Rocky is King in BouMahra

Went into Souk Ahras to find some money. The only place we could change was the central bank. All money machines had been out for some time due to a central bank issue. That could and would become interesting.

Leaving Souk Ahras was easy enough. The -3 star hotel gave us a  hero's departure.

Got stopped at several checkpoints leaving the city, some quite menacing with several gunners at distance, body armour, stingers (home made clearly in some cases) and traffic clearly respecting the smallest handsignals by these chaps.
Here is the first one which I recorded....



Then some very good driving through a beautiful country. Friendly people everywhere.

Got to BouMahra and stopped at restaurant Hamami, which was recommended by the people around on the streets.
We had a very very good meal, served by Amirouche aka Rocky, who was an expert on all the Algerian National team. He asked about the Dutch team chnances but we told him they did not like training too hard, so not much risk of winning.
Not sure where his nickname came from, but soccer was clearly his passion; putting all his extra cash into new shoes. School would start again next week.
We could not leave without the customary extras and well wishes, and went back on our way.

Countryside is very nice here and if it was not for the heavy trucks the driving would have been perfect..
Cars were overtaking with some risk but we kept clear of trouble except for one gravel filled corner where both of us went wide to avoid issues. Roads are not as grippy here, full power in second even gives traction problems and the front feels it wants to wash out so easy around the corners does it.

Police was generally very interested and we were stopped several times, for questioning and paper checks.
They were all very very proud of their country and interested where we came from. Then the topic goes to soccer again. Even in the middle of busy crossings; we were held up to 30 minutes on one occasion.

At some point a car went over the side of a bridge, everyone jammed on the brakes and jumped out, raced to the other side of the road. Chaos in seconds. The bridge was a very high one; so, either the car left on time, or the guy was a dead man. Did not wait to see.*

Got to Setif after hitting an impressive but boring stretch of new 6 lane highway.on the last 50 km.

The hotel was quickly found by asking another biker to bring us there. Then the fun started.
All credit card payment systems were down for 20 days and our cash was running out.

After lots of discussions, the owner suggested the money machine at the airport was a standalone system, and a biker guide - no helmet - no license plates - no fear - brought us there. All locked but we managed to talk us past the police checkpoint , got the gates opened; and had an officer take us to the machine::::

Finally cash.

And a bed!

A quick meal and we were ready for some kip.

More to follow.