I get the rest I need but it was intermittent due to the high winds throughout the night. Yesterday was challenging and I’m hoping for an easier ride today, I’m also looking forward to a shower and change of clothes, I don’t think I smell good!

i wake around 5.30am but it’s too early to leave, I have limited fuel and I need to get cash, the late dash to camp last night meant I used more gas than normal so money and fuel are a priority right now.

I leave at around 7.30am and head out into the mountains, a long haul up over a mountain pass and over the top to see a change in landscape. Sand dunes becoming more of a feature as I head out West. It’s a gradual thing but definitely a big change from the hard rocky terrain dominating the last days.

I drop into a town which sits in a palm oasis, it’s just lovely riding under the shade after being out under the heat of the sun for so long. Luck has it and I find a bank, even luckier I manage to change some money, result! Not so lucky was no fuel in this town!

So it’s back on the road and I’m conserving my fuel, I do have some fresh in the RotoPax but I’m keen to get the most out of the Acerbis tank, I have pushed it at times but this time I think I’m going to have to resort to my spare fuel. It makes such a difference to know I have 4 litres in reserve.

Warning lights flashing on the Hondas dash for miles and miles but still I keep rolling. Finally I come to a town, I’m not sure where. I pull into a petrol station but it’s long been closed. Out onto the road and I ask a local young chap, he says the station has been closed for years, but he has fuel! Really, I follow him a hundred meters down the road and lo and behold, he is the new petrol station!

I pull up alongside an industrial unit and he opens up, he has bottles and bottles of various fuels stacked neatly inside. He rushes outside to dispense five litres into a lorry. A Renault 5 pulls up with two older men inside. I ask for 10 litres and the chap comes out with a couple of five litre water bottles, full to the brim. The tank is full, he serves the Renault driver and I admire his wheels, ‘it’s a Classic’ he states, ‘like us’ I joke, we share a laugh and the older gent leave.

I ask ‘how much’ he wants 110 dirahms which is a little more than the old chaps paid but I don’t argue and pay the man. I’m getting back on my bike and the tender asks if I want tea? I haven’t had anything today so I readily agree and we move across the road to the tea shop. He also asks if I want food? I spent the night in the desert last night and food would go down very well, so I agree. We sit down to eat and I update my family and friends with a reassuring post on Facebook.

Next in line is coffee and my petrol seller is friendly and chatty in broken English and he uses his phone to translate, the wonder of technology.

i see some Dutch people, one on a bike and the others in two cars, it must be this Banjul challenge thing they are having. They are looking for fuel at the closed station, I wave them down and introduce my host. They go over to his unit across the road but refuse the fuel as ‘it’s not clear’. The containers are not clear but the fuel is fine but the Dutch drive off.

My host says that many tourists refuse his fuel but it’s the same as the petrol stations and it’s cheaper! I didn’t have a choice but if I had I would still have bought it.

So my petrol station man has filled my bike and my belly! I am so humbled by the people here, he didn’t have to do that but he did and he’s now on my friends list on Facebook. I spend some time chatting and then wave my goodbyes, what a sterling chap he was.

On the road I feel so much better now and the miles roll by, I arrive at the outskirts of Tan Tan and take the obligatory photo by the Kissing Camels, remember that one Doug? I have to wait for the Dutch gang and they enquire about the problem with my Moto, word passed around their group and they are pleased I’m now sorted. They are heading for Layoone today but I’m having an easier day and staying in Tan Tan.

I didn’t realise that the town isn’t the best place to stay but eventually realise that ‘La Plage’ is the place to be so I head the extra half hour to the beach. I find an empty campsite and set up camp as a UK registered Discovery pulls in.

Some time after I walk over and have a lovely conversation with the Welsh couple, he used to live near Tiverton and so the conversation flowed.

as they unveil their roof tent I notice that it’s the same one I was looking at at Tom McGuigans Adventure Overland Show in Stratford, the weekend before I left for Africa. We chat about the tent and they fully recommend it, maybe that should be on my Christmas list for the Hi Lux??

I have my long awaited, cold, shower and set off into town to get food. Half a chicken later I’m over stuffed and head back to the campsite calling at a pharmacy for some bits and bobs.

Im up to date now with the blog so I can rest after a spectacular few days! Looking forward now to 1000 miles plus of long straight desert road…. at 55mph!!