Revisting the coast

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We stayed at our beach car park for two night's. We were joined by several Overland Trucks, back in the day these sort of vehicles would have been a necessity to get around Morocco's roads, luckily for us this isn't the case anymore as most and I say most roads are accessible. Of course we have to be careful what tracks we take off but we can normally go as far as we need too.

We moved the few miles into Oulidia itself, to some guardian parking, these are a small fee paid car parks. But in this case it sits on a beautiful lagoon to one side and the crashing waves on the other side. It was our favourite coastal stop of 2020 and we knew we were coming back. Although we don't normally do a place twice, for this trip it is the right stop. It's familiar we know how it works, we know where to wander and the town and weekly souk are accessible. Ceri and Dwayne drift in with us and we settle in for a few days. On Wednesday the souk is in town they are colourful, busy, and for us now second time round not as confusing as we found them first time. Sellers of all sorts bring their wares and this will be where most people, who travel from all the outlining villages will buy everything they need. Food stuffs, soft furnishings and cookware can be found here as well as livestock. It's a great way to shop and foreigners carry a level of curiosity as we try to understand the way the buying process works. But they do it with humour and we find ourselves getting an Arabic lesson from the mint seller (mint tea our afternoon tipple, locally known as Berber whiskey) which of course, goes badly but two large bunches of mint are purchased 3 dirham or 23p. We finish off with 10 sardines to BBQ later for 9 dirham or 71p. With laden bags we return to the guardian parking, and have tea of Moroccan salad and sardines, joined of course by the local cats!!

The pace of this trip is slightly different to the other one in the fact that we are not attempting to get to any of the places we visited last time. The Sahara and Dunes visits with Martin and Laura were amazing and probably better because we enjoyed them together so this time we are trying to visit some new places and strangely for us have a bit of a holiday and not be charging from one place to another.

Safi the pottery capital is on my agenda and we find a parking spot close to Pottery Hill. Unfortunately we get ourselves attached to a guide mistakingly and then find we are being marched up and around the varying potteries, pots being thrown, clay sorted and some intricate painting and decoration are observed but maybe not in the relaxed manner I had anticipated! We do however leave with two lovely mugs which hopefully will last a little longer than just the Moroccan trip.

The coast of Morocco is starting to lose its appeal, okay if you love your surfing and we are heading inland. Our last overnight stop is just north of Eassaoria and it's reviews on an app are varied suffice to say we have our most confrontational episode of ever of any trip. The detail I won't go into (it involved Poppy and another vanlifers dog) but it is another indication that this and the influx of vanlifers is growing and that puts a pressure point on what is becoming too large community all trying to be in the same spot. There is little time to exchange pleasantries and assumptions are made in this case incorrectly, we take to the road to avoid any further hassle. We both need some quiet time and we know a campsite is our best escape so with a recommendation (Thanks Fiona)! we head to Le Calme after a short stop in Essaouira to wander it's Medina walls. It's a busy place with people flying into Agadir and spending a few days here, surf lessons are abundant as are camels and horse rides on the beach. So many visitors are here we are spoken to by a British couple who seem astounded that we have actually driven here from the UK!

We arrive at Le Calme on our own as we part company with Ceri and Dwayne as they make their way down the coast. Le Calme camping does exactly what it says on the tin it's quiet there are two friendly campsite dogs who enjoy a tickle, and of course a bit of food. The pool is refreshing and we have Wi-fi! The dog walking is very acceptable and straight from the campsite missing the dump area we walk down between Argon Trees (the nuts are harvested and ground for oil). We spot camels resting under the trees and our time here recharges our batteries. If it wasn't for the sticky spiky things that get caught inbetween the dogs feet we may have stayed some time more but we have a longing to get back to Tafaroute, and camp out there for while.

We make one last campsite stop near the fishing village of Tifnit and what a gem. Day trippers do make it here to enjoy this traditional small fishing village but it has charm and we enjoy a great fish lunch overlooking it's bay. The drive from Agadir takes us onto the R105 and what a great drive on a road that is in a good condition, always a bonus The backdrop of the Atlas mountains is spectacular but it's hot up here and the road is lined with Cactus and if you look closely there are many different varieties and not just the one as first you would imagine.. We enjoy a longer than planned day but pull into a busy Tafaroute, as we had expected heaving with French motorhomes who are also like us maybe here for the annual Almond Blossom Festival. We will spend two weeks here as it turns out and will make some great memories but I think that might just be the best place to start to next Blog.

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