Of Bargains and Treasures

03.02.23 Aït Ben Haddou - Ouarzazate For me, the onward journey from Aït Ben Haddou to Ouarzazate is particularly pleasing for one reason: There is electricity again! As you may know from one of my previous contributions, this is important to me because I have to save gas. My two fixed Alugas bottles cannot be refueled because there is no LPG gas in Morocco. That's why I save wherever I can. I also use an electric hot plate for cooking - mainly for coffee - if we have electricity. All electrical appliances that generate heat require so much power that the onboard battery would be overwhelmed.

In Aït Ben Haddou, we stayed at a hotel that had no power connections. I had to heat with gas. This was particularly unfortunate for me because I have been the proud owner of an electric oven for two days. Since I was aware of the problem with my gas before the trip, I naturally prepared myself and packed two fan heaters, one large one with 2000 watts and one small one with 500 watts. You see, at camping and parking spaces here in Morocco, the fuse blows if devices exceed 1,000 watts. I knew that too, but still tried it out at one of the campsites. I can consider myself lucky that I survived when, around 10 p.m., the lights went out all around me ...

So I fought my way through Morocco's cold winter nights with the 500-watt-beamer, which blew as if his life depended on it. It was about mine: I can tell you it was borderline. When Ricci, our tour guide, noticed my dilemma, he proudly showed me his heater that he bought in Morocco three years ago and that has been serving him top-notch ever since. Well done! In my shivering nights, I could now imagine perfectly how wonderful Ricci and his Irmi slept peacefully all night in their cozy warm motorhome.

Two days later, we came across a French supermarket in the electrical department and there stood Ricci's heater. Exactly the same. But next to it, I saw a device with three heating tubes of 400 watts each, which were even larger. Each one switchable separately. That was a total of 1,200 watts. I saw Ricci's eyes in front of me when I presented him with my bargain, which cost hardly more than his little thing, his wannabe heater with the two wimpy tubes.

I brought my treasure home and positioned it so that its performance would be fully effective during the presentation. Just quickly remove the six 1.5-liter water bottles and then Ricci could convince himself of what modern appliances are capable of today. I wanted to lift the bottles onto the table with a swing when the handle broke, a bottle came loose from the holder, and began to fly. It flew and flew and flew and would probably still be flying today if my heater hadn't been in the way. There was no big bang, just a slight clatter. Two fluorescent tubes broke. Something clattered inside me too, at the thought of the upcoming cold night. I could have cried. I had been looking forward to a warm bed.

The next day, Ricci still came to the presentation - of my pile of debris. He laughed and said we would definitely find an electrical store where we could buy replacement rods. He took the device and took it apart. We took one of the broken tubes as a sample, but wherever we inquired, there were none of these tubes. By chance, I saw Ricci's heater in a local department store. I went there and bought the thing. Without thinking, and I must say: My new treasure makes it wonderfully warm. And what is the moral of the story: Modern heaters do not tolerate water bottles - no, that would be too cheap... Pride comes before a fall - ohhh, that hurts... Let's make it easy: Why not listen to Ricci right away. That's the easiest.