Leaving Europe - Entering Africa

Day 224 - 231

After spending a very quiet New Years Day in Tarifa we hung out until the surf stores opened and did a bit of shopping, picking up some second hand surfboards and a couple of wetsuits. 

During our travels throughout Europe, we had always discussed the possibility of heading south into Morocco for many reasons. Namely the guaranteed sunny weather, a completely different culture to the European countries we had just visited and finally some great surfing along the Atlantic coast.

After meeting a couple of Brits (Nicholas & Alison) in Greece, who had recently come back from Morocco with some great stories, we finally decided to take the quick boat ride over from the south of Spain and enter Africa.

The following pictures highlight our first couple of weeks travelling south from Tangier along the Atlantic coast to the town of Oualidia.

The town of Assilah and our first stop in Morocco. We arrived the night before after an hour or so driving from the ferry port of Tangier. Your first introduction to driving in Morocco is best not done at night, as it's quite difficult to see the hundreds of pedestrians, donkeys and scooters on the roadside.

The walled town of Assilah, which looks out on to the Atlantic Ocean. With many foreigners buying up apartments in the medina, the place was very quiet by Moroccan standards. This made for a good introduction to the normally chaotic town centres that we were soon to encounter.

The medina of Assilah is famous for its murals, which are painted each year by local and international artists.

A local catching the morning sun.

The latest Moroccan Air Jordon's.

Claire's first purchase from a Moroccan Souk - leather sandals at a steal (I think) for £6. 

The Morrocan Ute.

Market day in Assilah. On the drive in we commented on how everybody seemed to be walking on the road rather than the pavement, only to find ourselves doing the same thing the next day.

Just getting meat in Morocco is quite the experience. Rather than having pre-packaged cuts, the butcher has a couple of carcasses hanging from his shop and it's up to you to tell him what you want. He then adorns the white coat, whips out a massive knife and hacks said piece off for you. On this occasion (in Moulay Bousselham) we got lamb for a curry and about 500g was £2.

The town of Moulay Bousselham is famous for it's lagoon and the associated birdlife that migrates there during the European winter. Many of the local fisherman take tourists out on their boats to spot wildlife when they're not catching fish.

Initially, we thought it would just be an hours jaunt down the river, but our guide Mohammad (above) stopped in to his office to get a bird watching guide in English and two sets of binoculars.

As we headed out on the lagoon we were a little dubious to his knowledge, as he was just pointing out the common seagull, but in the end he was like a Moroccan David Attenborough showing us Egrets, Kites, Ospreys, Flamingoes and many others species.

Heading out onto the lagoon with our expert guide Mohammed.

An Egret taking flight near the nets used to catch Eels.

In Morocco, many of the woman do the back breaking work while the men sit around drinking mint tea in souks.

As we headed out on to the lagoon, we noticed a large number of woman doubled over like this collecting tiny clams while the tide was out.

The ladies were all covered head to toe with mud. Some were lucky enough to have gumboots on, while others just had regular shoes or sandals.

Another Egret. 

Almost knock off time for the clam collecting ladies as the sun starts to drop over the lagoon. By the end of the day, these ladies had wandered over 5km from their village. How did they get home? Check out the video below to find out.

These fisherman didn't have the luxury of an outboard motor so had to row all the way back to the village. As the sun dropped into the sea, the temperature also rapidly went down going from about 20 degrees to single digits in no time.

Sitting in a boat with shorts and thongs on was a bad choice at this stage.

Not sure on this one, but it could either be a Harrier or Osprey. It's definitely not an Egret though.

Taking the clam ladies home from work. They didn't speak any English and not a great deal of French, so we didn't get much out of them. Whatever they were saying in Arabic must of been quite funny, as they were all in hysterics.

I dare say they were probably taking the piss out of the fact we were both wearing shorts and it was about to get pretty cold.

A rather large crab we bought off a local fisherman for about £2. Despite its size there wasn't a great deal of meat in it, so it's fortunate we only paid a couple of pounds.

As we head back towards the U.K. we will be driving up some of the best surfing spots in Africa and Europe. With this in mind, Claire and I invested in a couple of surfboards and wetsuits to try and learn how to surf.

The beach in the background wasn't very good with strong rips making waves going sideways and dumping onshore, but I guess you've got to start somewhere.

Parked right on the beach at Plage de Nations. In Morocco, you can generally find spots like this that are patrolled by a local 'Guardian' who will watch your van for a small fee.

On arriving, we were directed into this amazing spot and paid the Guardian, only to find out a couple of hours later that we had actually paid a local drunk who was impersonating as the Guardian.

I'm not sure how legitimate the business is, as just behind where we were parked a sign that said 'No Camping' had been taken down and hidden.

Outside the ancient medina of Rabat - Morocco's capital city and home to nearly 2 million people.

Within our first few days in Morocco  we had met a couple of people who had said that the country is still in the 'Middle Ages'.

Bumping into this man grinding an axe on an old wheel somewhat proved this point.

Entering the Hassan Tower in Rabat.

Claire on the steps of the Darih Mosque with the Hassan Tower in the background.  The half built pillars are the initial stages of what was to be the worlds biggest mosque.

Guarding the Darih Mosque. These guys aren't the most fearsome of guards though and are quite willing to pose in photographs for you.

Outside the Rabat Medina at low tide, which made for some quite interesting smells.

The Ancient walled city of Rabat.

Arabic Coca Cola. We stopped at a fairly unremarkable town called Azemmour, which didn't really have much going for it. We did have our first chicken Tagine here though, which was amazing!

From Azemmour, we continued south to El Jadida stopping at this beach for a bit of a surf near the ship wreck.

Inside the medina walls of El Jadida. Despite the medina being a little rundown, we were quite surprised at how modern other parts of the El Jadida were, with a couple of hotel chains and a horse racing track.

Walking along the ramparts of El Jadida.

Football is a massive past time in Morocco amongst the young males. We would often come across games in public squares or even out in the middle of a paddock on the side of the road, with a few sticks fashioned together as goal posts.

Claire tearing up the surf in El Jadida. We would have stayed longer at this beach, however, we were warned by local police that it was unsafe to camp there on two occasions due to 'Mafia', so we decided to check into the local campground.

Pottery is a big local industry in Morocco and this guy had the entire corner block displaying his wares.

It's a little difficult to tell from the photo, but this is a cows head being slowed steamed under plastic wrapping. The chef would cut off a bit of the tender meat and serve in a broth with salt and Moroccan spices.

Taking Fresh Chicken to a new level. Many of the poultry sellers would kill, gut and pluck your chicken right before your eyes.

At least these guys get to relax with a bit of T.V. before getting the chop.

Some of the local handicrafts in El Jadida.

Heading further south, we stopped at the town of Oualidia. The town is perched on a lagoon and has been redeveloped to a high standard in recent years.

We camped up next to about 30 other motorhomes in the modern car park about 2 minutes walk from the beach.

A local fisherman keeping an eye on the incoming tide.

We stumbled across this gentleman on the beach as he was selling sea urchins. Not really in the mood for eating the spiky little sea creatures, we asked whether we could take a photo for 10DH.

The man obliged, adjusted his hat and smiled for the camera. After giving him the 10DH, he then asked for another 5DH with a cheeky grin on his face. A common sales tactic in Morocco.

Beached fishing boats in Oualidia.