January 22, 2024 – Dakhla, Morocco
Jan 29th, 2024 by rallyadmin
There’s nothing and no one awake when get up to leave. Pinky makes tea for everyone just as the hotel boy offers to get someone awake somewhere in town and bring us omelets for breakfast. We Thank him for the offer but refuse. We have a long way to drive to Dakhla and we need to get going.
The plan is to drive to Dakhla where we are to camp on the beach. Last year, we camped in the small cane and tarp shelters right next to the waters edge. I was quite comfortable and that is the plan for Pinky and myself this year. Elaine and Clemo are planning to stay in a hotel in downtown Dakhla.
Unfortunately for the plan, as soon as the sun rises, the wind picks up and soon we are driving with sand blowing across the road in windrows and the visibility steadily dropping. We (Pinky and I) keep hoping the the wind will die as we get farther south but that doesn’t happen. In fact the wind gets stronger and the sand windrows are crossing the road now, completely burying the tarmac in places.
By the time we get to the top of the peninsula that has Dakhla town at its southern end, the wind has talked us out of camping. A quiet campfire on the beach isn’t happening tonight.
We follow Clemo in the wounded TD4 Land Raver into town and locate a restaurant on the beach from, right down the boulevard from the Tea Pot sculpt (really, see the photos for today), that servers excellent food and beer!!
We order and when the beers come, we start discussing the options for the Land Raver. From the symptoms, we think that the issue might be the fuel injectors. Clemo calls Dahid in Mauritania asking him to try and source some replacements. Dahid thinks he can find some and says he’ll call back when he knows something. As a backup, Clemo also calls Sam in Banjul and asks him to see if he can source some also.
Before lunch is over we start looking for a room for the night in downtown Dakhla. We find a cheap hotel with good reviews on Booking.com that is only a few blocks from the restaurant. Meanwhile, Elaine and Clemo find a room across the street from the restaurant.
Just as we are getting ready to leave the restaurant, Clemo gets calls from both Dahid and Sam. They have both found injectors, 2 by Dahid and a full set of 4 by Sam. They will have them at Hotel Barbas when we arrive there in 2 days time. A plan and maybe a fix for the Land Raver.
We check into the hotel and take a break. We are planning to return to the same restaurant for dinner. (They have spirits, beer and wine – what’s not to like?). Just as we are getting ready to leave for dinner, Team 12, Simon and Adam Barnett phone us to tell us that they are in Dakhla and want to do dinner with us. We meet them at the Tea Pot and all of us descend on the restaurant for a long and very pleasant dinner.
Tomorrow, Hotel Barbas.
Obi-wan