The Weymouth Bedouin

A Weymouth Bedouin

Back in 2001 I happened to find myself lost (well, more temporarily misplaced ) in Tangiers. It's not a big town, but the twisty, turny side streets of the Medina had me wandering aimlessly, trying to find my way out. A kind Bedouin stranger took pity on me and showed me the way home. Well, when I say home, it was more like his brothers carpet shop, where they both kindly plied me with cups of tea and showed me the entire contents of the store.

Dodgy paintwork, not much carpet.

In 2006 I was back in Morocco. This time it was Ait Benhaddou (of Gladiator fame). Strangely once more I found myself dragged in to a carpet shop, being plied with the sweet mint tea and being shown mountains of authentic Bedouin carpets. I really should learn to avoid these situations. I really do have little interest in being shown traditional Bedouin carpets. In fact, after the last few weeks, I have gone right off carpets of any sort.

My fingers are covered in glue, so are my clothes. I have fluff stuck to the glue and I have managed to cut myself a few times and caught my finger in some pliers.

On the bright side though, I now no longer need to measure,cut, stick, mould, smooth or trim pieces of carpet on the inside of Jezebel. I am all carpeted out. I'm pleased with the finished result though. Unlike the Bedouin carpets, Jezebel's carpet is all one colour. Well, it is at the moment, but I'm sure after a few trips with Lucas this won't be the case any more. I'm just enjoying it whilst it still looks good. It's not perfect. I wouldn't say that carpet laying comes naturally to me, but it is certainly a vast improvement on what it was before.

More lights than the Starship Enterprise

Another huge improvement is that I can now admire my carpeting around the clock. I no longer rely on natural daylight, as we have lights. None of those poor quality, battery operated things either. Proper LED strips of lighting. Possibly too many strips of lighting to be honest, but again, I'm pleased with the results. It's been a productive week. I just want to get out there using the lights and admiring the carpeting in a pleasant, rural location now.

So, to the other teams. Doris, of Team Red 5 fame, has completed 350 miles apparently and has been decorated. I approve.
Alas, Team 39, Chris and Tom, have pulled out due to excessive rust. Their camper needed hundreds of pounds worth of welding, making it impossible for them to afford the trip. A real shame when so close to the off.
Team Nightmare and Ladiva are finally mobile. Having spent a fair while searching for insurance, when they finally got some they found that the minibus was blocked in by other vehicles and couldn't be moved over the bank holiday weekend. Cleaning and servicing is now being organised whilst they consider their options on graphics. No hurry guys, only 36 days to go...
Team 31, Don and John have announced the arrival of a Citroen C5. They had previously announce the arrival of a Chrysler and apparently they aren't entirely convinced that the Citroen is the car for them. Watch this space...
Teams 25 and 41 are still to announce for certain which vehicles they will be taking. Probably a Ford Escort cabriolet and a BMW estate or a Lexus, but I'm sure we'll find out soon.
Finally, the Swedes. They were late on the scene but are still hoping to join us for the first night away and stick around until our final night on the continent. The last I heard they had a team of 3 or 4 and were sizing up cars.
36 days folks. Plenty of time to carpet your vehicle interior. Just don't ask me to help you.