Taghazoute and Agadir

We took the motorway from Marrakech to Agadir on the Atlantic coast and then turned north to the surfing centre of Taghazoute. We had been recommended a camp site at Terre d’Ocean, just north of the town and we spent two nights there enjoying its charming facilities. It was not sophisticated but there was a lovely swimming pool overlooking the ocean and a restaurant. The weather was fine and sunny with the wind getting up in the afternoon. We ate both nights in the restaurant – with a bottle of wine each night and the total cost of our stay was less than 500D = £37.

We both needed a haircut; most Moroccan women had long hair so hairdressers were not found on every street corner. We were told that the nearest hairdresser was in Agadir.

The next morning we moved to the municipal site at Agadir. The camp site was a dump by European standards but it was within walking distance of the town centre.

Agadir had been flattened by an earthquake in 1960, killing 15,000 of its inhabitants. The town had been totally rebuilt and, although it now lacked any historical attractions, it had a huge beach, wide paved promenade and modern shops, hotels and restaurants. All buildings on the sea front were low rise and the whole sea front area was very pleasant and cosmopolitan.

We walked along the promenade and happened upon a hairdressing salon. It looked fairly busy but we were quickly ushered inside. My hair was washed and conditioned with hot towels before the hairdresser appeared with her scissors. Tony had his hair clippered and his nose and ear hair attended to as well as his eyebrows. We both had a pedicure, including hot wax bath. We found ourselves surrounded by a team white uniformed beauticians, one working on each foot whilst a third did the hair cuts. Less than an hour later we were back on the promenade looking very spruce. The cost for both of us was 800D = £60.

In the evening we returned to the sea front in the evening and had a very good meal at a Cuban restaurant with a live band. It was an expensive meal but beautifully presented costing 1,200D = £80. We had cocktails followed by octopus, scallops, sole and lotte, dessert, a bottle of wine, liqueurs and coffee all beautifully presented.

The following morning Tony discovered that our table, sun loungers and footstools had disappeared. They had been stolen during the night by someone who had broken through the perimeter fence. The site staff investigated and eventually retrieved everything from the other side of the fence – but our sun loungers were still missing, the only expensive piece of equipment they took. It left us feeling very angry; in all the time we have been in Morocco, nothing had ever been stolen from us. We had been able to leave our camper unattended, if in a town often paying a guardian a few dirhams to keep an eye on it. We have never had to lock our stuff away at night or when the van was unattended. At first we blamed the site staff as they were paid to ensure our possessions were safe but finally we felt it was probably beyond their control but we would have been slightly happier had they warned us not to leave anything outside at night. We left the camp site as soon as we could.