Day 7 Marrakech

Happy New Years. We have had a couple of nice easy days around Marrakech. Yesterday we drove the five or so miles into town after having a tasty scrambled egg and toast breakfast outside on the terrace in the morning sun. First stop was to get the air conditioning charged up in the car at a garage in the 'new town.' The guys had it done in ten minutes while we waited. From their we got some passport photos taken for our Mauritanian visas and then on down into the Old Town for a wide eyed trip round the markets stalls of the medina and down to the main square with all the madness of hogmanay thrown in. Nora ended up with a 'free' henna tattoo for twenty dirhams and I ended up lost after walking through one too many turns. We ended up finding sanctuary up in one of the restaurants above the square for an hour before descending back down past the snake charmers, story tellers and stalls. After a long day of it we headed back to the car and drove back to the villa managing to pick up my second fine of the trip of sixteen pounds for a blown headlamp and not carrying my car owners documents.
Again we had breakfast the same as yesterday and headed off to drive up the top of the Ourika Valley. About ten miles south of here the flat plains stop and for the next twenty five mile we climbed up and into the Atlas Mountains via a switchback road past the Berber villages to the Ski resort at the top. At the police checkpoint at the top I bought a one pound twenty car park ticket from the young man with the ticket book and change bag only to find the ticket was photocopied fake as you didn't have to pay. Hustled with a smile. Between us we have taken about a hundred photos today on the drive. We arrived back at sunset and had a lovely meal made by the cook Nissa with a couple over from Bournemouth for the New Year. Sadly this is the last night here as tomorrow we get up and head north for Rabat.