Almost at the start line.

I got on the road about 09:30 this morning after a decent night’s sleep. Really warm last night, muggy and a  return to the warmth seems strange after Autumn arrived in Wales.

5 hours ahead of me and the only deadline is to make the northern toll booth at Toulouse before 11am. Traffic is notorious at this pinch point and I didn’t fancy sitting in traffic.

A couple of stops for fuel, coffee and to grab low denomination euros from cash machines and I arrived with a couple of hours to spare.

860 miles from Wales I have finally arrived at Ali’s house in Lapradelle-Puilaurens.

Becuase of the change in the Moroccan ferry schedule I now have a rest day before we head off around lunchtime on Wednesday for the 130 mile drive to the ferry terminal at Sete. The enforced rest day is probably not a bad thing giving me time to rearrange baggage, repack a few winter clothes (it’s still 30 degrees here) and fill my ferry bag for the 43 hour journey to Nador.

Fuel has been averaging at €2.40 per litre on the way here and quite a few autoroute service stations had long queues and some had even run out of fuel

Leaving the autoroute for a 5 mile trip to the local supermarket saved on average 40 cents a litre and I found that there were no queues or shortages.

So a few beers tonight, bit of a catch up and a. decent sleep.