Chilled coastal stays, a windy city and an English eccentric

A modest drive up the coastal road from Taghazoute brought us to the small traditional village of Imsouane with its sandy coves, great surf and relaxed atmosphere. We had to offroad it a bit to get to our accommodation, something we haven't yet had to do on this side of Morocco as all the roads are generally tarmaced.

We arrived at Ocean Point Maroc, a great little place on the cliffs above the beach that allowed camper vans, camping and also provides a variety of cabins, (some converted from boats), all with a view of the ocean. We opted for a simple cabin which had a private terrace outside. and a bed inside with bedside table and shelf. Simple and cheap. We stayed for four days, cooking in the communal kitchen and eating to the backdrop of amazing sunsets.

If you've ever been glamping, I guess it was a bit like that. Toilets and showers were only a few metres away, and the whole site was so small, that it felt very private and low key. There was enough interaction with other people without you feeling like you had to spend loads of time chatting to them.

We explored the village which has mainly turned its attention to the surfing crowd, and meandered along the coast, clambering over rocks and swimming in the sea. Days like that are so easy and make me wish I lived right on the beach.

We have continued to see a drop in temperature, understandable for mid-September. It's been an average of 25C here and dropping to about 20C at night, so the days are still

sunny and warm, but the nights have a coolness to them and just a sheet as cover isn't quite enough now. It makes me wonder how chilly things will be in October and November as we continue to move north - we don't really have warm clothes with us. I have a pair of jeans and 1 jumper. I shall be living in them if it gets really cold.

At immsouane, like elsewhere in Morocco, there were cats and kittens everywhere. At the Ocean Point cabins, there was a family of carts, Mum and four little kittens. I fell absolutely in love with one of the kittens. Gaz said I couldn't keep her, but I was tempted. Every day the cats would be chilled asleep in the shade, and every evening the kittens would be reaking havoc, attacking everything and playing together. The Moroccans don't seem to ignore the stray animals, they care for them - we've seen this time and again across the country. The two guys who maintained the site, put out fresh fish and water for the cats every day and spent time playing with them and giving them cuddles. They have a good life on that camping site.

After Imsouane we moved on to Essaouira, a city on the coast famed for its European architectural influences, being home to a UNESCO world heritage site, and the strong winds that make it popular with windsurfing and kite surfers alike. The walls and battlements of the fortified city were also used in the filming of Game of Thrones as the walls to Yunkai. Gaz particularly loved clambering over the cannons - are boys of all ages the same?

As soon as we arrived, it was clear that this town was different to others we'd been to. The long promenade that fronted the large sandy beach with the occasional cafe and seafood restaurant, had a European feel to it. We parked, negotiated the parking fee down from 360 dirhams, to 220 dirhams. I was quite smug about that - I'm clearly getting the hang of this bartering malarkey.

We packed all that we needed for 4 days into one small backpack and then walked into the old medina to find our accommodation. We eventually found it, and were let into our room which was bijou but lovely and fairly modern and had about 1000 plug sockets. It was in a traditional house with shared amenities - we had our own private lounge, bedroom and bathroom, but we shared a kitchen and there was a shared lounge. With breakfast included (very common in Morocco), we had a good start each day and then really only had to worry about our main meal and maybe a snack for lunch. This is typical of how Gaz and I eat when we're travelling, usually only eating twice a day.

We were right next door to a mosque so the call to prayer was loud and clear 5 times a day, starting at about 5:45am and ending at about 9pm. Clear as a bell, with all the windows and doors shut. Its a very effective tannoy system, but not particularly good at lulling you to sleep lol.

Essaouira is a great city. I would encourage anyone visiting this coast to stop here for at least a couple of days. The medina is small enough to walk through it from one side to the other within about 10 minutes, but it's not crazy and scruffy like Marrakesh, or crammed narrow streets like Fez. Instead, Essaouira has its own look and feel; it's largely white with sand coloured stone, and highlights of blue and the streets are pretty wide in some cases and mostly open to the sky. The city is full of artisan crafts and art galleries and whilst the shop keepers want you to look around, they don't badger you as much as other places - everything here is just a little more chilled. I was able to wander in and out of shops without being hounded, and instead I had a couple of easy conversations with the owners, craftspeople and artists.

It was here that I sampled the delights of a local Moroccan Patisserie - a selection of small biscuit style pastries that were less french fancy and more italian cookie for coffee, but very nice in their own way. Hey, who am I kidding - it was food containing or coated in sugar, what's not to love? lol

A lot of Europeans visit here or make this place their home i think - just walking down the street it was clear to see a greater proportion of fairer skinned people to locals than we've seen so far. Whilst in a cafe at the beach one day, an English woman interrupted a debate Gaz and i were having and asked what we were discussing. It turned out that she lived 50% of her time in Germany and 50% in Essaouira.

She was just a nosy eccentric really and ended up talking to us for her own amusement for probably 20 minutes before getting tired of us and moving on.

N.b. We were discussing an article that Gaz had read online that reported that the Seattle School Board had the view that maths was racist. When Gaz and i discuss anything to do with current affairs, you can guarantee that step 1 we will disagree, step 2 we will scale up to a full debate and then if left to our own devices, we'll get worked

up and then fall out with each other. every time. So in truth, the nosy eccentric, but perfectly pleasant English lady, did us a good turn by interrupting us.

On our last day we stayed out of the house for as long as we could to soak up the last of the sun sitting in a cafe on the street watching the world go by. I don't think I was quite ready to say goodbye to the atmosphere of this town and Gaz agrees we could have spent longer there.