January 23, 2024 – Hotel Barbas. Morocco
Jan 29th, 2024 by rallyadmin
The next day, Elaine and Clemo meet us for a late breakfast/early lunch. When Clemo found out the there would be injectors at the Hotel Barbas, the plan was changes to leave today for the hotel rather than stay for 2 days in Dakhla and spend 2 days at the hotel trying to repair the Land Raver.
We finish lunch and start out of town for the Hotel Barbas. The wind is still whistling and the sand still blowing. The road south is just as boring as yesterday with occasional spotting camel herd, some quite large, and not much else. Blowing sand, windrows and bad visibility. The only good thing is that the police have no desire to stand in the blowing sand trying the catch speeders.
A little after 4PM we arrive at the hotel and check in. One advantage of arriving erly is that the hotel is nearly empty and we get the best rooms available. That’s not actually saying very much but we know from experience that there are much rooms in this hotel.
While we are checking in, Clemo asks if Dahid has arrived yet. He has and is room 103. Clemo and Elaine have room 101 and we have room 102. WE drop the bags in the rooms and head back downstairs to the open court and order pizza for a later lunch. Just as the food arrives so does Dahid.
A great warm welcome. I’m surprised that he remembers me from last year but he greets me with a very warm “Hello, agan, my friend.” As soon as the pizza lunch is gone Clemo, Dahid and Pinky leave to bring the Land Raver to a shop just down the street for repair. Hopefully, the fix is in.
The rest of the afternoon is spent having snacks and watching football on the TV. In about 2 hours, Clemo, Pinky and Dahid return to the shop and retrieve the Land Raver. The mechanic had dis-assembled the manifold and found the interior of the engine completely fouled by unburned diesel and engine oil. He cleaned that sludge out and re-assembled the engine but didn’t replace the injectors. Clemo drove the LR and it seemed to be much better but the engine didn’t seem to be generating enough of power.
It will be back to the mechanic in the morning to see what else we can do. In the interim, more pizza and coke for dinner. And watch the Africa Cup of Nations on the television. Tomorrow most of our ducklings arrive and we take another swipe at Clemo’s Land Raver.
Obi-wan