Lagoon, Portuguese fortress and camping on the beach

Our first day in Oualidia was a nice sunny day, we had a good lay in and then started off with a nice stroll around the beautiful lagoon created by the rocks by the ocean. It was so peaceful and quiet, with very few people around, you could quite imagine you were on a deserted island of sorts. We went all the way around the lagoon until we reached the rocks on the other side and decided to climb them to get a better view of the ocean. It was definitely worth it!

Carmen on the lagoon beach

Standing on the rocks around the lagoon

Unfortunately we couldn't stay out on the rocks for too long as the tide was starting to cut off our escape route back to dry land so we had to head back. When we made it off the rocks and headed along a different part of the beach we came across Matteo with his fishing rod out and trying his luck whilst Bianca was reading. We decided to leave them in peace and head back to get some lunch and write some things down. After writing some things down for the blog and Carmen's journal we had a long discussion about our trip so far and what we would do next.

Matteo trying to catch some fish

We both had mixed feelings on the trip so far. We had met some really nice people and had some great experiences and seen some amazing things, but we had also both had moments when we were really not enjoying the journey and just felt that we wanted to give up and go back home. But I think we were slowly coming to realise that this was partly to do with the fact that we hadn't fully let go yet. We were still giving ourselves goals and deadlines to be in certain places, at certain times and when we weren't managing this, due to injury or weather conditions or other reasons we were getting frustrated and this was causing us not to enjoy the experience of the journey so much. We decided therefore to try not to plan things out too much and try and let go of that way of thinking and see if that would help because at pretty much all the other moments we were having an amazing time. That evening helped to highlight exactly why we were traveling as we sat on the beach and enjoyed the sunset.

Sunset on the beach

The next morning we headed up the coast in Gustav to El Jadida where we were expecting to part ways with Matteo and Bianca, but instead they offered to continue taking us up the coast, which we were more than happy to accept, as we really liked spending time with them. There was also the added bonus that it gave Carmen's knee extra time to have some rest as well.

After deciding this we headed into the Cite du Portugaise to have a look around. Cite du Portugaise was a fortified city and has influences from both European and Moroccan cultures, which makes it quite unique. It was surprisingly quiet and quite small, we were expecting a much more medina like atmosphere. We first of all visited the cistern, which was similar to the one we had visited in Istanbul but on a lot smaller scale. It still made for some nice pictures though.

Underground in the Portuguese cistern

Following this we headed up onto the walls of the small city and walked around seeing the port where all the boats were moored and went out daily to catch their fish. We also saw some cannons that were around the walls, originally used to defend the city. Unfortunately I had some problems with my camera at this point and wasn't able to take many pictures.

One I did manage to get was Carmen on top of the wall

Then Matteo and Bianca wanted to hit the road to try to reach Casablanca to see the Hassan II Mosque. However after looking on my Morocco guide on the tablet, it said that the mosque was not open to the public on a Friday. So it was decided to take it slow up the coast, stopping at a cafe to have a mint tea whilst talking about european politics, which Matteo is very passionate about, and it made for a very interesting conversation!

We ended up in a place for the night called Dar Bouazza, just 20km away from Casablanca. We set the tent up just off the beach, then went for a nice chat in Gustav, with some wine, and talked about travelling to different places and some of their traditions. We then later went for a meal with Matteo and Bianca at a local restaurant/cafe.

Our camping spot next to Gustav, just off the beach

Later that evening Carmen got a bit worried after a local woman approached us, saying that camping on the beach was not very safe as there were lots of youths about. However we experienced no problems at all, only a few youths making a bit of noise a fair distance away, but that stopped before midnight. Overall it was a really nice experience hearing the ocean inside the tent and as you fell asleep. We had a really good nights sleep and then woke up to a really nice view as an added bonus.

Knee pain, Pottery and a huge tagine!

Waking up on our third day in Essaouira we were in two minds, whether to stay or whether to go. It had been nice to stay in Essaouira and had met some really nice people at the hostel, but we were also keen to hit the road and get to our next destination. In the end we decided to leave it up to fate. We went to the owner of the hostel to ask if it was possible to stay another night and he said it was fine, but he wouldn't give us the discount we were asking for so we decided to leave.

Our route was to take us right up the Atlantic coast and whilst cycling along this route we encountered some really nice views.

