We have arrived in Dakhla and – if everything goes well – will cross the border into Mauritania the day after tomorrow at the end of our sixth week of travel. We drove down the Moroccan coast in eighteen days and left behind many places worth seeing. But since we were on our motorbike in Morocco eight years ago, that's fine with us.

In the last few days, a kind of long-term travel routine has emerged for the first time: the first jogging sessions have been run (Wolle), the first yoga exercises have been done (Brigitte), news portals are used and time is wasted in cafes. We need more of that. But we know that Mauritania will initially be a bit of a challenge. For example, we may be offline for the next few days.

Here too, digitalization isn't quite as expected, we can hardly pay with a credit card, WiFi is usually bad, and the SIM card's data volume is quickly used up with research.

We received a friendly welcome everywhere in Morocco, sometimes people signaled to us from the car or on the street that they think it is good that we were here. It would have been nice if we could have improved our French skills before the trip – unfortunately we just weren't able to do that. But we also get along well with English and with hands and feet and with a lot of laughter and direct eye contact.

Along the coast, Morocco seems more modern, at least up to Laayoune, than we experienced inland eight years ago. We almost never got involved in the typical tourist (sales) conversations and were able to travel very relaxed.

With all the government investment in education and infrastructure (meaning road construction and new settlements and boulevards and gas stations), the aspect of cleanliness has somehow fallen by the wayside. And without wanting to apply Central European standards: the garbage flying around everywhere is a plague. We fear that this will stay with us the whole journey and will get worse rather than better.

And most sanitary facilities are also the plague. Sometimes you feel like it's never been cleaned and you become an artist. Often you look for the flush, sometimes it only works with a small bucket and sometimes it doesn't work at all. You often worry that you'll never be able to open a door from the inside again, so you'd rather not lock it at all.

So it's better to change the topic to the edifying one, the food, which is also much more fun from an olfactory perspective. We had various and generally tasty meals and cooked less ourselves than in Europe. The juices made from lemon, ginger, orange, avocado, banana or other fruits and vegetables are also delicious. To our great joy and contrary to many prophecies of doom, our gas bottle could also be refilled.

And, very important: our car drives great. We feel comfortable with it and sleep well in it.

And just as important: We met lots of nice people, had interesting conversations and had fun evenings.