Had a ‘go’ on the Ramspol bridge plus-for-minus action, then lost it again. Half an hour before boarding my plane to Marrakech I got a call from Volker Wessels Infra to tell me that  ‘go’ had changed to ‘no’. Will look into the reasons why this change of heart occurred at RWS headquarters, for maybe I can work around the objections? At another part of a highway at some other time? Presently, it  leaves me with nine big crayons all ready to go and rock and roll …. not a bad thing to have a few at the ready in case another opportunity occurs. Today we’ll travel to M’hamid, 8 hours by bus from Marrakech. It is (wiki): “The end of the road” (the last point of The route national N°9), after it is only sands of Sahara, shepherds and caravan trails. In the Netherlands, we take our infrastructure so very much for granted: there will be a road from my door to anyone elses in the Netherlands. Also dykes and bridges – the Afsluitdijk may be a seventh wonder of the world, but we just drive across and never notice. Ramspolbridge, same story.

Below an artist impression of what we will be doing tomorrow – weather permitting. Enough to cheer one up, no?