Rabat is the capital of Morocco and the great walls enclose a largely modern city of wide boulevards and bureaucratic buildings and houses manydifferent countries' embassies.  Whilst Sale just across the river is home to the old Medina.  We ent into the capital on our scooter and it was the first time we had difficulty parking it.  We can usually park anywhere we want to but in Rabat there were designated 'bike parks' just outside the city walls.

One afternoon we were desperate to get an English paper (football results!) and called at the Central Station but the papers had not been delivered. We went for coffee to wait and sat opposite the Parliament buildings and after 15 minutes or so a crowd began to develop followed by the Police and then some guys in Army uniform.  More people arrived and started to link arms and proceeded to sit on the floor in some sort of protest.  We waited for a riot to develop but all passed very peacefully.  However, Peter was there again the next day (waiting for a paper!) and the protestors arrived again, this time in greater numbers and with more Police and Army in evidence and this time there was a lot more scuffling and brandishing of Police and Army batons with a few people knocked around.  We found out later that it was the Graduates protesting that after years of studying there were no jobs available for them!!

The campsite at Rabat was fairly run down although it did have hot showers again for a small fee.  One day I went with my money to the reception to request a hot shower and the guy behind the desk ushered me away from the shower block towards his house.  I protested and pointed to the shower block and he said the hot shower was broken whereupon he took me over to the family home and indicated I should use their shower.  I went inside and sure enough all the familiy toiletries were there and the shower was indeed hot.  I t was only when I glanced down at the floor and looked closely at the duck board I was standing on that I realisedit was placed on top of their 'squatter type' toilet.  At first I thought I wanted to get out but after a month of travelling around Morocco you get a bit hardened to anything plus  it was clean and the main thing hot so I just got on with it.