Marrakesh bound

I left Sidi Ifni by taxi the day before my flight was due to depart. Getting a taxi with two Moroccan ladies and an English couple we headed for Inezgane's bus terminal.

Finding a bus for Marrakesh was easy, getting it to move on time out of the bus station was altogether a different matter; we left 45minutes later than told. The 4hr journey became 7hrs as we stopped every 100m or so to pick up or set down a passenger. It was a nightmare. At one point I grabbed hold of the conductors sleeve and said what is going on - I'd never been on a bus like this before where it was SO slow. Passengers around me agreed and started a little riot, the English couple who were travelling with me were laughing, the driver wasn't - my little riot caused him to pull up and yell at everyone in Arabic; I got the gist of it; if I didn't shut up along with the rest of the passengers he was going to throw us off there. Everyone had a giggle and we all calmed down.

Getting into Marrakesh at 8pm a few days before Eid without a hotel reservation isn't a wise move. However we got to the Grand Taza Hotel, the only one in the medina that has a bar and John & Lorraine had thoughtfully booked ahead. I was a little cheeky and told them I'd booked at the same time, so it wasn't my fault that they couldn't find my name ... lo & behold it worked, they got me the last room on the top floor, with a dodgy door lock!

The Grand Hotel Taza is a bit like Fawlty Towers, absolute chaos, each room had an electronic heater on the wall but the 200 odd rooms only had 2 remote controls for these heaters. I held onto mine for the night, I needed warmth but I didn't want to be boiled overnight!

The next morning I went to have breakfast at a restaurant I'd been to before which does excellent cafes; having told John & Lorraine of my trip I did say I wondered if Julian had made it to Marrakesh; presuming he had as I knew he'd been in Agadir. I walked into the restaurant and sure enough, an American voice greeted me. Julian was having breakfast - I was happy that he'd got there in one piece. Later, I went racing down to the Jewish 'Mellah' quarter, a place I'd been before to go and buy a lantern for a room at home, finally getting just what I wanted I raced back to the hotel to check out and get a cab out to the airport ... and fly home. The drama doesn't quite stop there ...