Nice beach in the distance

Our lunch spot

Near the end of the day we went past a section of road where the campsite we were looking for was supposed to be, but we were not able to find it so decided to keep on cycling till it got dark and instead look for a spot to wild camp. Unfortunately there were not many spots about, but we eventually found somewhere that was up a slope within some bushes, to make sure we could not be seen from the road. However we were not very far from someones house, but only one person saw us and they just walked on by saying a friendly "bonjour".

We had a really good nights sleep and woke quite late for us; about 8am and packed up and headed off. We had about 80km to cover that day to reach Safi, another big coastal city where we were planning to camp, which we thought should be quite easy to cover in a day.

Although it was just our luck that things started to take a turn for the worse. We started the day with some more beautiful views over the beach and the ocean, however the roads were not quite so beautiful, they were extremely uneven and rough causing us to make very slow progress.

View over the Atlantic

The worst part though was that Carmen's knee was starting to cause her a bit of trouble. This meant we started to get even slower, which meant that time was getting tighter on whether or not we would make it to the campsite before dark. We eventually made it to Safi, Carmen becoming slower and slower all the time with the increasing pain in her knee.

Unfortunately, the campsite was on the opposite side of the city which was still a good 10km away and it was getting late. Our journey was then further disrupted by a horse falling over himself right in front of us whilst pulling a cart and getting tangled in his reins. Carmen saw it all and said that the fall looked extremely painful. She rushed over there to see if she could help with trying to get the horse back up whilst I held the bikes. In the end they managed to get the horse back up and untangled, not looking in too much pain. The moroccan men were very grateful to Carmen for coming over to try and help even though she didn't do anything in the end.

We eventually made it to the campsite although it was a long and hard cycle due to there being a lot of hills and by the time we were approaching the site we were going at the pace of a snail and ended up pushing the bikes up the last hill as Carmen's knee had had enough.

This meant that we had a bit of a problem though, Carmen was definitely not in any condition to continue cycling the next day and there were no trains we could have caught from Safi, as there is a very limited railway network in Morocco. So we decided to stay a couple of nights and have a whole day of rest and see how the knee was. However the next day it was still very painful so we just stayed at the campsite, washed some clothes and did some shopping.

Whilst at the campsite that day, we met a couple in a van (Bianca and Matteo) who had travelled down from Tarifa in Spain, who were very friendly and had a nice joke with about stealing all the hot water from the showers. As when Carmen tried; no hot water. That night we had a discussion again about what to do and made the decision that the next day we would head into Safi and see if we could find a internet cafe to see if we could find a bus to take us up the coast.

However, the next day fortune shone on us. We were just washing up our cooking equipment and a few last clothes that morning when we got talking with Matteo who we had met briefly the day before. He was telling us about his tour around Morocco with Bianca and what they had done so far and where they were heading next and it coincided with what our plans were. As he and Bianca seemed a very friendly couple, we thought we would ask them if maybe they minded giving us a lift up the coast as Carmen was injured and they very willingly said yes.

So instead of heading into the city centre to find an internet cafe we instead hurried to pack our stuff away as we had to be out of the campsite by midday otherwise we would get charged for another night. So we packed our bikes and bags onto the van (who was named Gustav) and drove out of the campsite to a nearby shopping centre to park the van in the car park and then walk into town to look around.

Gustav our new mode of transport

The first thing we went to look at was where they made the pottery, as Safi is very well known for the pottery they make there, supplying tiles all over the country for buildings. This was fascinating. We saw hundreds and hundreds of different pots, tiles, flasks and tagine dishes all in different colours and stages of being made. We saw big slabs of wet clay, the moulded items, the big ovens they used to fire them and then the people painting them, we saw it all. We even got to see the finished products when we headed into the medina to buy a tagine dish, as Matteo and Bianca wanted to buy a couple.
After buying a couple of tagine dishes we headed to see an unusual attraction that we had never actually heard of before and were completely unaware even existed; the worlds biggest tagine! Matteo got a few pictures of it (we forgot to bring our camera with us) before we then headed back to the van to start the drive up the coast to find somewhere else to stay.

