Surf Marocco

I left for Tamraght, about half an hour north of Agadir, under my own steam. However "apparently" there were 'no grand taxis' going at that time of the morning, so i was only able to get a bus, or a taxi by myself. since i had already got a taxi to the taxi stand, i decided to get the taxi- for 60DH it was less than the 100DH the surf camp charged for picking me up...however the lack of street addresses in these small towns, the the large number of surf camps, meant that my taxi driver dropped me not only at the wrong camp, but at the top of the hill, instead of the bottom. Eventually made it to the camp, however including all the money spent on the phonecalls to Surf marocco, i might as well have got the pickup service! However they had my breakfast ready and waiting, and everyone was extremely friendly - everyone came to say hello: helped by the fact i'm sure that i was only the 4th female out of about 20 guys. But quickly it became apparent that when it said in the guide book it was 'german run' it meant german. full stop. because apart from some Swiss, and one other english women who turned up later, everyone was german.

After eating I went straight out into the water, where i got a much more instructive lesson on how to surf than we'd had in South Africa! Spent most of the first day fighting the waves, and learning to paddle. I am really not a water baby! But i did feel so much more confident in the water and really enjoyed the buzz of coming in on the waves. But the next day i woke up soooo achey and sore, but there were no waves that day at all. So spent the day playing football and running around the beach: in the drizzley rain. However by the afternoon the sun came out at the scenery was transformed. I went for a walk to the next village with two really sweet german girls, of which we spent most of the hour's walk trying to get rid of a moroccan who'd attached himself to us. Passed the really gross sight of middleaged (gay) men suntanning in a little tent, with 2 moroccan guys rubbing oil into them, while one of the men had only a skin coloured thong on.

I actually stood up!

On my third day, there were waves again, however they were tiny. But i managed to stand up (properly, using technique rather than literally crawling up the board). So was very happy, until my board jumped out of the water straight at my face and hit me flat over the eye and the nose. Typical! Trying to look tough, i didn't cry, and i even got back in for some more waves, standing up a few more times. However while the twack on my face wasn't going to stop me, my hunger did. Amazingly it did not bruise too badly, although i kinda fancied a black eye so i could look like i really was being tough!

Yesterday the waves were also small, so we had the choice whether to go to surf or to Paradise Valley, a lush green valley about 1hr away. Paradise valley is situated in the middle of the dusty hills, where the dense greenary looks like a sploge on the landscape. There are cascades (in wet season) and the route is covered with vegitation and Oleander trees. There we climbed and scrabbled over the rocks, eventually jumping about 8m into a pool of very clear, but very cold water. I tried to to get the germans to sing German walking songs, but the take up was poor.

Ironically, having finished '100 years of Solitude' , i'd started 'The history of Love' when i was in Agadir, of which the main characters are all jewish, escaping from poland etc etc. Although everyone was extremely friendly)at the camp), it was a bit odd being quite so surrounded by Germans, although it probably would have felt just as odd if it had been any other nationality. However mostly they all spoke excellent english, and they were very good at including us. But since it was their holiday, and they so outnumbered us, most of the time they did speak german. Thus it was a strange experience of getting along very well with people, but half the time only getting to know them through the inflections of their voice and expressions while they spoke to each other in a language you don't understand.

So despite their begging me to stay (probably a bad translation!) and me actually being quite happy to have stayed, I also found it so tiring due to the language difficulty, so I have left after all so travel a bit further south, to a place called Mirleft, which was promised to be a hippy haven. there are beautiful beaches around here, so will do the beach (i.e. sitting) thing if the weather holds out for the next day or so, and then maybe try some paragliding if i can organise it, and then go into the Anti Atlas for some trekking or mountain biking.