Steven relocated - a bedouin tent somewhere in the Sahara

Having lost our Springboard for Children representative for many hours in the desert yesterday, he reappeared at the stage finish at 22.15 hrs, just in time for a supper of dried something or other, from his depleting rations which he is carrying with him. Theoretically he should now be going faster as the rucksack gets lighter.
Fortunately our worries about him "missing" were seemingly down to a technical fault with the tracking device/timing equipment. Not surprising when you appreciate the amount of sand being blown about in stormy winds for part of yesterday. On the other hand it may have been the timing chip attached to his leg; I think I would have packed up as well if I'd been attached to a sweaty leg for the last four days! Fortunately each check point on the route has an inspector, who amongst other things makes a manual recording of each competitor's time as back up, in the event of electronic equipment failure.
Because it wasn't possible to monitor his whereabouts from the normally available live timing, anticipating his arrival time at the end of the stage to catch him on the live webcam wasn't practical.
Down to the length of this most daunting 82km stage, competitors were finishing from 7.10 pm on Wednesday evening until the final recorded arrival at 4.09pm on Thursday afternoon.  That's time on foot running/walking/scrambling since 8.44am on Wednesday. Not surprising the event is dubbed "the toughest foot race on earth." 
For an endurance event like this, there has to be something extraordinary about the competitors mental state to continue so far in such inhospitable conditions when the body says STOP! Steven can probably explain it, I can't.
Steven's finishing time on this leg af the race keeps him in an overall position of 76 and within his goal of finishing in the top ten Brits.  There were 24 non finishers of this stage.  Competitors were given two days to complete it, hence the quicker it was finished the more recovery time for the final two days.
I assume he's been taking it easy all day Thursday, perhaps with the odd visit to the medical tent for treatment to the bits that hurt. But with no cafes or nightclubs within a 400 mile radius, his options will have been limited as to what to do with the "leisure" time. Possibly an extra Haribo sweet as a special celebration!
I'm afraid there are still no quotes direct from "our man" in the desert, as there is still no email from him (obviously too busy), so we can only assume all is well.  I have not yet seen one photo of him throughout the event posted by the event media photographers, he's either in the wrong place at the wrong time or camera shy. The one added to an earlier blog was a freeze frame I captured from the live webcam. If anyone has seen a different photo of him on the official www.darbaroud.com website, please post a comment to let us know.
Tomorrow (Friday) sees a full marathon distance of 42kms, but as the roadbook is not available until just before the start, it's uncertain what time the runners will leave and what type of terrain and obstacles await. They're usually away about 08.30-09.00 local time (09.30 - 10.00 UK time)