Onward to Marrakech

The receptionist at the hotel said we could get the bus at 12 noon, so that was the plan. It was 35 degrees when we checked out and we knew it was hot because locals are in tee shirts today and not wrapped up in jumpers and coats. A convenient taxi saved us a long hot trudge to the bus station but alas when we got there, it seemed that the whole of Agadir wanted to go too, and the earliest bus we can get on is at 1730 hrs.

So it looks like an afternoon snoozing in the shade, punctuated by lunch is on the cards, which is more or less the same things as we'd intended but in another order and in another place. Oh well. That's why it pays to be flexible and not get stressed over things you can't control.

Today is going very slowly, probably because of the heat. Although it is shady inside the terminal, the air is still and it's noisy. So we're now out in the bus bay, sharing some quiet shade and the breeze with an unimpressed kitten.

Only 2 more hours until our bus is due. I'm listening to desert island discs while Nadine types up her diary.

It's funny how locals pick up phrases from TV and use them to start conversations. 'Luvly jubbly ' seems to be a favourite, followed by ' ave a shifty' and 'allo laydees'. It always raises a smile though and you have to give them credit for effort.

The effect and range of tv and the Internet is everywhere even in the old medinas, where even the most unlikely of people have commented on the demise if Maggie Thatcher and how well the Queen looks. I suppose its just different views on the same thing, now that the world is such a global place.

However, the friendliness and openness of ordinary people - men and women - here towards us, brings home just how generalisations, uncertainty and assumption can be misused to control and coerce when in another culture. The lady sitting just along the wall on the otherside of the cat keeps feeding us - an orange, some bread. Really lovely people and very hospitable.


Bus finally arrived and the man suddenly decides we need luggage tickets and dispatches Nads to get some while I wait with the bags.

But we get on OK and off we go a few minutes early. We drag along the coast picking up people from the developed bit of land sprawling out from Agadir before turning inland and up the motorway.

We 'd been going an hour and were cutting through some mountains when there was a bang, a burning smell, some flames from underneath the bus, followed by a cloud of acrid smoke and we lost speed and started slipping backwards; the engine had blown.

The driver controlled it well and steered us backwards into the hard shoulder, using just the brakes and thoughtfully missing the truck on our inside. So now we're all sitting at the side of the road waiting for a replacement vehicle - we hope. And it's getting dark. Bugger.

Two hours later. A replacement bus has just arrived and now its pitch black out here. The bags need to be transferred from underneath but incredibly, the driver did not have a torch or anything else useful for breakdowns. So I used the flashlight on my phone to light up the cargo bit so that the bags could be moved from one bus to the other. Apart from a Dutch couple, we are the only non locals on the bus and the only ones helping the driver. Everybody else just sat around, then grabbed their bags and dived onto the new bus, pushing and shoving as they did so.

Finally we got going only to stop an hour later at a service station for a pee break. Another hour and we arrived in Marrakesh to face the clamouring touts and other hustlers. By now it was 2335, three hours later than expected but we'd booked a riad and had already called them to tell them we would be late. That was a Godsend as trudging around in the dark after the day we'd had would not have been welcome. So we took a taxi across town and the riad man met us and led us through the Medina to where we were staying.