Saturday 18 Jan 2014

It rained pretty heavily for most of the night, easing off to showers as it got light. We looked out of the window…………

  

Half the access roads were under water; several vans were standing 3 or 4 inches deep and one had to be pushed out. As we watched, one of our group started to become aquatic – he got out quick! However, our pitch was fine so we just shrugged our shoulders and got on with breakfast.

A news item gleaned from a forum thread:

“At the request of King Mohammed VI, upon learning that Morocco may suffer a continued drought this year, prayers for rain were held at synagogues.....…yes, synagogues…...... throughout Morocco a week or so ago. The prayers were recited after Muslims said similar prayers in mosques, also at the request of the King.”

Well it seems to have worked!

We had been in a quandary about whether to stay another night or carry on south, especially as the weather forecast was not good for the weekend. After chatting to a couple of the others we decided to stay but push on tomorrow. As the morning progressed so it dried up and became warm and sunny, if still quite breezy, so we joined everyone else to share taxis into the town – which was too far to walk but at £3 a head return was a bargain. Except they sent two taxis….for 12 people. Somebody took a photo of 6 people plus the driver in an ancient bright green Mercedes C-Class – hilarious, especially over the speed bumps. The driver thought it was quite normal of course! I’ll try to get a copy of the photo.

Once dropped off outside the station – the usual drop-off in Moroccan towns apparently – we were pointed in the direction of the centre of town, although we’re now pretty sure it was the next street round the half-circle. Agreeing to be met at 4.00 p.m. we wandered off, with no real idea of where we were going. 

We could see the tower of the mosque so thought that might be a good aiming point, but all we found were residential streets and the occasional shop and café.








Eventually we asked directions to “la plage”, with the idea that we might find some life, and found a promenade along a large beach lined with cafes, one of which we invaded for coffee. In season we thought this area would be heaving but in winter all the holiday apartments were closed up.

 So after refreshment we headed back in the general direction of the station, via a Carrefour supermarket and a street seller with piles of beautiful strawberries we’d spotted earlier – and found the souk, surrounded by a high wall we’d assumed was a dead end road. Of course it was now too late to explore as we were due to meet the taxis, but note was taken “for the next time”.

We piled back in to the Mercs, 20 mins back to the site, noticing the size of the waves breaking along the shore (the pics again don’t do them justice) and the ships anchored just offshore being tossed about. This is of course the open Atlantic coast and it had been quite windy over the last few days.

BIG breakers! Get out the surfboards!

Back at the site, after a quick snack, we had a chat about plans for the next few days. We have decided to stay with the group and tomorrow will move on to Marrakesh. Hopefully, and according to the forecast, the weather is set to steadily improve over the next couple of days.

Beach at Ocean Bleu