The puncture saga!

Sorry but this will be the abridged version as I have somehow managed to delete the whole post for today. A gendarme directed us up a very narrow lane because of road works, trouble was that the road had a steep incline, not much tarmac and a lot of loose gravel. Delfin ,because of her weight, does not cope well on such surfaces and I don't do steep or high, especially when all that exists between me and free-falling hundreds of metres is a foot high barrier. There was nowhere to turn around, so up and up we drove, with Sue making helpful comments like" keep staring at the tarmac " and " we'll be on the inside coming down", whilst she lurched about the van being snap happy with the camera. Suddenly, around a blind bend, there appeared a white van man, yes they have them in Morocco too, steaming down the mountain, causing me to swing out onto the gravel, towards the edge . Before the expletives had cleared the air, he was gone.

No barrier here. Panic, hand gripping the wheel.

At the campsite, Sue noticed that the rear offside tyre was going down. A French man came to assist, pouring scorn on our pathetic excuse for a jack, then a guy called Aziz said his brother had a tyre repair shop a hundred metres away so before we knew what was happening, the tyre was off and on its way to Ahmed. He struggled to remove the tyre because he had never come across Tyron bands before. I could have cried when I saw it lying in a tangled spaghetti type pile on the floor. He had patched our new tyre but it still leaked air so he had another plan. I shuddered. Off he went in a taxi  to the nearest large town, and found a very good heavy duty, truck tyre, in a scrap yard, which was our size. Back he came, sat it in a tub of water. " No bubbles "

Ahmed finds a suitable tyre!

This was to be our new spare wheel, the original spare was lowered from its cradle and became the punctured one's replacement. Job done!! Somewhat costly, not just the repair, but the extra damage caused by his lack of experience with motorhome tyres. But he and his brother were very thorough in ensuring that we would be safe on Morocco's roads. Final comment, I blame the white van man for the whole affair!

Well done Ahmed and Aziz, Shukran to you both.