WHETHER we're lying in it, buried in it, building castles out of it or feeling it between our toes as we take a stroll through it, most of us think of sand as a welcoming prelude to a dip in the sea.

Yet the 800 people who took part in the 150-mile Marathon des Sables in Morocco last month will most likely view the soft, grainy substance in an entirely different light.

For as they struggled to clamber across the mountainous sand-dunes that deadened the desert breeze and increased the air temperature to a stiflingly hot 50celsius, sand became more than just something that we find on holiday it became a force to be reckoned with.

And one of those people to be confronted with this perilous force was Really Wild Show presenter Steve Backshall, who lives in Wooburn Green.

Steve is used to trekking through all sorts of wacky terrain as part of his job, for he regularly travels across the globe in search of quirky creatures to feature on the popular BBC wildlife programme.

But when the sand-dunes blocked out the precious wind, the 31-year-old was reminded that the week-long endurance race was one of the most challenging experiences he had ever undertaken.

"It was like running into a furnace," says Steve.

"It was just unbearable but somehow I got through it."

Many of the sand-dunes were as high as 30 metres, and when they were that steep the sand just slipped away from Steve's feet.

"When I tried to take two steps forward I ended up taking four steps back," explains Steve Yet despite such frustrating setbacks, Steve's dedicated training regime obviously paid off.

In the build-up to the race, he spent hours running near his Bucks home, an effort that helped him to complete the marathon in just 39 hours, leading him to finish 228th out of the 800 runners.

"It was just a great big family and I was able to hook up with whoever happened to be running at my pace," says Steve.

"There was a magical atmosphere during the race because everyone was going through the same thing."

But there were times when Steve was running on his own, such as on the fourth day of the race. This was double marathon day, when Steve and his fellow participants were forced to run into the night.

"I had serious heatstroke," says Steve. "I was on my own and felt as though I was going to explode with heat. I was throwing up everything I ate but I had to carry on because I still had a couple of hours left to do."

As well as heatstroke, Steve also suffered from nasty blisters.

"I must have run hundreds of miles at home and I never got a single blister. But during the Marathon des Sables my feet were pretty tattered. I spent a lot of time in the medical tent."

But according to Steve, so did everyone else.

"Looking at what some of the other runners suffered I cannot complain. Some people had no skin left on the soles of their feet at all and one man was even superglueing his skin back onto his feet and then carrying on with the race."

All of the runners had to wear knee protectors made out of lightweight parachute silk to protect their skin from sand rashes.

They also wore hats to protect them from the blazing hot sun and goggles to keep the sand out of their eyes.

On their backs, they carried their own food and tents a heavy burden that, for some, weighed as much as 13 kilograms.

"We were constantly hungry because we were burning off more food than we could carry," says Steve.

Yet no matter how difficult the race became, most people persevered because reaching the finishing line meant so much to them.

"There were also people whose knees gave out but almost all of them staggered through to the finishing line," Steve added.

And the finishing line was an extraordinary sight.

"We were just all on a high and in a world of hurt and happiness. It was really quite something and everyone had a different reaction."

Steve was also elated to finish the race because it meant that he had raised more than a £1,000 for his chosen charity, the Wolf Trust.

The trust aims to educate the public about wolves, promoting their reintroduction and recovery in Britain by raising money to set up a wolf centre in Scotland.

"Working in the media with wild animals has made me very aware of our fascination with potentially dangerous animals, and quite how much we like to exaggerate their threat, and quite how little danger they actually pose to us," says Steve.

He is now busy making a video of his experience in the desert and even admits that he would consider doing the Marathon des Sables again.

The Really Wild Show is on Thursday evenings on BBC1 at 5pm.

www.wolftrust.org.uk