January 24, 2024 – Hotel Barbas. Morocco
Feb 1st, 2024 by rallyadmin
I’m up early and grab a quick breakfast with cafe americano (otherwise known as coffee black). Around 8, Clemo, Elaine and Pinky emerge and follow suit. We start on a plan for today.
The most important task today is to collect the money necessary for the different fees for parks, road passes, Mauritanian car insurance and food for those going on the desert run. This adds up to a substantial amount of money and Clemo doesn’t want to hold it any longer than necessary.
All of the money will go to Dahid and to facilitate this we work out the amount for each car with a separate charge for the car (permits and insurance) and a separate amount for each person in the car (desert food, desert park permits, etc). The first try is to do each by car but that turns out to be a bit clumsy because every car has a different number of people (2 or 3) and some are taking the food option and some are not. We finally get it sorted out, everyone agrees on the cost totals and we can now wait for the rest of the group to arrive over the day.
After they do arrive, there will be a welcome meeting and Clemo will give a general overview of the plan for the desert run, take any questions and then break for the interviews. Clemo and Dahid will have an interview with the driver of each team, distribute the insurance form for each car, explain the fees and collect the money.
But before the group arrives, Clemo is back with Dahid trying to decide what to do about the Land Raver which is still not performing correctly. Clemo is really quite conflicted. He feels strongly that he should go into the desert as the leader of the adventure. He really does want to go into the desert. Plus, he really wants to have Elaine experience the desert and Elaine genuinely wants to go.
But the car is probably quite a liability. It isn’t wise to take a wounded car into the desert and if it doesn’t perform when needed we will have to effect some sort of rescue to recover the car and get it to somewhere where it can be properly repaired or at least held until it can be repaired.
Another serious concern is that when the car goes through Mauritanian immigration, the car is assigned to the driver’s passport. When the driver leaves Mauritania (or anywhere else, this applies to all countries) the car either has to be exported, officially left in storage for up to 6 months or administratively removed form the driver’s passport. If that is not done, the driver will be subject to import taxes for the car which may amount to thousands of euros and the taxes must be paid before the driver is allowed to leave the country. This could be a serious problem.
The plan since the car is working well (except for the lack of power) that Clemo and Dahid hatch is to take the car into Mauritania and into the desert for the first night. Then the next morning to leave the desert and bring the car to a mechanic in Nouakchott who repairs Land Rovers and has spare parts for Land Rovers, fix the car and meet with us in Nouakchott when we come back out of the desert in 3 days time. That sounds reasonable and we (most importantly, Dahid) all agree that it’ll work. On to collecting the rest of the group.
Wednesday is, apparently, camel market day. Or possibly just the agreed upon day of the week to take you favorite camels out for a ride day. The explanation in pidgin French is somewhat unclear about that. What is clear, however, is that Toyota Hilux pickup trucks are stopping at the Hotel Barbas for breakfast and/or coffee all morning. With camels loaded into the small cargo areas.
It is truly amazing how many camels you can actually get into the back of a Hilux. The record for Wednesday, January 24th, 2024 is 5. Yes, 5 full grown dromedary (one hump) camels calmly wedged into the back of the pickup. Well, at least 4 calm camels, 1 not so much. I can’t quite figure out which has the worst life: the ones in the pickup truck or the ones in the desert trying to eke out an existence on the few plants out there that they graze on in the half-hearted sandstorm that has been going on for the last 2 days. Definitely, not for the faint of heart.
The days moves on. The ducklings arrive. The fees are paid. The excitement start to grow for the ones on the desert run. A last night eating pizza, watching the Africa Cup. Tomorrow, Mauritanian customs and into the desert.
Obi-wan