He Says — Real Movies are made here; pirate DVD elsewhere

13 – 15 September

We headed to Ait Benhaddou a town whose Kasbah has been the backdrop for 20+ Hollywood movies. These include titles like “The Mummy”, “Romancing the Stone”, “Gladiator” and a host of others. On the trip down I started to smell petrol, it was odd as it was an actually chilly day so there should be little tank evaporative loss, but did not think much of it. We spent the afternoon walking around the Kasbah but being so close to Marrakech and so touristy it was full of touts and scams like not telling you how to get in to the city with out going though a persons house for a price of course, and then trying to get you going out as well.

Completing a challenge set by my ex-work mates we stayed in a fancy hotel and had a fancy meal. The owner of the hotel was in at least 10 of blockbusters himself (as an extra) including the three mentioned above. We slept well and were packed and ready to leave early the next morning. The petrol smell was strong, I had noticed one of the hotels kids (they are like the cats, strays that are everywhere) playing with the bikes throttle so I again thought nothing of it.

It was to be only a 30km trip this morning to a place called Bikershome in, Ouarzazate so that we can have a day out of the way and a place to do some work on the bike. Once there I found the source of the petrol smell. I discovered that my fuel tank has a leak. This turned a one-day visit in to two. Most of which I spent high on petrol fumes as I tried to fix it. We were also told that we would not be able to get our Mauritania visa at the Border and so we have to head 900km back south to Rabat. This was a nice place to stop it was run by (yet an other) Dutch guy and his Moroccan wife. She was an amazing cook and fed us very well during our stay.

That night a mad-man attacked a car outside the house, I stumbled out of bead at the ruckus it caused but by the time I looked over the terrace all was calm. I assumed that it was just one of those things and went back to bed. It was not till the next day did I hear the harrowing tail of a knife wielding nutter smashing car windows and threatening people.