Essaouira

Wednesday 28 March
We picked up the hire car, a very nice brand new Dacia Logan.  It was bigger than I had expected for a bottom of the range option,  4 doors, a very roomy boot and quite smart.  We arrived in Essaouira about 13.00.  Last night we had been discussing our forthcoming trip to Essaouira with the young man who appeared to be in charge at the Road El Az.  He said that a friend of his had an apartment in Essaouira which we could rent for 300 dh a night.  It seemed like a bargain price and doing a bit of self-catering was an attractive idea, so we agreed to take it.  He arranged for his friend to meet us at a petrol station just outside the town.  This all went as planned, however the apartment turned out to be a rather dingy and depressing affair in what seemed to be a very run down part of the town.  Plugs were hanging out of walls, cupboard doors were hanging off their hinges and it was all a bit Yuck.  We weren't sure what we would find in Essaouira as it is a holiday resort, but we left the car there and strolled around the town.  We saw a hotel which looked really out of our price range but were surprised to learn that it was 500 dh a night, so we decided to take a room there.  We phoned up, cancelled the apartment booking, collected our things and moved into the hotel.  It's big with three floors, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of people staying here.
We had heard that the Atlantic coast can be very windy, it's a hotspot for surfers.  Well it certainly lived up to that when we arrived, it was quite like the North Norfolk coast on a bad day.  It wasn't really cold, but completely overcast and threatening rain.  The sea was pounding on the beach, sand was blowing across the road and there were intermittent squally showers.  We spent the rest of the day wandering around the Medina and the souks, obviously a much smaller area than in Marrakesh, but the same sort of things.  The fish stalls at the port looked inviting but it would have meant huddling together under a canopy to get out of the wind.  We settled for a restaurant in the Medina which was serving fish.  John has 'Crevettes', a shrimp but the size of our prawns, I had some absolutely delicious grilled sardines.  They have been dressed in a slightly piquant sauce rather than doused in oil as I often used to get them in Greek restaurants.  We were also pleasantly surprised to find that we could order a bottle of wine, it wasn't mentioned on the displayed menu board in the street.
The journey here was interesting.  John didn't have any problems either driving in or getting out of Marrakesh.  We had head that driving here was very hazardous, but the traffic was more disciplined than in most places in Egypt, and quite a lot of major cities in Europe.  The biggest hazard was the number of taxis which could stop abruptly.
Marrakesh seemed to stretch into poorer suberbs as we drew away.  The landscape was flat and mostly barren all the way to the coast.  At times irrigation was present and we saw large orchards of orange trees.  There were also lots of olives and trees which we identified as Argan.   I learnt just before we came away that Argan oil has become the latest 'very best must-have cure for all ills'.  Traditionally the kernals or nuts from the fruit of the tree were harvested by allowing goats to climb the trees and eat the fruit, then retrieving the nuts from their droppings.  Although we saw a couple of photo opportunity trees with goats in them by the roadside, I suspect that that most of them are harvested commercially now.We saw several Argan processing plants offering direct sales.  It's one thing I might get to take home.  Interestingly we also saw several working camels, laden mostly with animal fodder.
Essaouira was once just a small fishing port, although not a prime package holiday destination the effects of tourism are obvious and abundant.  There are numerous spas and 'boutique, hotels as well as the general commercialisation.  There are more street beggars than we saw in Marrakesh, but fewer touts and less hassling on the streets.  Having recently experienced Egypt, where a dramatic decline in tourism due to the civil unrest has resulted in a desperate attempt to get an income from the few tourists, the hassling here in inconsequential and having little effect on us.  We had heard that the people here could be aggressive and were not friendly to tourists, but we haven't experienced any of that so far.  A polite but friendly 'no thank you' was usually sufficient.  We stick with our usual travel philosophy, that we are ? guests in someone else's country (? because we were'nt invited, we came because we invited ourselves) and therefore we behave in an appropriate way and part of that is respecting that they need to make a living.

