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.