30th January. A very lazy morning as Regai, the border town, was only a couple of hours drive away - we eventually left at ten, having first been overrun by a camel raiding party. The females are usually quite friendly, but then the male lumbered into view - and at this time of year they can be extremely bad tempered (I am talking about the camels, not humans...). Abdullah and co retreated into their tent (although canvas would be no real challenge to an enraged camel) and I hid behind the car, showing just what a brave person I really am.

A gorgeous day - azure sky and, for once, real warmth in the sun (I won't be saying that in a few months). But our peace was shattered by jets flying low overhead and the appearance of a line of green Toyota pickups - is there no escape?

We had another collection of wells and buildings to locate before we got to Regai and set off behind Abdullah senior and Ibrahim, closely followed by the ever watchful Abdullah junior. Half an hour later we found ourselves driving next to a high sand bank - we knew what it was, but had the others realised? We pulled up to take photographs of us next to the Saudi/Iraqi border and when Abdullah junior drew alongside he said (pointing over the bank) 'there's Kuwait'. Ah, not exactly Abdullah, that's Iraq. 'What!! My mother will kill me!'. Something suggested that they hadn't meant to take us quite that close...

On to Regai - and there was Brian the trailer waiting for us - £80 well spent as there is no way we could have dragged the trailer through the desert and kept the contents in one piece.

A very enjoyable lunch with the Governor of Regai who told us tales of the Gulf War - the building we were sitting in was used to house single women who had escaped from Kuwait at the beginning of the invasion. He said it was a busy time for him - rather an understatement I would have thought - he spent four months sleeping in his office. Unfortunately the Americans made a slight error and managed to bomb one of the buildings in the town...

Again, our border crossing was made significantly easier by the presence of Abdullah and the governor - who also insisted on paying for our petrol; "food for you, food for your car!" There was one slight hitch - no one had ever seen a British vehicle crossing the border and they couldn't find 'UK' on their computer system. We left them to it and went and had a nice cup of tea with the head of customs...