Thursday 29 March
We both had a really good nights sleep, even with the window open we didn't hear the 05.00 call to prayer.  The sound of waves pounding on the beach and the noise of seagulls circling ahead was the only sound to keep us awake.  It's a nice hotel, peeping through open doors our room is one of the smaller ones at the back of the building.  We didn't see a lot of point in paying extra for a front room with a sea view and a balcony when we arrived yesterday as with the howling winds driving straight in we probably wouldn't have been able to get the doors open.  I think if you were staying here for any period of time they would be very nice.  At the back our room is very quiet, and on the top floor we have easy access to a terrace looking out over the sea where we sat for a while this evening, soaking up the last of a bleary sun which has just managed to creep through the clouds off and on today.
After a substantial breakfast we set out for a walk along the beach, it must have been low tide, there was a vast stretch of beautiful hard sand and just a few breakers.  The wind was steady, but not so strong that it was uncomfortable walking into it, it had dropped significantly overnight.  When we started our walk there were very few people around, but on the trip back we had been joined by several people taking a constitutional.  The bay is very nice, it must change depending on wind and tides.  It is clean and has a great sense of space.
Next we walked the short distance from the hotel into the Medina, taking a detour through the town outside the ramparts to check out the place where a nice young man in the restaurant where we had eaten last night had told us that alcohol could be bought.  We found it quite easily and sure enough it was stocked up with many different wines and lots of beer.  We decided to call back later with the car and collect a couple of bottles and a few cans to take with us on the next stage of our trip.  Essaouira seemed much nicer today, when the wind had dropped and there were glimpses of sunshine.  That goes for everywhere, I think again about the North Norfolk coast, it can be the most miserable and desolate place on earth and the most stunningly beautiful.  We revised the ramparts in comfort, where yesterday we had battled with the elements.  We strolled liesurely through the souks.  I did some half-hearted negotiating over the price of a couple of very nice leather bags.  I was quite honest with the shop-keepers and told them that I couldn't make my mind up whether I really wanted or not.  I showed them the lovely bag which I use all the time, a present from Toby and Jax when we were all together in Athens many years ago, and said that ideally I would like one just a little bit bigger, maybe big enough to take a spare pair of flipflops or a decent sized book.  I didn't get one in the end,, I thought that if I got a bigger one just for the odd occasion when I needed the extra space I might stop using my old favourite so much.  Anyway, now that I have the tablet, the kindle and my smart phone I don,t need to carry a net book, a thick paperback, a camera, a PDA and a telephone.  There is just the spare pair of flipflops......
We had a good late lunch in the mid afternoon in a very nice square of cafe restaurants in a tucked away area of the Medina.  It was sheltered, out of the wind and a bit of a suntrap so we enjoyed sitting outside.  We are bulking up on fresh produce before we hit the desert trail, and particularly fsh, so John had yet more shrimps and I had even more sardines.  We are probably being very pessamistic, but based on other rural areas in Africa we might be restricted to stringy goat or even stringy-er chicken.  They could turn out to be very nice when cooked slowly in a tagine.  There was a sready stream of beggars and itinerate performers passing through as we ate and we gave some small change to most of them, except a couple of 'musicians', who made an apalling noise.  OK, we not great on middle eastern music but they made no pretence at melody at all, just scraping a noise from some sort or stringed instrument.
We walked back to the hotel, collected the car and stocked up with water and snacks as well as the wine and beer, ready for the journey tomorrow.  It's Friday, the day of prayer, and we will be away from the main urban areas so we are not sure what to expect.  We have spent some time considering our options and we intend to head off south east, hopefully by passing Agadir, and see how far we can comfortably get towards a small town in the Anti-Atlas mountains called Tafroute, which sounds picturesque, different and interesting.  We'll have to see how far we get, there seem to be ne or two places on the way where we should be able to pick up some accommodation for the night.
The hotel has a wifi connection in the foyer so I should be able to get up to date with postings.