A TAVISTOCK man has just returned from Morocco after walking 100 miles in five-days, taking part in the Sahara Desert Challenge.

Lawrie Harris, 50, raised more than £3,000 for the Foundation for Conductive Education, walking around 20 miles a day in temperatures which reached nearly 40 degrees celsius.

Lawrie said each of the walkers had to drink large quantities of water to prevent dehydration. ?We had to carry the majority of our water with us on our backs. We had to carry about five or six litres of water and replenish our supplies along the way. We were drinking about eight to ten litres a day,? he said.

Lawrie was one of a team of around 35 walkers who were accompanied on the desert

challenge by local guides and support trucks.

The walkers would wake at about 6am each morning and would leave their overnight camp by 7am, to get some walking under their belts early on. Lawrie said it began to get very hot by 9am, and by the middle of the day, it was too hot to walk.

Lawrie also tried the unusual pursuit of sand dune surfing while in the Sahara, with instruction from the local guides. ?We all held hands and jumped off the top of the dune and ran all the way down. Sand was filling up my boots. It was unique, it wasn?t like anything I had ever done before,? he said.

One of the most uncomfortable moments of the whole trip came before the team had even started walking said Lawrie, when the walkers were transported to the start of the route in the back of a cattle truck for three and a half hours with the sun beating down on them.

Lawrie returned to England last weekend, after arriving on schedule at the finish point of the 100-mile route ? an unremarkable oasis in the middle of the Saharan desert.

?It was a unique experience. I would do it again tomorrow,? said Lawrie.

The Foundation for Conductive Education helps children with physical and mental disabilities as well as youngsters with cerebral palsy and some adults with disabilities.

Lawrie wanted to thank everyone who had sponsored him to complete the Saharan challenge, and said many of his supporters would be receiving postcards sent from the desert in the next few days.