Today we had Gorges de Todra, The Unesco-protected village of Ait Bennhaddou, Ourzazate, smoking brakes, Zagora, service stop, turban buying and stolen sunglasses. And a magnificent hotel.
So, from the top:
Todra Gorge is cool - but not for 2 wheel drive Fiat Puntos (we still haven't heard from them). Ait Bennhaddou is worth a miss.
The road Ourzazate to Zagora causes brakes to smoke (literally) and necessitates a 10 minute stop, followed by a judicious use of engine breaking. Whoops. Who knew that the 1.7 ton car + some 600 kg of kit would cause problems? :)
We stopped in a garage in Zagora before heading to the hotel to get an oil change ("change - 1 liter out, 5 liters in), the air filters cleaned, a non-working brake light replaced, and a general health check of the undercarriage done. We are now "ready" (and by that I mean "slightly less likely to come to a nasty end") in the rock desert tomorrow. I hope the car comes through ok.
While I was getting the car sorted, the woman bartered 30 EUR, a t-shirt and a bottle of wine for three scarfs, one set of silver earrings and a silver bracelet. E
In addition, one of the vermin, excuse me, lovely native children I gave stuff to with the intent that they'd NOT steal stuff swiped my driving sunglasses. I hope he gets some use of them, just before they cut off his hand for stealing.
At least the hotel today is amazing. If yesterday was 4*, this one must be the local cluster of galaxies.
By the way, this is likely to be one of the last "live" updates, as we are about to enter "indian country". Keep track of us with the SPOT, and we'll get an update in when we can - probably somewhere in Senegal.
I leave you with a photo of me going native.
XOXO, the lunatics.
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