The Expedition reaches Marrakech

Very early start to get to Marrakech (400 miles of Autoroute) in a day. We are warned by Abdel to stick to the speed limit (120km - 80mph) as there are lots of Moroccan Gendarmerie along the way. We get away with it for at least 300 miles and we start to get a bit cocky - blatting past radar checks with no effect. Big mistake. With John in the lead I spot a policeman with a radar gun cunningly hidden under a bridge support. Half a mile later and his colleagues are standing right in the middle of the fast lane waving John down. He manages to screech to a halt from a, shall we say, 'swift' speed. I pull up behind him and watch with some amusement as John has to produce all his documentation and a wad of Dirhams. After ten minutes of gesticulation and pigeon French (being unkind to pigeons) - the Gendarme kindly decides to hand everything back to him, including the cash, admonish him and wave us both on our way - saluting us as we get back onto the road. Our sensitive riding doesn't last long and we soon throw caution to the wind and ramp the speed up again, surviving all the way to Marrakech without further interruption. Upon entering Marrakech we stumble across several camel trains, and finally a little bloke on a scooter who riding beside us promises to take us to a hotel he knows. Slumming it for £25 quid including breakfast, we check in to the Redouane Hotel, a short taxi ride from the Medina.

After a very brief freshen up (cold shower only) we head into Djemaa-el-Fna, the square in the centre of the Medina where snake charmers, belly dancers, artisans, food stalls all vie for trade. Thousands of people, lots of noise, lots of hustling. Claustrophobics should give it a miss. Before we get to the square however, we witness a couple of unusual events - firstly a horse pulling a cart collapses and dies on the road, then a bus which has hit a taxi causes a full scale punch up between the drivers. Our own taxi driver stops to try to separate them, which he does successfully after 20 minutes of negotiation.

Back to the Medina - John decides it's time to have a shave and heads in to the casbah where he finds a small barbers who brandishes a cut-throat razor, and whilst watching the local football match on the TV, flashes away at John's stubble. An expert job completed for Dhs 30 (a couple of quid).

Up to the rooftop of a local restaurant for a beer, and a great view over the square, we are disappointed to find that the whole of the square is 'dry' - alcohol-free beer only.

Head out of the square to find somewhere to eat and a bottle of wine - we end up in Les Jardins De La Koutoubia - a 5 star hotel where we wished we'd checked in to! On the toss of a coin we decide dinner, Indian or Morocca, John's double head coin chooses Indian!

Heading up into the High Atlas mountains tomorrow - if the car and bike are still at our flea pit when we get back there.