We are now in Madrid, Puerte de Hierro with Kukki & Anne and Co.

After two days of rest and a new old starter motor - curtesy of UN - we took the road North toward Tan-Tan. More stone desert, but also a few decorative sand dunes. Got a speeding ticket out of Tan-Tan for doing 71 in a 60km zone - they have radars in Maroc, I guess we are not in Africa any longer! Turned left in Guelmim for Ifni on the beach.

Ifni was built by the Spanish, you easily see that. It has spooky mists rolling in from the Atlantic, a nice camp site and an Internet Cafe that allows me to plug in my laptop and upload the Layoune chapter. UN was very good to us, so I did not want to spoil things by hacking their proxy server (pop3, smtp and ftp are forbidden).

Up the coast toward Tiznit, fill up the tank - diesel is now up to 7.6 dirhams a liter compared to 4.6 in Layoune (a Dirham is about 9 Euro cents) - and inland toward Tafraoute, a pleasant mountenous road. Tafraroute is sitting in the middle of a lot of very big boulders, no telling how this landscape was created. Nice camp site. Cold beer from a nearby hotel. In the morning tour of the market, seeing a crafts gallery and some painted rocks South of the town.

North to Taroudannt, a pleasant walled city East of Agadir. Found a Hotel, parked the car and spent time seeing the city. The ladies rented a horse cart for a tour.

Through the High Atlas Mountains to Asni. A very nice drive. Very little traffic and altitude differences of 2000 meters. Absolutely spectacular.

Back down found a very pleasant Maroccan quest house and stayed over night. Excellent food in soothing surroundings 1 hour South of Marrakech.

On to Marrakech. Parked inside the walls. A little sightseeing. But it was too hot (50 degrees). Drove on to the coast Essaouira. Many people enjoying the beach. A Sofitel serves cold beer. Bach to the camp site 20 km inland. Pool and good food. Beer is one third of the Sofitel.

North towards Safi and Qualidia. Found excellent oysters with good Moroccan wine. Further up the coast, found a camp site in the dark South of Casablanca (it was our only horrible Moroccan experience).

Onwards to see Rabat, where we saw a nice old fort and a carpet souk. Visited an interesting family museem Bel Gazi. The family has been builders and artists for 4 generations. They have opened some of their homes for the public. Lots of artfacts, some very old. Overnight up the coast in Moulay-Bousselham, a very nice spot on the coast. Spectacular sunset. Nice camp site.

Time has caught up with us, the insurance for Maroc was expiring. We set out for Ceuta. The idea being to enter Europe in Africa. Crossed over to Tetuan on the Mediteranean side, North through Mortil a seaside resort town recently built up. No problem exiting Maroq and entering Ceuta. A few hours wait for the ferry spent sitting overlooking the harbour. Lost 2 hours because of the time difference between Africa and Europe! Entering Spain no problem. Found Queens Hotel in Gibraltar. Wash up and out for a nice dinner across the street.

We crossed the Strait of Gibraltar with 167584 on the Patrol's log making the African part of our journey 10188km.

A note on Morocco. We saw a lot of police, but they were all polite, correct and helpful. We deliberately avoided Fez, Meknes and Casablance to be able to walk around ourselves and be left alone. It worked! The Berber towns we saw vere lovely. Food was good and accomodations reasonably priced. The people was all helpful and pleansant. We will come back to Maroc.

After a very good breakfast on to Spain. The car got searched for the first time in customs. Along the coast to Malaga to drop Pat. Then North towards Madrid. Wanted to stop in Jaen, but were unable to find parking for the car in the city center, and the Parador on top was full. Found a nice roadside hotel halfway between Jaen and Bailen.

The last 320 km's to Madrid on the Autovia del Sur. A lot of construction on Madrid's highways makes navigation a challenge, but we find Calle Velayos easily with the assistance of two taxi drivers.

Benjamin is home and lets us through the gates.