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Tangiers

Once again the pace of the expedition is frustratingly slow. We are parked 20m from gates which are probably the last major bureaucratic barrier between here and Timbuktu .

We arrived in Morocco after taking 24 hours to clear Spanish customs and get the permission to take our fuel and the vehicles out of the EU.

Chocolate Biodiesel is a regulatory nightmare, it can be classed as fuel, oil, foodstuff, or waste product and it took us a day to figure out how to get it out of the EU without a full hygiene inspection of all our containers.

Eventually we sailed, arriving in Tangiers port on Friday. It's now Sunday and we are still in the port. On Monday we will hopefully be able to do all the formalities we need and get out of here in the day. In the meantime we've been keeping busy cycling round the port on John's mountain bike, chatting with the illicit fishermen at the end of the peer, and hanging our washing and hammock between the containers we are parked amongst.

The toilet is outside the secure area so a trip to the loo requires, passport, toilet paper, cash and a phrase book. This morning I went to the Hammam for a wash and last night I had a cut-throat shave. The guy almost slit my jugular when I got an attack of the giggles after John said their was enough beard to stuff a cushion.

Back at the port I got to drive one of the port forklift trucks which has a seat and steering wheel which swivels 180 degrees so you can drive it forward or backwards and I've finally had the chance to read the instruction manual on my camera so expect more pics (I know I keep saying that …)

The break has been really welcome and after a week of late nights and early mornings, it's great to have a couple of days to sleep late.

On Monday we hope to enlist the help of the British consul in Tangiers who can hopefully give us a Caution Morale , a “moral deposit” which means they vouch for us that we will take the vehicles out of the country at the other end and not sell them in Morocco . The alternative is a Caution Fiscal, a sack of cash so big it would spell the end of the BioTruck Expedition.

Ain'shallah.

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The Expedition set off from the UK on the 26th of November and arrived in Timbuktu on the 26th of December 2007.

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