Northern African: Morocco - The Lions on the Road: Cycling London to Cape Town - page 75

FridaymorningIwenttoHQandwaited inthecanteen fornewsaboutthestatus of
the governor's letter. Aida finally arrived to say that the letter was completed. Luckily for
me, aUNstaffmember walked byandwished me agoodflight onSunday.Icorrected him
and said that I was leaving today. An alarm bell rang in my head. So, I approached Aida
and asked him to show me the letter for I wanted to see it with my own eyes. Sure enough
it was for Sunday morning at 4:45.
Iwas polite about it and left to bookfortwo more nights at my hotel. Ithen went to
see a movie in the local theatre and was surprised on how beautiful the interior was in such
a remote area. The sound was great and the picture quality was like back home. The chairs
however were metal and not very comfortable. I watched a Patrick Swayze movie (didn't
write down the title) which was severely edited and had a 15-minute intermission- not bad
for 4 dirham.
Therestoftheweekendwasuneventful,spendingmostofmytimewiththeAussies
and watching comedies. The hotel reassured me they would wake me up at 4:00 Sunday
morning. They came at 4:10 and I was ready to go by 4:30. Since there was no UN vehicle
available (the booking was for Friday), I just cycled to the airport….this time more calmly.
Leaving Morocco
I had another scare. I arrived at the airport by 4:40 and was told that my name was
not on the list. The UN official added that I should have flown on the Friday. I told them
that I read the letter from the governor and it stated Sunday at 4:45am. He then simply
wrote my name on the manifest in pen and I was escorted onto the tarmac.
I walked to my aircraft, a turboprop cargo plane, and entered the plane from the
rear. I laid my bike in the centre of the fuselage and had it strapped into place. There were
two benches that faced each other against the walls of the fuselage. I sat in the centre of