Initially when cycling we had planned to head up the coast to a little place called Oualidia to a campsite there, and nicely for us that was exactly where Matteo and Bianca were going. We arrived and set up in what turned out to not in fact be a campsite but instead a cheap bivouac, which was all tarmac. Luckily straight around it there was a tiny patch of grass where we were able to pitch out tent.
Matteo and Bianca then offered to cook us a tagine that night. Unknowingly to us we were in for a feast that night. They not only cooked us a lovely vegetable tagine, but they also did us a nice big avocado salad as well. Both were absolutely delicious and we thoroughly enjoyed them, although both Matteo and Bianca said that it was not a good tagine as they had cooked it much better before, which made us imagine that it must have tasted amazing normally.

Our spot for the night with a very lazy guard dog

After finishing eating we were talking late into the evening about their travels so far and what their future plans were. We learnt that they were originally from Germany (Bianca) and Italy (Matteo) and they had been working in the south of Spain for the last year or so (where they met). So far on their travels they had been to the desert and stayed in the desert, which sounded amazing. They also had gone over the atlas mountains on the Tizi N Test (CHECK)road. They had also been to a little town called Chefchaoun where we very much wanted to go, and they highly recommended it. It ended up being a lovely evening until we finally turned in for bed about 11pm as it had been a very full and tiring day.

Essaouira

Whilst staying at Camping Zebra we learnt of news that it had been snowing in the Atlas mountains and that it was very cold up there at the moment. As we were unprepared for very cold temperatures (not having the right equipment and clothing) we decided to skip cycling over them and instead to head west towards Essaouira on the Atlantic coast. To start our journey we hitched a ride 15km out of the mountains to save us lots of hard uphill cycling. That left us with about 330km to cover to reach Essaouira.

Hitching a ride up the mountain

After having a quick breakfast of corn flakes we headed off and had a good day of cycling covering 95km before deciding to stop early at about 5pm and find a good spot to wild camp. Our pickings were rather slim though as we were in farming land where there was very little cover. We eventually found a spot back amongst some trees. We didn't set up straight away and instead had a nice dinner whilst chatting and watching the sunset. The thing that we found the most amazing that night was the amount of stars in the sky, you just don't see that many anywhere in England, it was beautiful.

After a less than restful night we set off again nice and early and headed a short 45km to a nice campsite on the outskirts of Marrakech (we had to bypass it to get to Essaouira). We arrived at lunchtime and set up the tent and ate, before then cycling into the city to buy some more supplies for the road (a 12km round trip).

Whilst at the supermarket we got caught up in an incident involving a cloud of some sort of gas that was leaking from one end of the store and causing people to run from it shouting that it was toxic. One woman even fainted due to the fumes before store staff got the situation under control. This however did not stop us staying to buy the precious food we would need for the rest of our journey. After getting back we had a well deserved shower (unfortunately no hot water). Then spent the rest of the evening writing the blog (although broken wi-fi so couldn't post anything) and relaxing.

The next stage of our journey was initially planned to take two more days to reach Essaouira but things started to not really go our way from that very morning. First off, the wi-fi was still not working at the campsite so this meant we couldn't look up any directions or find places to stay that first night, which again meant we would have to wild camp. Secondly, we didn't leave Marrakech until about 2pm due to traffic, going the wrong way and a very long queue with a slow check out attendant at the supermarket when picking up more water supplies. This also meant that we were a little behind schedule on distance travelled as well, by the end of the day covering only 65km when we were aiming for about 78km.

The second day, after a surprisingly not too bad night, started off well and in a more positive frame of mind before being hit by a dust storm and then winds, which caused us to move at a crawl, reaching scintillating speeds of 8km whilst going downhill and struggling to go over 5km on the flat. I mean, to fully understand the power of the wind, we had to use the granny wheel to go on the downhill bits! This eventually caused us to call it a day at 2:30pm as it was not worth the effort, leaving us 35km short of our destination. This meant another night of wild camping.

Our bikes looking a little tired in the high winds

Another highlight to add to the day, which at least brought a smile to Carmen was when I went to have a toilet break back in the trees and was greeted by a Moroccan man whilst right in the middle of my business, me saying a very awkward "bonjour" as he walked on by.

The next morning was much smoother cycling. We woke early and covered the last 60km to Essaouira within 3 hours, a joy to ride after the previous days exertions. Within 5km of reaching Essaouira we stopped on a hill that overlooked the city, providing some beautiful views.

