Not so deserted desert with dessert

I frantically tried to figure out what was wrong. A guy on a motorbike coming up from behind was waving his hand and yelling and honking his horn. Did I have a flat tire? Nope, couldn't feel any wobling. Was my lights on? Yup. Had the trunk opened and strewn my belongings all over the road? A quick check in the mirrirs revealed that nothing was lying in the road behind me. The guy on the motorbike was now driving beside me, waving his hand and trying to get my attention. "Hotel sir?! Sir? Monsiour? Mein Herr? Hotel? Very good price!". I looked at him in dibelief. You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me!

I woke up early and had a shower. The bathrom in my room was excactly what I had expected from Marrakesh.

The bathroom was completed with these cure soap-holders with their own fez... 

I enjoyed the shower, which was in a small room by itself. This room had wonderful acoustcs, and when I hit the right tone, it was ringing a long time. I found two notes where this happened. And sang those again and again. Ok. So I'm weird....
After a wonderful breakfast, I was ready for the trip up to the astrohotel outside of Tamegroute. The receptionist got me a taxi and actually followed me to the airport to pick up my car. The rental car routine was as usual. A lot of waiting around for the people to hack through a lot of paperwork and failing computer programs and networks. But I finally got the car keys and headed out to pick up my ride. The car had seen a lot of action and we went through the car together to mark any small dents or marks. Which were a few. After I was satisfied, he bid me a good trip. "Eeerrr. I ordered a GPS." I said. He looked at my papers. "It is coming!" he said unassuringly.
After half an hour, he came and said "We go to garage". So he drove the car to their garage and got a GPS from another car. He tried to mount the holder to the windshield. It fell off. I spat on it and put it back on. It stuck. He looked at me as if I had spat on him. Then returned to the task of setting up the GPS. "This no working!" he said. "I find new!". He tried to remove the holder, but had to fight to get it off. He finally did and left to get me a new one. The new one worked.
"Where you go?"
"Tamegroute!"
"Tameg---what?"
"Tamegroute"
"?"
"Near Zagora"
"Aaaah! Tamigrou!"
"Eeeeer... Maybe?"
He entered the name and plotted the route. It looked correct to me.
"Have a nice trip!" he said and got out of the car.
So there I was. Ready to take on the Moroccan highways and byways. Hopefully without anything going sideways.
After some hairy driving through and out of Marrakesh with only a few drives honking frantically at my crazy driving, I was out on the highway. The N9. I thought this would be a breeze. But far from it. It was packed with poeple driving erratically and surprisingly slowly. And in addition, the road was FAR more winding than I had ever anticipated. On the map I could see that it would be filled with turns back and forth going up the mountains, but I have never. Like EVER. tried something quite like this. 90- and 180 degree turns all the time took its toll on me. And after several hours of this, I was starting to get really tired. And the clock was ticking. I had anticipated arriving at the hotel long before sundown. But the clock ticked relentlessly away as the kilometers snailed by. I had planned to make a few stops along the way to stretch my feet, but due to the slow advancements, I ended up only stopping when nature called. Or in my case : SCREAMED. Since I didn't want to make any unneccesary stops.
So in a way, the "hotel special price"-dude on the bike managed to get my juices going enough to handle the final few dozen km to the astrohotel.
I arrived just after sundown. Finally I could stretch properly. I had arrived! And was ready for some serious astrophoto sessions for what would hopefully be 12 clear nights.

Here are some photos I snapped on the way. I guess it is obvious why I didn't take any photos of hairpin turns...

And finally, the reason for being here at the moment: The night sky. I took this picture of the observing roof of the hotel, just before sunrise. I had packed down my gear, and used the light from the moon to take this photo before hitting the sack.