1-1-2011
But wait… there’s more! (1-01-2011 Afternoon)
As it was quite late when I typed that, I didn’t have a chance to upload it… then the day after way New Year’s Eve, so I didn’t have time to do anything… so here’s the next update as well!
On the 31st, we decided to tempt fate and try to go to Ouarzazate… Last year, on the road there we got rammed by a lorry which ended the trip prematurely… so this year, instead of the panoramic off-road route, we took the road. The road is plenty panoramic, with some absolutely stunning views. Blood red rocks in the mountains separate the golden sands of the desert from the lush green valleys on the other side. At one point, a landslide had turned the mountain into a “watermelon”, with a rind of green trees on top, a slightly sandy-white area underneath and then hundreds of meters of red rock. Incredible!
For New Year’s Eve we decided to head into Jamaa el Fna – the main square in Marrakesh. Ironically, everything closed at 23:30/23:40 and by 00:15 the square was almost deserted, bar a few tourists, the police, a few drunks staggering around with bottles hidden in their jackets (to avoid the police), and a few hash dealers…. Oh and us in the middle of it all!
But the fun doesn’t stop there… come back “home” and while washing up (and while waiting for the dye in my hair to set), the electric boiler vents, and a few pipes burst and the apartment starts flooding. Queue a frantic search for the fusebox and stopcock… by which time there were around 4-inches of water in the bathroom (which we dam’ed using all the towels). We quickly tried to remove the bulk of the water and went to sleep… now I’m waiting for the concierge to call a plumber and sort it out… oh well…
From a car standpoint, the clutch is almost dead… a VERY worrying thing given that the hardest part of the journey is still ahead of us! Doh! Oh well, we’ll see what happens…
I’ll go take a cold shower as I need to still get the dye out of my hair (managed to stop the flooding by not using the hot water and closing off some pipes) and head into the market to get my bags back from the girls!
M.