White Christmas

Christmas day started in the town of Zagora with a flat tyre. Team Bodge stepped up and did a Formula 1 style Wheel Change. With the target being Marakesh, over 500km away on the other side of the Atlas mountains we made speedy progress, stopping off at Ait Benhaddou to take in the amazing views of the crumbling citadel. The danger of the Atlas mountains was soon to be shown with a smashed bridge and an overturned truck lying at the bottom of a ravine, busily being stripped for parts by the local Berbers. Reaching the top of the pass at 2260m we waited for team bodge to catch up whilst fending off high altidude rock selling Berbers. Although the hairpinning road with its precipitous drops had some crash barriers there were nearly always ragged gaps where others had clearly tested their effectivness. This became more relevant as the sun started to set; realising that the desent towards Marakesh would be completed in the dark. Team bodge had the added handicap of headlamps illumiating the air above the jeep rather than the road ahead. Passing through recently cleared snow and rockfalls while overtaking tankers on hairpins hightened the concentration and the potential need for a change of pants. By the time a local lorry decided he wanted to re enact scences from the movie Duel with us it was time to take a cofee break, where by we were chased round the forecourt of the garage by a deranged dog. Christmas and our circular 1000km excursion of South Western Morocco was ended in Marakesh with a good dinner in the Djemaa El fna swapping tales with other teams.