I've just reached Torremolinos near Malaga where I'm staying for the night. I've got the flight to Tangier tomorrow evening, so I'll treat myself to a proper lie in followed by sunbathing on the beach before 10 days of hard work. Below you have the face of someone drinking a mint tea and pondering 'why the hell am I not spending the next week and a half in a SPA'.

Started the day googling what kind of dangerous creatures live in Morocco. For that reason alone, I'm kind of glad I'll mostly be spending time IN the car as ideally I'd like to avoid close encounters with scorpions or snakes (I actually don't mind spiders that much, but other stuff... BIG NO!) Internet forums are fountain of knowledge: 'taka a flute and charm the cobras' or 'aggressive carpet salesman are worst than scorpions' , but I will shake my shoes and clothes in the morning just in case. And I need some form of bug spray. Anyway, the WHO says Morocco is a pretty safe country to travel! Uff

I'm knackered just from doing the drive from Torrevieja, even though I did a pit stop in Granada yesterday and a quick tour of Ronda today. Morocco rally will involve a few hours of solid driving per day, so it's a good prep for upcoming marathon... I will be sharing the driving with a super experienced rally driver, but I've still got to put in the hours and get up at dawn every day (which I'm dreading as a night owl). It's a rally after all, not a holiday.

I've done yet another list of little things I'm still missing in my bag: towel (no idea how the hotels in Morocco will be and doing it on budget anyway) and I'll stock up on sunscreen. Plus something against mozzies and similar. Otherwise I think I'm pretty much there...need to check-in for the flight and hopefully get a good night sleep at Ibis Tangier before I pick up the car on Monday.

In other news, I've spend a couple of hours at Decathlon in Granada earlier on today buying last bits n bobs for the Toubkal climb, but more on that in a separate post.