more like an inch or two. It was as if a free flood had passed across the gym floor. People were walking on tiptoes, just to get to the running machines. Electrics and water, umm.... I can't imagine any potential issues there. Not to worry though, we all still pressed on. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

Tonight (Sunday) sees progress being made as once again the sky is clearing, stars appearing and temperatures dropping to, and beyond freezing point. I hope that the morning will once again see a beautiful red earthen coloured sunrise at around six am. By this point in time I should be crossing the afore mentioned car park toward the gym. Probably with arms crossed, blowing mist as the cold air chills my breath. In addition to this, I have to walk some four hundred yards further. For today saw another milestone along the road to getting home. We moved house! With people from the next squadron arriving overnight, we have surrendered our pleasant double, treble, or even quadruple occupancy rooms and headed out to The Tented Village. Privacy is now well and truly out of the window as we are in 16 man tents. Bunk beds into the bargain. I thought I had left scouting as a boy behind a good few years ago. Still, nobody minds, it all helps to make going home feel even closer.

So what progress have I made? Well, a fair bit in truth. I have managed to run just over 50 Kilometres this week. That includes two days by where I did not run an inch, due to my fluctuating workload. Some days everything seems to go so well, then on the other five days of the week, we seem to up against it and the wheel just keeps coming off. On such days, I inevitably end up working into the evening and so running just drops off my plan. Rowing however has really progressed well. 94 Kilometres, which included one session of 22 Kilometres, taking just over 95 minutes. This has resulted in me having 'just' two hundred and seven kilometres left to complete. I want to try to complete this distance in the next seven days, and will be trying hard to finish with a fifty-kilometre row in four hours next Sunday, to finish off. This is my intention; I just need to ensure work does not get too much in the way. Maybe this will be the week the wheel stays on! Time will tell.

I must close now as no doubt my nights slumber will be rather disjointed due to sharing such a lovely bedroom with so many sleeping beauties! I may be in a position to get my own back at 0545 in the morning.

Bernie Heaysman

www.justgiving.com/bernie-heaysman