Guardian Unlimited's Anna Pickard is accompanying six readers who won a five-day trip to Morocco in our recent competition. She has never travelled on a group holiday before ... scroll down for first impressions from the winners themselves
Postcards from the edge ... of the desert.
Photograph: Elliot Smith/Guardian
Of course we were all scoping each other out on the plane. A plane full of people; we knew that we were going to be spending the next four days in close quarters with eight of them. Was it the unassuming-looking elderly couple with the heavy boots? No, they left us at Casablanca. Was it ... no, there were too many in that group.
Eventually the selection was whittled down as we were distilled on to the smaller plane to Ouazarzate, where the looks became ever more curious and searching. These were not just folk aiming for the same destination after all. They were going to be the people we would be eating with, sleeping next to (not RIGHT next to, obviously) and packing ourselves into 4x4s like mobile sardines with, for the next four days.
Of course, when we'd gone through the baggage hall and started forming a tired but excited little gang around a smiling man with a big red Explore! Sign, suspicions were confirmed and our little band was formed. We arrived at the hotel in the early hours of the morning to be met with a slightly shocking brew of strong mint tea, then crawled, grateful and knackered, into bed, and once the caffeine twitching had worn off, slept.
Group travel - something I'd never even considered before, fearing it would be non-stop small talk and enforced jollity, impatience with people wanting to move at different speeds, wanting to see different things, and seeing the very same things in different ways.
But it's amazing how fast the sense of camaraderie builds up, you are, after all, a set of excited people, all seeing something new for the first time. Information feeds through the group - "Did you see THAT?!", "Oh! I've read about this!" And because no one's having to concentrate on what we have to do next - which way, which meal, which camp - it seems that everyone relaxes quicker.
Though it's still a bit odd, frankly, and we're only halfway through the first day. In a moment we'll go and set up camp, out in the dunes, and everyone will sit back and watch the sunset, while I fret about getting sand in my keyboard/camera/knickers. And then, under a blanket of stars, we'll all sleep peacefully together. Me, my colleague, and eight people I didn't know from Adam seven hours ago. And, of course, some scorpions, and other bugs.
Hang on, I've got it. This is a reality show, right? Where's the camera, is it in that camel?
* Three Guardian Unlimited readers and their guests won the chance to join the expedition, operated by adventure travel specialists Explore!
* See a gallery of their journey so far and read more of the group's blog diaries
