Morocco 2007

Essaouira

Camping Sidi Magdoul

Before we set off the next morning we had the usual 'briefing' from Ray, this was a regular thing when we were due to leave a site - just to let us know the rough plan for the day. This morning Ray told us that the campsite at Essaouira was full, despite his booking, and we might have to 'wild camp' on the seafront. He had sent Hassan off very early to start saving pitches on the site as soon as people departed, in a attempt to ensure that there would be enough space for us all.

By the time we got there, at around 3.00pm, we found that Hassan had been 'guarding' the gate to stop the French getting in! The site still looked pretty full, but everyone managed to get in with a bit of a squeeze. No 'minimum gap' between units here! This was the busiest site we had used on the whole trip, but the facilities were not bad and kept very clean. Electric hookups were available, but the supply was a bit intermittent!

Camping Sidi Magdoul is around 3km to the south of the town, we walked it - quite pleasant along the promenade as you get closer to the town. We had a walk round the harbour, checked out the stalls selling grilled freshly caught fish and then wandered into the old part of the town. A huge contrast to Marrakesh, clean(ish!) and tidy, it's a relaxing place and feels quite Europeanised, it's certainly a popular destination, with quite a lot of, fortunately small scale, hotel development outside the old town.

Old town ramparts

Fresh fish

Harbour

The following day we walked into town again to meet up with everyone at the fish stalls for lunch, a fine array of fresh fish was available and an excellent meal was had. The bill however was a bit of a shock, we had seen the posted prices but the bill seemed to bear no relation to them at all. It wasn't just our bill either, everyone in the group was surprised at the unexpected cost. We negotiated ours down from 400Dh to 300Dh but even that we felt was a bit steep. Disappointing, especially as we later found that it would have been cheaper to eat in a restaurant! On the other hand, we went back to eat there independently, some weeks later in our trip, and had another meal at a very reasonable price, I think the stall holders were trying it on, the first time, for a group of tourists - so just be warned...

Essaouira really is a pleasant town in which to spend a few days and we had expected to stay on for another night here. In fact Ray had suggested a meal out at an auberge in the nearby village of Diabat as a 'last meal together' before heading north for Ceuta and the ferry back to Spain. We were planning to stay on in Morocco and so were another two group members, so it would have been a nice end to the tour for us. However the weather was changing and becoming quite cool and showery with no prospect of improvement for a few days, so a 'group conference' was held and a consensus reached that the main group should head off in the morning and give the meal a miss.

And that's how the Desert Detours Morocco Tour ended for us, we said our goodbyes and waved everyone off in the morning - a couple of days later we left Essaouira, heading south....

Essaouira port - from the beach

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