Day 43 – Merzouga (Last day)

Wow … what an afternoon. We have had a real fierce sand storm for several hours. Had to shut up everything and it got really hot in the van. I accidentally left the garage door open and it has filled with sand even though the wind was not coming from that direction.

This morning started as usual with a warm bright and hot start. Our broken washing machine was picked up and taken into town to try and get repaired. Tina decided to clean up the gas bottle burner and made a great job of ours and then proceeded to work on Brian’s only to then break it. The next hour or so Brian tried fixing the broken burner part but whilst he did this we also ordered a spare each to be brought from the market. The original burner was fixed so we each have two now.

Late afternoon the washing machine was returned all fixed. It was the spinner motor that needed replacing. The cost of the repair was 200MAD (£14). The motor in the UK would have cost far more than this let alone the 80km return trip to the city and the labour to fix it. Bargain. The two burners cost 50MAD each (£3.50) … yet another bargain.

I had left out the washing machine to test it once we had electric for the evening but the sand storm decided to fill it with sand. However, it did work so we will be all set for the next time we need to wash our clothes.

As we were stuck in the van this afternoon we decided to watch a couple of the films we had brought with us. Not great but it passed the time. During a period of the wind relenting I did go out and start to clear up and put things away however it wasn’t long before the sand was whipping around and my hair was full of the stuff. Shower tonight for sure.

Moving on tomorrow at the start of our journey home. We will be exiting Morocco in around 10 days so we need to start the journey north.