Lincolnshire Live
A group of people from Lincolnshire are set to endure gruelling heat as they trek 100km through one of the world’s most inhospitable places.
The group of 25 people are set to spend five days trekking through the Sahara Desert in Morocco, where temperatures could reach highs of more than 40C.
All of them have their own reasons for doing it, but they are united in their goal of raising as much money as they can for the Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance.
It comes as the charity celebrates it’s 25th anniversary and to raise money participants will be pushing themselves to the limit in this gruelling trek.
Rachel Hay, who works for the charity, says she chose to take part in the trek to mark her 40th birthday.
“I signed up because it was my 40th birthday – I had a bit of a mid-life crisis!” she said.
“It’s an organised trek. We approached Travel and Trek, in Sleaford, about it and chose the Sahara because although it’s challenging it’s a good for people with not lots of experience.
“It lined up nicely with our 25th anniversary. We’ve just launched our Moroccan three peaks tour for next year.”
The trek promises to test the people taking part as they walk through one of the harshest places on Earth.
“If you looked at a map of our route it would just be a piece of sandpaper,” Rachel says.
“When we land we’ve got to travel a day and a half through the Atlas mountains to our start point in the desert.
“The heat is going to play a big part, we are basically in the middle of the desert with no facilities around us at all.
Fortunately though, the group will have a support team who will make sure they don’t get lost in the dizzying heat.
Some members of the group who will be undertaking the challenge (Image: Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance)
“We have a support team though,” she said. “Every night we have to put our tents up and in the morning take them down so our support team can move on.
“It’s a long old day from getting up and packing up. The heat is energy sapping. You’re literally walking through sand.”
Rachel says she has been training hard to prepare for the challenge, but admits it’s difficult to prepare for such incredible heat.
“I’ve been upping my walking, I used to run three times a week so I’ve got a good baseline of fitness,” she said.
“We’ve got a closed group on Facebook and we were discussing training and one person said she’s been out for an eight mile walk when it was over 30C on the bank holiday weekend!”
