Evil Abdul is a quiet fidgety sort of guy (the fidgeting may have ben because during Ramadan you aren't allowed to smoke during the day). We headed off towards Merzouga and the Erg Chebbi dunes with Abdul telling me all sorts of lies which I nodded along to interested in where this was going to lead.

I could tell he was sizing up my potential wealth with every careful question he asked and played along acting a little more naive than I was.

We got to the dunes ok and Evil Abdul then changed his story to his parents were away at a wedding but that he knew a good place to stay for me so he would lead me there. His suggestion was where I was planning on having a look anyway so again I went along with it, but also partially wondering why I was wasting my time with this rubbish.

The auberge (cheap hotel) was the main backpackers at Erg Chebbi. After a few days a nice bunch of people had turned up so it was worth staying even though the Evil Abdul was watching my every move and lurking behind every shadow.

He became very 'worried' when I disappeared off by myself and was trying to get me to do a load of dodgy sounding things, like during a sand storm to drive one of his friends around to the other side of the dunes because his mother was sick. I asked Muna if I was just reading too much into it and he said they were definitely trying to set me up from what he could see - how exciting!

Staying at the auberge were Jo and Muna from South Africa, Bowen from the States and a nice couple from Hungary. I became good friends with Jo and Muna. Muna as an Indian South African was the first non-white South African I had ever knowingly met which was cool. As was he and Jo.

They had been involved in protesting against apartheid and were now environmental and anti nuclear campaigners. Just my sort of people. We hung out and as we both wanted to head towards Marrakech made plans to leave together.