Hello! We have now arrived on the coast of Morocco. We drove from Zagora about a week ago after staying one night in the camping there. We took a pretty bad road, so we made slow progress the first day and camped out in the desert. The second day we got on better roads again. It was a nice feeling when the car stopped shaking and rolled onto the smooth asphalt road after the stretch of stony, bumpy tracks through the desert.
We spent two more nights on the road before we arrived on the coast. We found some nice places on the way were we camped with Florian and made dinner together on the fire using our Moroccan tagine. The tagine is a round clay bottom with a pointy lid and you can make it with meat or fish and then put vegetables on top, or simply do a vegetarian version. You put the whole thing on the fire and then let it slowly cook for an hour or two. It is an fantastic way of cooking food and it's perfect for the three of us. You prepare the food when the sun is setting and then an hour later it's done without any more work needed. It's also handy to all eat from the same pot with your hands, it means that there's not so many dishes. We have made quite a few tagines now, so we are getting pretty good at preparing it. Its a wonderful way of rounding up the day, sitting together eating a proper meal after a long day on the road.
So last Sunday we finally spotted the sea. We drove through the little town called Sidi Ifni and bought loads of food. With our cars loaded we drove a few kilometres outside of town and then found a bumpy road going down to the beach. We parked in a nice place close to the sea.
It was wonderful to smell the ocean and to see the waves crashing and hear the sea gulls in the distance. I couldn't help myself and jumped right out into the waves and had a refreshing swim.
We spent four night there on the beach and made friends with a fisherman living close by. He was a very nice man and maybe the first one since we arrived in Morocco who didn't want to do any business at all. He was about forty years old and had a bunch of dreads hanging down his back. In the front his black hair was hanging loose and made small tunnels of curls falling around his face. Every morning and evening when the tide was low he would be checking his nets with a wetsuit on and rain clothes on top and plastic sandals on his wet feet. It looked cold and he didn't have much luck with the fish either. We asked if we could buy a fish or two from him to eat for supper, but he never got any fish while we were staying there. He gave some crabs though, but I thought they looked a bit scary and they didn't smell good when we cooked them so I didn't even try. Tano and Florian ate about one claw each before they gave up, apparently they weren't so good.
One of the days there on the beach was a really rainy day, so we mostly just sat in the car that day drinking coffee and chilling. It was also windy that day so we built a little wind shelter with our cars. In the night the wind was pulling at the tar pollen between the cars making it feel as though someone was on the roof of the car shaking it around. Luckily everything was still in place in the morning.
The last day we spent on the beach was a sunny day. It was so nice to be able to sit in the sun after the rain and wind. We all had a swim in the sea, nearly as good as a hot shower.
After that sunny day we decided to find a new place to camp, we had attracted a bit too many flies during our days there on the beach.
We drove through the town of Sidi Ifni again and stocked up on food and such. We had been staying south of Ifni and now we drove a few kilometres north of town.
We found a plateau overlooking the ocean below with a small village in the valley on one side and a small beach on the other side. It was just a magical place and the sun was beaming down at us. Me and Tano went for a swim while Florian chilled in his hammock. We bought some steaks while in town and grilled them on the fire. We opened our last bottle of wine and it was all just perfect. With our tummies full and the table clean and with the sun gone behind the horizon it suddenly started to get windy. In a matter of minutes it had basically turned into a storm. We were sure lucky with the timing, just finished eating and all.
The whole night was so wind it kept shaking our car about.
This was yesterday and the wind is still as strong as last night. We have been chilling in the car the whole day watching movies on Tano's computer.
Florian went exploring and met a guy down in the village who made us a wonderful fish tagine which we put on the fire. Since we never got any fish from the fisherman at the beach this was our first fish tagine and it was delicious! Now I hope I'll get more sleep tonight than last night and let's hope for a beautiful sunny day tomorrow. Goodnight!