16.03.2023

Today we feel a bit exhausted. The day started with being picked up in the beautiful tent setting. A pickup time of nine o'clock was agreed, with the target of our Dar Hassan. We were picked up quite a bit later, by a driver who seemed to have all the time on the world, driving in second gear through the desert. It turned out that he planned to pick up some camel ride tourists before going back to the hotel. That wasn't what we agreed upon, and Omar got really mad. I have rarely seen Omar so upset. The driver had a bit of a shock, probably also pissed off about to be shouted at. He suddenly kicked into gear and we raced through the desert that I thought we would never make it without turning the 4WD upside down in the middle of nowhere. 

When we reached the Dar Hassan, I actually felt sick. All the magic was gone, and I felt a big loss. We packed our things, paid and left. Really sad. Good bye Dar Hassan, good-bye Merzouga. We had a great time here.

We got on our bikes and took off and left Merzouga, heading towards Midelt, Hotel Kasbah Asmaa. The pass across the mountains led through a very barren, dry country, seemingly almost uninhabited, and yet every now and then we saw settlements that seemed poor and lonely.

It was another wild ride with our bikes, lots of curves, overtaking manoeuvres, some gravel roads in construction sites. The landscape was as fantastic as it was bleak. We stopped only rarely to take a few photos. We just didn't feel well. 

Then, in a town, on the exit from a roundabout, it happened: Omar drove out of the roundabout at about 40 km/h and suddenly slipped on a greasy patch of asphalt. The Adventure hit the left side and skidded across the asphalt, Omar let it go and came to rest on the road not far from the machine. I stopped immediately, ran to Omar, who was already back at his bike, and we heaved the thing back up. Thank God there was no traffic at the time, so nothing else happened. We rode on, the shock in our guts and souls. At some point in time we arrived at our destination. A monumental hotel, another highlight on our route from one great location to the other. 

Well, it wasn't. Every expectation is a potential trap. As we didn't stop on our way here, we were really hungry, and in the hotel they offered a buffet. That was actually really good.

After we had eaten, we had to fill in the guest forms. Check this picture out. Omar had left his glasses in the room, and offered him mine. 

The hotel was probably as old as this telephone, a SEMENS, probably from the second world war.

The hotel was once very nice, that we agreed upon. But now it was run down and lacked a touch of tenderness, love and care.

One had the feeling that the owners were just using the hotel as a cash cow to get money out without putting anything in.

The outside was, as I said, quite impressive. This is the front gate, from the inside.

When you see this, you probably think this is a marvelous place.

This is the front gate, from the outside, the Hotel Kasbeh Asmaa

Well, that was that. We had some food, and we were pretty tired. We decided not to have any dinner, but rather sty in our room, do some work with our pictures and videos and then have an early sleep. Omar was still very sick with a flu, I had pain here and there and in my left backside (which Omar taped), and we were just plain tired.

I also realized that I had left some of my medicine at home. It was the one that helped me to get out of my depression that had developed after my burnout a couple of years ago. That made me worried to some extend. On the other hand, the side effects of these medics were quite drastic and Omar said that maybe it is not that bad that I cannot take them for a while.

Because of all that, our night was quite disturbed and disturbing. Omar fell asleep and started snoring, from 11pm to 2 am. Then I shook him gently, asking him to turn around. So he did, and then I fell asleep and started smooring myself now, from 2 to 4 am, so that Omar didn't get any sleep either.

Thats how we started into the new day ...