View overlooking Essaouira

Finding the hostel we planned to stay at was a lot simpler than expected and we arrived with no problems at all. We met the owner and asked about room prices and after looking at the rooms we decided to go for a privte room with shower over a dorm, we even managed to get 50 dirham a night discount on our room rate.

After unloading, showering and eating we headed out into the medina to have a look around. Our first impressions of Essaouira was that it had a much more relaxed feel to it than Marrakech did. You could walk up and down the main street without hardly any hassle at all (except for a couple of kebab shops, which we decided never to eat at). It was also a much smaller medina than Marrakech, meaning it was a lot easier to find our way around and not get lost.

Later that evening we headed just outside the medina walls onto the rocks by the beach to sit and watch the sunset. It was lovely and so relaxing to just sit and chat and not have to worry about finding a place to put up the tent and if you would be found at night.

Sunset outside the medina walls

 Once the sun had set we headed back to the medina to get a msimen (moroccan pancake), delicious I might add and probably our favourite food from Essaouira overall. We then went for a huge dinner later in the evening consisting of a big half a chicken, a plate of fries, a plate of salad, two big baguettes and three different dips for just 70 dirham (just over £5). After getting well and truly stuffed we headed to back to the hostel to bed.

At breakfast the next day we were introduced to our first Moroccan omelette whilst meeting an array of people from around the world. The first couple we met at breakfast were a guy from Germany and a girl from Czech Republic who had been in Essaouira only a day extra than us. We then also met a guy named Robin who was travelling by motorbike (note to self - much better method of transport than a bike!) from Manchester in England, he had been all the way from Spain to Morocco and was then heading back the same way afterwards.

After having a nice discussion with them we then headed out to explore the medina more and head for the port as well to see where the Moroccans went to buy their fresh fish. This was a really interesting experience, all the fisherman who had been out in the morning to catch their fish would be lined up at the port with their freshly caught fish laid out selling them to passersby. We watched several transactions before deciding ourselves to buy some for our lunch. We settled on a seller who looked like they had the fish we wanted, and eventually were able to communicate that we wanted some sardines (as we heard these were particularly good in Essaouira). We managed to get four good size ones for the price of 5 dirham (40p). Our next job was to cook it!

The boats by the port where they sell the freshly caught fish

This is a very easy thing to do in Essaouira due to the great idea behind 'No Name Cafe'. This is a cafe/restaurant along the main street of the medina with seating and a kitchen where their sole purpose is to cook whatever you bring them for the price of 5 dirham per item. So we handed them our sardines and 5 dirham and they grilled our fish for us, we supplemented this meal by buying some bread and olives from a nearby stall (very enjoyable I might add).

Our freshly caught and cooked lunch (yum yum!)

We stayed out for another sunset that night which was even more beautiful than the night before, creating some beautiful colours.

Beautiful sunset on the beach

Once back at the hostel that evening we met a few more people, a Russian guy named Pasha from St Petersburg, who had been staying in Essaouira for three months because he loved it so much. He even treated all of us who were downstairs at the time to a taste of fresh crab which had just been cooked. As this was our first taste of crab we were curious what it would be like and we were very pleasantly surprised, although you do have to work for your food having to crack it open with a hammer!

We then met another couple of people, a very drunk and high Polish guy and another British guy named Tom who had just flown in to Casablanca the night before and arrived at the hostel that afternoon. We all decided to go out with the inclusion of Robin from Manchester to find somewhere to eat before then heading for a Moroccan bar. Being our first experience of a Moroccan bar it was certainly interesting. It was located along a back street of the medina in what looked a rather dodgey part of the city and after going inside it looked even more so. The place was packed with Moroccan men and about three other women plus Carmen. Two others being tourists also, and the other we strongly suspected was a prostitute. It was very seedy and there were quite a few hashish smokers and Carmen was not very comfortable as several Moroccan men were staring at her a bit much. So we did not stay very long, just long enough for the other three guys to grab a beer (15 dirham - just over £1), which is cheap for an alcoholic drink in Morocco, but still very expensive when compared to non-alcoholic drinks.

Something to note about Essaouira is that there are a surprising amount of hashish smokers and sellers about compared to everywhere we have visited so far considering how badly it is looked upon by most Moroccans. We were approached several times asking if we wanted to buy any (we politely refused).

