We left Ounara and headed north towards Casablanca and Rabat, mostly on the motorways which meant a speedy journey but cost us £15 in tolls – a lot less than the speeding fines Tony paid the other day.
We stopped at a seaside resort called Mohammedia. We found the site easily enough but the surrounding area was a huge building site and every road we tried to access the site was blocked by building works. Finally, when we passed the same group of builders a second time, one of them took pity on us, jumped into his car and we followed him to the gates of the site just above the beach on the Atlantic coast.
Later we walked along the beach, which was packed with families enjoying the seaside (it was a Sunday). We walked along to a concrete pier from which folk were fishing and boys were jumping into the swell as it rolled in from the Atlantic.
Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? What destroyed an idyllic setting was the rubbish – on the beach and on the promenade. A group of young lads (aged 12 ish) spoke to us, welcoming us to Morocco and asking how we liked their country. After the usual pleasantries, I mentioned that the one thing that we felt detracted from the place was the rubbish, indicating a plastic bottle and a carton lying on the pavement between us. One lad jumped up, picked up the offending items and threw them over the wall onto the beach! Little children were running around barefoot on the beach where broken glass could easily be seen.
Behind the beach was a huge building site, fancy holiday apartments were being marketed to folk who lived in Rabat and Casablanca. I wondered ether they would clean up the beach as part of their marketing plan.
