Ouarzazate

Ouarzazate is a prosperous and fast growing small town on the outskirts of the Sahara. Describing it as hot and dry doesn’t begin to do the place justice. Dust gets everywhere, it blocks your nose, fills your shoes and gets behind your eyelids. Even the water from the hotel taps is dusty, and runs a cheerful canary yellow.

There is a busy movie studio here where they filmed Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator and other, more forgettable, flics. One of the few local restaurants that serves alcohol has dozens of pictures of grateful film stars on the walls.

It is also a base for adventure tourism into the desert.  If you have a 4wd and drive south with plenty of fuel and water you might possibly arrive in Mauretania. What you would do there I have no idea.

The souk is an Aladdin's Cave for anything that you might want to buy or get repaired. Here is a picture of Bill getting an LX9000 calibrated:

The airport has four or five international commercial movements a week and not much else, apart from us. If would care to visit us here, you can get a direct flight from Paris. It supports a staff of about a hundred, all of whom take a close but friendly interest in us. We are well known here now and it usually takes only half an hour or so to get past the daily security, customs and police checks and file a flight plan (same as yesterday, please). At the final check in the gendarmerie, we are invited to share their mint tea. Very good it is too

Dotted around the perimeter are soldiers in small tin sentry huts. They are unused to visitors, very hot and well armed. When I needed to drive past them the other day to do a radio check, I was careful to get word sent ahead.

Bathwater, straight from the hotel taps.