To The Morroco Border

The drive to the Morrocian border was uneventful and involved a straight road for several hours. There was however a few mine field signs. We arrive at the border before we realise it and there is a restaurant / cafe where we have a conflab about what to do and where to stay as well as should we try to cross tonight. We decide to stay the night in the tents the place has as well as some of the rooms. Colin and Chris help the guy checking us in by filling the fishes.

We all order food with varying amounts of success and catch up with a guy that is driving back to the UK from below Gambia. He is driving a truck he built himself, which we obviously have to have a nose round, It is far more sophisticated than our vehicles and it has a 200L drinking water tank as well a filter on the air intake that throws out all the sand. The guy has loads of really interesting stories about his travels and footage he has taken on the drive up. He also gives us loads of tips about where to stay and cross borders to minimise the hassle and cost. Adrian finally looses patience with the Celine Dion cd that is set to loop and we burn a mp3 cd of the top 75 uk hits. This seams to meet with approval but they still only loop the first 5 songs. Grrrrrrr

Whilst we are getting as much information as we can about the route ahead we copy each others pictures onto the laptop and Deans external drive. There are so many great pictures and we cant believe that we have only been away for such a short time. Colin sells the wheels we have still been carrying for the Risitas for 15 euros for 2 which is a reasonable deal. The guy we sell them to is more interested in buying the jerry cans but there is no way they are available.

All too quickly the evening gets away from us and cars start to park in a line to cross the border in the morning. We move ours out sharpish and put them nose to tail. People are still rather jumpy about leaving the vehicles exposed on the road and Colin and Dean sleep in the vehicles. Chris gets himself hunkered down in a tent with Team Griffin who spend most the night playing poker with WWD in the lounge tent.

Power for the restaurant goes on at 1800 and off at 2100 which really helps the charging the walkie talkies. There is however a really annoying beep that goes off about every hour about 3 meters from Chris head in the tent. Colin reports that the border has been in constant use all night with bus loads of people driving round it after giving a geeza standing in the shade a wad of cash.

The toilets are the usual feet points and squat except there is a normal one for the ladies. Paul gets scowled at and shooed away every time he goes near it by the female attendant. It could be something to do with him wearing his gilabert!!

We are woken in the morning by what sounds like a cat going through the final death throws, such a pleasant noise! To get ourselves motivated Chris and Colin drink coffee that is a close relative of the ALNS special variety and it cleans the pallet and makes your eyes go wide. Deans mint tea is rather manky but after the coffee Chris assists in finishing it.

We had planned to get going early in the morning for a 6am crossing we were stopped however by the border not being open till 9am.