A new day!

And a new Hope:

10am the man said. I should have known he meant 10am Moroccan time.

The car looked like it was fixed, but Boss Ali explained that they only fixed the gas tank (and did it well - they also added a protective plate under it), but not the exhaust because they weren't sure if I liked the Ferrari sound.

I didn't.

So off went the exhaust again, and a local boy took it off with a motorcycle to get it welded. We used the next 90 minutes to repack the car (all of our kit was still there!), distribute some Petit Cadeaux to the folks in the garage, and the next 30 minutes waiting for the exhaust to be reattached.

Then... Ali came up with 6500MAD (call it 600 EUR) as the cost of the repairs + the cost of towing + gifts for the people that worked on the car (like, oh, say, those nice aluminum sand ladders, because every mechanic needs sand ladders...?).

Oh HELL no. Another 30 minutes later, we were at a slightly more reasonable 370 EUR (4000MAD) all in. Still not cheap (and at least 50% more than a local would pay), but hey, they did good work so, what the hell.

We now have a functioning car - that does need a trip to a tire shop to get the optics adjusted, but I can live with that), an interesting exhaust sound in 1st gear (think Trabant or Wartburh for the Eastern bloc people), and a truly annoying noise from the rear part of the exhaust at 2100rpm in 4th gear. Which of course is almost exactly 80kp/h, aka., the lower speed limit.

Ah well! At least we're moving!

Of course, no day would be complete without another problem - today was "let's have a rock break the windshield day" - luckily very low and just to the right of the center as seen from the inside, so it's not in the drivers direct field of vision. Naturally it happened THE MOMENT when I said we'll need to get the windscreen polished when we get back because of a scratch that a rock caught on the windshield wiper made. After some consultations with "Home Based TechSupport", a swift "ghetto style" / field expedient repair regime of superglue and duct tape managed to stop the expansion of the cracks, and lifting the seat a bit got the scratch away from my direct view. I'll tape it from the inside tomorrow. So, yay!

Tomorrow, a Cannonball-rally style run to Dakhla, and then we're out of touch for a while - entering Mauritania!

Have fun folks. We'll try and check in tomorrow - otherwise, catch you when we can. Hugs and kisses to all that follow us from Guelmim.