The desert is a sterile environment but hygiene problems will be created from the usual suspects: hand-to-mouth contact, the toilets (a hole in the ground in a small tarpaulin make-shift cubicle) and cooking.
Inevitably I'll finish the week absolutely stinking as washing is not really an option with a limited water supply. I'll give myself a token daily wipe down using Wemmi Wipes, a tablet the size and depth of a couple of £1 coins which, when a drop of water is added, expands to a damp towel about 20cm x 20cm. Very clever!
But that realistically won't do that much and it's still possible I'll end up binning them just before the off. If I'm going to stink then I may as well really stink!
Every other bit if hygiene risk I've thought about carefully. You could be the fittest person in the world but once the D&V take a hold (as, historically, it has done to the majority) there's a very real risk of DNF (Did Not Finish).
So my hygiene thoughts are as follows:
- using a toothbrush and toothpaste is a risk from hand-to-mouth contact so I won't be using them for a week and instead I'll be using Orbit Spearmint chewing gum;
- I don't intend using the provided "toilets" and will instead head off a few yards into the desert to dig a hole, taking care to stamp around loudly to ward off inquisitive desert nasties like scorpions and camel spiders, and incinerate with my lighter the paper left behind (apparently in years past some competitors haven't done this, creating interesting wind-borne items in sand storms!);
- in a similar vein is the issue of how much toilet roll to take and how? Best tip I've heard is bagging up a day's ration into a sandwich bag so I now have 7 such bags with a guesstimate of a daily supply and a glove; in this way I reduce the risk of transporting around my person and taking back to the bivouac a contaminated single roll of toilet paper;
- cooking: I'll be boiling my spork before each meal and afterwards applying alcohol gel; all my meals will be eaten out of disposable bags, reducing the risk of contaminated pots etc;
- water bottles: I can't change my water bottles on a daily basis but after a few day's use they'll become a bacterial breeding ground without some attention, so I will add half a Boots Micropur chlorine-based sterilising tablet to some water in my bottles and leaving them for a few hours.
Bet I still end up with problems!
