30 Oct 2004. Guelmim.

As I'm paying at a petrol station near Tiznit, a Honda Africa Twin pulls up next to me and Mr Thomas Meisner from Germany introduces himself.

I didn't think anyone actually rode AT's to Africa - they're so goddamn heavy. He's on his way to Togo, and he needs to be back home in December so he's been doing 500 mile days. My pathetic 150 a day makes me feel like an utter girl.

We ride down to Guelmim together. It's great riding with another human after 3500 miles alone. The Anti-Atlas scenery gets better and better.

In Guelmim hotels are scarce and within minutes we're joined by Shiagar...

Shiagar and some berk

and Hassan (both crammed onto a moped) who, naturally, offer us refreshment and mattresses at their place where, soon, we're sipping sweet tea and entertaining ourselves with my guitar.

After smoking a number of Sahara Bensons, it is decided that we should go to an oasis and spend the night with bedouins. "OK", we say, inwardly wondering if all this is really happening. Maybe it wasn't.

We don't make it to the oasis as the road is flooded and the surface is washed away in places. Instead we end up at a hotel with a hot spring attached. Very nice. No idea where it was.