TO THE SAHARA DESERT

Left our lovely Riad after a delightful breakfast and went to the airport to get the Hyundai rental car for the next ten days.
Drove to Asni, why I don't know then headed to Ouarzazate. Luckily we stopped off at Ait - Benhaddou with the Kasbah in a beautiful setting and The Game of Thrones was supposedly filmed there, for whatever that's worth. Not knowing it even existed till we arrived it was a very impressive sight and from the top had an expansive view of the valley and the Draa river. Every shopkeeper insists you come in and just look, then when you don't buy they get a bit of a bad attitude towards you and it is non stop with all the vendors.
Found a hotel room which was nothing special, I thought it was luxurious, but my wife thought it was a dive.

We departed our lovely hotel, grabbed a quick Moroccan breakfast which is always bread and jam and freshly squeezed orange juice and a crepe with good coffee.
We then headed to the end of the road to M'hamid which is about 45 km from Algiers. Going over a pass we stopped to help a local who's car had broken down and he asked me to tell his mate in the next town which was 17 km away. I found his mate and of course we had to go have tea with him and then the sales pitch arrived before we even finished our tea. Like an idiot I bit and bought a night in the desert for $60 each, and of course it's a good price cause I helped his family and it was destiny and he is helping me out, we ate family. After he showed me ten carpets and telling him I ain't buying any we finally got out of there an hour later and headed east, knowing we were taken. Three hours later we arrived in M'hamid in a sand storm. I did not have high Hope's for the $24 room we booked and believe me M'hamid is no place you would ever go to other than to go to the end of the road or to the beginning of the Sahara or wanted to go to Timbuktu on a 90 day Dromedaries ride and that's one way.

I was pleasantly impressed,  Mobarack was a fine host and we had mint tea with him and he made us feel real welcome. The room was clean and comfortable. We walked into the old town with the wind howling and sand blasting us as we navigated through the fields into the old town, where everyone's is dirt poor and live in miserable conditions.
The traditional Moroccan dinner was absolutely delicious with a great desert and coffee. Had an interesting conversation with a 68 year old traveler that has been backpacking for the last twenty years, could have talked to him all night except he was tire, of my questions I think, and went to bed. After gazing at the stars, some I could identify from seeing in SA and Peru which I didn't think was possible, the wind had stopped and the skies were crystal clear with the stars shining brightly.