Day 11

Day 11: Weds 03/07/03

Don’t bother Mickey, I’m awake! I said in hushed tones. It was a couple of minutes before six and I was already wide-awake. A little excited about going home and seeing the family again I got up straight away and washed, packed my rucksack, then headed out to the Tarboukal for some breakfast. Guillaume, and then Kim who had come to wish us bon voyage joined me around 7.30.

We had crepes, which were not that tasty, in fact I did not think much of them at all and wished I had stuck with bread and jam.

The plan this morning was to meet up with Guillaume's friend a couple of blocks away at around 8.15. We said our goodbyes to Kim and exchanged details, as you do! I did sincerely hope that we could all keep in touch from time to time, these were nice people I had met. Who knows, only time will tell?

The French girl was there waiting for us with her sister who was going to drive us to the airport, just a 20 minute ride away. I thanked the French woman for the lift and said goodbye to Guillaume when we entered the departure lounge of the airport, we both had to go to different check in desks, with our flights booked to leave within 5 minutes of each other. So that was that, I was now on my own again and heading back to London Heathrow, very soon.

I joined the long queue at the check in for my flight where I stood waiting. Vince, Vince, over here! I could hear the voice calling my name, but try as hard as I could, did not see where it was coming from, it was not the voice of Guillaume either, but was a voice I recognised from somewhere? Where had I heard that voice before?

My eyes scanned all around me, then eventually homed in on where the shouting was coming from. There towards the front of the line was Majid, the Marc Bolan lookalike, smiling and waving at me to join him!

“Where did you go when we came out of the airport, I was looking for you!” Majid said. He explained that he had hung around outside the customs hall looking for me when we had arrived, but when I did not show he assumed that I had got a taxi. Well he was right there, but I don’t think he hung around for very long, as I could have been no more than five minutes behind him!

Still all that was history now and really didn’t matter as I explained what had happened to him. “Anyway he said, I’m glad you are well and had a good time, I kept looking for you in Essaouria while I was there”. He told me to bring my bags and join him in the line near the front so that we could book a seat together on the flight home. The reason for his over friendliness was soon apparent, he had about three very large bags of stuff that he had bought to sell on his return to England, and of course this would mean paying excess baggage charges. Now if we checked in together this would reduce his total weight by quite a bit as I only had a rucksack that weighed very little. There was no excess to pay as our combined luggage came in just under the weight allowance, luckily enough for Majid; he would now make a little more than expected on his purchases.

I really did not mind and was happy enough to help out, especially as it saved me lining up for another half an hour waiting to get to the front of the line.

Once through into the duty free area of the airport I did not see Majid who went off somewhere to do something? I strolled around the small area of shops and was surprised that none of them would actually except Moroccan currency, they only wanted dollars, euros and pounds, all of which I had, but was reluctant to part with as I still had quite a few DH. I bought some duty-free using my credit card rather than hard currency, which is always handy to have when you are travelling!

Majid and I sat next to each other on the flight home, talking about our experiences in the last ten days. “Did you get yourself some batteries for your Walkman”, I asked noticing he was not wired for sound. “No I sold it to a man in ”. Essaouria “Oh right!” I said, quickly losing interest in the conversation.

Uneventful and on time was how I would describe the flight home, which always seem to take longer than it does when going. All I wanted to do now was get home, shower, put my feet up and have a nice cup of tea, Or maybe, a café au lait!

END.

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