One other interesting bit of information about Essaouira is that if you ever go there you will notice that there are a lot of places that have pictures and say things about Jimi Hendrix, claiming he stayed there or ate there, or wanted to buy the property years ago, and that his song 'Castles in the Sand' was inspired by his visit to Essaouira. This is quite misleading because actually according to some things we read, Jimi Hendrix only spent 11 days in Essaouira and the cafes and restaurants that make claims weren't even around when he visited in 1969 and also 'Castles in the Sand' was actually written two years before he even went to Essaouira in 1967. So lots of myths abound about him.

Stay tuned for our next post on our travels to Safi.

Cascades D'Ouzoud

Sorry for the long time between posts, due to not being able to get wi-fi we have been unable to post, but we are back up and running now, so will have a couple of posts in quick succession.

After spending a couple of extra days in Marrakech to allow Carmen to recover from her cold, we set off on our way to the Ouzoud Falls (Cascades D'Ouzoud). Unfortunately, we didn't really get very far when we started as we got lost trying to get out of the medina, taking an hour to navigate out. Once clear of the medina, the cycling was nice, the roads were flat and not much traffic, although it did rain most of the way. However, the hassle of rain was rewarded by a beautiful double rainbow!

Double Rainbow! Does that mean two pots of gold?

 At 6pm, after covering about 70 km, we pulled over to find a place to wild camp. As this was our first experience of wild camping in Morocco, we were both a little nervous about it, as you might well expect. But we found a good spot, away from the road and in the shelter of some small trees. It took us about one and a half hours to set up due to it being very wet and starting to get quite dark. Once we were finally set up and the bikes chained to another tree we settled into our little tent for a cold meal of bread and fish. It was a cold night and neither of us slept very well, but it was a lot quieter than camping in a forest in Essex!

The second day of cycling started off nice and early at 8am, but by about 11am things started to get a bit harder. There were a lot of hills on this particular route and overall we were climbing in altitude. We had to get from about 500m (the altitude of Marrakech) to about 1200m (the altitude where we were staying by the Ouzoud falls). This made for some rather miserable cycling, it felt like a constant battle whenever going uphill and progress was very slow, and every time we saw a marker telling us the distance to our destination it seemed to only be creeping down. At one point we really didn't think we would make our destination by nightfall, but we kept going and were rewarded with a lovely downhill section for about 10km that took us all the way to our campsite where we secured a room.

The view on the way down

Our first day at the Cascades started with a nice long walk to the top of a nearby mountain through the local berber village of Ouzoud. It is a very small community with only a few local shops. Once reaching the top of the mountain via some donkey tracks and some climbing, we had a beautiful view over the whole surrounding landscape, seeing all the mountains around us. Unfortunately, we didn't bring lunch with us so our stay at the top was not too long as we were rather hungry. So we headed back through the village to buy some lunch.

After lunch, we headed for the main highlight of the village, the Cascades D'Ouzoud. The Cascades are a 100 metre tall waterfall within a valley that offers some amazing opportunities for photos with it's almost all day long rainbow shining through the spray. We were lucky enough to encounter some barbary apes whilst at the falls as well, which apparently is a common site due to regular feeding by tourists (although forbidden).

The beautiful Cascades D'Ouzoud

Our friend the barbary ape

Our last day at the falls saw us go on a different route suggested by a really friendly guy at the same campsite as us. We followed his advice on went on this route that tourists don't normally take and were rewarded with some amazing views of the falls from above and an abandoned village a bit further along, which we explored. To finish off our day, we headed back into Ouzoud to pick up some supplies for the road again. Whilst I was off on my own at the local boulangerie (bakery), the teenager in charge invited me inside to watch how they cooked the bread, putting the nice dough inside a big hot concrete oven with a charcoal fire using a big paddle. After then giving me the now hot bread from the oven he invited me across the road to watch Barcelona play Valencia (football). I stayed for a few minutes before politely excusing myself as Carmen was waiting for me.

Overlooking the falls from above

Sitting on the edge

 We then spent the rest of the evening in the communal lounge area of the campsite enjoying a really nice Moroccan mint tea and using the wifi to plan our next move. Soon after having the tea we were both very sleepy and ready for bed before the long ride westwards.

We will keep you posted as we go. Our next report should be in the seaside city of Essaouria. See you there!