The event was a challenge even at the fund-raising stage, and all of our very kind supporters made a big difference to that, but two days before we were due to leave our greatest challenge threw itself before us as we suffered from last minute local politics, our permissions for specific school projects were withdrawn and it looked like we might have to cancel the entire event.  But our local Rif hero, Abdeslam, came up with a magnificent alternative, we all took it with tremendous spirit and ended up producing an exhausting but extremely rewarding charity challenge experience!

Here are just a few of the moments that made this very intense five day event such a joy to be a part of...

After an early start and an uneventful journey across the Straits and into the heart of the Rif, all 33 participants were taken out of their comfortable coach and dropped into an extremely local, back- country market in ‘Bni Arouss’. We were handed some cash
and a list of items to buy for the school project, then sent off into the maelstrom; giving us our very own, very authentic “Apprentice” experience and giving the locals a sight many had never seen!		The shopping list ranged from paint to pick-axes, from olive saplings to goal posts!

	Then, with the shopping done, we all hiked out of town and headed over the hills and into the unknown. Up tracks, down gullies and over rivers.
We discovered the vagaries of guide-speak and the elasticity of Moroccan time where a “two hour” trek took more than four hours!  Many of us tested muscles that we didn’t know we had and a few tested our gallant support mules.

Reaching ‘Tazroute’, a Rif village full of local history yet totally off the beaten track we set to work painting a palace...	...and enhancing the local school, including setting up those goal posts and making a football field...	...we painted hop-scotch squares and then realised we had to teach them the game, which they took to with skill and brilliant smiles.	We white-washed the outside walls of the school and got the kids to paint a circle of hands mural.

The school’s class rooms received some magnificent makeovers, turning dull shells into bright spaces of learning. The smiles on the students faces was all the reward we needed.

The teacher’s ‘office’ received a total re-painting and a set of books to start a library for his students.		...and of course a challenge from the local boys was inevitable on our newly created football pitch.
The Teams had also set up a volleyball court, fixed the school gate, donated stationery to the school, planted trees nearby and greatly enhanced the local mausoleum and paupers’ accommodation. Then as well as that we later spent a happy hour distributing the numerous bags of clothes we had brought that had been so kindly donated by people of Gibraltar.

Wanting to do more but our time having run out, the next day saw us all back on the trail, rising to the challenge of extreme heat and probably the longest trek we’ve ever done, spending nearly eleven hours on mountain trails to reach our overnight destination of Houmar (and a review of the array of medicinal plants we’d been set to collect en-route).

Rising, begrudgingly, the next day we set off on our last hike and a steep climb of just under a thousand meters into the Jebel Bouhachem Nature Reserve.
Conquering the mountain pass we ground down the other side through the heat, ignoring blisters, aching knees and the like as we could see our destination, Chefchaouen, in the distance.  We arrived late in the day to the joys of a warm shower, local food and music, good stories and a soft(ish) bed.
We are immensely proud of each and every participant’s achievements and we are all grateful to everyone who supported us, made the journey possible and helped us help our Rif neighbours living in poverty.  THANK YOU