After Agadir we made it back to Marrakech ok, and after seeing Chau off at the airport I took advantage of being in the big smoke to find somebody to check the landy over.

I found a landy parts place in Marrakech (no official landy dealership, only in Casablanca) and did my best to check out what each part would cost to replace. I was worried about some play in my front prop shaft and thought about getting another one as a spare in case the worst happened.

Whilst trying to talk with the staff in French a chap popped in that spoke perfect english and he helped me find out exactly what I needed to know within seconds.

He also suggested a very good mechanic that could look at it for me, and if I wasn't busy that night I should come out to his dinner party. It was only later that afternoon after accepting his kind invitation that I realised it was New Year's Eve.

It turned out this friendly guy was called Samir and he and his family leaved just out side of Marrakech on a large ranch. Samir had been in the Moroccan team for the Camel Trophy when it was held in Borneo and so was a bit of a landy nut.

I spent a really nice evening at his very large and flash house (complete with servants and guests from France!) and a few days later he took me to meet his friendly mechanic.

The mechanic's name was Ben Saaoud Khalil and he is a top bloke.

I spent a couple of days in his workshop. We checked out the play in the front prop shaft and it seemed to be accumulated play in the front half shafts, so not something I needed to sort out straight away. As he has good facilities I took the opportunity to do a service and replace brake pads etc.

During my time there quite a few foreigners came in for various reasons. Most of them were French and all of them said the same thing "He is the best mechanic in Marrakech".