Let it go… let it all go

Before leaving Casablanca, I met an old friend from my home city, Guillaume Hortal.

He was living there with his girlfriend and worked in a big shoe manufacturer. He showed me another side of Morocco that I did not know.

It was now time to head south… I left the biggest city of Morocco by foot… It took me 5 hours (under the rain) to get my first ride on the way to Safi. Exhausted, I have been lucky tough and met my first driver who drove me for 150 km !

It was getting dark already when another driver stopped by me and asked where I was going. As he was not going as far as him, he invited me to drink tea in his restaurant.

And by tea he also meant pizza, bread and olive oil… I tried to pay but it was worthless. I could not stand against Moroccan hospitality.
I finished my day with my first truck stop and made it to Safi. For the first time, I found myself with no plans to sleep and went to a cheap local hotel.

When I went to buy breakfast in the morning, I realized how pretty was Safi.

The city was by the sea side…and that morning, that was wiiiild !

I already knew that surfing was not for me that day but I wanted to check the spot. Indeed, I heard that surfers all across the country traveled miles to be there today. That was going to be a great set.

It was working like hell but only few surfers dared to ride it. At the highest, there was 7 meters.

After spending the whole afternoon, I kept on walking and went out of the city thanks to a couple of nice Moroccans.

From that moment, I decided to stick on the coast til Agadir.
I discovered one of the most beautiful road ever.

Cafe, restaurant, shop, mosque… oh yeah well, I forgot we are still in Morocco !

One our before the sunset, a Moroccan doctor took me and drove to a very small fishing village where I could stay at peace at night.

All boats were out because of the storm… not good time to buy fish here.

I enjoyed the sunset and went to the free camping area where many camping cars had stopped.

The first time in the tent… that damn weight is finally useful.

I woke up and spoke with some french. We were going same way to Essaouira so they took me with them… which was my first camping car ride of that world trip !

We had a lot of fun and shared common experiences we have had so far in Morocco… the Hammam story beat them all !
Essaouira is the windsurf capital of Morocco and has one of the greatest fish market of the area.

Here is the entrance of the Medina of Essaouira.

Full of small amazing streets …

I even managed to find a music shop where I bought guitar strings I broke the day before… The shop owner was just super enthusiastic to see my guitar and wanted to exchange it for anything.

After discovering the city by foot, I met my host (couchsurfing once again) in his house… I mean, what I believed to be his house. In fact, he had a Riad (hotel) and he offered me a room for free + invited to a private party on the roof… how cool ?

The party turned out to be a small musical event with amazing guitar players. We played all night with people from all over the world.

I left the place and walked out of the city on the way to Agadir. As I took a small rest (it was so hot) I met Simon, a guy from Germany.
He told me to stay with him in a small village not so far because it was a must seen place.

He was travelling like me except he has not tried so far hitchhiking… I offered him to have some fun and go with me on one of my regular day tomorrow.

He was sleeping in Diabat, a tiny village I …

I came to his hotel and took a nap… I felt a bit sick.
Around 8 pm I woke up sweating and with stomach pain. I guess I finally met the infamous Tourista, too bad…
Anyway, between vomiting, I managed to went downstairs and tried to play guitar with the local crew.

They were loving my electric one !
I woke up early, felt like a new born and start to think about food.
We took the road with Simon and just after our first ride, we met Amil, from Poland, hitchhiking too. I could not believe it. First time I met a hitchhiker since I left France!

We got along well and decided to go together. We waited for only 5 minutes and then we saw a car with 2 Australians surfers stopping close to us. They opened the window and shouted “jump in mates” !!
There was no room inside because of their surfboards so they put it all on the roof and we went together !

They were travelling in Morocco and were looking for great surf spots. Like us, they were living cheap and slept in their surfing bags.
Whereas we were speaking, we noticed they had 2 turtles. The rescued them and were traveling together to make them discovering Morocco. They named them Tajine and Choukran.

We decided to travel to Imsouane, a beautiful surfing village. While driving, we noticed Argan tree everywhere. This is one of the only region of the world where the Argan oil is produced. It’s made of those trees below where goats climbed to get best leaves…

We arrived in the small surfing village and looked at the spot… and got surfboards !

That wave was endless…

It was possible to surf it for more than a long minute… We enjoyed it during until sunset and found a place to camp.

We played guitar, exchanged riffs from our countries and slept under the stars… In the morning, we discovered the beautiful landscape surrounding us.

I went alone to the ocean and found the perfect spot to take a shower. See that waterfall? It only exists when there are huge waves. If you stand under it, every 15 sec you get a free cold shower… no better way to wake you up !

The power of these waves was unreal.

That beautiful picture was also a very unexpected shower.

Back with Europeans, we all decided to extend our stay and enjoyed the place one more day.

So we decided to surf again.

That day was amazing. It’s great sometimes to just take it easy and rest.

The sunset was sick.

Once again we left the city and went to sleep in the wilderness.

Cooked tajine, spoke deeply, slept on rocks and left in the morning to Agadir.

But that time we were really in middle of nowhere !

The first rule of hitchhiking is “you will always get a ride”. So we waited and found 2 locals. They were easy going and invited us to drink by the side of the road several times.

We finally hit the main road 3 hours later and waited all afternoon to get a ride.

By night, we finally got someone who dropped us close to Agadir. We escaped the city as far as we could and found an amazing surf spot “banana point” !
We met some nice people, made a fire and went to our tents after a long full day.
Just before sleeping, I can’t really explain why but I felt I had to take my guitar, my amp and my camera away from my backpack.

I was still dreaming  in the morning when I heard some moves around me. I felt something was wrong. I thought I was still dreaming. Simon yelled. I was not dreaming.
He shook me and told me the sentence I really did not want to hear, the sentence I feared the most… ” Arthur, our backpacks are gone”.
Seriously, hearing that with the German accent made it so much worst haha.
We noticed that there was a large hole in the tent. Robbers probably did it with knives when we were sleeping and took everything from us. All I had left was my guitar, passport and my camera.

I found a bag on the street and put staff inside. For the first time I was happy that there was some trash on the ground.

I went to have a tea with the cash I had left. I can’t say it was an easy day and I was a bit confused how I would travel 3 years if I already have all my staff stolen after one month?

Fortunately, I met some super nice people, wondering who was that guy travelling with a trash bag. After I explained the situation, they helped me out.
They invited me in their home and helped me out to find a new backpack in the following days but first and before all, I had to eat tajine…and then go to sleep in a bed.

Life goes on !

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