On 24 June Rabat moved to Zone 1 so we are now able to move around most of Morocco. The family I am staying with has a farm at Amsa on the Mediterranean coast a little east of Tetouan which is run by two of Assia’s brothers. We are going there tomorrow for a couple of weeks or so.

The wifi at the farm is poor, so I am unlikely to be able to upload photos to this site whilst I am there, so this is probably my last post until I return to Rabat sometime in mid July.

Amsa is designated an EcoVillage (try Googling it – though the results will be in French), and the area does not allow much development, so the coastline is unspoilt, though the beach has some minor facilities I believe. The farm is organic, so I am very interested to see it, and will possibly bore most of you with my reports when I make my next post.

The farm is very close to the village Mosque, so I expect to be woken very early every day by a loud call to prayer as dawn breaks. It is also close to the main road that runs along the Mediterranean coast, and I am told one can hear the traffic noise. I doubt that will bother me much, but here in the Medina there is no noise at all at night except from neighbouring houses.

I am also hoping to hire a car for a while whilst I am there, and then I could visit the Rif mountains, villages along the coast and possibly also Chefchouaen (the Blue Town).

Yesterday most of the shops re-opened (with precautions) and the streets look much as they used to except that everyone is wearing a face mask. Many cafés are open, with 1.5 m spacing between tables, and a time limit of 30 minutes per customer. Open air sports are now allowed and lots of youths are taking advantage in the many new sports areas along the corniche, one of which has been completed during lockdown.

There is a large Covid outbreak about 30 miles north of Rabat in the area around Kenitra. There are 7 strawberry pack houses and 2 of them have had cases in the last couple of weeks. 700 workers tested positive, mainly migrant workers, and they are all now quarantined (symptoms or not) in a nearby field hospital built very quickly by the army. By the time it was found, it had spread in the villages nearby, and upwards of 200 fresh cases are being reported each day. A complete police cordon has been put around the communes (a bit like parishes) involved, and absolutely no-one except medical staff and police are allowed in or out. Anyone testing positive is confined to their house under quarantine, and I suspect those houses will each have a police guard to enforce it. They are very keen to stamp it out as quickly as possible. There is a judicial inquiry investigating how it happened as well, so I expect someone’s head will roll.

This is exceptional though. The only areas now in Zone 2 are from Tangiers down to Kenitra, plus Marrakesh.

Also when drug companies were looking for African countries where they can test Covid vaccines, Morocco was ruled out as the level of infection in the population is so low.

Keep safe