Abderrahmen looks at Amsa beach from above

This is the part of Amsa known as Amsa beach. It is where I am staying, and is over a mile from the village centre. You can see the coast road coming round the headland from Azla at the top of the photo. There are no hotels, just a few apartment blocks and café restaurants, as well as a couple of ‘open all hours’ shops. One café has an outdoor pool table. At the far end is a camp site, but that is currently closed.

This is the beach in the early morning. Just visible are closed parasols suitable spaced. If you bring your own, at present you have to put it right beside one of those provided (for free). Beaches in Morocco are currently only open from 10 am to 8 pm. Almost all the beach is covered by about ten lifeguards. There is a small police post and an area of small fishing boats (which I have failed to take a photo of as yet). Most days the locals put a large net in the sea and many men and youths haul it in with two ropes, a bit like a couple of tug of war teams, though they are parallel to each other. I gather than anyone who helps, gets a share of the haul of fish. Just before 8 pm the police start to walk slowly along the water line telling people to go home, and whistling at anyone still in the water.

With Arwa, Janette and Soufiane

All the resorts along the Mediterranean are really only used by Moroccans on holiday. I would not have felt comfortable at Amsa being the only adult female in a swimsuit, so I adapted my cycling gear. As you can see the beach slopes steeply as soon as you are in the water. Even at midday, the sand is too hot to walk on comfortably, so it is a relief to get in the water.

This display (from a shop in Oued Laou) has 4 examples of suitable swimming attire for Muslim ladies

In fact at Amsa, few adult women venture far into the sea; paddling is about their limit. Some women are more adventurous at the larger resorts.

National Institute of Fishery Research

This building fronts the beach and was built 3 or 4 years ago with the aid of the Japanese. I think the structure on the left is a water tower, as there is a tank at the top. This was taken from the track that runs parallel to the river towards the village centre.

The Oued Amsa ‘reaches’ the sea at the eastern end of the beach.

The river is actually seasonal, and in summer does not reach the sea. This chap had taken it upon himself to dig an outlet channel from the large pond immediately behind the beach. The beach here is shingle, with wonderful skimming stones. A few days later there was no trace left of his hard work.

Beyond this the beach is left for people to use as they see fit, with no life guards. As there are rocky outcrops in the sea, it is not the best place to swim.

The large pond

Between the beach and the village centre, the river disappears underground at this time of year. This year the water table is quite high, so it has managed to reappear in places.

The shortest route from the house to the village is along the main road, signed as the ‘Rocade Mediterrané’ (Mediterranean Ring Road). It obviously cannot run all around the Mediterranean at present, so the title seems to be an aspiration. The part from Tétouan east to Oudja (around 300 miles) has been transformed in recent years by a major project funded jointly by the EU, China, Japan and Morocco. It is still only one lane in each direction, with crawler lanes on some of the really steep bits. It swoops up and down very difficult terrain indeed, and in places must have been a severe test of the road engineers. Apart from weekend evenings when the day trippers return to Tétouan from the resorts to the east, it is very quiet indeed. For a couple of hours on a weekend evening it can take over 5 minutes to cross the road though.

The long trudge to the village, without a moving vehicle in sight

There is housing (some quite upmarket), with an occasional small shop or café, all the way. Behind the houses are a mixture of houses and small farms. There is so little traffic most of the time that it is not unusual to see someone leading 2 sheep on ropes across the road, with 2 more just following.

Donkey and haystack

This donkey is tethered, and is grazing only feet from the road.

Cow in the shade

This cow is usually tethered here, again just yards from the road.

Old Road in the village centre

When the road was re-engineered, a new bridge was built, and the traffic no longer goes through the actual village. This the old road before the upgrade. There is not much in the village : some cafés, a small pharmacy, a post office, a small school, a couple of butchers, some small agricultural needs dealers and some stalls set up daily for other fresh produce.It has everything needed for the small scale farming in the area though.

The road is now so quiet that this little egret was in no danger from the traffic while waiting for a treat from the fishmonger. There is a cat watching him from under the table.

View of the old bridge from the new

The village straggles up the valley, and there is a road that leads up a side valley for 5 miles or so, where it comes to a dead end. Water flows at this point, but disappears again if you walk farther up stream.

Donkey ‘parked’ in the village – the owner is probably in the nearby café with the dark blue canopy.

The Moroccan Mediterranean resorts have only started to develop in the last 20 years or so. Before that only a very few Moroccan families could afford a holiday and facilities, where they existed, were minimal. Azla, the next village to the west, is now large, with a corniche (promenade), and many, many cafés and apartment blocks. Like the other larger resorts I have seen along the coast, it offers nothing much apart from sea, sand and sun. In some there are a few all weather pitches on the promenade, but actual entertainment is completely lacking. They probably resemble the very earliest stages of the development of Victoria seaside resorts in the UK. One difference to the UK is due to the climate. They are relatively quiet during the day, but in the evening, people (including very young children) will be still be strolling on the promenade and in the cafés past midnight. The shops will also still be open. I have been from Tétouan in the west to a few miles east of the village of Oued Laou about 20 miles to the east. Where a valley that meets the sea is narrow, there will be little except a beach, but where a larger valley opens out, there is now a large resort.

Havsa at Oued Lauo

She was hoping to walk barefoot on the sand, but the sand was too hot to bear, though it was still well before lunch time. In a normal year, the beach would have been busy. Note the lampposts; every resort has a variation of them.

Oued Lauo from the coast road

Building continues apace. There is actually a very large fertile valley inland, known for its fruit orchards. It may be threatened by plans to build a dam higher up the river Lauo.

Targha, just along the coast east of Oued Laou

There is virtually nothing except a car park at Targha.

Aouchtam (pronounced approximately as ‘Ooch Tam’)

The road takes a big sweep up and down here. The village is small, built into the hillside, and there is little scope for expansion.

Near Tétouan (which is up river) I have briefly visited Martil and M’Diq. These are very large flashy resorts, with upmarket restaurants and ice cream parlours. Being so near Tétouan they, no doubt, get many day trippers – which in Morocco will include evening visits. There was little evidence of much by way of entertainment though.

My next post will definitely be about the celebration of Big Eid. As I forecast last time, the family is going ‘over the top’. We currently have 6 large rams here awaiting their turn to be sacrificed next Friday.

New arrival ‘Billy’

This chap has just arrived this morning and is the lucky one. He is going to join the family flock of goats, and have a good life for at least another year.